The Twins' losing streak is over, and their ace is on the mound today. The Jays, at .500 midway through their 20-game trial by fire, will start Pete Walker. He'll be on a strict pitch count, probably about 70 tops, so the Toronto bullpen will have to be good.

I won't see much of the game, as a Toronto Baseball Association meeting is scheduled for 2:30, but I'll be checking in here to get your impressions as soon as I get home. It's been very rewarding to have so many people tell me lately that they click on BB even before they go to the MLB scoreboard of their choice.

As noted in the Twins thread, the Jays have made a wholly expected move and waived Ken Huckaby, replacing him with outfielder Reed Johnson. This move will not be met with howls of outrage from most BB denizens, this one included.

Well, I know I should be optimistic. But the Twins always seem to play their best ball at SkyDome, no matter how good (or bad) they happen to be at any given time. I always found Tom Kelly clubs, like Sparky Anderson clubs, to be reliably tough to beat on a day-to-day basis.

I remember the Jays earning a hard-fought split in the '91 ALCS in Minneapolis...only to have Puckett, Pagliarulo & Co. dispatch of the Jays in three straight road victories. The Twins are young, and their confidence may be shaky given their recent struggles, but I suspect that they've got a good clubhouse thing going. Last season, I saw the Twins play in both Toronto and Chicago, and they had about the most enthusiastic dugout celebrations I've ever seen in early-season games. And they can still flash the leather, although even Torii Hunter committed a costly error at Yankee Stadium yesterday.

The Advance Scout says: Try and keep the Twinkies fishing at the plate. They've been pressing and impatient, almost to a man, during this slump. Let's see if Lidle, Pete and Lurch can expand the strike zone a little bit and get some easy outs.

On to the Advance Scout!

Way to go, Brandon Lyon... Grady Little says that if the weather isn't good in Boston tonight, Lyon will join the rotation and start in place of Pedro Martinez in the Red Sox home opener.

Kenny Rogers gets a second shot at the Jays tonight. Cory Lidle, as I post this, has already thrown two perfect innings so the Twins' offensive struggles might be continuing.

Geoff Jenkins has returned for the Brewers, which helps the Brew Crew immeasurably on defense and should provide an offensive boost as well... provided he is actually healthy.

Roy Halladay vs. John Burkett tonight at the Dome. I have nothing to say, and I'm saying it.

...sort of. Nasty weather has staggered the Jays' higher-level farm teams, as AA New Haven has experienced three consecutive washouts and, more problematically, AAA Syracuse has had six straight rain/snowouts. That spells a lot of doubleheaders later in the year, which is never a good thing for a pitching staff.

On the brighter side, High-A Dunedin has seen sunnier skies in the Florida State League, and is off to a very respectable 4-3 start. The D-Jays' Website is not exactly rich in detail about statistics and player performances, though they're more than happy to report that every Thursday is Coors Guys Night Out. However, game summaries indicate that Russ Adams and Tyrell Godwin have started off the year particularly hot, and that the pitchers are throwing bullets.

Dustin McGowan and Chad Pleiness have both had very strong games, while Justin Maureau had a great start against Clearwater. Slightly tougher times were had by a rehabbing Justin Miller and young phenom David Bush, who's converting back to the rotation, but even those outings were quite respectable. Personal favourite Jordan DeJong has been solid in relief as well.

More updates to follow during the course of the season, especially as the weather improves and (hopefully) the team Websites get updated a little more extensively.

Three pitchers with the AA Carolina Mudcats combined last night to throw a seven-inning no-hitter. This comes one night after the AA Akron Aeros had three pitchers combine on a seven-inning no-no of their own. And that followed by one night the wildly improbable nine-inning perfect game by AAA Nashville Sounds and former big-league journeyman John Wasdin.

Now, I'm no Jayson Stark, but I'm pretty sure that never before, on any combination of major- and minor-league levels, have there been no-hitters on three consecutive days in professional baseball. I don't even want to guess at the odds against it. There are caveats, of course: 21-out minor-league no-hitters aren't as impressive as the real thing, for one --- kind of like saying Dreamcatcher was a great movie except for the last half-hour. And the frigid weather lately has probably been an advantage to pitchers -- witness the 26K-duel between Javier Vazquez and Mark Prior in chilly Wrigley yesterday.

But even though these three straight no-hitters have only freak coincidence value, I'm taking them as a symbol of a deeper, unrelated trend: the gradual but definite swing of the pendulum back from the hitters' era of the '90s to a new pitchers' era of the '00s. The young guns that have emerged in the last few years -- Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement, Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Roy Halladay, Mark Buehrle, Jarrod Washburn, Randy Wolf, Vincente Padilla, Brett Myers, Brandon Duckworth, Brad Penny, AJ Burnett, Josh Beckett, Javier Vazquez, and Matt Morris, to name some -- and those yet to come, including the likes of Rich Harden and Jason Arnold, presage a new dominance of pitching. I predict that by 2006, we'll be looking back at the 60- and 70- home run seasons of the late '90s and shaking our heads in disbelief. Baseball is a game of cycles, and I think the pitching cycle is in ascendance.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has cancelled plans for a 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham because of the anti-war activities of stars Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Seriously.

This raises many important questions:

- Why, exactly, is the Hall of Fame holding this celebration? Did they take a percentage of the gross from Columbia Pictures?
- In the name of all that's holy, where's Kevin Costner? He could fix all this! He's the Postman, for crying out loud!
- Why are they making a mess out of the greatest baseball movie ever?

On impulse, I decided to go to Wednesday night's game, and I took notes in copious (and somewhat scattered) detail. I took the liberty of starting my own entry for this, since it goes on a bit. Hope you like it.

Some notes on various pitchers around the circuit...

You have to use your bench players sometime, so tonight Carlos Tosca is going to get Dave Berg (RF, batting second), Tom Wilson (C, sixth) and Mike Bordick (3B, ninth) some AB against Boston lefty Casey Fossum. There will be no second-guessing from me; Hinske can use a night off to get his mind right, Cat's back is worth taking precautions with, and Myers has made two consecutive very good starts.

Ken Huckaby will get one of his final starts as Doc's personal security blanket tomorrow, unfortunately relegating Myers to the bench again, and there's another southpaw (Rogers again) slated for Saturday, so we'll soon know whether this is a strict platoon or mere lineup juggling; my guess is Hinske plays Saturday but Hudson or Woodward sits. The A-team won't be on the field together again until Sunday.

I hear there's another sporting event on TV tonight, and I might even watch it, but I'll also be listening to Tom, Jerry and Mike on 610 AM.

If you do Mens Journal has the full instruction kit on the famous Bonds' offseason workout

Personally just reading it was often to make me need a long lie down and a cold beer.

I particularly liked the "* Do not try this drill at home; you could break your wrists" disclaimer

The Terrible Twenty continue for the Jays, as the Beantowners arrive fresh off a 5-2 start to the season against the past, present and future fourth- and fifth-place clubs in the AL East. Starting pitching has been generally solid for the Bosox, but the now-infamous "Closer-By-Committee" is providing yet another example of the often-unavoidable clash between baseball strategic theory and the harsh reality of inadequate personnel.

Grady Little isn't only experimenting with his relief corps; Boston has been using players not generally thought of as versatile in versatile ways (see batting orders below). Doesn't look like much of a defence to me, and the Jays might be able to put some pressure on the suspect D, particularly on turf. And we're talking a man's turf here, not that sissy good-for-you stuff in St. Petersburg.

Having said that, the Red Sox are absolutely tearing the cover off the ball at the plate, and turf might enhance their awesome offence even further. By sacrificing defensive expertise and grace, the Red Sox can trot out an exceptionally powerful, patient and explosive offence. Let's see if the Jays redeem themselves for the Yankee fiasco of a series in front of the home crowd. Mark "Lurch" Hendrickson, Tanyon and Doc will be the most important three players of the series on either team.

On to the Advance Scout!