That's better! My Toronto Walrus jumped all the way from 15th to second in the Batter's Box Fantasy League standings this week, thanks to an 11-1 pounding of the Red Mosquitos, who learned what injuries (Brian Giles) and slumps (Mark Bellhorn and others) can do to your Head-to-Head team. I punted steals early in the draft, and my pitching's still a lot better than my hitting, but timing and luck are huge in HtH, and our matchup was the most extreme example of that so far this season.

Snellville's Gashouse Gorillas put together another solid week to take over top spot. Jonny, the spreadsheet wizard, will check in later with the Roto "standings," which are completely unofficial, but shed some light on strength-of-schedule issues and are useful to help identify your team's weak spots.

Please read on; we need to discuss the league's keeper rules and of course, talk a bit of trash.

If you'd said on Opening Day that the Jays would be sending their only undefeated starter to the mound tonight in New York, a tall right-hander, then the odds were pretty good I wouldn't have guessed that would be Tanyon Sturtze. And yet here he is tonight, the former Devil Ray who's already matched half his 2002 win total. And Sturtze didn't rack up easy wins against cream puffs -- the Red Sox and Twins can hit a little. Yankee Stadium, of course, is a whole different stage.

Much angst has been in evidence regarding the Blue Jays' bullpen, which collectively has not had a good outing in some time.

By searching through the game logs, I've compiled some data on Toronto relief pitchers for 2003:

Because I suspect all us proud Canadians would like a place to sound off on this -- Mike Weir rocks! That was a gripping, thrilling final round, and after seeing his performance, I think Weir must have ice in his veins. That par putt on the 18th to salvage a playoff was just amazing, and his composure was exemplary. Congratulations to a Canadian champion!

And oh yeah, the Jays were stomped on today, getting swept at home for the second time in this young season. Remember, folks -- coming out of the Terrible Twenty with a .500 record would be just peachy. They now have to go 5-3 on the road against the Yankees and Red Sox to do that. Mind you, the road has been pretty good to them so far. And this team has been awfully streaky this young season....

According to Carlos Tosca, that's the key to mental toughness: concentrate on your approach, and accept that results are sometimes random, but your response to those results is something you can control. That's just part of an interesting profile of the Jays' skipper in today's Boston Globe. Gordon Edes also quotes Paul Godfrey about J.P. Ricciardi:

"He's straightforward, direct, and honest. He gave me a plan on Nov. 7, 2001, and since he's been here, he hasn't veered from the plan. He knew what he wants, he's a great judge of talent, and he works very well with everyone around him."

Thanks to one of our longtime BB readers for this link; Pistol has met Harvey Dorfman, the sports psychologist mentioned in the article, and says he was highly complimentary of what the Blue Jays are doing. Tosca acknowledges Dorfman as a tremendous influence, and has encouraged his players to consult him as well. With eight games left in the Terrible Twenty, let's hope the Toronto bullpen has learned how to respond positively to some disappointing recent results. I was at a clinic all day and missed the latest meltdown, but it seems to me Aquilino Lopez can't do much worse than Creek and Miller against lefty batters, and he certainly makes righties look sick.

My turn for some notes, with Craig on child watch (which makes me wonder how he posted so many messages yesterday!). On to the gibberish …

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.