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.

Last night, Jays fans were treated to a nice pitching performance by Josh Towers, quality bullpen work from Speier and Ligtenberg and a booming home run by King Carlos. Today, fans get impressive young David Bush on the mound and a bunch of dogs....really.

By the time most bauxites wake up on Monday morning, Canada will have either lost to or (more likely) defeated Italy in the second game of their quest for the gold. Jason Dickson gets the start for the red and white.

Canada played solid baseball in downing Chinese Taipei, winning 7-0. The game story from CBC/Canadian Press provides some of the details. TSN has a more detailed game story.

And here's the BOXSCORE! from the official site of the Olympiad.

You can watch the game on CBC, starting at 11:30am EST.

but there's someone who's torn it apart
and she's taking almost all that I've got
but if you want, I'll try to love again
baby I'll try to love again but I know

Raging comebacks, blown leads, late-inning homers and a couple of dominating starts were the stories on a 4-3 night for the farm affiliates.

After today's bullpen implosion there were many frustrated Bauxites in the game thread.

Mike in CT asked 'How many more games would the Jays have won this year if they had even an average major league bullpen?'

It's that time again ... introducing the Batter's Box All-August team, a squad made up entirely of players born in the month named for good ol' Augustus Caeser.

You might remember that last month, we named our All-July team the July Franks, in honor of the best player in major league history named for the month of July, the ageless Julio Franco. The 62-year-old Braves first baseman, incidentally, has an August birthdate.

And you might think the best of major leaguers named for the month of August would be (drumroll please) ...

More rain, Jamie Vermilyea gives up some runs, a walk off home run, and a walk off stolen base, by a catcher.

It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much

?Japanese submarine slammed two topedoes into our side, Chief. Was coming back from the Island of Tinian Leyte. Just delivered the bomb, the Hiroshima bomb.

Aaron Reynolds has put together some terrific Batter's Box desktops for all us Blue Jays fans. These deserved their own thread, so here you go!

For those of you using (shudder) Internet Explorer, click on the desktop you want (and make sure you have the right size), wait for the image to load, right-click on the image and choose "Set As Background" from the menu.

At this point, it's obvious what's wrong with the Jays, occasional bullpen misadventures notwithstanding: they're not hitting. Their hit totals in their last eight games (shown in reverse order) are a frightening tale of futility at the plate: 3, 7, 5, 12, 4, 6, 8, 9. (The 12, oddly enough, was against the Yankees.)

The question: should J.P. Ricciardi have seen this coming? Does he deserve to be blamed for his team's offensive futility, or have injuries, bad luck, and unexpected declines in performance led to the Jays' offensive woes?

Yeah, I know, no one wants to do Cheer Club because they're so depressed. Well, too bad!