"Astrology used to be the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of all sciences. Not so very good."
--Professor Frick, The Simpsons

The D-Rays, long the butt of jokes of varying quality, have once again become joke-worthy after a somewhat surprising '04 campaign. (Another example: David Letterman suggested that a stiff punishment for Alex Sanchez, rather than a ten-game suspension, would be to make him play those games as a Devil Ray.) Nevertheless, they come into town after a rousing display of walk-off heroics and bench-clearing fireworks against the Red Sox.

The D-Rays have some pesky hitters in their lineup, but they haven't gotten anything approaching steady pitching this season. Will Mickey's men get well against Tampa pitching, or will the hometown slump continue? The Jays are unlucky to draw the organization's bright light among moundsmen -- Scott Kazmir -- tomorrow night.

This week's Scout features a Shea Hillenbrand doppelganger, more ex-Jays than you can shake a stick at and the first Advance Scout Trivia Challenge.

On to the Advance Scout!

Welcome to your new post as hitting coach for the Jays, Mickey Brantley. And also, welcome to photo of the day.

Here he is taking Vernon Wells' helmet, batting gloves and the remainder of his shattered bat as Wells prepares to take the field after grounding out:

The Jays were off on Monday literally, their farm system figuratively, as the minor leaguers were beaten 4 out of 5.

Watching Kevin Brown struggle in pinstripes again this past weekend raised the question -- at least in my mind -- is he the greatest Brown ever to play major league baseball? Raise three fingers in the air if you know the answer to that right off, as we prepare for another exciting rendition of Baseball's Hall of Names ... Woohoo!

TSN reports that the Jays have dismissed hitting coach Mike Barnett.

His replacement will be current first base coach Mickey Brantley, who did such a fine job as interim hitting coach when Barney was unable to join the team in the season's early going.

Can the enthusiastic, passionate Brantley coax more power and more production out of the Jays' currently slap-happy lineup? What do you think?

Okay, it's not exactly "breaking news," but every once in awhile, something nice about Batter's Box is randomly discovered somewhere on the Web, and every once in a while of those aforementioned every once in a whiles, the PR guy in me can't stand not saying something.

According to the self-decsribed "general purpose search engine" FindAnISP.com, Batter's Box is the #49 Sports Web site on the Internet.

Senators pitch another shutout.
Pistol Nine shoot into lead.
Magic 9 mystify Hee Seop Choi.

Bauxite Kevin Pataky sent me an e-mail last week that said, "Enclosed is a picture for you that I think most readers of Da Box can appreciate." We certainly can, Kevin.

And after a weekend that stunk in more ways than one, Kevin has allowed us here at Batter's Box to share it with everyone else:

Vito Chiaravalloti is a favourite of Da Box since his triple crown win at Auburn in his first pro season in 2003. 2004 was an up and down season for Vito, he struggled in April and in August, but he was strong in the middle of the season and in the AFL. I sat down to talk with Vito recently recently when the Fisher Cats were in Binghamton. The first item on my agenda was to make sure I was pronouncing his name properly. Vito told me his family pronounces their last name with a "che" sound at the start, like cherry, but a "kee" sound, like Chianti, is the correct italian way.

Gabe Gross and Eric Crozier made their major league debuts in 2004 playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. "Making it" to the major leagues is the fulfillment of a dream, a dream held at one time by a large percentage of North American boys. I talked with both Gross and Crozier in Buffalo recently to reflect, with them, on the realization of their dream.

Josh Banks continues to mow down AA hitters while Adam Lind gets out, once. A 2-2 day on the farm.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the NL East Divisional Update, one of the new additions to Batters Box 3.0. Every two weeks we'll look at what's going on in the NL East.

This hurts.

I'm plugged in and loaded
Don't forget to phone in
The self destruct is holding
I'm counting, I'm counting, but only to three

What's gone wrong with the Jays, you ask? Well, not as much as you might think: every team goes through bad stretches. (Ask the Yankees, who had to face The Boss's full-on wrath after punting a few games early in the season.) But one thing now seems clear to me: talent always trumps effort.