Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Even the awesomeness of Huston Street couldn't make that game any better. Good thing I missed most of it.

Star Of The Game: Barry Zito, batters 5 through 32 only.

For The Jays: Well, Troy Glaus had us thinking Zito wouldn't be lasting very long there in the first. The Jays decided to stop doing anything after that, though. And bringing in Brian Tallet didn't help matters much, either.

Goodbye Russ, Hello Ryan: Ryan Roberts is certainly playable at second, but you go ahead and move the guy who's playing well there with a .300 average. And Roberts used to play third base, but the Jays have a couple of guys there already. Sort of an odd move, I think, but you might as well call up Roberts already -- he'll be 26 in less than two months. He's hit .279/.339/.445 so far in AAA.

Adams has clearly fallen out of favour with the organization. It happened with Bush, it happened with Chulk and it's happening now with FREE JASON FRASOR.

Other AL East News: Devil Rays 19, Yankees 6. It feels good, especially after Wang's two-hit-but-how-can-he-do-that shutout. The delightfully irrelevant Mike Myers faced three batters: RBI double, two-run single, two-run homer. And the Red Sox overcame another Beckett start to win in extras.

You Know, I Don't Think He's Ready: One day after everyone hailed the return of Alex Rios, he strikes out five times. Five. Times.

In case you didn't read Thursday's MLU, Rios was quoted in the Syracuse Post-Standard as saying his timing was off and he doesn't even know what he's doing out there. Both Syracuse manager Mike Basso and assistant to the GM Alex Anthopoulos said he was okay to go, that only one more day would be enough.

I'm not saying the Jays are ignoring a player's wishes with respect to his health, because Rios probably wanted to come back as much as anyone else wanted him to return. But first A.J. Burnett gets the message through Jeff Blair that his injuries aren't that serious, now Rios has to hear the front office contradicting him. It's very interesting, and I don't mean "good interesting".

Fernando Tatis Returns: I didn't expect to see his name again, let alone while reading the Toronto Sun at Coffee Time. But there you go. His first ML game since, oh, 1979 was earlier this week. Remember when he was the big name picked up by the Expos? Yeah, me neither.

Posted by Rob on Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 11:00 AM EDT.

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Rob - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 12:21 PM EDT (#151810) #

While I'm far from a blind supporter of Jamie Campbell, who seems to cram Canadiana down our throats at every opportunity ("Here's Navan, Ontario's Eric Bedard" / "A special hello to one of our most loyal viewers, 78-year-old Josiah Flonatin, out in Goose Bay"), I don't think you can criticize him for dumbing his questions down.

After all, he could assume his audience is more advanced, but "then the stupider students would be in here complaining, furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation."

Chuck - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 12:22 PM EDT (#151811) #

Not to jump on the anti-Campbell bandwagon, or to conflate my frustration with the team with frustration over his broadcast style, but it is hard to know when he is asking dumb questions just to help edcucate the casual viewer, or when he truly doesn't know the answers himself. I fear that the latter may too often be the case though acknowledge that as a green PBP guy, he may be working especially hard to set up his colour men to participate more actively (like Tabler needs prodding!).

It is becoming increasingly evident that while he may be a baseball fan, or more specifically a Jaysfan, he is really not an especially knowledgeable announcer. He knows names and dates and a great deal of minutia -- or perhaps has recently made an effort to learn this -- but his insight into the game itself has not progressed much since he started announcing.

I am rooting for him, and was more than happy to see the woeful Faulds ousted, but have to begrudgingly admit that I am disappointed in his lack of development. Is their winter ball for announcers?

Thomas - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 02:24 PM EDT (#151827) #

I'm going to be incredibly annoyed if the Yankees get Abreu and Lidle without giving up any prospects of real significance. And that is exactly what the latest rumours are, which are also backed by the fact Abreu has been held out of Philly's lineup today for undisclosed reasons. Apparently the Yankees will only give up C.J. Henry (SS in A ball, former first-round pick) and Matt Smith (Triple-A reliever) and a PTBNL for Abreu and Lidle and will not be forced to pick up Abreu's 2008 option. No Hughes, no Tabata, no Duncan, no Clippard. This is very frustrating.

Pistol - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 02:28 PM EDT (#151828) #

Abreu and Lidle to the Yankees for essentially SS CJ Henry and a PTBNL. And of course 'payroll flexibility'. The Yanks pick up the entire tab on Abreu, who will very likely replace Sheffield in 2007.

The Jays are in an awkward spot. They're 5 games out of the wild card and 6 games out of the division. Three spots are going to go to Boston, Detroit, Chicago, NY, Minnesota and Toronto and the Jays are last in that group and showing no signs of getting hot.

It's probably clear that they aren't buyers now, but it'd be tough to be sellers too - can you say you're giving up on the year? Their playoff odds sit at 11.5%. Lilly and Speier are probably pretty valuable trade chips right now. It might be worth it to cash them in similar to the Carlos Lee trade (trade them for major league players under contract/control). If you can't get that or get a top minor leaguer (and no one seems to be trading those these days) you might as keep them and collect the draft picks.

Thomas - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 02:35 PM EDT (#151829) #

With the A's starting Shane Komine today I might have been tempted to hold back Halladay and start Casey Janssen today. Although you'd be holding back Halladay two days, if you started him against the Yankees on Tuesday he'd also get the White Sox on Sunday. That's two starts against key wild-card competitors as opposed to against a Triple-A starter for a team who is in a completely different race than you. I know you're playing with fire and Janssen has been nothing but inconsistent and downright bad since his first few starts in the majors. But to get two Halladay starts in very improtant games it might be well worth it.

Thomas - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 03:39 PM EDT (#151855) #

Yea, a six man rotation, that what the Blue Jays need to do.

Yea, because starting Janssen once equals going to a six-man rotation. That's exactly right.

Not to mention the other consideration that Komine is a better pitcher than Janssen and the Jays will likley end up losing a winable game in order to push Halladay back two days.

Okay, how is Komine a better pitcher than Janssen? We can compare their stats at Triple-A:
Janssen, 4.05 IP, 20 IP, 21 H, 18 K, 1 BB
Komine: 3.89 ERA, 120.1 IP, 125 H, 101 K, 34 BB.

In previous years, Janssen's ERA at AA and A+ was lower. At most, you can say they are about equal starters.

The Jays offence is better than the A's and while the A's are at home, I don't see why we are likely to lose this game. With Janssen, it's about 50-50. And we aren't decreasing our chance of winning this game "in order to push Halladay back two days." We'd be doing it in order to get our best pitcher starting against two of our three main competitors for the wild card.

Futhermore, even if you think we are trading a win today for a win on Tuesday, that's a good trade. A win vs. the Yankees is more valuable to us than a win vs. Oakland. As good as Marcum has been recently, I'd much prefer to line up Halladay-Burnett-Lilly against the Yankees than Burnett-Lilly-Marcum. And then you get Marcum-McGowan-Halladay against the White Sox.

I'm not 100% convinced I'd do it, but it is certainly worth thinking about, imo.

Mike Green - Sunday, July 30 2006 @ 04:14 PM EDT (#151864) #

Here are Jason Frasor's splits. 23 strikeouts, 22 ground balls, 6 line drives and 5 fly balls in 14 innings. The hits allowed total is driven by a .485 opposition BABIP. And even that overstates the case; the worst damage was inflicted when he was asked to pitch the ninth inning with a 24-3 lead and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits. I believe the Sky Chiefs may have had the groundskeepers take over the infield.

More importantly, his major league record is that of a solid pitcher, even this year. Yes, he gave up more homers than usual early in the year, but pretty much everyone did.

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