The top four teams in the Batter's Box Fantasy league had close matchups last week. First-place Gashouse Gorillas and second-place Billie's Bashers battled to a 6-6 tie, and after leading Baird Brain all week, my Toronto Walrus went to the Carl Pavano well once too often, coughing up three pitching categories on Sunday to lose 6-5. Ouch.

Division Leaders:
1. Seattle Mariners ------ 55 -- 37-18 -- 0.0 (6-0)
2. New York Yankees ---- 56 -- 33-23 -- 4.5 (4-2)
3. Minnesota Twins ------ 55 -- 31-24 -- 6.0 (2-4)

Wildcard:
1. Oakland Athletics ----- 55 -- 32-23 -- 0.0 (3-3)
2. Boston Red Sox ------- 55 -- 31-24 -- 1.0 (1-5)
3. Toronto Blue Jays ---- 58 -- 32-26 -- 1.5 (5-2)
4. Baltimore Orioles ------ 55 -- 28-27 -- 4.0 (5-1)
5T. Anaheim Angels ------ 54 -- 27-27 -- 4.5 (3-3)
5T. Kansas City Royals --- 54 -- 27-27 -- 4.5 (1-5)

Projected Playoff Matchups: Minnesota vs Seattle; Oakland vs New York Yankees

Thanks to Geoff for alerting us to this in another thread. ESPN's Rob Neyer has plenty to say about the Blue Jays, the four-man rotation and the "patently ridiculous" response of one Richard Griffin. Neyer explains, "In Toronto, J.P. Ricciardi has radically transformed the Blue Jays, both on and off the field ... and yet there remain idiots who simply assume that he doesn't know what he's doing."

There's also a zombie-like cult of statistical seamheads (we are grateful to Griffin for naming us) who get it, and appreciate it. Rob mentions he might have a new favorite team, and his rave review of the J.P. Jays will cause others to take notice of what's going on in Toronto baseball. Maybe even at the Star.

With all three clubs off today in preparation fro inter-league games, this seems an approapriate time to compare and contrast the clubs battling for the division lead.

Starting Staffs:

team ------- GS  IP    IP/GS      RA   ERA  UER  Outs% Krate Wrate BIPavg  HRrate GB/FB
Yankees  --- 56  370.0   6.6    4.33  3.89  18   .711  .194  .051   .310   .040   0.96
Red Sox ---- 55  315.7   5.7    5.53  5.16  13   .690  .180  .088   .304   .034   0.98
Blue Jays -- 58  341.7   5.9    5.56  4.93  24   .693  .143  .064   .302   .026   1.30

Bullpens:

team ----- RApp  RApp/G    IP    RA    ERA  UER   Outs% Krate Wrate BIPavg HRrate GB/FB
Yankees ---- 117  2.09   139.3  4.52  4.39   2    .692  .177  .078   .320   .016   0.80
Red Sox ---- 141  2.56   178.3  5.96  5.55   8    .665  .163  .072   .325   .035   0.93
Blue Jays -- 180  3.10   170.3  5.23  4.86   7    .661  .188  .091   .301   .053   1.01

Overall:

team ------ Games   IP       RA   ERA  UER   Outs% Krate Wrate BIPavg  HRrate  GB/FB
Yankees ----- 56  509.3    4.38  4.03  20    .706  .189  .059   .313    .023   0.92
Red Sox ----- 55  494.0    5.68  5.30  21    .680  .174  .082   .312    .034   0.96
Blue Jays --- 58  512.0    5.45  4.90  31    .682  .158  .073   .302    .044   1.20

Roy Halladay threw seven excellent innings the last time he faced the Red Sox at SkyDome, striking out 10 and allowing just three earned runs, but he settled for no decision, as the April defence and bullpen caved in. Doc has a different team behind him this afternoon, and he's been a much better pitcher in May, winning all six of his starts. Boston, reeling from four straight losses, will counter with Tim Wakefield, who kept the Jays off-balance at Fenway earlier this year. It could be a close one, or the Toronto hitters might just continue to pound everyone.

I'll be at the game with an old friend from Halifax (I'm also looking forward to meeting Mike D for the first time) so I'll check in here this evening. Enjoy.

Spot the contradiction in the following excerpt from a CP report:

The Toronto Blue Jays optioned right-hander Josh Towers to triple-A Syracuse on Sunday to make room for an additional bat as they head into interleague play.

Catcher Ken Huckaby was recalled later Sunday and will join the team Monday.

I guess Doc gets his personal catcher back.

In other news: Doug Creek was moved to the 60-day DL, and likely needs elbow surgery.

Part II of my May report card - this time, it's the pitchers. This month's pitching report card isn't the Gallery of Horror that last month's card was. But beware of dark clouds, no larger than men's hands...

It’s a new month, so it must be time for a system-wide update on the Blue Jays’ most noteworthy prospects. Most of these guys were assessed in my end-of-April report -- there’ve been a couple of additions and subtractions since then, but most of the cast remains the same. Stats are current to May 30. Comments and questions, as always, are welcome, though I'm away till June 5 and won't be able to respond till then; criticisms will be forwarded to Ontario Agriculture Minister Helen Johns (no relation to Doug).

I enjoy doing monthly report cards, so here's one for the Jays' hitters for May.

Yes, batting average does not tell the whole story, but the top five in the AL as of Saturday is worthy of some sort of short story, at least:

1. Hank Blalock, .360
2. Melvin Mora, .351
3. Milton Bradley, .342
4. Rocco Baldelli, .340
5. Michael Young, .333

Server problems seem to be over, so here's a game thread in progress. Hendrickson has just turned a timely 1-6-3 double play, and the Jays lead 2-1 as they come to bat in the bottom of the third.

Win or lose this afternoon, the Blue Jays complete a magnificent May. A record-setting 21st victory would be a nice touch, and make the standings even more interesting, but no matter what happens today, the big boys of the AL East know they have company.

There's no such thing as "June Fool's Day", but I thought there might be when I saw this announcement from the Blue Jays that they would employ a four-man rotation for the month of June. Doug Davis is slated to hit the pen.

Jose Contreras is on a torrid streak... he continued his recent dominance over AAA hitters in the Yankees' 6-0 win over the Tigers. I'm not going to pronounce him arrived yet, but he should be ready to take on big league hitters in his next start.

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a desperation trade yesterday. Despite a rash of injuries to the pitching staff, the 'Backs traded their best young pitcher for an average third baseman. Hillenbrand is a slight upgrade over Matt Williams playing everyday, but not nearly enough to offset the quality innings B-H Kim would have likely provided the rest of the season. Waiting in the wings is one of the top infield prospects around - thirdbaseman Chad Tracy. Look for various clubs to make overtures as the trading deadline approaches: Joe Jr has a history of trading young for old and it could well happen again. Could the Jays be among the teams looking to pry away the AAA third sacker?

Showdown time again for the Blue Jays, as they welcome the division-leading Red Sox to Skydome. It's fully recyclable righty John Burkett up against found object Doug Davis, in a matchup that should fatten a few OPS marks before the night is out. Good news for Toronto: Josh Phelps is back in the lineup at DH! Mike Bordick gets the start at third, and Reed Johnson leads off and plays right field, with Frank Catalanotto switching to left in place of Shannon Stewart, who's in danger of going on the DL with his bad hamstrings.