"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?

Not only is Pete Walker's name in that headline, it also describes what Ted Lilly did last night.

Friday the thirteenth saw some ugly plays in Syracuse, and the affiliates went 1-3. New Hampshire had the only win while Kurt Isenberg pitched well in a losing cause for Dunedin.

Haven't we seen this movie before?

So Roy "Doc" Halladay is set to go for the Jays tomorrow against the Indians.

A great nickname like Doc's can spur an entire Hall of Names feature all on its own, but when you add in the fact that it's also been my nickname on and off for 20 years (given my initials, M.D. and the fact that my last name is pronounced "Dockerty in some places), and toss in the additional nugget that I changed jobs this week and now am full-time in the healthcare industry, well, this seems like a natural.

There' have been plenty of major league players nicknamed "Doc." And plenty more with the initials "M.D." But when those two groups go shinguard-to-stethescope, who comes out ahead? Let's find out.

Ted Lilly and Scott Elarton? Maybe not. Ted Lilly and Jake Westbrook, ladies and gents. They crossed me up.

The Jays travel to Cleveland to face a club with a struggling offence, particularly against lefthanded pitching. It might be just the tonic for Ted Lilly.

That said, Cleveland features several hitters on the cusp of breaking out, two solid starting pitchers and a very steady bullpen. It should make for an exciting and well-matched three-game set.

This week's Scout features an antsy young catcher, a faltering postseason hero and a middle infielder who's rather candid in his self-assessment.

On to the Advance Scout!

So it's a little late, but here's a desktop-sized image of the newly refurbished Rogers Centre, as seen from behind home plate, as the team streams off the field after their victory over Kansas City on Tuesday night: