With the Yankees in town and just under six weeks remaining in the schedule it felt like a good time to catch up with the major league club. Sure, the Blue Jays are out of it, but with 38 games to go here are a few interesting tid bits about the Jays season.

You may be paying good money for Sportsnet Ontario, or even all four Sportsnets; despite this you may be unable to watch tonight's Jays game... unless you get your cable from Rogers.

As suggested by Matthew...

Who are the Toronto Blue Jays top ten in career home runs as a Blue Jay among players who have never led the team in homers during any season? No fair looking it up.

The weekend suddenly seems a long time ago.

Las Vegas and New Hampshire made us on proud on Saturday.  On the rest, we only hope for a better Sunday.  Frustratingly,  only one of the farm clubs has an over .500 winning percentage – New Hampshire at .588 (67-47, tied for the Eastern League East division lead).  The others’ winning percentages are as follows:  Lansing .488, Las Vegas .482, GCL Blue Jays .463, Dunedin .429 and Auburn .367.  Dunedin has clinched the first half playoff spot in the Florida League.

I was in Boston for the Ontario long weekend and I attended two games at Fenway Park, both Red Sox walk-off wins.  Both wins came at the expense of the Detroit Tigers whose bullpen was exposed in these games after Jose Valverde had to throw over fifty pitches on Friday to nail down a win for the Tigers.

Obviously Fenway Park is a busy place, they have had over 600 sell-outs in a row.  The aisles are narrow and the seats are small as you would expect with an old park.  There are obstructed seats back in the grandstand so you have to be careful in ordering tickets.  I went with tickets from stubhub and they are not cheap, you have to pay around $120-$150 for a decent seat.

A.J. Burnett and Brandon Morrow have been compared quite a few times this season, so last night's match-up was something of a dream come true for all the Comparers out there.

Weather and scheduling meant the farm only played three games last night (plus the DSL). Vegas did its best Blue Jays impression, winning on the strength of a huge inning, and Auburn did its best Edwin Encarnacion impression, losing because of a crapload of errors. Also: now that the deadline is passed and John Buck is still in Toronto, is it time to resurrect the old FREE ARENCIBIA!?

Ever wonder what it's really like to throw out the first pitch at a Blue Jays home game? Ever wonder what's going through the inevitably petrified mind of those who are fortunate (?) enough to do so?

Well thanks to the blogosphere, the wonderful prose of a genuine Canadian blogger who terms herself the "Yarn Harlot," you can now know the answers to these questions and more. (Props and a shout-out to my significantly better half, Sandye Thompson, for sharing this page with me.)

This memoiric essay features phrases like "There would be no actual baseball people involved. This was the plan," the obligatory "It all seemed to be going so well" preceding the equally obligatory "and that's when it all started to go wrong" ... well, you can (and should) read it for yourself.

Our story stars not only the overwhelmed first-pitching Yarn Harlot, but also the antics of what the Harlot terms "a rather large furry Blue Jay" with a Special Guest Star role by none other than Box favorite Brian Tallet.

Seriously, go read it. And if you, your significant other or anyone else in your life is into, you know, knitting and stuff, point them to the Yarn Harlot. She may not pitch much, but she definitely rocks the blogosphere.

The Jays have traded Brett Wallace to the Astros for CF Anthony Gose.

The Jays bullpen did not have a fantastic Sunday, and defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory in the second half of a twin bill. It would have given the Jays a 3-game winning streak and put them at 7-3 to finish their road jaunt. With the Orioles coming to town the Jays could have run their streak to six games before getting the Indians, who have been playing better as of late (and have given the Jays trouble to boot all season) but still aren't very good. So maybe the Jays would have been 12-4 coming out of the All-Star break before a difficult stretch that includes 12 straight against the Beasts of the East, an Oakland/Anaheim west coast swing, and then the Sox and Yanks again. And if they could hold their own there, then have a good September, then maybe they had an outside shot at the playoffs...

Ok, so none of that seems particularly likely, and let's face it, the Jays are going to miss the playoffs for the umpteenth straight time. Despite all this though it still seems, well, like an exciting time to be a Jays fan. There's a lot happening right now.

Ok that title makes no sense, but the Rookie League and above affiliates went 2-4 and weren't particularly sharp about it. Eric Thames went 4-4 but lost the first star to a hitter who put up 10 total bases. I'll give you a hint, his name rhymes with Bludelmis Fernandez.

Mike Green is back with part two of his travelogue through the North Eastern US.  Today it's Cleveland.

Progressive Field stands a block away from Interstate 90 in Cleveland .  We rolled in to our chain hotel across the street from the stadium at about 10 p.m. on Sunday night, with plans to sight-see during the day and then catch the Jays facing the Indians at night.

The Jays reached the half way point of the season after Fridays game with a 41-40 record.  On one hand it is great to have a winning record at the half way point but unfortunately the recent trajectory has been down.  Also the fans have memories of last years fade still fresh in their minds.  Many forecastors had the Jays as a 70-75 win team, that looks like a good bet today.

The Jays had a bit of a stinker yesterday, Ricky Romero had a bad one and John McDonald showed why he is an infielder.

I had a chance to make my way down to Auburn Saturday night to see the Doubledays in action against the Indians affiliate, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, at Leo Pinckney Field at Falcon Park.  It was a pretty sloppy game for the home team thanks to a lack of clutch hitting and defence.