Gosh. I thought he'd be better, but this was not expected.

that's odd. Jerry was uber excited when hudson made that catch ... made it sound like a gold glove type play

as for chacin's delivery, he makes a little studder step, but i heard the umps all know that it's a part of his natural delivery and so will not be calling any balks.

cat 2 run triple!! ohh the offense...

how about 'Ugly'? he is a weird looking dude...

Gus the Polar Bear! No one is afraid enough.

At this rate, the Jays will be loose in the Oakland bullpen pretty soon. It's built for depth - there's a lot of good arms down there - but it's still, you know, Mission Accomplished. Especially in the first game of three.

By the way, was Mariano Rivera cool at Fenway today or what? They gave him a standing O for blowing the save - he smiles, and tips his cap.

Yeah, giving a ballplayer a nickname is really, really mean. They certainly never do it themselves.

In fact, I'ma gonna call you "Strong Sad" from now on, Matthew, just to be a jerk. :)

By the way, I like "Morpheus" if he hangs on to those shades through the summer - I hope he does. For now, though, I suppose just "Chacin" will have to do most of the time!

Ten million points and a cuttlefish for being hilarious.

I am enjoying this game *immensely*.

Not a bad idea, but in twenty minutes I have to go watch 24. No offense to the Jays announcers, but I'd rather listen to Jack Bauer. :)

I've only had it since last Thursday, and I'm already addicted. Given that I watch NFL as well, $25/month is a fair price for getting more or less _every_ football and baseball game.

Note to Chavez: don't forget to bend at the knees when reaching for a ground ball!

Cuttlefish?! He was complaining, sort of.

I've never been awarded a cuttlefish. And it's made me a bitter old man.

I would expect that we're going to have to see some of Calero and Street and Bradford, just to get Macha through the end of the game. (For those of you can actually see the game, and aren't doing some sort of GameDay Fan590 combo, like myself.)

On the one hand, one would like to save some of these runs for an occasion when we might need a couple. But on the other hand, beating the other fellow senseless is always a sign of quality.

Apparently Mike Barnett visited Hinske in the off-season with video from his rookie year, and his hand position had changed since then (and it probably started with the injury.)

Gus almost at 100 pitches - who's the first guy out of the pen? I vote for Vinnie, my own self.

Not quick hands, IMO. Hinske's changed stance results in him keeping his weight much further back, giving him more time to react to the pitch. Pitchers who have grown accustomed to pitching Hinske backwards are finding that he can stay back and pummel any slop he sees for base hits. He's not a guess hitter anymore; the changed stance (with the higher hands along with it) mean he doesn't have to take meaty fastballs for strikes, because he doesn't have to look offspeed; he can look fastball and successfully adjust to the offspeed pitch, like most major league hitters do.

There's that, and it is a big deal; in addition his swing now seems to have found an internal rhythm. Last year what his arms and hands were doing seemed disconnected from what his lower body was doing. He was striding and swinging, but the stride and swing weren't a unified whole. So he was effectively hitting with just his arms, and a bit off balance.

Not so much anymore.

Watching other teams batting makes it seem like scoring runs is so easy to do.

Damn you, JP! Where's the love?

Is Saarloos trying to make Zito feel better?

And they're calling Gus "The Fly"

"The Blue Jays' powerful lineup clobbered right-hander Kirk Saarloos (1-1) in a hurry, getting four runs and six hits in the first two innings." [Emphasis added]

What odds would we have gotten on someone writing that phrase any time in 2005 oh, 10 days ago?

I know! How about Kurt Isenberg for Dotel! Thats a sooper fair deal for the A's!

*ducks*

Terry Adams looked way more like Ricky than Hinske does.

"Does Chacin have a nickname yet?"

"how about 'Ugly'? he is a weird looking dude..."

I tried not to laugh at this, but I did, oh man.

All they're missing is one piece of information: on strikes in the strike zone, were they swinging or called?

The rest of the information is nice to see, especially the "cumulative". I am most interested in seeing how often certain players swing at balls out of the strike zone. A sign of the groove that Hinske is in: not a single swinging strike at a ball out of the strike zone.