Florida Marlins at San Francisco Giants, 1 PM ET (Game 4)

This is what I wrote earlier today:

Felipe Alou is taking the biggest gamble today - he's starting Jason Schmidt on 3 days' rest in Florida. The Giants have to win both of the next game, so the conventional thinking would have started Jerome Williams in game 4 today and saved Jason Schmidt for game 5. Two factors Alou might have considered.

1) Starting Schmidt today allows a little more flexibility in regard to the game 5 starter. It could be Williams or Ponson on 3-days rest. If whichever one he chooses struggles, he can quickly bring in the other guy.

2) He wants to maximize the edge in game 4 because he figures game 5 will be the easier one to win. The home crowd, and last at bat will help the Giants' chances in game 5. He may be worried that Jerome Williams, a rookie, will be bothered by the hostile crowd in Florida in his first post-season start.

Scratch that. The Giants will start Jerome Williams.

Jack McKeon wouldn't mind things either way. He would have had the edge against either Williams or Ponson with Josh Beckett pitching. Now, the Marlins have a better shot at winning it at home and the Florida ace will be well rested for game 1 of the NLCS.

Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs, 8 PM ET (Game 3)

We've had so many great pitching matchups these playoffs, and this is right up there with the best. Greg Maddux is a shadow of his former self - but that shadow is still capable of shutting down the opposition. Here's an in-game contest - predict the number of pitches Mark Prior will throw tonight: my guess is 127.

San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 4 PM ET (Game 3)

I think Alou took Ponson out a bit early in game 2. The bullpen couldn't do the job and the scene now shifts to Florida The Marlins will face a left for the first and only time in this series, which they must take advantage of. With righthanders Jerome Williams and the seemingly invincible Jason Schmidt to pitch games 4 and 5, this game is more important for Florida than for San Francisco.

Once again, if you have a serious interest in the minor leagues, bookmark Baseball America on your browser; and if you have some cash to spare, consider getting an online subscription too. There's lots of good stuff in there, especially around Draft Day in June.

At the moment, subscribers are getting BA's Top 20 prospects in each minor league. Naturally I won't be reproducing the analyses, but I can tell you that in the International League, Kevin Cash, Gabe Gross and Jason Arnold rank 15th, 16th and 20th; BA says they need to improve their hitting, power and command, respectively, to become impact players in the majors. In the Eastern League, Alexis Rios ranked 2nd, followed by Gil Quiroz (4th), Dustin McGowan (5th) and David Bush (a somewhat suprising 19th). BA simply raves about McGowan, saying that he needs only better command of his pitches to become a bona fide ace. 2005-07 could be a lot of fun in Toronto.

More than a few interesting Jays items in this brief post-season wrap-up. Chris Woodward, as expected, will have to show a lot next spring to remain the starting shortstop, thanks to his "concentration lapses." I have some trouble imagining how my mind could wander if I was playing shortstop in the major freakin' leagues. But anyway, Woody says "he knows what he has to do now," which is nice for him, and with Mike Bordick all but retired, shortstop wil be his to lose. But keep an eye on Jimmy Alvarez and Jorge Sequea next March all the same.

Elsewhere comes the slightly surprising news that JP expects to bring back both Greg Myers and Frank Catalanotto. I can see the reasoning behind Crash -- the team will need a left-handed mentor and platoon mate for Kevin Cash, and he evidently was a good presence -- but you should probably expect a 2004 batting line more in line with his post-All-Star '03: .252/.286/.412. For his part, Cat should still be a productive hitter -- his OBP and BB/K actually improved in the second half, while his power went way down. The question is, how many ABs will he get? Vernon is a lock in center, but the Jays will give Reed Johnson, Bobby Kielty and Gabe Gross a lot of playing time in '04. Frank may end up starting just 4-5 days a week and only against righties, whom he battered at a .318/.368/.501 rate this season. Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Also, JP says Eric Hinske played very hurt.

Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees, 8 PM ET (game 2)

The Yankees should be feeling very motivated to put on a solid show after their fielding gaffes in game 1. The Twins do not have very good numbers against lefthanders and Brad Radke will have to be careful not to groove his pitches. The home team is as a heavy a favourite as there's been so far in the playoffs.

Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics, 4 PM ET (game 2)

I couldn't keep my eyes open past 1 AM ET, so I missed the latter innings of this game. Some of what I wrote yesterday came true: the game was decided by the bullpens, the Sox did manage to elevate the ball, and the A's were very patient.

One thing that I did not foresee was the lack of confidence the Sox had in their bullpen, which precipitated leaving Pedro on the mound to face two tough lefthanders even as his pitch count climbed towards 130. Time will tell if his effort has an impact on his next start (assuming the series goes that long).

Today, the Athletics have the edge. Lefthander Barry Zito will attempt to neutralize some of Boston's potent lefthanded bats. Tim Wakefield is an enigma - I don't expect a lot of success for him against a team as disciplined as the A's.

Okay, first, if you don't subscribe to Lee Sinins' excellent "Around the Majors" daily e-mail report, stop what you're doing -- reading this, I guess -- and go do that. Now, I tell you. NOW! GO!

In today's edition, Sinins includes an item about Mike Hampton; a chart accompanies the item listing the top (bottom?) 10 active pitchers in most strikeouts below the league average.

Here are the names you'll find on that list:

These park factors are for runs scored. They are derived by looking at the ratio of runs scored per inning at home versus road for batters and pitchers (separately), after which the two results are averaged. The home park factors are then used to determine the road park factors for each team on an inning-by-inning basis. The final factors are arrived at by adjusting so that the league average is exactly 1. They have not been regressed towards the mean.

The Arizona Fall League is underway out in the American southwest, and the Peoria Javelinas, on whose roster six Jays prospects will be found, got off on the wrong foot with a 10-3 thrashing by the Scottsdale Rafters (scroll down to see boxscore). Much of the damage, unfortunately, was inflicted on Jordan De Jong, who was lit up for 6 runs in just 1/3 of an inning and sports a shiny 162.00 ERA after Day One. Russ Adams had two hits and an RBI, but Dominic Rich went 0-for-3 and Tyrell Godwin failed in a pinch-hitting appearance.

For those waiting expectantly for the end-of-year minor-league reviews, my apologies for the delay -- circumstances beyond my control have hamstrung the project. But I'm confident that we'll have the first of six separate reviews ready to go by this time next week, starting with Pulaski and working our way up to Syracuse. If you'e curious about any prospects in particular, let me know and I'll add them to the review.

Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics, 10 PM ET (game 1)

This series is perhaps the hardest to predict because the teams seem so evenly matched. I'm predicting a 5-game series, with a re-match of tonight's pitching matchup.

Because Oakland plays in a pitcher's park, its offence is better than it looks on paper. This is the right sort of offence to attack Pedro with: a high-pitch count generator. As always with Hudson, his success depends on inducing routine ground balls.

Chicago Cubs at Atlanta Braves, 7 PM ET (game 2)

A must-must-win game for the Braves. Facing Prior in Wrigley in Game 3 down 2-0 would just about spell curtains for the top regular season dog in the National League. If the Braves lose this series, it won't be a big upset in my book. But it will add just a little bit of spice to the "Bobby Cox can't manage in a short series" broth that's been simmering for almost 20 years.

Florida Marlins at San Francisco Giants, 4 PM ET (Game 2)

It looks like the righthander Ponson will start game 2. The Marlins have very few potent lefthanded bats (even on the bench) and so Ponson is a solid choice. Rueter wouldn't be a bad choice, either: he'd be a good bet to shut off the running game, and it's hard for the Marlins to generate runs in other ways.

It didn't have a large impact on the game, but the automatic walk to Bonds with the bases empty and two outs in the 8th was a bit much. By all means pitch him carefully - at least you'd have a shot at getting the out.

This charming piece on retiring Yankee Stadium organist Eddie Layton, who started working the Stadium the same year I shuffled onto this mortal coil, just reminds us how great it would be if Skydome had an organist of talent and imagination. I've attended or watched countless games at the Dome, and I've concluded that the organist knows exactly three tunes: "Charge!" "The Addams Family Theme," and "Go Jays Go" (a variation on local favourite "Go Leafs Go"). And that's it. Day after day, over and over ... these three vapid tunes symbolize the Skydome sound as much as the preternatural echo. Isn't Nancy Faust available as a free agent?

When Mike Wilner first rose from the primeval swamp that is Bathurst and Steeles in Toronto 33 years ago, it was far from a foregone conclusion that he would become a fixture in the daily lives of so many Blue Jays fans – including many Bauxites. But now, Mike is a familiar voice to many of us, as the studio host of the Blue Jays broadcasts on the FAN radio network, including the FAN 590 in Toronto.