The three front runners for the medals - Japan, Cuba and Canada - have all started with two wins. Canada took advantage of some erratic defence and scored 9 runs in the first two innings on route to a 9-3 victory over Italy. Check out the gory details from Canadian Press here.

In a recent thread a Batter's Box regular made the comment:

of course, we wouldn't even be having this discussion if Russ Adams hadn't turned out to be so terribly, terribly underwhelming, especially relative to his draft position.

Which lead a number of us to wonder how much we should expect from a mid 1st round draft pick. In "Has Russ Adams Been A Disappointment?" Craig Burley compared Adams to other players taken in the middle of the first round of 2002's draft. I thought I'd take a different approach.

Batter's Box regular Paul D takes a look at some late-summer reading.

With his Beatles and his Stones
We never got if off on that revolution stuff
It was such a drag

4 wins and 3 losses for the Blue Jay farm as a former top prospect makes an encouraging start, a previously unheralded prospect continues to command attention, and a brand new prospect makes his debut.

Or nearly so.

The season from hell continues with the Jays facing Pedro Martinez. Ted Lilly will have to induce flyballs to centre and right and not to left to be effective today.

The Inter-County Baseball League Championship Series starts today with London facing Guelph. Here’s a quick overview look at the two teams involved.

I decided to pull together a couple of rooting necessaries for those watching Team Canada's games from Athens, and reproduce some terrific photos from the IBAF (that's the international baseball federation, by the way). Enjoy!

New Hampshire stay hot. Curtis Thigpen digs the long ball. Pulaski win ugly. Zach Jackson makes his debut tonight. The minor league teams had a strong week, going 26-10. Dunedin, Charleston and Auburn were a combined 15-2.

Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death construction

The Coach-helmed Toronto Walrus still holds a seven-game lead after a 6-6 tie against Eastern Shore Birds, but all seven teams nearest the Walrus's behind gained ground. Mebion Glyndwyr, Red Mosquitoes and Gashouse Gorillas defeated their foes convincingly with ten wins or more.

At the beginning of the season some Bauxites thought the Red Sox were the class of the A.L. East, citing the acquisition of Curt Schilling and a world-class offence. That has turned out not to be the case.

But I also thought Arizona would win 84 games, so I'm one to talk.

As the Toronto Blue Jays roll into town coming off another kick-in-the-groin loss, I expect the wild card hungry Sox to feast.

Yikes. After some desultory play over their last dozen games, the Jays face a hungry and hot-hitting Red Sox club, playing in one of the most difficult parks in which to steal a series.

That said, the White Sox managed to do just that this weekend, thanks to a struggling Boston pitching staff. Between Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield, the Jays might finally get to inject some power into their offensive attack. With Pedro going tomorrow night, though, Ted Lilly might have to win that game all by himself.

This week's Scout features a bevy of blistering bats, a blistered and battered starting pitcher and a much-maligned third base coach that, well, ought to be maligned.

On to the Advance Scout!

Frankly, I don't think there's a single one of us who didn't have high expectations for Russ Adams when he was drafted out of the University of Notrh Carolina with the 14th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft. Adams is currently being challenged defensively and offensively at AAA Syracuse, hitting just .272/.344/.384 and showing a few signs of being stretched defensively at shortstop. Adams has plenty of time to turn his career around and become a star, but he hasn't performed up to reasonable expectations so far.

Or has he?

As I mentioned in another thread I was looking at the Current Equivalent Averages page at Baseball Prospectus and I was stunned to find that Frank Menechino is leading the Blue Jays in "Runs Above Replacement Player". I decided to look closer at the stats provided to see what else I could learn about the Jays woeful 2004 offense.