Crawford, cf         Johnson, lf
Gonzalez, 3b         Menechino, dh
Lugo, ss             Wells, cf
Huff, rf             Koskie, 3b
Perez, 1b            Hillenbrand, 1b
Phelps, dh           Rios, rf
Cantu, 2b            Hudson, 2b
Hall, c              McDonald, ss
Gomes, lf            Huckaby,c
Kazmir, p            Chacin, p

Player           PA      GPA    Pitches/PA
Jones	Jacque	70	0.399	3.71
Dellucci David	61	0.392	4.13
Roberts	Brian  101	0.381	3.65
Guillen	Carlos	72	0.345	3.57
Young	Dmitri	77	0.342	3.45
Jeter	Derek	97	0.338	4.11
Guerrero Vlad   84	0.335	3.08
Inge	Brandon	79	0.334	4.11
Tejada	Miguel	96	0.333	3.81
Ramirez	Manny	92	0.327	4.04

DaVanon	Jeff	61	0.192	3.90
Kielty	Bobby	36	0.190	4.08
Cuddyer	Mike	69	0.184	3.84
Hidalgo	Richard	74	0.183	4.03
Dye	Jermaine 75	0.176	4.01
Buck	John R	56	0.171	3.32
Boone	Aaron	70	0.169	3.77
Olivo	Miguel	52	0.165	3.71
Rivas	Luis	44	0.163	3.55
Marrero	Eli	49	0.149	3.65

Zaun	Gregg	75	0.325	3.96
Hillenbrand Sh. 90	0.325	3.12
Johnson	Reed	46	0.287	4.09
Hinske	Eric	81	0.281	3.85
Hudson	Orlando	87	0.249	3.46
Catalanotto F   67	0.248	4.12
Rios	Alex	73	0.230	3.36
Wells	Vernon	87	0.223	3.44
Koskie	Corey	87	0.210	3.80
Adams	Russ	54	0.205	3.52

Huff	Aubrey	83	0.277	3.88
Phelps	Josh	70	0.277	4.01
Gonzalez Alex 	55	0.274	3.95
Crawford Carl	93	0.261	3.61
Lugo	Julio	86	0.254	3.63
Cantu	Jorge 	84	0.252	3.36
Lee	Travis	65	0.243	3.92
Sanchez	Alex	35	0.223	3.26
Hall	Toby	57	0.212	3.32

First two guesses don't count.

Did Vernon say something to that effect?

Ya it was in Griffin's bash JP column. Griffin jumped on JP's comment about Well's early struggles.

From the article:

Ricciardi told the radio station that because this was Vernon Wells' third consecutive poor April and since all came under Barnett's tutelage, a change had to be made. He gave other reasons, but that's the one that stood out as most poorly thought-out.

Griffin completely ignores the fact that Gibbons had a huge amount of input on the decision.(That wouldn't have suited his column)

Chacin	Gustavo 99	0.201
Halladay Roy   146	0.226
Bush	Dave 	91	0.265
Towers	Josh	87	0.273
Lilly	Ted	90	0.309

Chulk	Vinnie	39	0.201
Batista	Miguel	45	0.223
Walker	Pete	41	0.252
Speier	Justin	35	0.285
League	Brandon 45	0.318
Schoeneweis S	37	0.336

Hendrickson M.	54	0.258
Kazmir	Scott 	98	0.265
Nomo	Hideo	88	0.279
Brazelton Dewon	128	0.282
Bell	Rob	93	0.342

Harper	Travis	45	0.152
Fossum	Casey	54	0.223
Baez	Danys	41	0.229
McClung	Seth	46	0.290
Waechter Doug	37	0.305
Carter	Lance	50	0.338

The Star must not think highly of their readers. It looks like a two year old wrote that.

I've been pretty disappointed about the high number of games on TSN since I don't get that channel.

I've been pretty disappointed about the high number of games on TSN because that means more Rod Black. Maybe there's a chance Cuthbert will start doing games, now that he signed on with TSN. I'm sure he would be an improvement.

It was a pretty hard shot to the gap in right field. It wasn't off the wall- it bounced once or twice before hitting the wall.

Pishposh. Publish 25,000 words every day, you're going to have the occastional awkward sentence. Especially when it goes writer-copyeditor-writer-editor-proofreader. Yes, that catches mistakes, but on occasion it also becomes "too many cooks."

Hey, just because you write a column, and cover the team, doesn't mean you have to actually watch the games.

Besides, Bob's got colonocraniosis, which obstructs his vision rather badly.

It wasn't just the awkwardness of the sentence. I heard the interview that took place and I felt that Griffin's article highlighted Vernon's slow start as the only main reason for Barnett's firing, with other "less important" reasons playing minor roles. In all fairness to J.P., this was not the case and for the people unable to hear the interview but who read the article, IMO, this information was slightly tainted.

Guess which Toronto Star writer went running around to the ballplayers today saying "You know what Ricciardi said on the radio last night?"

Grrrr. I once wrote that there are certain Toronto baseball writers who won't be happy until they get J.P.'s head on a spike and dance, ululating, around it in celebration. I prefer writers who don't have axes to grind, thank you.

Nice play by Hudson in the fifth, but why on earth didn't Rios call him off? Rios had an easy play on that ball. It wasn't the O-Dog's fault - his job is to keep running for the ball until the outfielder says he has it.

And, while I'm here: I saw the replay of Gonzalez's throwing error yesterday. Wow, the Jays were lucky: all Alex had to do was move a few feet to his right, touch third, and throw to first in time to beat Zaun, and the Rays would have been off the field with an inning-ending double play. Can you charge a fielder with an L instead of a pitcher?

Myers was not going to play enough to get his bat going... Huckaby is probably better behind the plate... it makes sense from a lineup perspective, even though Zaun is a switch-hitter. He'll play against the RH, Huckaby will spell him against the LH.

What's next? Gross back up????

After today, I'd say that Rios probably will be holding his job for a bit. He's hit the ball hard three times tonight. Yay!

You mean that's what the guy who is making the decisions about playing time tells you. If he believed that Huckaby's reputation exceeded his skill, is he in a position to tell you? Maybe it's not the smartest thing to take his word for it.

Richard Griffin is a fairly standard conservative idealogue, but not crazy like Owen. Furthermore, he's a lackluster thinker, so he's unlikely to write much that would become important precedent.

I'd have no problem with Griffin becoming a judge, just as long as he had to give up his job as a baseball writer, and I never had to appear in his courtroom. Lord knows, with everything I've said about Griffin over the years, I'd be certain to get the death penalty -- even if I wasn't the one on trial.

Runner not held and no throw to second base.

Runner indifference most likely occurs when the runner steals a base without the catcher making an attempt to throw the runner out. The runner on the base is indifferent and won't affect the ultimate outcome of the game.

I like Zaun and all, but I kinda hope Huckaby gets the start in all 3 of those games ;)

Actually, I rather like JP's roster construction this year:

• Hillenbrand can back up Hinske or Koskie, and bats right while the others bat left.
• McDonald bats the opposite way from Adams, and is the designated glove off the bench.
• Sparky and Cat can platoon and do.

It's been years since I've seen a Jays team with so much ability to send up pinch hitters. Most Jays clubs had people like Jacob Brumfield on the bench.

This is probably nitpicking, but isn't it "Defensive Indifference"? As in, the defense is indifferent (or doesnt care) to the runner stealing a base.

I noticed that as well. Carpenter's win tonight is counted but Chacin's is not, even on their player pages. Even though it's still early it's nice to see a couple Jays hanging near the top of the leaderboards.

If by 'workmanlike' you mean 'gets paid by the hour' I couldn't agree more. He's got all the makings of a fan favourite, but Chacin's deliberate pace almost makes me pine for the days of quick workers like Juan Guzman!

Now that you mention, it seems quite possible that if Quiroz hadn't been injured, Myers would have been released before the season started. He stayed around because they needed Huckaby in Syracuse.

Huckaby's defensive reputation rests entirely on his ability to work with pitchers. He isn't an outstanding thrower, and he's been known to let a few balls get to the backstop.

Time of tonight's game - 2:41.

Any time Guzman (or Escobar) threw 113 pitches, the ball game generally went a little longer than that.

Interesting comparison. One Dog was a heck of an outfielder, for anyone who remembers that far back (is that far back, these days? I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled...) Rios has a fine arm, but otherwise isn't there in the speed and range department with Lance Johnson, who could run rings around most centerfielders.

When he came up with the White Sox, he was basically a slap hitter, a bat control guy who had no power at all. Like a lot of guys, he did develop some as time went on. As a hitter, Rios now at 24 is like Johnson later in his career. Rios at 24 was a much better player than Lance Johnson at 24. Johnson bunted a lot, hit everything on the ground (OK that's like Rios), and scooted around the bases.

But he aged like a fine wine - learned to pull the ball as well dink and dunk it, refined his basestealing, made himself better. If Rios ages as well as Lance Johnson did, he'll win multiple batting titles.

Don't worry, Magpie - my tongue was very firmly wedged in cheek! It was more of a dig at the glacial pace of his last start against the Yankees, but Chacin can take all the time he wants if he keeps pitching like this.

Not that there's anything wrong with that! :)