I'm very happy to announce the latest improvement to Batter's Box, courtesy of our technical guru Gwyn Price. On the sidebar, the formerly useless "20 Hot Topics" segment has been changed; it no longer shows the articles (active or ancient) in order of total comments. Instead, it lists the most recently active threads, plus the time of the latest comment!

This will save time when you visit the site. No matter when you last checked in, you'll be able to see what you've missed, at a glance. It's going to be especially helpful for Internet Explorer users, as the other trick we "borrowed" from Sean Forman of Baseball Primer works only in other browsers.

There will be a few growing pains with this feature; if you had bookmarked BB including the former index.htm home page, that link won't work and you'll get a 404 Error. The "new" home page is index.shtml -- however, if your bookmark just points to www.battersbox.ca, it should be fine. Also, there is no automatic refresh function yet, so don't be surprised if there's a delay before the list gets updated. We have put in a request to Rogers, our Web host, to automate it every five minutes, but that won't take effect for a few days. For now, the BB authors will take turns running the update script manually.

I'm so happy with this, I'm going to move it higher up on the page. Bear with us if there's some unusual activity or the site seems a bit slow; it does take some time to rebuild Greymatter after making changes. Awesome work, Gwyn. We're doubling your salary.

That was not the real Roy Halladay out there last night. Home plate umpire Joe West squeezed him pretty good, from where I was sitting (admittedly not the best vantage point) -- four walks and two HR is about a month's worth for Doc, and I pity his next opponent. I'm not even going to look up the exact numbers, but Halladay had an incredible total of unearned runs allowed last year, and five already this year. O-Dog's error shows you why I've tagged his fielding with the spectacular-but-erratic label. Not all 2B would have got to that ball up the middle, but those that did would all have made a better throw.

I didn't think my dislike for Roger Clemens could ever become hate. I was wrong. I'm sorry it had to be Jeter who got the karmic retribution for that disgusting pitch at Phelps from the gutless wonder, but I cheered at the time. A good hard tag to the face was certainly called for; Halladay didn't seem to have his heart in the retaliatory shot to Mondesi -- did he hit him with a curve? -- and since Clemens always hides behind his teammates, they have to pay his debts. As much as I wanted him to get shelled, I have to admit the loathsome Rocket was sharp, using the splitter a lot against the overeager young Jays, when he wasn't throwing at their heads.

It wasn't all bad, between the lines or in the stands. The crowd was lively, and I sure didn't miss the canned sound effects and deafening music, but I enjoyed the pre-game festivities. Here's the box score.

As an unabashed socialist, I am very much in favor of spreading out the saves. As one of the proud BB Zombies, I can recognize that the last three outs of the game are just three more outs. As a fan, I see how fun it could be to do in-game pools to guess which co-closer gets the call in the ninth. Maybe, then, it was just my imagination. Maybe, in fact, I was dreaming that Boston's Chad Fox and Alan Embree looked like they had never pitched in Little League, let alone as decent major leaguers, when they squandered that three-run lead against the Devil Rays in the 9th inning last night.

Andy Pettitte is, in my opinion, the Yankees' best starting pitcher when healthy. He's now become a full-fledged power pitcher, with good control and sharp breaking pitch. He cuts off the running game with the best of them. He does get in trouble when he leaves the ball out over the plate to righthanded hitters.

Cory Lidle's main strength is his control. Avoiding walks and keeping the ball in the park is a must against the Yankees.

Stephen Tomlinson has posted his 2003 Blue Jays Projected Record on his website.

Stephen has been doing these amazing sabermetric previews of the Jays, and in-season analysis as well, for years now and they are always an excellent read.

Stephen's Pythagorean projection for the Jay's this year agrees with Carlos Tosca's assessment - 85 wins.

Most of us have seen the play by now. A few questions up for discussion:

1) Can anyone remember a collision involving a catcher at third base before?

2) Was Huckaby reckless?

3) Should Jeter have been called out?

And so to Opening Day.

I'm sure I was grinning ear-to-ear in my sleep last night. Meeting J.P. Ricciardi yesterday was very cool; learning he reads Batter's Box "every day" was incredible. He doesn't agree with everything we say, but he does think we "get it" -- as a group, the GM says, the Zombie-like Cult understands and appreciates what he's trying to accomplish.

OK, let the greybeard jokes begin. Aaron Gleeman says I look like Bill James; I would rather think like Bill James and look like Mel Gibson, but no such luck. Thanks to the fan who took the picture, and to J.P. for allowing me to use it.

Just the other day, Dave Till worried about BB becoming "too" successful:

I guess that, soon, this blog will draw enough attention to attract the notice of somebody in the Jays' front office or connected with the team itself. I suppose that, once the Jays or Griffin or somebody finds us, we'll all have to behave ourselves. What a bummer. :-)

Great timing, Dave, and it made me bite my tongue, until now. There's been a well-kept secret around here for a while -- Keith Law discovered us very early, and has been a great friend. Jordan, Craig and I had a memorable lunch with him in January, and he's kept in touch by e-mail. To his credit, Keith has never suggested a topic or tried to influence our opinions, but he's quick to correct us -- well, me at least -- when our speculation misses the mark. We are hoping he has time for an exclusive interview with BB at some point this season, and we're trying to schedule a group night (tentatively April 25) for the ZLC, where Keith can say hello to all of you.

A long time ago, I asked myself if the Skydome favours a certain type of hitter. It didn't take me a long time to gather all the necessary data, but I wasn't sure what to do with it.

I've mentioned this piece before, though I got the source wrong. It's from the New York Times Magazine, not the New Yorker (after names, nouns are the next to go when your memory starts to act up) but it's still one of the best baseball articles I've ever read.

Author Michael Lewis has penned the definitive profile of Billy Beane. It's adapted from Lewis' forthcoming ''Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'' which is to be published in May. Unlike the "lite" version that appeared in the Star a few days later with Ricciardi and Law substituted for Beane and DePodesta, the article is interesting and accurate. It's 11 Web pages long, perfect for a Sunday afternoon, and you will read it more than once. If you don't want to register, use bselig as both username and password. The entire Zombie-like Cult should be grateful to new BB reader Phil Bedard for passing it on.

The latest tempest in a teapot surrounds the ad that appeared in some papers in town this weekend (since I'm in Hamilton, I only get the Hamilton paper, so I missed it). Apparently the ad encourages fans to boo Hideki Matsui on opening day, and it's got Joe Torre's dander up.

Well, even with overwhelming response to the Batter's Box Throwing Down The Gauntlet (TM) challenge, there is one set of predictions that stands out. Humbly, I suggest that it was authored by yours truly.

Even though we have a championship club that hardly changed its roster at all, only I predicted the Anaheim Angels to have another Disneyland parade. At the risk of being banished forever from the ZLC, I'll explain why.

Steve Z. broke this news in another thread yesterday -- the Jays claimed RH reliever Kevin Frederick off waivers from the Twins. This should have an immediate, positive impact on the Syracuse bullpen. Frederick had 22 SV in AAA last year, was called up to the Show three different times, and was nearly unhittable in 2001. Considering there's no timetable for Bob File's return, and some of the organization's relievers will be converted starters -- Vinny Chulk and Mike Smith, last I heard -- it's a great move. No risk, high upside. And as Casey might have said, you can never have enough switch-hitting pitchers.

The Jays also signed RHP Dan Reichert, who has never measured up to expectations. The Royals and D-Rays have both given up on him, but they're not famous for astute personnel decisions or patient player development, so who knows? Together, the additions of Reichert (a reclamation project with terrible stats) and Frederick (who looks great on a spreadsheet) underline the flexibility of Ricciardi's philosophy.

I know, I know. Chemistry doesn't exist in dugouts or clubhouses. It's irrelevant, a figment of old coaches' imaginations, with no influence on the outcome of ball games. Why, it's as meaningless as... let's see... confidence? Just kidding; I don't want to annoy the ZLC.

ESPN's Jim Caple imagines an "All-Snarl" team in his latest. Caple also lists five potential blowups we should watch for in the real world. Master chemists Raul Mondesi and Jeremy Giambi are overlooked in both pieces, and Jim spelled Bizarro wrong, but I enjoyed this. Thanks to Sean.

Many thanks to Steve Z. for alerting me to this terrific piece in the National Post, a paper I seldom read. Dave Feschuk profiles Jays pitching coach Gil Patterson, whose dreams of big-league stardom were cut short by a series of injuries. The former Yankees phenom learned the hard way about being rushed and overworked, so he's become a patient nurturer of talent. Just ask one of his former pupils, Al Leiter:

"He's not abusive on pitchers. He's one of the best pitching coaches anywhere, because he knows how hard pitching is, and he knows what a pitcher goes through to get to the big leagues."

Patterson's hiring is further evidence that J.P. Ricciardi's eye for talent -- on and off the field -- is paying dividends. Years ago, they coached together in A-ball, and J.P. has a long memory. There's nothing in this well-written feature about mechanics, pitch selection or any of the other things we might think of as his main responsibilities, but it left me with great admiration for Patterson, and a feeling that Toronto pitchers are in very capable hands.