After salvaging the last of their three games in Cleveland, the Jays pay a visit to the three-time defending AL Central champions.

Though still very much in the hunt in the Central, Minnesota is playing middling ball of late. Their once-noted defence has declined with the departures of Corey Koskie, Cristian Guzman and Doug Mientkiewicz, but their control-freak pitching staff has nevertheless carried the Twins to a healthy first-quarter record. Can the Jays snag two of three? To do so, they'll need to defeat both of the Twins' most inconsistent starters -- or one of them, and a certain Johan you may have heard of.

This week's Scout features a slugging Canadian, a glove man on the mend and the return of a popular hero.

On to the Advance Scout!

Yes, Vernon Wells has shown some signs that he's finally getting out of his early-season funk. Since I'm putting him up as today's Picture of the Day posterboy, does that mean I'm vulturing the mojo?

He’s Gaudin for speed…

An undefeated night for the farm featuring a near-perfect game.

Pitiless in Alomar: Walrus, Decepticons, Senators and Glyndwr win big.
Lubumbashi Posse washes the Sweaty Guys and catches Pistol.
Baseball North conquers New Jersey, sets sights on tasty Papayas.

Today is Mark Funderburk's 48th birthday. A propos of nothing for the former Twin outfielder, but would you believe that not a single player with the first name of "Mark" has ever been inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame? (The closest we get is the great, but in this case only "middling" David Mark Winfield.) Now, that may change shortly when Mark McGwire becomes eligible -- but then again, why talk about the past when we can focus on the future?

Well, in this case, Mr. McGwire, because it's fun(derburk) ... and there have been a whole bunch of really fine Marks to don big league uniforms; wait until you get a load of the pitching staff.

Prevention is better than cure
Bad apples affecting the pure
You'll gather your senses I'm sure

So remember that photo of Doc giving some poor batter the stare? Well, here's the guy who was at the receiving end of it, the mighty Cookie Monster himself:

"They can't win everything...They won the last few years...Beating Canada is always a big thing. They have the best hockey players and nobody else can say that. This year we had more luck than them. I think it's all luck."

- Jaromir Jagr, noted sabermetrician

A solid win against an excellent pitcher and a (potentially) dangerous lineup, and some signs of life from Vernon Wells. Put that together with effective pitching from Doc and Batista and great defense from Reed Johnson and O-Dog and this was a good day for the Jays.

Pop Quiz: Who had more hits, Lansing or the three other teams combined? You can probably guess, Lansing had sixteen, the other three teams had 5, 5, and 3 for a total of thirteen. You can probably also guess that Lansing were the only team to win yesterday. Lansing's Jason Armstrong was the star of the day.

Observations of an Ohio-bred Yankee fan writing from Texas ...

The Yankees is dead! The Yankees is dead!

You could almost hear the glee in the voices echoing from Chesepeake Bay to Boston Harbor, from the CN Tower all the way out to the Big A overseeing the stadium that is home to the California's Orange County Angels of Anaheim near Los Angeles and Beverly Hills 90210.

And, as I have speculated here many times, that day probably isn't far off; 2007 at the latest seems a likely time to pay the piper. Will the dark days Yankee fans know as The Horace Clarke Era one day be pined for from deep within the Ferdin Tejada decade? We don't know yet. But it is seeming less and less likely that the answer will come in 2005.

In Part II I look at Jason Frasor, Vinnie Chulk, Justin Speier and Scott Schoeneweis in April. Click here to read the first of my bullpen in review article, where I talked about Brandon League, Matt Whiteside, Miguel Batista and Pete Walker. It also allows me to draw some conclusions about who was the most effective and which pitchers were used in critical situations. There are some interesting conclusions, including the fact that only three of the eight relievers had positive contributions during the month and the, perhaps not surprising, fact that Batista was not the pitcher the Jays called upon in critical situations.

Doc does it with the ball, O-Dog with the glove and Wells with the bat as the Jays take it 5 - 2.

Whether or not you can jump a freight train, it is a sure thing that rain, early morning or otherwise, will disrupt a pitching staff. It happened to the big club in Cleveland, and the farm affiliates were not immune to Mother Nature's power on a 1-3 day on Saturday.

You really think they like to rock in space?
Well I don't know
What do you know?
What do you hear?