Edgardo Alfonzo's contract was purchased this afternoon. He'll cover second base until Russ Adams pushes him out. To make room on the active roster, John McDonald was placed on the 15-day DL after pulling his groin in Saturday's loss. Aaron Hill will likely move to shortstop.

You know, I don't blame you if you react like Santa Claus in the classic M&Ms ad. Yes, Advance Scouts do exist, though not recently. Forget my earlier '61 Yankees comparison; Mike Denyszyn and I are more like Catfish Hunter and Mike Wallace from the '75 team. The absence of the Scouts can be explained by my transition from full-time student to full-time cubicle monkey. However, while I said earlier that the Scout will return in full capacity by the Red Sox series starting August 31, they're making an early return for first-place Boston now.

The Bosox have won four in a row after sweeping away the Devil Rays; the Jays have won two of three and face an stretch against AL East teams for the next 10. Boston has some hurting outfielders, a short-on-good-pitchers bullpen and will send the two worst Sox pitchers out against Toronto this week. Of course, the third pitcher scheduled to start is just a little bit better...

On to the Advance Scout!

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S.A., a holiday that owes its historical legs to, among others, the backing of one General John J. Murray. Which leads us to the fact that there have been 33 men (32 players and one manager) in major league history with the first, middle or last name "Murray." It remains to be seen ...

I went to yesterday's game, and I took notes. Here they are.

49 games without a sweep doesn't sound that bad. There are 113 games left and surely the Jays will sweep someone. Last year, the Jays swept a series six times, nailing the Rays, Royals, Red Sox, Mariners, Angels and Tigers. I doubt they'll go down to zero this year.

Come on, even the 2003 Tigers swept the Orioles, White Sox (twice!) and Indians. (How would you like to be one of those teams?) The Jays are on pace to win twice as many games as those Tigers, and if you call me on that because it's too early, then it's also too early to worry about not sweeping anyone. Also, if you look at the last game of the Red Sox series (May 26, 2005) and the last game of the Mariners series (July 21)...well, that looks very much like two months to me. Nobody noticed that because it didn't happen at the beginning of the year.

But that's not the reason I'm here today. No, this Series Report is only tangentially related to the series we just watched.

The bullpens played a big part in yesterdays games as the affiliates split.  In New Hampshire the bullpen turned a 6-5 lead with two outs in the ninth into an 8-6 loss.  In Dunedin a 6-1 lead for the Jays became 6-5 in a flash.  In Syracuse the bullpen had to pitch 7.2 innings after David Purcey had a bad day.  In Lansing the bullpen only had to pitch two innings to preserve a 2-0 lead.

Burnett started and got the win yesterday.............that would be Sean Burnett who defeated Syracuse. 

Who doesn't need Roy Halladay adorning their desktop? I know I could use him on mine.

Plus you get to see what Photo of the Day looks like when lit by the sun, for a change -- too bad they closed the roof shortly after the game began. (And in other news, those irritating little specks that I was retouching out of the pictures of Troy Glaus were apparently bugs! The things you miss when you're at the other end of a long lens in the camera bay...)

update: I just heard that Edgardo Alfonzo will make his Jays debut tonight -- scroll down to see a bonus Photo of the Day of Edgardo as an Angel a few weeks ago.

Fun game, that. It was quickly approaching July 1, 2004 status when Eric Hinske got kneed in the head (the White Sox like doing that to the Jays, I guess) but it ended very soon after that play at second...

The farm affiliates split 4 games on Saturday.

The farm affiliates went 3-1 on Friday night, with the big bats in Syracuse leading the way.  Yes, Pierre, there are big bats in Syracuse.  Read on.

Who am I to argue with Jordan?

Finally, some home run power out of the shortstop position tonight....

With Ted Lilly on the mound, it seemed reasonable to expect that most of the plays would be made by the outfielders. Against Freddy (7-1) Garcia, having nine real hitters seemed a wise policy.

I had a quick look at the calendar to make sure it wasn't April first -- Jeff Blair at the Globe and Mail has revealed that Troy Glaus will indeed play shortstop tonight against the Chicago White Sox. It's not permanent --

"I'm just looking at tonight's game," Gibbons said. "This guy is one of the better pitchers in the league and we need offence. These guys (the White Sox) are going to score a lot of runs and we're going to have to keep pace."

The farm affiliates went 3-1 on Thursday night.

....and the second and the third rounds. After the Jays first pick they pick next at #120.

John McDonald, the Minister of Defense, takes a run towards a ground ball in today's photograph: