The All-Star teams that get to play, that everyone remembers, get picked at the beginning of July when there's an awful lot of baseball yet to be played. Let's do this thing right!

It's time once more for me to pick up, with failing hands, the torch first carried by the great Dave Till....

Much of the talk this year has focused on Jose Bautista, and for good reason - he recently broke the Jays' franchise record for home runs in a season and will likely soon become the first Blue Jay to ever hit 50. In the Year of the Pitcher, he leads the majors in home runs by a whopping ten over Albert Pujols, and his .998 OPS ranks 4th in the bigs. This incredible power surge seemingly came out of nowhere, and has prompted numerous discussions about What To Do With Jose Bautista.

For the last couple years, Adam Lind and Aaron Hill have been inextricably linked in conversation about the Jays. It isn't hard to see why; aside from profile similarities (they were both drafted out of college, they're about a year apart in age), they were the offensive leaders on the team last year, belting 35 and 36 homers respectively (no other Jay had more than 19), and driving in 114 and 108 (Barajas was next with 71). And, of course, this year, both have tanked while the rest of the team has hit very well (every starter has an OPS+ over 100 - Hill and Lind are at 85 and 90).

With all these similarities, I'm surprised we haven't started calling them by a dumb hybrid name. Maybe Aram Lill just doesn't have the same ring as, for example, Freed Johnalanotto.

Let's hope someone passes the audition.

I feel asleep just after the third inning of Saturday's game when neither team scored a run.  After I woke up, 14 runs had been scored.  Unfortunately, 13 of them were scored by Tampa Bay in a 13-1 shellacking at Ted's Shed.  

This guy could almost pass for Rance Mulliniks!

It's no secret that Aaron Hill has been awful this year. However, there's been very little hand-wringing 'round these parts (or anywhere, really) about his struggles. Perhaps it's the homers (he hit #23 in Monday's game), or the excellent defense (though this is a suspect claim according to the numbers). More likely, I think we've all just been assuming he'd come out of the slump at any minute. More than five months later, he hasn't. Why not?

A little more than three weeks remain. Who's going to be cashing those bonus cheques, and scooping up some hardware to put on the shelf? They don't let me vote, which is just as well. But if I could...

September starts tomorrow! Here are some questions about what you'd like to see with regards to call-ups.

There has been some lively discussion round these parts and elsewhere regarding the Jays handling of young Travis Snider. A wide spectrum of opinions have been expressed. These views generally range from "the kid should be out there every day" to "the kid has been rushed through the system for no readily apparent reason."

Okay, I may be the only guy on the surface of the earth who holds the second opinion.

Round 1 to Detroit.

Last night, José Bautista became the first player in the major leagues to hit 40 home runs this season. Here's a card to commemorate your achievement, José!

Not much to say after that one.

It's no secret that the Jays have hit a lot of home runs this year. They lead the majors with 181, 20 more than the Boston Red Sox, and are "on pace" to hit around 250, which would put them only 14 back of the all-time record.

Another thing we all know is that the home runs have been very evenly distributed - it seems like everyone is producing. But a closer look into this "everyone is producing" statement tells us that this year's team is approaching historical territory.

Some odds and ends from around the majors....