Oy that game.  I had to stop listening (not watching, stupid rogers preview) after the tying homerun.  Maybe the stop and start nature of the last week has effected them.  Or maybe BJ has to suck one night of a season and he decided to get it out of the way now instead of mid-season in Oakland.  Troy's HR was pretty though.  And Gus had a very Gus-like start. Gus-esque, if you will.

And the Mets (I think I have seen more of their games than Jays games so far) look really solid.  They schooled the Cards and now they are schooling the Braves.  Way to go King Carlos and friends.

To echo what Jeff said, the Rays are going to be right in there in a couple of years.  They're a fun team to watch.  There is A LOT of young talent in their lineup.

As for B.J., well, it happens.  I've convinced myself that it's better that it happened early in the season against the D-Rays than in September against the Yankees.  Ryan just got it out of the way early on, no problem.  The Miltion Bradley walk-off last year hurt a lot more.

BJ pitched very little this spring. To him, given his normal schedule, he's still near the end of spring training. We'll cut him some slack...

The Rays are absolutely, absolutely, loaded, the kids presently up mature even a little... my oh my.

Stil to come, pitchers: Niemann, McGee, Davis, Walker, Hellickson, and Talbot amonst others... and position guys: Longoria, Brignac, Guzman and others. This team reminds me of the Jays about 82 or 83 when our young guys were starting to come up and strut their stuff.

This could be a GREAT ten years to be a Rays fan.

I been very optomistic this year about our Beloved Birds (ok I've been downright Polyanna) . Part of the reason is that MY 2007 Jay's have Janssen as the number 3 guy by Mid -May at the LATEST and McGowan at 4 or 5 by Mid-June at the LATEST. My Polyanna-ramma also requires Roy and AJ to get 40 wins between them...after AJ's last start...can Roy win 40?

Just curious, since I haven't heard any radio broadcasts so far -- how's the new team of Howarth and Ashby working out?

Obscure factoid: the Blue Jays have yet to score a single run in any inning this year. They've either posted zeroes or crooked numbers through the first three games.

Not only will the young kids maturing benefit the Rays this year, but they are also getting the help of what I call the 'Ichiro effect'

I'm a huge Ichiro! fan.  He's the reason why I was still interested in baseball during the end of the Gord Ash era, and I'd much rather have him known as a calming influence in the clubhouse than as a mute idol who isn't a good leader because the M's suck and he doesn't destroy Gatorade coolers. 

That being said, that theory is bunk.  The 2001 M's won because

1) Mike Cameron played better than Griffey.
2) Brett Boone either fluked or roided his way to one of the greatest seasons by a 2B ever, helping make up for the loss of A-Rod
3) The bullpen was incredible
4) Garcia, Moyer, and Sele were all healthy and very productive
5) Abbot and Halama didn't embarass themselves, and Joel Pineiro dominated when he got called up.
6) The M's already were a great team who had finished 1/2 a game back in 2000.

As for the other examples, what about "Mr. Zero", Shingo Takatsu?  Did Kaz Sasaki's drunken escapades help the M's out?  What about Kaz Ishii?   Aki Ostuka?  Nori Nakamura?  Takashi Saito?  Did Hideki Irabu help the Yankees?  What about everyone's favourite Spaceman, SHINJO, who didn't help the Mets?  To go with Cubans, what about Jose Contreras and Yuniesky Betancourt? 

Japanese players don't have magical chemistry powers.  Good players (Ichiro, Big Matsui, etc) help teams win.  Bad players (Little Matsui, Taguchi, SHINJO) don't.   It's all academic, anyways, since JP has publically said that he's not interested in the Asian market. 

      A few semi-obvious observations about the Jays so far this year:

       1) They'll go as far as their pitching takes them.  It's a cliche, but true.  The offence, as we always expected, will be fine.  Of the starters, only Halladay is reliable.   We're in the same situation as 12 months ago:  the Jays still need to pray for the rapid development of Janssen and McGowan and some kind of stability from Burnett and Chacin and Towers.  A year goes by, and not much changes.

       2)  Shortstop will not be a sinkhole.  Clayton is adequate, and Stairs and Smith can pinch-hit early for him if necessary.  Clayton was signed to be a reliable defender, and that's what he is turning out to be.

      3)  Future historians, looking back on this season, might conclude that the turning point of the season was the day when Meche and Lilly both declined the best offers that the Jays could provide.   Ohka and Zambrano might turn out to be useful pieces this year, but you really can't hope to replace a pair of $10-million pitchers with a pair of $1-million pitchers -- unless you're extremely lucky.   The Jays have already written off John Thomson, and there were Bauxites who thought that he'd be as good as Meche this year.   There's a reason that GMs have assigned a value of $10-million to Meche and Lilly and a value of $1-million to Ohka and Zambrano and Thomson, and it's not because they're stupid. 

Excuse my ignorance, but why was Glaus removed from tonight's game?  I can't find anything on it.

It was fun hearing the retrospectives of the Jays' 1st game, 30 years ago today.

Jeff Cheek (son of Tom) was interviewed on the radio before the game.  If I remember right, he was 7 years old for the first game.  He remembered the early morning stationwagon ride from Burlington that day.  The family had just moved up from Vermont.  They didn't know if they would be in Toronto past the first year.  There were jokes about his Dad calling him the "world's tallest bat boy".  He retired from that when he realized he was almost as old as the drafted players.  He actually pitched in the minors for the Jays.  Now he's a senior medical specialist for a pharmaceutical company in Charlotte, where he's lived the past 10 years or so.

Alan Ashby was the Jays' regular catcher in 1977, but was kept out of the lineup for the 1st game.  He heard he was about to be traded to the Angels, then the trade fell through.  Ashby remembered that Bob Bailor was a good player for the Jays in 1977, but he wasn't sure why he wasn't in the lineup the first day.

Chevrier was excellent in his half-inning of play-by-play on television.  He sounded just like he did in the mid-1980's.  He also did a half-inning on the radio a little later.  On the radio, he remembered that Whitey Ford was his partner for the first broadcast because Tony Kubek had an NBC commitment.  Chevy said he learned so much from Kubek.  Chevrier also repeated the story that Bavasi turned down the Yankees offer of Ron Guidry for Bill Singer because programs with Bavasi on the cover had already been printed.

Tom McKee also appeared with Chevrier on the television broadcast (though not on the radio).  I don't remember him as an announcer, but I think he did some announcing for a year or so before becoming a producer for the broadcasts.  I remember hearing that he had a great sense of humour.  Kubek often credited McKee with feeding him a lot of lines.  I suspect behind the scenes McKee had a lot to do with the quality of the Jays broadcasts in the early years.

Good work by both Sportsnet and Fan590 on the retrospectives.

Chevy was a good commentator (I was very young, and had 2 channels when he was the play by play guy), but I think Dan Shulman was my favorite Jays broadcaster.

Tonight's game was a little too close for my liking. Marcum pitched well, and Frasor got himself out of trouble. I knew he would do a great job in place of League. I thought Reed Johnson played very well, he hustled his butt off on the bunt and of course he took one for the team.

I'll have to say, I was expecting a little more from Ohka. When you have a 5 run lead, you should be able to make it out of the 5th inning. In all reality though, no one has a 4th starter who is going to win 20 games. I would like him to get into the 6th inning if that is possible.

I didn't get a chance to see Saturday's game, but Marcum's line is pretty special.

He retired 7 batters in a row, five on strikeouts, one ground out and a fly out. 

These are pretty early returns on Janssen and Marcum, but this could be a interesting pen. Along with Downs the Jays have three guys who can give multiple innings per appearance.

I was wondering about that, he hasn't looked anything like the 06 Rios yet.  Maybe Lind will be sharing time with Rios instead of Johnson by July.

They mentioned the Glaus injury on the radio today, and it is a small bone spur.  Nothing serious.  He can pinch hit today, and should be in the lineup for tomorrow's game.

The article calling it an Achilles heel problem is pretty funny.  There is no such thing as an Achilles heel in the human body.  There is an Achilles tendon in the back of the ankle, which attaches the calf muscle to the calcaneus, or heel bone.  The term Achilles heel, of course, refers to a person's weakness, and stems from Greek mythology.  Achilles was vulnerable to injury only at his heel.

Janssen is the Jays closer for today if one is needed.  Great to see the early performances of Janssen and Marcum.  Perhaps they will both be in the rotation before season's end.

What can Brantley do for Rios?  They're not going to send him down to AAA to work on his swing, and I can't imagine he'll start toying with it mid-season unless he just needs a minor tweak.  I was hoping for a big season from him and I'm crossing my fingers.

By the way, nice headline from Magpie.  Ask and you shall receive.  Perhaps the next headline should read, "Alex Rios for homerun champion".

A few standout performances today.

• John McDoanld filling in for Glaus with the leather and the bat.
• Wells yard early before Kazmir got a chance to settle in and deflate the Jays.
• Another decent day from Clayton.
• Seven K's from Doc.

Another great appearance from Janssen. He seems to work really quickly and with confidence.

So a week into the season and the the Jays are in first place. Can they hold the lead the rest of the way?

Before we freak out over Alex,  it has only been a week (it feels longer, for whatever reason) and he did miss time in Spring Training for family issues.  The issue was the death of his grandfather, so he might be deflated from that.  I think breaking the habits of players is a particular challenge for coaches because they are more or less trying change the player's natural tendencies.  Pitching and hitting (and baseball in general, I suppose) is all about rhythm, getting relaxed in a groove.  Some of these guys might be particularly attached to a certain way of doing things because they got to the show doing it that way. 

And that was a fun game today.  Go J-Mac. Way to atone for the booting the other day.  And unlike some on this team, Vernon appears to be locked in.