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After the nice big blowout normal service is sadly resumed as the Jays lose 6-5 to the Reds. Halladay and Harang battled each other to a five-each standstill through 7 last night, with Downs stepping in handily to pick up Doc and get the last out of the 7th. It was nip and tuck from then on until Wolfe was ineffective in the top of the 10th, allowing the Reds to get a one-run lead and the Jays were unable to get it back against Cordero. Same as usual for the year, the Jays had a few chances to get the go-ahead run but couldn't cash anyone in. Only the Jays could have an Inning like the 7th, in 6 pitches they managed to load the bases with no outs and fail to score.
pitch 1 Rios single to centre
pitch 2 Wells single to left
pitch 3 Stairs single to centre
pitch 4 Rolen popup to second
pitch 5 Overbay takes a ball
pitch 6 Overbay bounces one to the pitcher. 1-2-3 DP
Under the Gary Denbo Regime it would have taken them at least, oh, 20 pitches to get all that done.


And on a completely unrelated note, let's catch up with a few old friends.

Josh Towers is in deepest Colorado Springs, joining fellow MLB vets Mark Redman and Glendon Rusch in the Sky Sox rotation (old friend Valerio De Los Santos is in the bullpen). The PCL is not being kind to Josh who has an ERA of 6.48 in 83 Innings.

Howie Clark is in the Twins organisation, and is having a nice season for Rochester hitting .296/.349/.459. He had a cup of coffee with the big club late in May but was designated for assignment and returned to Rochester on June 1st. He was almost called back up ten days later when the Twins wanted to end their 13 man bullpen insanity and get another hitter up, but he had a strained rib cage muscle and missed the chance.

Eric Crozier is in the Independent Atlantic League with the South Maryland Blue Crabs, where he's being managed by former Sox Skipper Butch Hobson. Crozier is patrolling the outfield these days (next to another former big leaguer Curtis Pride) and is hitting .219/.355/.425.

Ken Huckaby signed with the Royals in January, he was released on May 10th and doesn't seem to have caught on anywhere else.

There's a Tom Wilson serving as the hitting coach for the Trenton Thunder. I'm not sure if this is the former Jays catcher, but it seems pretty likely as I can't find any evidence of him playing anywhere.

Corey Koskie. The Brewers bought our Koskie's contract afer the 2007 season, and he now seems to have effectively retired from baseball. Corey was of course suffering greatly from post-concussion syndrome which forced him to miss all of last year. He has been mentioned in the news a little recently with the concussion problems suffered by Ryan Church and Aaron Hill. As of April he was apparently suffering from naseau and dizzyness less frequently, but was still not entirely symptom free, which rules out any imminent return to baseball.

Frank Menechino was with the Portland Beavers last year, he became a free agent at the end of the season, but doesn't seem to have caught on anywhere.

Josh Phelps is with the Memphis Redbirds in the Cardinals organisation. He's not having a great season, hitting just .259/.335/.424. Cliff Pollitte is also on the Redbirds this year.

Guillermo Quiroz is with the Orioles serving as the backup to Ramon Hernandez. He's had just 66 at bats and is hitting a weak .197/.264/.318.

Chris Woodward is easing into his 13th professional season having signed with the Nashville Sounds as a free agent on May 31. He's hitting .279/.315/.382 in just 68 at bats. He was briefly in the Yankee and Phillie organisations earlier this year.

Tanyon Sturtze is still soldiering on, he's 37 now and hasn't pitched in the bigs since throwing 10 Innings for the Yankees in 2006. He's now in the Dodgers system, he started the year with AA Jacksonville and was recently moved up to AAA Las Vegas (tough life). In 28 Innings thus far he's put up a 4.50 ERA with an 18/7 K/BB.

Jason Smith is playing third for the Omaha Royals in the PCL, and doing a pretty nice job of it hitting .270/.315/.544 in 281 at-bats.

Couldn't track down: Dave Berg, Jason Kershner, Billy Koch (although Justin Miller's Koch tattoo has been getting some press coverage recently), Greg Myers,

Game Day: Volquez against Litsch 7:07PM
26 June 2008: I've seen this one before. | 26 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Ron - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 01:08 AM EDT (#188049) #
Anybody able to track down John Ford-Griffin, Jason Phillips, Royce Clayton, Edgardo Alfonso, Andy Dominique, Pete Walker, Simon Pond, and Homer Bush?
John Northey - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 01:29 AM EDT (#188050) #
John-Ford Griffin: 296-378-478 in AAA for the Dodgers
Jason Phillips, Royce Clayton I couldn't find 2008 stats for
Edgardo Alfonso & Simon Pond I couldn't even find 2007 stats for
Andy Dominique hasn't played in the regular minors since 2005
Pete Walker threw 6 innings last year for the Yankees AAA team and disappeared
Homer Bush appears to have retired after 2004.

Magpie - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 02:28 AM EDT (#188051) #
Edgardo Alfonzo is playing in Mexico for Los Tigres de Quintana Roo, and hitting .285 with 3 HR and 16 RBI in 53 games. Don't think any of the others are playing anywhere. A little surprised that Phillips hasn't found a gig somewhere.
King Ryan - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 02:47 AM EDT (#188053) #
Here is the scoop on everyone from that lovely bullpen we had in 2003:

Aquilino Lopez -- Recently sent down by the Tigers, apparently they want him converted to a starter.

Trever Miller -- On his second stint with the Rays, putting up a 4.12 ERA as a LOOGY (only 19 innings in 32 appearances)

Cliff Politte -- As mentioned above, playing for Memphis. 5.79 ERA.

Jeff Tam -- Disappeared for 04-06 and then popped up in the Independant Leagues last year, giving up 12 runs in 14 innings for the Pennsylvania Road Warriors. Presumably retired after that.

Jason Kershner -- Has a 5.02 ERA in 28 innings for Reading, Philadelphia's AA club. Ouch.

Tanyon Sturtze -- Mentioned above, pitching for Vegas.

Pete Walker -- No idea. Signed with the Yankees last May but only pitched 6 innings in AAA.

Dan Reichert -- Pitched in the Independant Leagues in 06 and 07, before signing on with the Indians this year. He actually started all 5 games he appeared in but put up a 5.67 ERA.

Scott Service -- Don't know. He's 41 now so presumably retired, but don't know what he's doing with his time.

Corey Thurman -- Playing for the York Revolution of the independant Atlantic League, under pitching coach Tippy Martinez! He has a 4.98 ERA in 12 starts.

Doug Creek -- Has retired and is spending his time as a "tournament fisherman." Check it out at www.dougcreek.com

Juan Acevedo -- I refuse to even look.

Doug Linton -- Apparently he was the pitching coach for Colorado's single-A team, but he isn't listed there anymore.

Brian Bowles -- Last year, 7.16 ERA in SF's AAA affiliate. This year, no idea.

Vinnie Chulk -- The Vincredible Chulk just got DFA's by the Giants yesterday. He'll pop up again probably.

John Wasdin -- ... Would you believe he managed to find three more MLB jobs after that .... whatever that was he did with the Jays? He's currently pitching in AAA Memphis, ready to strike at any time....

So yeah, only Trever Miller still has a regular MLB job, 5 years later. Shocking, eh?
China fan - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 03:27 AM EDT (#188054) #
  Returning to the latest Jays situation -- I find it fascinating that Cito Gaston is quite willing to leave $6.4-million in salaries on the bench (Eckstein and McDonald) while he continues to give the top of the batting order to a pair of supposed back-ups (Scutaro and Inglett).   It's paying off, too, since Scutaro and Inglett are a combined 15-for-35 since Gaston took over.  Inglett, by the way, has built himself a nice little line of .320/.389/.490 on the season.  It suggests that Gaston -- unlike Gibbons -- is willing to choose his own lineup, without any commitment to Ricciardi's choices.  I have a hunch that Gibbons felt obliged to keep running Eckstein out there because Ricciardi had recruited him and given him the bucks.  It was Gaston, too, who insisted on promoting Lind, despite the apparent bias against him by Ricciardi.   Gaston seems to be impervious to pressure from the top -- he'll play whoever he wants -- and that's maybe a good thing.
Dr B - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 06:12 AM EDT (#188055) #
So yeah, only Trever Miller still has a regular MLB job, 5 years later. Shocking, eh?

LOOGYs seem to have long shelf lives, and Trever Miller was actually a pretty decent pitcher. (career 9.3K/IP vs. lefties and other good peripherals.) I could never understand why Ricciardi snubbed Trever Miller after Miller turned in a pretty decent performance for the Jays, especially this was a time when Ricciardi was filling the bullpen with has-beens and never-weres. (If anyone is still in denial about Ricciardi improving as a GM, take a trawl through the "talent" he used to hire to provide batting practice for the American League. There are many familiar names above and I still shudder at their mention.). Ricciardi replaced Miller with the immortal Valerio de los Santos who was more expensive than  Miller and not as good (and injured to boot.) I guess as a casual fan, I can't know all the details, but I suspect that Miller "didn't really like baseball all that much"...


Thomas - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 10:25 AM EDT (#188057) #
JP reportedly let Miller go because there was $100,000 difference between what JP offered and what Miller wanted and the two sides couldn't come to an agreement. I didn't think it was the right move at the time and with hindsight it appears JP made a mistake. I was never a huge fan of de los Santos, but he did have a couple of useful seasons prior to coming to Toronto and Miller was someone who had barely pitched in the majors over the couple of previous seasons. In terms of JP's mistakes, it's a pretty minor one and I'm not going to hold it against him.
Ozzieball - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 10:59 AM EDT (#188058) #
Billy Koch is now at home, with he and his family suffering 'from' Morgellon's. Morgellon's 'creates' bruise-like sores, muscle twitching, and bizarre non-organic fibre protrusions.

For reference, the current medical consensus on Morgellon's is that it does not exist as a disease unto itself, but is rather a psychosomatic culture-bound syndrome. Kind of like Windigo Psychosis in Algonquin cultures where people think they're turning into Wendigos.

Oh, and Shea Hillenbrand is trying to start a petting zoo. Last I heard one of the animals got loose and attacked his kids. I think it was a lemur.

Barry Bonnell - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 11:29 AM EDT (#188059) #

Oh, and Shea Hillenbrand is trying to start a petting zoo. Last I heard one of the animals got loose and attacked his kids. I think it was a lemur.

Apparently Shea's son thinks the petting zoo is a sinking ship.

Pepper Moffatt - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 11:52 AM EDT (#188061) #
"Howie Clark is in the Twins organisation, and is having a nice season for Rochester hitting .296/.349/.459."

This is very, very cool - it's the first I've heard of it.

Howie Clark had a huge fan following when I lived in Rochester due to his time with the Rochester Red Wings (who were still an Orioles affiliate).

I have no idea *why* Rochester loved him so much, but they did.
electric carrot - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#188063) #
Re: Shea's Zoo

I heard that one of the ferrets was demanding a trade to Ted Lilly's Petting Zoo. (Or was it a weasel.)

Barry Bonnell - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 12:10 PM EDT (#188064) #

I have no idea *why* Rochester loved him so much, but they did.

Because he's a white player that is not blessed with an abundance of talent but plays the game the way it should be played: hard, with grit, determination and a will to win.


92-93 - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 12:24 PM EDT (#188066) #
And, most importantly, he wears his socks up to his knees!
Anders - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 01:29 PM EDT (#188068) #
Oh man, this is the funniest thing I've seen in a while. It's a chart showing Mariner's fan's reaction to the game in which King Felix hit that Grand Slam.
Mick Doherty - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 01:46 PM EDT (#188069) #

13 man bullpen

Really? I hope they went with a three-man rotation, or wouldn't have enough position players!

King Ryan - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#188070) #
This, however, is not funny at all.

I am suddenly reminded of Corey Koskie and Mike Matheny...
Magpie - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 02:32 PM EDT (#188073) #
The Hill item KingRyan cites looks like the Star finally getting the developments from last weekend's visit to Pittsburgh in print. It's not good, but it's not actually news.

Anyway - next time it's in the seventh inning or later, does anyone think Cito is going to go out to the mound and ask Roy Halladay how he's doing? I think he learned last night that Doc always wants the next batter, no matter what, and someone else has to make the call.

Original Ryan - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 03:05 PM EDT (#188075) #
Does anyone know what Marty Janzen is doing now that his baseball career is over?  He was a good bowler before becoming a professional baseball player and I've wondered if he could have gone back to that sport.  According to Baseball Refence, he hasn't played in the minors since 2002.

Barry Bonnell - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 03:10 PM EDT (#188076) #

This, however, is not funny at all.

I am suddenly reminded of Corey Koskie and Mike Matheny...

I know it wasn't Eckstein's fault but his signing is looking worse and worse.

I bet Hill is happy he signed that extension after all.

China fan - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 03:37 PM EDT (#188077) #
  For a humorous look at our statistical obsessions, check this out.
Dr B - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 04:09 PM EDT (#188079) #
Coey Thurman brings back memories. He was a joy to watch. Not that he was the world's greatest pitcher; his fastball seemed maximum effort and not hard enough to keep the hitters honest. He did, however, possess an absolutely beautiful changeup which someone memorably described as "parachuting". It was amazing watching hitter's flail away at it. If only he had the complementary pitches...he probably wouldn't have been available in the Rule 5  draft.
smcs - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 06:04 PM EDT (#188082) #
Jason Phillips is playing for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
VBF - Thursday, June 26 2008 @ 11:29 PM EDT (#188090) #

Anyway - next time it's in the seventh inning or later, does anyone think Cito is going to go out to the mound and ask Roy Halladay how he's doing?

That's kind of funny because I remember John Gibbons doing a similiar thing at least once in his first few games as manager. I definitely recall him visiting Frasor in the ninth ining of a close victory at Yankee Stadium in 2004.

Oh and as of 2007, Bob File was selling used cars in Philidelphia. That sounded like a joke, but he actually is.

Anders - Saturday, June 28 2008 @ 07:37 PM EDT (#188125) #
Sal Fasano is currently catching for the Indians. In the majors.
Dewayne Wise is playing CF for the White Sox.

Chuck - Saturday, June 28 2008 @ 09:33 PM EDT (#188128) #
Ty Taubenheim is starting for the Pirates. Tonight.
John Northey - Saturday, June 28 2008 @ 11:34 PM EDT (#188130) #
So, that is where Fasano ended up.  Cleveland is in even worse shape than the Jays in some respects.  They won their division by 8 games last year and now are 8 1/2 out of it, a game and 1/2 behind the Jays in the overall standings.

26 June 2008: I've seen this one before. | 26 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.