The shutout of the Yankees was impressive for several reasons.   It was the first shutout that the Yankees have suffered this year.   Despite the absence of Jeter, their lineup is still a powerful one.  They are leading the entire major leagues with 120 runs so far this year.   So, all the more reason to be impressed by Burnett, in particular.   Let's hope he can use this strong performance to build momentum for a more consistent season. 

    And it was good to see Gibbons giving a full inning to Downs.   I hope this is a signal that the Jays will let Tallet become the LOOGY, so that the team can benefit from Downs in a longer role.

The Jays have not been a streaky team in the last few years, from what I recall. They've managed almost no winning streaks longer than 4 games (I had a comment recently to this effect: they don't get long win streaks, or long 20 game hot stretches). They're streaky between games, perhaps, in the same way Lilly was streaky between innings. They've been constructed for this kind of streakiness, especially last year with terrible end of the rotation performances.

3 wins in a row now! Everyone enjoy booing Sosa ( I did when he was with Baltimore).

Everyone enjoy booing Sosa

Is Sosa to be mocked or pitied?

Perhaps Mick could weigh in on the Teixeira situation (0 HR, 3 RBI, 577 OPS). Is there much gnashing of teeth deep in the heart of Texas? I'd imagine that by now the Hank-Blalock-is-the-new-George-Brett ship has long ago sailed. But still, HB and MT combining for 1 HR and 9 RBI in 149 AB? That can't be as per the blue print.

While Sosa's homerun total is a surprise, if not enough to offset his 289 OBP, the list of I-told-you-sos in Texas is a long one, even ignoring Sosa. Gagne is hurt (who'd a thunk it?). Otsuka, the reluctant closer (he's not reluctant, the team is), is pitching like a closer. McCarthy is getting pounded. Padilla is getting pounded.

The slow start by the blue chip Mike Young is certainly a surprise and Catalanotto figures to ramp it up a bit, even if he's on the decline and doesn't figure to match his Toronto numbers. Aside from Kinsler (an MVP in an ARod-less world), it's got to be tough to get overly excited about this collection of players.

Speaking of the Cat, I hope he gets a nice ovation tonight.  He was a good citizen and good player for the Jays, and I hope he gets the respect he deserves (unlike when Delgado first came back).

What the?

Delgado was greeted by one of the warmest, loudest, longest ovations in Blue Jays History.

Maybe I just missed it, but does anyone know when Halladay is making his next start after that rain out?

I'm going to the Saturday/Sunday games and I was hoping maybe he'd go then
So it is sort of for selfish reasons that I want him to pitch
But I'm also hoping for the Jays sake that they don't throw Tomo Ohka out there when there's a perfectly rested Doc sitting on the bench

Ah, I am a complete and utter moron
Halladay pitched the day BEFORE the rain out

Feel free to completely ignore me

I guess I can't be blamed
After all, the way he manhandled all those Boston hitters was entirely forgettable...

Sorry, my bad.  Egg of my face for sure.

I recall reading an article on some Canadian sports news website encouraging fans to boo Delgado, and remembered that part, rather than the fact that he was actually cheered.  I remember writing several scathing emails as a result of the encouragement to boo, and that apparently stuck out in my mind more than the actual response.

Apologies.

Like most, I didn't get to see last nights game, but obviously it was an outstanding effort from AJ Burnett.

Going out on a wee bit of a limb, I 'll boldly predict AJ will pitch a no-hitter this season.

If you could choose when you got to play a four game set with the Yankees, it'd be NOW NOW NOW!  

Good move by Torre to put Doug "Slugger" Mientkiewicz, his worst hitter of the regulars, in the 2-hole.   No one else was hitting, anyway, and it meant nothing in the final balance, but still.   After his last outing I did predict that Burnett's lack of control would allow the patient Yankees to "destroy" him.  Woops.

Want to strike out Adam Lind?  Fastball up and away, he chases without fail when he's down 2 strikes.

Adam will take his lumps and learn from them, well, I hope he will. 

The league should have enough tape on him now to know what he chases.  It is time for Mickey to sit down with him and make the adjustments needed to lay off that pitch, or rip it to LF.

I had the good fortune of actually being at the game last night, I wasnt so fortunate the night before when I had to stand two hours in the rain to get make up tickets though, but at least I got to watch the game. I understand most of you in Canada actually couldn't see the game? I find that very odd, especially since it was a game against the Yanks. Anyways, here were my impressions of the game.

Burnett pitched pretty well, but was maddening at points. He had a lot of problems finding the strike zone and was falling behind a lot of the hitters, getting to a lot of 3 ball counts. I forget who, but someone took him to deep center, Wells caught it right at the 408 mark. I almost had a heart attack there. But he did manage to settle down once he had a four run lead. To me, that seems like he was pitching scared, worried he had to be too perfect against the Yankees lineup. Or he could have just not had his control until later in the game.

Every two strike count Hughes got brought Yankee fans to chant "Huuuuuuuuuughes! Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughes!" His fastball is deceptivley fast. All of a sudden its on the hitters and his curve was such a drop off from the fastball. Lind and Overbay had trouble with that pitch specifically. The Jays did a good job of being patient though and working his pitch count up. Listening to Yankees fans bitch about Wells was awesome. "He's 3-3! What the hell!"

Always nice to sweep the Yankees at Yankee stadium!

Bring on the Rangers and welcome home the Cat!!!

I'm very happy with the 6-0 result last night. I remain a little concerned about Burnett though. He has 5.46 unintentional walks per 9 innings, and 6.11 K/9 innings. That 1.12 K/BB ratio is extremely un-A.J. like. Is the desire to mix in the changeup affecting him that much or is something else going on? If you add his hit batters to his walks, you get 20 to his 19 K's. I hope this is just a bizarre early season, working on a new pitch type thing and not a harbinger of things to come.

On the extremely positive side, grown up A.J. showed up last night. In the second inning Matsui was given a free pass, on what was actually a swinging strike. The 3B ump flat missed it. A.J. gave him a piece of his mind, not enough to get thrown out thankfully, then went back to work and got out of the jam, getting Posada to hit into a double play. In the 3rd inning he thought he had strike three on Mientkiewicz, and I really thought he was going to lose it. He got all red in the neck area and was barking at Ed Montague, to the point where Montague came part way out to the mound. Once again, he was able to re-group and get Abreu to ground out to end the inning. Both times he was able to re-focus himself without a) getting a visit from Phillips or b) getting a visit from Arnsberg and he did it against two very tough hitters. It sounds silly to be commending a 30 year old man for showing signs that he is starting to grow up and leave his hot head image behind, but that is what is happening. Big hat tips to both him and Roy Halladay are in order because he has separated himself from the sullen, sulky guy that arrived in Florida for Spring Training in 2006.

If he can take that maturity and poise and fully develop that change up, he's going to be one helluva pitcher. Unfortunately, I think that means he'll be looking at 5-6 years and $75-$90 million when he walks after 2008 and I don't know if it's a great idea to go that high. Hell, it might be even higher by then.

The Star had an article mentioning how outside of Hughes no first round pick had made the majors since Derek Jeter for the Yankees.

The Jay list shown was fairly impressive and does say something for the Jays 90's scouting crew.

Checking the Jays list for first round picks only via Baseball Reference shows they had...
1970's
Lloyd Moseby, All-Star

1980's
12 first round picks made the majors, but just 2 marginal All-Stars in Mike Sharperson and Ed Sprague with John Cerutti and Todd Stottlemyre being the only others who did more than a September call-up level of production.

1990's
15 first round picks made the majors, 7 becoming All-Stars - Shawn Green, Shannon Stewart, Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay, Vernon Wells, Felipe Lopez, and Alexis Rios. Other notables were Billy Koch and Steve Karsay.

2000's
5 have made the majors so far, but only Aaron Hill and Russ Adams have shown much, with Gabe Gross also there at 449 AB's.

Of the 2002 and on drafts JP has 10 guys who have reached the majors. For comparison (not counting 2007)...
The Yankees have had 3 plus Hughes.
Red Sox 9 (includes Brian Bannister who didn't sign)
Baltimore 9 (includes Casey Janssen who didn't sign)
Tampa Bay 5 (includes Mike Pelfrey who didn't sign)
Oakland 11 (includes Ty Taubenheim who didn't sign)
Minnesota 6 (inlcudes Adam Lind who didn't sign)
ChiSox 9

Just a sampling to give an idea. Funny to see so many who'd go on to play for the Jays being drafted and not signed by others already.

That 408-ish foot drive to CF you're referring to JustinD was in the immortal (and sickening to anyone who isn't a Yankee fan) words of John Stirling almost a record setting 15th "A-Bomb for A-Rod". It came to lead off the 4th inning and had it been hit to any other part of the park, would've been a real stake to the heart for Jays fans. Fortunately it didn't go out, and Vernon glided back to get it. It would only have been a solo HR, but somehow solo HR feel like 6-run HR in that zoo of a ballpark, so I for one am glad that the park held it.

John Northey, I think players are drafted out of high school and opt for the scholarship ride through college all the time. What I like about that list is that Oakland and Minnesota took Taubenheim and Lind respectively. That says a lot about those two because those are two very good organizations. It's also interesting to know that Janssen is on that list with his "low ceiling" stuff, but he could've been a late round pick. I personally hate the ceiling discussion, especially with pitchers because no matter what your ceiling is, you still have to learn how to pitch rather than throw. The high ceiling guys just get a delay on when they have to learn this all important lesson, but all of them have to learn it at some point. Obviously, you need a good mixture of both and I would like to see more high ceiling pitchers in the Jays system, but I'm not sure young pitching is as much of a problem as young hitting at the moment.

What's the hole at SS? Clayton's no Tejada, but he's done all that's needed so far this season.

Clemens's agent says he'll decide where to play by the end of May.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/Home_MLB.aspx

Houston and New York must be looking a bit less appealing at the moment (it's early, of course). Both teams have been heading south. It's hard to imagine Clemens heading back to Boston, but even harder to imagine him playing for a team unlikely to make the playoffs.

A rotation of Schilling-Beckett-Dice-Clemens-Wakefield would be rock solid. Even with a 45-year-old Rocket.

I really hope that Clayton has improved from his level of the last 3 years, but frankly the evidence isn't there.  His offensive value is tied up in his batting average, which has been pretty good thanks to a .385 BABIP.  What is more worrisome to me is his DP rate.  It's been bad each of the last 3 years, and terrible so far in 2007.  He's participated in 3 double plays in 144 innings this year at short.  McDonald has participated in 3 in 32 innings at short (and 4 at third base). Hill has a wonderful pivot, but there's only so much that he can do.

I think we're really going to notice the SS issue during interleague play in May and June. Our lineup might look something like this:

Rios
Lind
Wells
Overbay
Glaus (if healthy)
Hill
Phillips/Fasano
Clayton
(pitcher)

Strong 1-6, but slow in the middle of the order and very weak 7-9.

Strong 1-6, but slow in the middle of the order and very weak 7-9

Sort of sounds like our line-up right now.......

I still say the Jays should sneak in and bug Clemens like before and shock the baseball world :)

However, in the real world I still would be surprised if he doesn't stay in Houston.

The Yankee offense would be tempting for him if he wants to pile on the wins

Boston if he wants to be in the playoffs again

Houston for living at home.

Houston is only 4 out (division and wild card) and in the weakest division (1 1/2 out of second) so it isn't a crazy spot to go for him, especially given how that team has bounced back in the second half lately. How is Houston? #12 for ERA, #11 in runs scored. Add Rocket and they'll probably be contenders in that division.

And because Klemens' kid, Koby, is in the Houston organization, maybe he'll feel some familial attachment to them.

And with the final pick in the draft, the Modi'in Miracle select Sandy Koufax.

If there was ever a silver lining to war, the globalization of baseball is it.