11:55 PM Eastern

Just sitting here at in the ol’ booth at Rogers Centre following the JaysTalk, and I wish I could say I was surprised by the people jumping off the A.J. Burnett bandwagon.

Look, he was awful tonight.  Curveballs in the dirt, 96 mile-an-hour fastballs being ripped into the gap.  Just terrible, as bad as I’ve seen him in a long time.  But to take from that outing the idea that he’s no good, or to say that he can’t put back-to-back good starts together, or he’s terribly inconsistent is just a giant, stinking load of crap.  Burnett has made 48 starts as a Blue Jay (reason to complain, absolutely) and 12 of them have been bad.  Sure, you don’t want a guy stinking it up in 25% of his starts, but when you have the kind of stuff that Burnett has, I’ll take him being right three times out of four.  Over a full season (keep hope alive, right?)  that’s 24 very-good-to-great starts and eight clunkers.

And as I mentioned to the caller who said off the top (then backed off immediately) that he can’t remember having seen A.J. have two good starts in a row, he had an eight-start stretch last year that included a start each against the Yankees and Red Sox where he posted a WHIP of 0.88 with 57 strikeouts in 59 1/3 innings and went 4-1 with a 1.98 ERA (I think I said seven starts on the air, but hey, everyone makes mistakes).  Two good starts in a row, huh?  The guy can be dominant, but no one is anointing him yet.  That’s why every conversation that involves Burnett and his potential includes the phrase “if he ever puts it all together.”  But to think he’s no good?  Jeez, give your head a shake.

Brian Tallet wasn’t very good either tonight, but considering the fact that he’d retired all 12 batters he’d faced this season, he’s allowed, and Jeremy Accardo gave up one hard hit ball, it just happened to be in the exact wrong situation.  I have no doubt that they’ll be able to rebound, but remember, Tallet is supposed to be the 5th or 6th guy in this bullpen, not the saviour.

The offense looked great again, as it has the entire homestand.  It’s really sad how Frank Thomas can’t get around on a fastball anymore.  It must have been a 93 mile-an-hour change-up that he hit into the seats in the 8th inning to dramatically tie the game.  And how about Bob Geren going to his lefty with Rios, Wells and Thomas coming up in a two-run game.  The Blue Jays thank you, even though it wound up not mattering.

It was great to see four hits from Aaron Hill.  If he can work his way into the top of the line-up, which is where he should be, then the Jays can slide the power bat of Stairs down to 6th and Overbay to 7th.  Hill should be getting more at-bats, he’s going to be the #2 hitter in this line-up for a long, long time, and that time should start now.  He did a great job of using the whole field tonight – two singles right up the middle, a homer to left and a looping single to right.

Great nights at the dish for Wells and Rios, as well.  Rios walked again – and with two out in the 9th yet – that’s seven walks in seven games so far this season.  Last year, walk number seven came on May 8th.  And even though Wells struck out to end the game on a slider down and away (the Joe Carter special), he still homered and doubled off the wall.  I’d love to see him hit a ball to the right of second base, but the pull-happiness is working so far.

One thing I don’t get is pinch-hitting for Gregg Zaun in the 8th against a lefty.  There seems to be this feeling around the club that Zaun is a better left-handed hitter than a right-handed one, but the numbers don’t bear that out.  Yes, he has more pop as a lefty, but in four of the last five seasons, his OPS as a right-handed hitter has been better by  58, 360, 51 and 104 points, the outlier being 2004, when he was a better left-handed hitter.  Career his, ops is 29 points better as a right-handed hitter.  Zaun should not be pinch-hit for against lefties as a matter of course.  Nor should he sit against lefties necessarily.  Today, it was suggested to John Gibbons that we might see Barajas play some first base against left-handed pitching, and Gibby said that it might be Scutaro who goes over there (once Rolen is back), with Barajas catching.  Zaun should be playing against all lefties.

And what’s the deal with Oakland getting Huston Street up and warming too late to come out to be ready to start the 9th, so he stayed in the ‘pen and warmed up some more while Alan Embree took his sweet time throwing the eight official warm-up pitches?  Geren came and got Embree before the first hitter stepped in, buying Street 3 or 4 more minutes to warm up.  If MLB wants to speed the game up, this is the kind of stall-tactic crap it has to get rid of.  The Joe Torre Yankees were masters of it.  Alan Ashby suggested in the booth that if a pitcher warms up to start an inning, he should have to face one batter, and I couldn’t agree more.

Some news – expect the return of B.J. Ryan sometime around April 16-18.  He’s going to pitch an inning for Dunedin tomorrow (Wednesday) and then go up to Syracuse, where he’ll throw every other day for three or four outings, and if all goes well, get the call to the big club.

Scott Rolen had his pin removed Monday, and the finger stayed together!  He’s going to hook up with the Jays in Baltimore next week, and should be cleared to swing a bat before then.  That April 25th date I have mentioned a few times is looking pretty optimistic, though.

Tomorrow, it’s Dustin McGowan against lefty Greg Smith, who is making his major-league debut.  Yes, the Jays have often stubbed their toes against pitchers making their debuts the last few years, but it hasn’t happened as often as you think, certainly not every time, and there’s no guarantee we’ll see it tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to seeing what this line-up can do to a lefty starter, and now they’re getting two in a row.

Comments are encouraged, as always!  Think we can break 100 again?

7:30 PM Eastern

Sorry about the lack of bloggage the last couple of days, but we had some technical issues on our end.

So, Frank Thomas can’t get around on a good fastball anymore, huh?  Well, seems he was just warming up in the 4th, when he took a 97 mile-an-hour heater from Josh Beckett and ripped it to the wall in left, with Manny Ramirez picking it off the wall with a leap (did anyone else wonder how on Earth he made that play?  I don’t think he’s ever made a better catch).  The next time up, Thomas simply hammered Manny Delcarmen’s 95 mile-an-hour fastball into the seats in left field, and the smell of salami permeated Rogers Centre for the first time this season.

I have been trying my best to convince fans not to bail on The Big Hurt, there’s a lot left in that bat, and hopefully people are now starting to come around.  Yes, he’s 39, yes, he lumbers around the basepaths – though he’s been moving a bit this year, a couple of first to thirds on singles, tagging and going to third on a fly to right in New York – but the man can hit.  He’s a Hall of Famer, and he led this team in on-base, homers and RBIs just last year.  Come on, people.

Also – he’s a pretty smart hitter.  He knew that Delcarmen was going to come first-pitch fastball after Thomas had taken his change-up into the gap for a two-run double on Friday night.  He sat on the heat, and crushed it. 

And hands up anyone who thought the Jays would be 4-2 at this point with Roy Halladay having given up the top two run totals of the entire pitching staff?  Halladay pitched great in New York, but was victimized by that 315-foot homer and the two defensive miscues, and today he gave up three leadoff homers, but each time retired the next three hitters he faced.  And that fourth run, of course, scored only because of that horrible-looking collision between Vernon Wells and John McDonald.

I don’t know about you, but my heart was in my throat when I saw the two of them smack into each other at full tilt, a tangle of heads, shoulders, elbows and knees.  Wells looked like he took the worst of it at first, but it was Johnny Mac who couldn’t get up for a while.  Remembering the Beltran-Cameron collision of a couple of years ago, it wasn’t hard to imagine that one of them had a severe concussion and the other one had torn up a knee or dislocated a shoulder, but it turned out that the worst of it was that McDonald had the wind knocked out of him, and both of them stayed in the game.  Amazing.

We got to see two patented McDonald gems in his first appearance of the season, one on the first play of the game, although on that one Mac bobbled the exchange for just a half-second and Pedroia was able to beat it out.  It’s so much fun watching that man play shortstop, but don’t expect the fact that he was in there today to mean that he’s going to be Halladay’s personal shortstop again, which is a shame.

A couple of comments on what happened while the blog was down:

-How about Aaron Hill?  If you listened to The Blue Jays This Week (and if you didn’t, shame on you), you heard him say two things about his flashy new contract.  He talked about fairness in salary, relative to the market, then stopped himself and said “We’re talking about millions of dollars and we’re talking about fair” as he rolled his eyes at himself.  And when discussing whether he could have gotten more if he’d waited another year or two to lock up, he said “how greedy can you be?”  I love that.  Hill, to me, is the ultimate “ballplayer”.  He could care less what’s going on around him, he just wants to go out and play.  When he made his major-league debut, instead of having stars in his eyes, he told me that his impressions of the majors were that he now had nicer pants, now let’s go play ball.

-Shaun Marcum was outstanding Friday night.  Just like he did for what seemed like all of last season, he took a shutout into the 7th inning.  He’s the one I’m most concerned about among the Jays’ top four starters, not because I’m not confident in his ability, but just because it’s so hard to avoid that post-breakout setback.  But he showed me something all spring, and he did it again in the home opener.  One bad pitch, but a one-hit shutout into the 7th against a fantastic offense.

-Jesse Litsch was terrific on Saturday.  A starter’s performance can get lost in what wound up a 10-2 game, but that was a game that could easily have gone either way up until the bottom of the sixth, by which time Litsch was gone anyway.  He got hit VERY hard early on, as both Dustin Pedroia and Sean Casey hit absolute scorchers that were turned into three outs combined, and Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew rocked him for hard line doubles, but he only gave up two runs in five-plus innings.  He works quickly, doesn’t back down from anyone, and uses the defense behind him.  I’m not saying he’s going to win a Cy Young Award or anything, but as 5th starters go, he seems to be a very strong one.

Yes, the Red Sox were at the end of a very, very long road trip, and they were probably as vulnerable as they’ll be at any point this season, but a sweep is a sweep.  The fact that the Jays didn’t let them off the hook should serve notice to all those fans out there who don’t believe this club has a “killer instinct” (something that more likely than not doesn’t exist in pro sports – not too many teams “want it more”, they all really want to win).

The Oakland A’s are in Tuesday for the first of three, and we get to see Victoria, B.C.’s Rich Harden up against A.J. Burnett.  If Harden can stay healthy for a season, he could be great, and how do you like him, Erik Bedard, Jeff Francis and Adam Loewen as Team Canada’s starting four at next year’s World Baseball Festival?  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with him for a TBJTW segment.

Tomorrow, the Super G turns three, so you probably won’t hear from me, but I’m always checking the comments and doing my best to answer them.  If you’re not reading those, you’re missing out – it’s like a mini-JaysTalk down there!

Oh, also, Wednesdays with J.P are a go again this season, I just don’t know if they’ll start this week or next.  There’s a Raptor game this Wednesday night, so we might push it back to Tuesday or delay it a week.

1:28 PM Eastern

The first inning just ended here at Rogers Centre, and I discovered that the FAN590 blogs are back up and working, so I jut wanted to throw down a little post to let you know we’re back and that there’ll be something of substance up here after the game and after I put together The Blue Jays This Week.

Speaking of TBJTW, it’s back – every Sunday at 7:05 PM Eastern on the FAN590 and several other stations across the network.  Tonight, we’ve got Alex Rios, Aaron Hill, Roberto Alomar, Mike Timlin and Jays Assistant GM Alex Anthopoulos, so make sure you tune in!

4:00 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays had a nice little surprise for us waiting at Rogers Centre ahead of the home opener.  We knew that Alex Rios would sign his deal today, though we thought it was for $65 million plus an option,  turns out it’s $64 million.  Maybe that was why we had to wait a week and a half for the announcement.

So I walk into Rogers Centre, and Rios comes into the elevator lobby right behind me with his beautiful fiancee.  I said “Congratulations on the thing we can’t talk about for another 15 minutes,” and he just had a huge smile on his face.  He was starving, so he took the stairs (I don’t know what one thing has to do with the other, but that’s what he said) and I hopped onto the elevator.  When I got up to the third floor, I headed to the broadcast booth and as I turned the corner, there was Aaron Hill in a finely-tailored suit.  Surprise, surprise!

I looked at Aaron and said, “Do I have to congratulate you, too?” and he answered, “I was told to be here at 3 o’clock for Mr. Rios” with a smile on his face that, in a family publication, could best be described as akin to the cat that ate the canary.

Hill’s deal is a very interesting one.  He’s signed up for four years, through arbitration, for $12 million.  The Jays then have the choice to exercise a one ($8 million), two ($16 million) or three ($26 million) year option, or to walk away.

Hill probably leaves a bit of money on the table here, assuming he stays healthy and continues to develop the way he has the last three years.  He was going to make close to the minimum this year, then would probably get about $1.8 next year, maybe $4.2 or so in 2010 and then, if all goes well, maybe $7 or $8 million in 2011 before free agency.  So he stood to make about $14 million over the next four years had everything gone very well.  Now, he’s protected, and will only make $2 million or so less.  As Hill said afterwards, he could have waited on gone year-to-year, but “how greedy can you be?”

Compare the deal to Ian Kinsler’s 5-year, $21 million deal with Texas – Hill will make $20 million over the next five years, and has those other two years and $18 million waiting for him.

OK, that’s it for me until post-game.  Gotta go downstairs and work.

12:00 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays have called a media conference for 3:00 this afternoon at Rogers Centre for “a major announcement”.  Hmmmmmmmm, wonder what that could be?

Listeners to the FAN590 and readers of this blog will remember that from the time J.P. Ricciardi said he was extending negotiations on a long-term contract with Alex Rios for a few days because they were too close to walk away, I have said that the contract extension will be announced before the home opener, and lo and behold.

It’s fairly evident that the deal is now officially done, and Alex Rios will remain a Blue Jay through 2014, signing a six-year extension (that begins next season) worth $65 million, with a 2015 option for another $15 million.

It’s a great deal for both sides.  The Jays get to take Rios off the free agent market for five years, and get him under-market value for the entire time, save for next season (and I’m talking average annual value, not what he’ll get paid each specific year of the deal, which is probably heavily back-loaded because Ricciardi will likely be gone after 2010).  Rios probably leaves some money on the table, maybe a lot, but only if he continues the career progression we’ve seen the last two years and if he stays healthy.  And regardless, 80 million shmeck buys a lot of helicopters, toy and real.

1:05 PM Eastern

There are some things that impress me, and there are some things that don’t impress me.  And I apologize in advance to the Chicken Littles out there who believe a 1-2 start on the road, at Yankee Stadium, means that the sky is falling, but holding arguably the best line-up in the game to eight runs over three games impresses me.

The Blue Jays were victimized in both their losses.  In the opener by that 314.8 foot homer by Melky Cabrera, by the two miscues on defense in the 7th and by an incredible leaping grab by Jason Giambi, who is no one’s Gold Glover.  This time, the Downs error cost them, along with the broken bat flare/bloop (floop?) single by Abreu and a three-and-a-half-batter blip by Dustin McGowan in an otherwise dominating outing.

It’s nice to see that the Yankees were the ones who needed to catch some breaks to win the series, and there’s no shame in dropping two of three in the final opening series ever at The House That Ruth Built.  If the Jays can win their series at home against the Yanks and Red Sox and get the job done against some of the lesser teams, they can lose every series in New York and Boston and still be fine.

I should mention, since I keep forgetting to, that I saw George Steinbrenner in the elevator lobby on the press level at Yankee Stadium while on my way out after The Rainout Show on Monday.  He was standing, but had his left arm on someone’s shoulder and someone else holding his right side, and was dressed in his traditional blue blazer/turtleneck ensemble.  He was wearing sunglasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes, but while we waited a VERY long time for the elevator, he said to his entourage, “Where the hell is the elevator?” in a very Steinbrenneresque tone.  I have heard that he has his good days and his bad days, I’m glad that on what was supposed to be his ballpark’s last Opening Day, it was a good day.  Amazing that he’s become a sympathetic figure, but I definitely feel for the guy.  No one deserves to go through what he’s going through.

Anyway, back to tonight’s game.  I’m puzzled by those who thought that Jason Giambi should have been intentionally walked in the 6th inning after McGowan struck out Alex Rodriguez.  With Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui coming up, why would you load the bases with one out?  If you’re going to put somebody on to set up a double play, make it A-Rod – but A-Rod struck out, so the hindsighters saw no need to walk him.

The move to make after the strikeout was to go to Scott Downs, with three lefties coming up and Brian Tallet having thrown two innings the night before.  But Downs is the set-up man, so the 6th inning is too early to bring him in, according to the book that pretty much every manager in the majors follows. Of course, had Tallet not been used for two innings on Wednesday, maybe he’s the guy there.  Still not sure why he had to come back out for the 8th that night with League, Frasor and Wolfe available.  If there was a concern about Wolfe’s ability to get lefties out, well, he came on in a tie game tonight to face two out of three lefties, and stayed in for one more the next inning – why not use him when you’re up by three in the 8th if you’re going to use him when you’re tied in the 7th?  Or use League or Frasor, for that matter, to keep your bullets in order.

It was nice to see Frank Thomas show some emotion after being rung up in the 4th, but stupid of him to get himself thrown out.  He jumped out of the way of a pitch that was probably inside, but certainly not far enough inside to make him bail, and not far enough inside to be confident taking with two strikes, especially since that same pitch had been called a strike a couple of pitches earlier, though Frank didn’t like it then either.  Of course, that same pitch had been called a ball a couple of times in the at-bat as well.  The lesson is, and Thomas knows this, I’m sure – when you’re not sure what the umpire is thinking, don’t take a close pitch with two strikes.

Still, no matter how upset you are at a call, it’s still an incredibly selfish act for a player to allow himself to get angry enough to get thrown out of a game.  I understand the passion, heat of battle, etc., etc., but please.  A 39 year-old man should be able to control his temper enough, especially realizing that he’s going to have at least two more at-bats in what’s likely to be a close game.

Some quick notes about the series overall:

-The Jays outscored the Yankees 9-8 and outhit the Yankees 24-21, each team had 6 walks.

-With runners in scoring position, the Jays were 6-for-32 (.188)

-With runners in scoring position, the Yankees were 1-for-17 (.059)

-The Jays were 4-for-6 stealing bases, the Yankees were 0-for-2

The sky isn’t falling.  And if it is, we won’t know about it for the next six games because the roof will be closed.  The home opener will feature Shaun Marcum against the jet-lagged Red Sox and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, we’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern with the first pitch scheduled for about 7:15.

Roberto Alomar’s name will be raised to the Level of Excellence before the game, a fitting tribute to the man who was probably the best all-around player the Jays have ever had, and who will no doubt be the first Hall of Fame inductee to go in as a Blue Jay.  Still, I can’t think of Alomar without thinking of his petulant display the day the Jays traded David Cone in 1995 and the John Hirschbeck incident.  All the things you do add up to who you are, and it’s not unfair to consider Alomar’s behaviour off the field in combination with his excellence on it.

Finally, and I hope this isn’t a pattern developing, there were a couple of callers I had to pull the plug on tonight on JaysTalk (yes, Stoeten, it’s one word – my show, I make the syntactic rules).  The reason I hung up on them, the timing of which may have seemed strange, was because each of them were either so impressed with themselves or so baked or some combination of the two, that they couldn’t make it through their first or second sentence before being overcome by a fit of giggles.  Not laughter, not snickering, honest-to-goodness, six year-old girl-type giggles.  (I can say that, because I have a six year-old girl.)  I thought I’d explain their disappearance, and I really hope it doesn’t happen again.  Please – as funny as you might think it is, you’re really only embarrassing yourself.

Comments are encouraged, as always!

1:15 PM Eastern

I mentioned this in an answer in the comments section of the last post, but I wanted to put it up here just to make sure it got more widely viewed.

I may have been wrong last night when discussing the possibilities of John McDonald being used as a defensive replacement for David Eckstein late in close games.

See, last night seemed the perfect opportunity to use McDonald for defense in the 9th, because Eckstein had been the last out (last two outs, actually) of the top of the inning, so his spot in the batting order wasn’t going to come up for a while.  The thing to do would be to throw Johnny Mac and his magical glove in there to help secure the win, and John Gibbons didn’t.  I used this information, combined with the fact that Gibbons said this spring that he wasn’t going to use McDonald as a defensive replacement for Eckstein late in close games, to mean that, in fact, Gibbons wasn’t ever going to use McDonald as a defensive replacement for Eckstein late in close games (cool copy-and-paste there, huh?).

That strategy, of course, is the wrong one, because as comfortable as the manager might be with Eckstein at short, McDonald is clearly better, and that’s no knock on Eck – McDonald is clearly better than just about everyone at the position.

Here’s the thing, though.  In the top of the 9th, Ross Ohlendorf drilled Marco Scutaro on the hand, and Scutaro winced in pain then shook out his hand as he walked down the line to take his base.  X-Rays were taken, but the Jays’ PR man in NY hasn’t responded to my message of this morning asking what the results were, so I can’t tell you if anything’s broken.  There is, however, a possibility that Scutaro might not have been able to swing the bat again last night.  Had that been the case, McDonald would have had to remain on the bench so that he could play third after Scutaro was pinch-hit for in the 10th or 11th, had the game continued that far.  If McDonald had been used as a replacement for Eckstein, the game had gone extras and Scutaro had had to be replaced, they would have been left with Gregg Zaun as the only option on the bench, and someone would have had to have played third.  Rod Barajas, maybe?  Shaun Marcum?

So, I’m willing to play wait and see for now, and see what happens at shortstop late in a close game when Gibbons has a full bench and no question about the health of his in-game infielders.

2:45 AM Eastern

Posting late because I had a couple of Fat Elvis games to play tonight (lost 2-1 in 10 when Abreu took Accardo deep, won 1-0 with Yusmeiro Petit throwing 7 innings of one-hitter Accardo got the last four outs for the save), but there were a few things I had to say about tonight’s game.

The good – A.J. Burnett.  Not only did he dominate the Yankees for six innings, but he also wrenched his knee in the 4th fielding Derek Jeter’s comebacker, and stayed in the game!  Burnett can pitch through pain, and we learned that tonight.  Also, super-clutch job by Jeter getting thrown out at second by 5 feet on that play.

Burnett actually threw a few change-ups, and looked every bit like the pitcher the Jays are hoping he can be this season.  He can be close to this good if he’s healthy and has his head on straight, but those are two very big ifs.

Also good – Vernon Wells hitting the Jays’ first homer of the season and winding up 3-for-4, though he was pretty pull-happy, which he wasn’t this spring.  Aaron Hill continues to rip line drives all over the place, like he did all spring, and so does Alex Rios, in stark contrast to his pre-season.

And how about that Brian Tallet fellow?  I was surprised to see him come out in the 7th in a close game, but he stuck it right up the Yankees’ collective, umm, Bronxes, retiring all six hitters he faced without a single hard-hit ball.  Very, very impressive.

And we can’t forget Jeremy Accardo, who got a ground ball from Jeter on which Hill usually makes the play and then shattered Bobby Abreu’s bat, but the ball dropped, bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out and 4-5-6 coming up.  Accardo blew a fastball past A-Rod for strike three, got Jason Giambi on a fly ball (albeit to the lip of the warning track in dead centre), and got Robinson Cano on a pop-up to shallow left.  That was huge.

I do think it’s hilarious, though, that in an hour of JaysTalk we didn’t have a single caller complain about the fact that the Jays didn’t bunt at any point in the game, had two runners thrown out trying to steal, hit into five double plays or were just 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position.  Had they won the opener, would we not have had all those people whining about not bunting Hill over in the 7th?

There are people I never hear from when the Jays win, and that’s kind of sad.  If you’re going to get all worked up, and release Frank Thomas, trade Vernon Wells and fire John Gibbons when the Jays lose, you should give some people some credit when they win.

The Blue Jays did a lot of things wrong Wednesday night, and the leadoff man is now 0-for-9 on the season, but a win covers up a lot of stink.  They pitched brilliantly, and more importantly, they scored enough runs, because they’re going to pitch well a lot this season.

There were a couple of red flags, other than everything in that paragraph up there, though.  First, Hill and the defense.  That’s the second straight game that Aaron Hill has failed to make a play that a good second baseman makes – the double-play ball in the 7th in the opener, and the transfer on Jeter’s grounder in the 9th tonight after he made the outstanding diving grab.  Hill has shown himself to be a better-than-good second baseman over the last couple of years, and I’m sure these mistakes won’t have a lasting effect on his psyche, but here’s hoping those were the last ones for a while.

Second, the fact that David Eckstein made the last outs of the 9th and came back out for defense in the bottom of the inning.  Had John McDonald been sent into the game there, to help protect a three-run lead, he wouldn’t have had to bat until the 11th or 12th had the Yankees come back to tie.  The only reason not to use McDonald there (unless he’s sick or hurt and we haven’t been told) is to not insult Eckstein, or to not make Eckstein think the Jays lack confidence in his glove.  That’s a losing game to play.  Eckstein is a big boy, and he knows full well that McDonald is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game.  I don’t think he’d be hurt by being replaced for defense late in close games – though even if he would be, I don’t care – everyone understands that the win is the most important thing.  And if the win is the most important thing, John McDonald must play shortstop late in close games in which the Blue Jays lead.

The rubber game goes on the full Fan Radio Network, including the flagship, starting at 7:00 PM Eastern, with Phil Hughes for New York and either Dustin McGowan or Shaun Marcum for the Jays, depending on how McGowan is feeling.  And keep your eyes open for a Joe Inglett sighting.

6:00 PM Eastern

UPDATED 6:15 PM Eastern

Wanted to let all you potential listeners know that tonight’s game will be joined in progress on the FAN590 after the Raptors’ game is over. That means that those of you in Toronto will be able to hear the end of the game, and another fabulous edition of JaysTalk, so make sure you tune in!

Let’s just not talk about bunting tonight, OK?

Also, make sure that after JaysTalk is over, you check out SUN TV at 11:00 for your chance to see me on The Grill Room, on which we discuss all things Blue Jayic.  Also on the program, The Sun’s own Mike Ganter and the distinguished Mr. Andrew J. Stoeten of the must-read Drunk Jays Fans blog.

1:15AM Eastern

Well, at least I got to see a game that was played at Yankee Stadium, though I’ve done that before.  It’s a shame that it was close to a replay of a bunch of games that the Blue Jays played last season:  Great pitching, crappy hitting with gusts to awful when it was most important.

There was a lot of good mixed in with the bad, but the standout fact is that the Jays got one hit in 12 at-bats with a runner in scoring position.  If they had gotten maybe one more, which would have given them a .167 batting average under those conditions, they might have won the game.  Of course, the Jays got one more hit with runners in scoring position than the Yankees did, but the Yankees won.

I’m not going to go nuts about the fact that Vernon Wells went 0-for-4.  He worked counts nicely, which is new and exciting and bodes well, but it is troubling that well ahead in the count in his first at-bat, he tried to pull a fastball over the middle of the plate instead of looking to hit it where it was pitched, and pulled it foul.  He’d been doing so well going to right-centre in the spring.  And that fourth at-bat was ridiculous.  To strike out looking on a curveball that started at his chin and was caught by Jorge Posada at Wells’ letters.  Gary Darling should be ashamed of himself.

Nor am I going to get upset that Frank Thomas looked completely overmatched by Joba Chamberlain in the 8th.  It’s troubling, but he’s been just this bad early in the last two seasons, and has rebounded to have very good years each time.  Now, if he still looks this bad in two weeks, it’s time to take him out of such an important position in the line-up.

The good things about this game include the fact that the Jays scored all the runners who made it to third with less than two outs (one of the bad things is there were only two).  Also, the Jays stole three bases and the Yankees failed in their one attempt.  As well, this was a game that the Yankees needed breaks in to win, and not just those provided by the home plate umpire.  They needed a 315-foot homerun, which is an out in any other ballpark in the majors, and they needed both David Eckstein and Aaron Hill to mess up on defense in the 7th inning.  It’s a good thing when it’s the Yankees who need the Jays to screw up in order to win, as opposed to it being the other way around.

One thing I wanted to touch on before I go was tonight’s JaysTalk.  It was especially raucous, and I’m not quite sure why.  Good radio, though, I thought.  I certainly didn’t go on intending to get into a couple of big arguments (but you know you can always get me going when you talk about how bunting in an incredibly wrong situation is a good idea), nor did I plan to quote John Lennon.  I wasn’t sure how things were going to go, though I knew there would be alarm bells ringing if the Jays lost, and there were.

I went and did some research, by the way, and I found the resulting runs for every base situation in every major-league game played over a four-year period (1999-2002).  This stuff is relatively easy to find when you look on the internet, which I understand is on computers now.

So, here we go:  With a runner on second and none out – 1.189 runs.  With a runner on third and one out – 0.983 runs.  So even if your ill-advised “tie-game-in-the-7th” bunt is executed perfectly, moving the runner at the cost of an out, you have REDUCED the expectancy to score in that inning.  Put that in your proverbial pipe and smoke it.

I know there are a lot of people who love to see bunts and who love to see runners trying to steal and guys hitting and running.  I’m a big fan of the hit and run (providing the ball is hit), but my mind isn’t going to be changed on the other stuff, and the numbers (otherwise known as the facts) bear me out.  A bunt in the American League is only a good idea in  very specific, very rare situations.  Stealing a base is a great thing, getting thrown out not so much, so you have to balance the two and only run when you have a very high percentage chance of being safe.

I should note that bunting for a hit is a good thing.  I love that and I wish guys would do it more often.

Also – strikeouts are just outs.  Same as a fly ball to medium-depth left field (unless there’s a runner on third).  If a guy gets on base 38% of the time and strikes out 250 times, that’s fine by me.

Comments are encouraged, especially since there may be no JaysTalk after Wednesday’s game because of the Raptors conflict.  Those of you in Toronto can hear the Jay game on 610CKTB.