So R.A., what you have to do...

The arrival of Mother's Day sent Mrs. Mikkelson packing. Hopefully we'll have heard the end of Mr. Mikkelson after tomorrow. I think daughter Meaghan spent so much time training just to get out of the house.

So for things to be better they Jays need to win 9-0?  Or if you go by Dickey's last performance he just has to allow under 7 runs (ick). 

It has been an up and down year for Dickey.  His shortest game was 4 2/3 IP in early April, then the 5 IP last time.  But the game before that he lasted into the 9th inning with a shutout.  But the two before that he allowed 6 runs each time over 6+ IP each time.  Sheesh.  Safe to bet on 6+ IP but how many runs is up in the air.  His median is 3-4 runs (4+ 7 times, 3 or less 7 times) with 4 or 5 SO, 2 walks, 5 or 6 hits and 1 HR given up on 100-103 pitches with a -15% WPA (win probability added).   For an oddity he has started exactly 7 times at home and 7 times on the road going into this game.

Thole looks very smooth behind the plate, even catching the knuckler.

That was a pretty awesome walk.

When did Texas become our new whipping boys?

Here's hoping Martinez gets all The Will To Win nonsense out of his system today. Egads.

Another starting pitcher gets his ERA below 5.00... baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Baseball is more fun when it's the other team that looks clueless

New whipping boys?

Well Washington would keep all 8 regulars off the turf if he could and the new pitchers seem to thrive in the hot weather.

A nice bonus to beating the Rangers is that they're one of the Jays' wild card rivals (at least for now). The Jays would take the season series 6-1 with a win tomorrow.

Agreed re:Thole. I was saying today that Thole looks better catching the knuckler than Blanco did.

How different the standings would be if the Jays weren't 1-9 vs. the Yankees.

Even if they went 5-5 in those 10 games...

Umm, so Hank White drove in all of Seattle's runs on one swing (GRAND SLAM) in his first start as a Mariner.

Jays are now less than 10 games out - just 9 1/2 behind Boston, the last time there were closer than this was 8 1/2 back on May 29th.  The last time they were closer than that was April 26th (7 1/2).  They have not been in first place at any point this year.  Ick.

Texas has the 2nd wild card at the moment with the Jays 6 1/2 back, tied with the Twins.  Between the Jays and Texas are the Yankees, Rays, Cleveland and the Royals. Baltimore has the other wild card slot (1/2 a game ahead of Texas) while Boston leads the AL East.

Funny.  Pre-season if someone said the standings would be Toronto-Tampa-NY-Baltimore-Boston no one would've been too shocked.  Instead it is the mirror of that.  Sigh.

Wang pitches later today. Gibson had a chat with him the last time he pitched and he pitched well. It's hard to tell how well he'll pitch. If this Team can hit, then it will win with decent pitching, almost always. This Teams problems are simple, either the pitching isn't good enough or the hitting isn't good enough.

My best indications are picks 1-10 will all sign, but for how much we'll have to wait. I'm not good at waiting. Indications with picks 11-40 say 15+ will sign, maybe 5 more. That's not good enough. Better numbers should be available after HS and College WS ends.

With 4-1B, 5-OF, 5-SS and 4-C being the only positions players drafted, there is some necessity there.

For the draft I don't care so much how many as the quality of the guys signed. Looking back since 1988 the most 5+ WAR guys is 4 in 1988 and 1991. So basically 2 to 3 good useful players is what is realistic to hope for.

I'd put 1997 as the benchmark when Vernon Wells was signed along with Orlando Hudson and Michael Young. Also 1989 with 2 50s in Olerud and Kent. Olerud was a tough sign (most thought he would go back to finish college) while Kent was a late round surprise. Hudson also was a surprise, Wells a 'cheap 1st round pick' and Young was a 5th round pick in a year people felt the Jays were being cheap.

So bottom line? Hard to know what to think about a draft until years later.

When Rasmus really connects on a ball it's a beautiful thing. There's something smooth about his homers. I'm pretty happy with how he's played so far. In the first month he was striking out at a prodigious pace, but since then it's stabilized and regressed to something closer to his career norms. I remember someone chiding him for being "unable to adjust" or something like that, which goes to show how impatient us fans can be sometimes.

His K-rates by month:
April: 38k/84ab (45%)
May: 28k/95ab (29.5%)
June: 13k/44an (29.5%).

All are still higher than his career norms but if he keeps hitting I don't see a problem.

Jays are now less than 10 games out - just 9 1/2 behind Boston

That's the biggest difference between this year's team and the one that must obviously be their role model, the 1989 Jays. The 1989 team also had a 31-36 record at this point, but they were just 7 games back of the the Orioles (the only team in the division with a winning record.) The 1989 team was about to go off on a 5 game winning streak, to even their record at 36-36, and complete a nicely symmetrical turnaround (the 12-24 start under Williams, a 24-12 rebound under Gaston.) But it was just a tease - while they would reach .500 in late June, they wouldn't actually get above .500 until August.

This, by the way, was about when the 1989 roster went really really weird. The only healthy outfielders were Bell, Felix, and Kevin Batiste. Batiste would soon be sent back to the minors after his one week in the bigs and Greg Myers would be called up. This gave the team twice as many catchers (Whitt, Borders, Brenly, Myers) on the roster as outfielders, something that has probably never happened to any other team in history. Gillick and his roster shenanigans - his managers had to have hated it. (I think it's one of the reasons Bobby Cox left town.) In this instance, the third baseman temporarily became the starting right fielder, and other infielders (Lee, Lawless) were used in the outfield if circumstances required it.

Another big difference from 1989: there weren't any "wild card" teams back then. Today there are two in the AL alone.

Would the Jays' recent drafts look better with Beede in the fold? He seems to be well regarded, but his walk rate at Vanderbilt is very high this year (63 in 101 IP).

It will be interesting to see who has the better career - Beede or Stroman.