The Jays are 7-2 in their last 9, and on a roll. They trounced those dastardly Yankees last night, and tonight face the even dastardlier Red Soxs. Marcum takes the bump against Paul Byrd, followed by Litsch/Lester and AJ/Dice-K.

If the Jays can sweep, then things get sort of interesting.

So what would it take to get 31-year-old Roy Halladay?

That's a question posed by friend of Batter's Box Jamey Newberg, author of Major League Baseball's best free e-mail newsletter, The Newberg Report (the online bible of all things Texas Ranger) today ... he speculates at length in today's edition, archived on his Web site, here.

So read his full screed (the Halladay-to-the-Rangers stuff, which he admits may be nothing "more than an Internet hallucination," is toward the middle and runs 20+ paragraphs) -- and remember ...

I pulled this out of the Yankees Games Notes.

Coming into this season, there were six players with 10 years of major league experience who had never spent time on the Disabled List. Two of them were Yankees - Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada - and both of them went on the DL for the first time this season. So did Andruw Jones of the Dodgers.

Three still standing!

And none of them are Blue Jays - as best as I can tell, Marco Scutaro is the Jay with the most ML service (4 plus years coming into 2008) who has never visited the DL.

For the sixth year in a row, I am once again asking for hardcore baseball fans to participate in the annual Scouting Report project, in which you evaluate the fielding characteristics of players on your team. If you have a few minutes, please drop by and evaluate your team.
http://www.tangotiger.net/scouting/

UPDATE: If you entered data between the start of the poll 2 days ago and Aug 20, Wed, 2pm ET, please re-enter your data for this player only: Overbay, Lyle . I apologize for the inconvenience.

This morning’s minor league update turned into an interesting discussion of who the Jays might call up when the rosters expand. With September about two weeks away, I decided to take a look at the issue more closely and see what history might reveal about names we can expect to see in Toronto blue in September.

I was waxing ecstatic about Roy Halladay a while back - it's just something that happens when you follow this team -  and was sufficiently inspired to build a database with every one of his ML starts, just to know how his latest gem compared with the rest.

The Jays waste a fine effort from Jesse Litsch upon his return from purgatory (AAA). The bullpen implodes - let's take a closer look at that.

Per Sportsnet.

Just over six weeks left. The battles for post-season positions are coming and the Blue Jays are right in the thick of it!

After all, they have many games to play against almost all the teams that actually have a legitimate chance to make it...

About once a year, the Toronto Blue Jays take a kid out of the minor leagues and put him right into the starting rotation.

Warning: there is trivia involved!

Ho hum. The Jays beat up on the Athletics with good starting pitching and relieving, great defense and timely hitting. So that's what it's like!
Lets, however, turn our attention to more esoteric pursuits: baseball nicknames.

Who among current active players will end up in the Hall of Fame? Let’s take a quick look-see and dive into the conversation of worthiness. We started with the American League; now let’s move on to the senior circuit …

We've done this before, but with Hall of Fame inductions taking place today (yay Goose!) let's take a look at players today who could someday earn Cooperstown induction.

We'll start with the American League ...

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?

 

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.