The totally peerless and awesome  baseball-reference.com has almost everything, but one thing it doesn't have is a list of league leaders in Relief Appearances for each season.

Today, Dave Steib is 51. And Cliff Johnson is exactly a decade older at 61. The two, who were teammates from 1983-85, each had individual reputations (deserved or not is incidental to this point) for, well, surliness might be a strong word, but let's go with that.

So here's a challenge for you -- with the second-greatest SP in Blue Jay history on the mound and the massiveness of Cliff J. either catching or (preferably) at designated hitter, who else fills out the lineup card for the All-Time, All-Jays, All-Surly squad?

 

After another poor game the Jays see the return of Shaun Marcum tonight.

5 of the 6 affiliates scored at least 8 runs last night as the teams went 3-3.  Brian Dopriak continued his hot streak with 2 more HRs.

They're something all baseball teams spend the off-season trying to accomplish. Who's been succeeding? Where, and how can we tell?

New Hampshire, Dunedin and Lansing combined to belt 10 homers yesterday, half of them by the Fisher Cats, to propel them to victory.  As for Syracuse, they dropped their fifth in a row to fall to .500.  At least the Argos are back to .500 thanks to a 109-yard drive for the winning touchdown.  Way to go, K-Jo.  That concludes my football commentary!

.500. It’s the record the Jays seemed destined to finish at or within a couple of games either side and it’s the record the affiliates put up yesterday on a 3-3 evening. Losses in the low minors and a Triple-A were cancelled out by wins in Double-A through A-ball. Three of the six starters turned in quality starts and the teams in the low minors, as may be expected, lost in part due to fielding errors. There were several solid days at the plate, but no standout performances, and the three stars could have gone to any of about ten players.

Recently, we've run a couple of computer-pun-centric Hall of Names all-initials teams featuring major leagu monikers with the initials MB and GB. The next obvious stop, of course, is "KB," which seems might be, to gratuitously reference computer parlance, a "bit" lesser of a squad. Let's find out as we meet ...

I ran across a celver joke on the Web earlier today, dealing with Australian Football (Rugby) League teams and thought I'd try to flip it for Major League Baseball. Let's see how we do and, please, feel free to suggest your own!

• NEW YORK YANKEES: JULIA ROBERTS
  Big in the 1990s but what has she done lately?
  

• DETROIT TIGERS: SARAH JESSICA PARKER
  Just when you thought you were finally safe ... she's back.
  

Last week, when we ran a computer-pun-centric "All-MB" Hall of Names all-initials team, veteran Bauxite Rob Pettapiece posted the leading statement, "I don't think the All-GB team is 1024 times better, though." The further question, of course, is whether an All-KB team would be demonstrably lesser than their MB brethren.

We know that such teams will give us the Brett boys, George to the former and Ken to the latter, so that's a nice start, but let's see how "driven" these teams are as we meet, first ...

Ricky Romero and Davis Romero both pitched well, they each allowed two runs and both had runs that were allowed by the bullpen.  Randy Boone also pitched very well for Dunedin.  Balbino Fuenmayor had six RBI's and Robert Sobolewski broke out with three hits.

As usual, the good guys' first series after the all-star break is a major gut check against an AL East team. That's normal. What's weird is that the Jays get to perform the checking of someone else's guts this time. The upstart Rays have lost seven straight games as they face actual pressure for the first time in franchise history. They'll look to bounce back by sending their big three starters to the hill at home, where they're 36-14 this year.

Shaun Marcum returned with an exclamation mark and a handful of Canadians had good nights.

In two unrelated moves ...

Veteran Tony Clark has waived a $500K trade incentive clause and been dealt from the Padres back to the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he played the past three seasons.

And in AL East news, to nobody's surprise, the Yankees have reached a tentative agreement with whiff machine Richie Sexson, who was released by Seattle last week.

Late addition: Joe Blanton to the Phillies!

At the break the Magic 9, the Papayas and the Wedding Singers lead the way.  It's typically tight in all the divisions, with over half the owners still having a realistic shot at a top 6 finish and a playoff spot.  We are entering the pesky short week which can have a big effect on the standings.