5:20 PM Eastern

There have been a few points in time this season at which I have thought that the Blue Jays reached rock bottom.  A few times at which I have felt the only reasonable title for a blog post that night would be “You Have GOT To Be Kidding Me”.  Check the archives – they’re there.  The first one was that game in Baltimore in which the Jays blew an 8-3, 8th inning lead for Roy Halladay and then blew a 10-8 lead in the 11th inning of the same game, ending a road trip at 0-9 and signalling the beginning of what would be at least 3 1/2 months of figurative wandering in the wilderness.

As I mentioned, there have been others.  But never has there been a time when the Blue Jays were completely handcuffed by a 38 year-old whose closest contact with professional baseball this year had come when he watched games on his living room couch, beer in hand, up until about three weeks ago.

On August 5th, the Red Sox asked Paul Byrd to come out of retirement and join them for the stretch run.  Today, he threw six innings of three-hit shutout at the Blue Jays.  Tomorrow night in Texas, the Jays face Jim Clancy.  Sweet Mother of Cheez Whiz.

It’s amazing that the Jays are 0-6 at Fenway Park this season.

There were a couple of good things to report today, though.  Jesse Carlson pitched a perfect 8th inning – that’s SEVEN straight outings for Carlson in which he has held the opposition without a run.  Over that span, he’s thrown 6 1/3 innings, allowing two hits, walking no one and striking out 10.   Strong stuff.

John McDonald got the start at third base, with Jose Bautista in left field and Adam Lind DHing.  That alignment gives the Jays the strongest defense that they’ve had since Scott Rolen and Alex Rios vamoosed.  Keeping things that way keeps Randy Ruiz on the bench , which shouldn’t happen the rest of the year (even though he has struck out in his last six at-bats), but it’s nice to see every once in a while, and it certainly helps out the pitchers though it didn’t show today.

Travis Snider walked twice.  That’s good stuff.  It shows he’s seeing the ball well and is confident at the plate.  It looked for a while as though he was falling into his early May “either strike out or roll over and ground one weakly to second” thing.  I liked what I saw today.

But Paul Byrd?  Come on.

I’m behind on The JaysTalks, and I apologize for that, so here we go, for your listening pleasure:

Here’s today’s -

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Here’s Saturday’s -

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Here’s Friday night’s The JaysTalk -

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And a special extra added bonus, we had a short Rain Delay Programme on Friday night.  It’s amazing, a ton of rain was expected this weekend in Boston, but we only got a grand total of 46 minutes of delay.  Here’s that show:

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Finally, Wednesday night’s as-yet-unposted edition of The JaysTalk (sorry about that):

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I also owe you a softball update – our season is over, thanks to an ignominious 29-7 loss (not a typo) in our one-game elimination playoff.  I hurt my back on the first ball hit to me at shortstop, tried to gut it out and booted a pair of ground balls before moving to first base, wrapping up the game in centrefield because we flip-flopped the infield and outfield at the end.  At the plate, I went 2-for-4, scored three runs and was completely robbed of extra bases by an amazing catch by their centrefielder who goes by the name of “Horse”. for some reason.

The Blue Jays This Week is on tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern right along the network and right here on this very website.  You’ll hear from Aaron Hill about becoming the Jays’ first 30-homer man in three years and also about potential free agent arrivals over the winter (and yes, I did say “Bone Higgins” in my last question, I believe) and Jesse Litsch will let us know what’s going on with his rehab.  Hint – he gets to throw a baseball for the first time post-surgery on October 2nd.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:20 PM Eastern

In what’s been just an awful homestand.  Between the sweep at the hands of the Red Sox and these last two losses to the Rays, it’s almost as though the series win against the Angels didn’t even happen.

At best, it will wind up a 3-6 homestand.

It’s kind of sad when a Little League World Series game between two teams that have already been eliminated is more compelling.  What a finish that was, huh?  By the way, we’re trying to get Katie Reyes on Baseball Today tomorrow.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Also on Baseball Today tomorrow, we’ll have David Price and probably something else, too, but I just can’t remember right now.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

11:25 PM Eastern

As least not lately, anyway.  It’s occurred to me many times this season that if offense is a tap, the Blue Jays have simply shut it off after the first three innings a lot of the time this season, so I did a little research.

I’ll warn you, it’s a very little research, but it’s pretty damning.

I went back through the last dozen games, and threw out the one big outlier which was the 10-9 loss to the Red Sox that opened this homestand.  In the remaining 11 games (including tonight’s), the Jays scored at least two runs over the first three innings on seven occasions.  They also scored fewer than two runs from the fourth inning on on eight occasions.

They scored 33 runs combined over the first three innings of those 11 games, and a grand total of ten from the fourth inning on.

Slash stats?  In innings 1-3, the Jays hit .359/.434/.592.  In inning 4 and beyond, they hit .160/.206/.211.

What does this mean?  I don’t know, but it’s not good.  I know, I know, there’s a small sample size warning attached, but it feels as though things have been going this way for about the last 80 games.  I’m not inclined to research all the games from the 0-9 road trip and forward – well, I’m inclined to, but the time commitment would be insane.  However, if one of you wants to undertake such an undertaking, I’d be happy to see the results.

As for tonight, the Baseball Today Blessing strikes again!  Rod Barajas appears on The Blue Jays This Week last night, and hits a Grand Slam tonight!  Woo-hoo!

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a guy nickel-and-dimed to death in the fashion in which Roy Halladay was tonight.  He gave up nine hits over the first four innings, and only one of them (an RBI single by Jason Bartlett in the 4th) was hit even remotely hard.  The defense didn’t help much either.  The Jays stopped hitting, and now Jeff Niemann is one win better than Ricky Romero.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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And, as an extra added bonus, here’s last night’s:

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Make sure you tune in to Baseball Today tomorrow at Noon Eastern on The Fan590 and here on this very website.  Jesse Litsch will join us, and we’ll hear from Angels pitcher Trevor Bell.  As well, Marty Springstead will stop by.  Springstead is currently MLB’s supervisor of umpires and umped in the big leagues for 20 years.  If you have a question for him, send it to baseballtoday@fan590.com – I’ll make sure to get to the best ones.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

4:50 PM Eastern

Here it is, for your listening pleasure:

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Tomorrow, it’s Baseball Today in-studio guest Ricky Romero against grandson-of-Bozo-The-Clown Trevor Bell.  We’re on the air at 12:30 PM Eastern for a 1:07 first pitch.  I’m going to try to get Alfredo Griffin for the pre-game show.  Afterwards, The Blue Jays This Week will be on at 7:00 PM Eastern, and we’ll hear from The Captain, talking about the pitching staff and his impending free agency (he wants to come back!), as well as Edwin Encarnacion.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:10 PM Eastern

……of Weekend Bloggage.  Other than to say man, was that close.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Tomorrow – a pre-pre-game show for your listening pleasure at noon Eastern, and then the Jays look for two in a row!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:05 PM Eastern

It was the exact opposite of kicking off a homestand on a high note.  The Blue Jays played a terrific, entertaining game against the Red Sox on Tuesday night but fell short, and then meekly stepped aside the next two nights, allowing Boston to sweep the series and leave town in sole possession of the A.L. wild card spot.

The coolest thing about this game was the fierce storm going on outside.  The thunderclaps were tremendous for the first inning or so, and for the first time, I actually could hear rain pelting the roof.  The second-coolest thing was the fact that the game started with the roof closed, but once the storm passed, the roof opened in the 4th inning.  Then, with more bad weather on the way, the roof closed again in the 8th inning.

Also, tonight I get to see something I’d never seen before!  If you’re a Red Sox fan, you probably think I mean J.D. Drew going 4-for-4 with two homers, but I’m actually talking about Brett Cecil’s fourth-inning brain cramp.  After walking Jason Bay, Cecil fell behind David Ortiz 2-0, and Rod Barajas’ return throw to the mound after ball two got away from him. The ball only bounced a few feet off the mound,  but Cecil pounced on it, made sure that Bay was staying at first, and then – knowing the ball was scuffed having gone through the dirt on the mound and would have to be replaced – threw the ball into the Jays’ dugout and waited for the home plate umpire to throw him a new one.

The problem is, Cecil never called time.

So the result is the same as what would happen if a fielder wildly throws a ball into the seats trying to convert an out on a ground ball – two bases.  Guaranteed, it’s a mistake that Cecil will never make again.

As far as the rest of the game, it gets a resounding “meh”.  To say the Jays went meekly (I know, I already did) is probably doing a disservice to the meek.  They loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first, and then got one hit THE REST OF THE GAME.  That hit was nothing special, either – a 17-bouncer up the middle by Aaron Hill who, at least, has earned the right to several cheap hits this season.

Hey, at least the Red Sox only went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Make sure you both tune in and phone in to Friday’s edition of Baseball Today at noon Eastern on The Fan590 and right here on this very website.  Ricky Romero will be our special guest, live and in-studio, and will take your phone calls!  Tomorrow night, the Angels come to town, and I’ll do my very best to sit Chone Figgins down for an interview.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

12:30 AM Eastern

Remember that good feeling I had after last night’s game?

Sigh.

Here’s tonight’s edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Some of you are really going to have to give Edwin Encarnacion a bit of a break.

On Baseball Today Thursday at noon Eastern, we’ve got Frank Viola and Mike Lowell, and hopefully one of Adam Loewen or Rene Tosoni will pop on, as well.  Friday, Ricky Romero will be live in-studio, taking your phone calls!

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.  Stupid, rude and insulting comments will be deleted.

11:25 PM Eastern

The Blue Jays came home and put up a nine-spot up on Josh Beckett, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon.  It wasn’t enough, thanks mostly to another shaky start against Boston by Ricky Romero and a throwing error by Casey Janssen, but it was a lot of fun to watch.

As I mentioned a couple of times on the post-game, this was a wonderfully entertaining game, and I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of those down the stretch now that Randy Ruiz and Travis Snider are here.

Both rookies made their presence felt early, homering in each of their first at-bats of the night.  Ruiz has a hit in every game he’s played as a Blue Jay, and the home runs have come against some tough customers in Joba Chamberlain, A.J. Burnett and now Beckett.  The guy had a reputation of not being able to hit quality big-league pitching, and he’s disproving it day by day.

With the two of them here to take the place of Alex Rios and the Millar/Bautista/Inglett/Dellucci/Adams conflagration, we could be in for some high-scoring nights down at the old concrete convertible.  I know it’s too little too late for a lot of you, and it won’t matter because where were they when it counted, but they were in Vegas, trying their best to get back to the big leagues.  The Jays have 45 games left this season, and only 10 of them come against teams that aren’t right in the thick of a pennant race.  This will be an accurate reflection of these players’ abilities, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.  Haven’t felt that way about the Jays in a while.

As for the Romero Boston thing, it seems quite a thing, and a thing that one hopes the young lefty will be able to get past, because he’s going to see a lot of the Red Sox over the course ofthe next five-plus years, at least.  Romero has started three times against Boston, and in those three starts has pitched just 12 innings, allowing 14 earned runs on 19 hits, walking 12, striking out 15 and allowing four home runs.  For those who want more numbers, that’s a 10.50 ERA and 2.583 WHIP.  Mugly.

Against everyone else, however, Romero has pitched  113 1/3 innings over 17 starts, having allowed 107 hits, 41 earned runs, 37 walks and 12 homers.  He’s struck out 82.  That’s a 3.26 ERA and 1.271 WHIP.  He’s averaging 6 2/3 innings per start against everyone but the Red Sox.  Throw out Boston, and here’s your rookie of the year (he’d be 10-3, by the way), hands down.  Except that you can’t throw out Boston.

Romero’s a rookie, and it’s too early to make judgements, too early to say there are teams he can’t beat (he’s 5-0 against the Yankees, Tigers and Phillies – three first-place teams, for example), too early really to say anything.  Except you hope that this thing doesn’t get into his head and become a real thing.  He may yet get another couple of shots at the Red Sox in September to try to disprove it.

Here’s tonight’s short edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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And since I haven’t posted since Saturday, here’s Sunday afternoon’s edition as an extra added bonus:

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Tomorrow on Baseball Today at noon Eastern on The Fan590 and this very website, we’re scheduled to have Jays scouting director Jon Lalonde, and young studly Canadian outfield prospect Nick Weglarz (currently at AA Akron in the Indians’ system).  I’m hopeful we’ll have Romero in studio later in the week, and I’m going to try to get Jason Bay to come in and take calls on Thursday, though that’s a real longshot.  I went to the umpires room before the game today to try to get an ump to sit down and do a lovely interview for the show, but was rebuffed.  Evidently, the Commissioner’s Office doesn’t want umpires talking to the media late in the season.  Not sure if that’s true or if it was just a polite way to decline the interview request.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!

11:40 PM Eastern

In celebration of a pretty “meh” game by the Jays in Tampa Bay tonight, I put forth the following idea of how to drastically improve the ballclub for the 2010 season.  Warning – it takes money.

1 – Trade Edwin Encarnacion to the Brewers for J.J. Hardy.   The Brew Crew has seemingly given up on Hardy, and they will be looking to deal him in the off-season.  They’ve dumped Bill Hall, Mat Gamel can’t handle third base defensively and Craig Counsell’s not the long-term solution.  Hardy stubbed his toe pretty badly on offense this season, but the defensive metrics are strong and if the bat doesn’t come back then at least you keep a strong glove at shortstop who bats 9th, likely recoup a couple of first-round picks for Marco Scutaro and it doesn’t cost any money.

2 – Sign Chone Figgins and Orlando Hudson.  Figgins is a perfect replacement for Scutaro in the leadoff spot, and he and Hudson give the Jays the advantage of having a pair of speedy switch-hitters batting in the top two spots in the order.  Figgins also gives the Jays the versatility of being a capable defensive fill-in pretty much anywhere on the field in case of injury, though he’d be brought in to play left.  Of course, if Hudson is signed, Aaron Hill would have to move to third base.

Those three moves alone improve the Jays’ offense a great deal, but word is the Jays are sweet on Jason Bay, and if they bring him in, then you’d have to scratch one of Hudson or Figgins, unless Hill gets moved to shortstop, where I don’t think he’ll be a plus defensively.

In the first scenario, the Jays could run out an everyday line-up of Figgins/Hudson/Lind/Hill/Overbay/Wells/Snider/Hardy/catcher (with Snider and Overbay eventually switching spots as the season progresses).  In the second scenario, it’d be Figgins/Hill/Lind/Bay/Overbay/Wells/Snider/Hardy/catcher.  Those are both solid line-ups, especially in combination with the strong pitching, which you wouldn’t really have to touch.

The moves would drop the Jays down to just two players who absolutely refuse to take a walk, in Hill and Wells (and those two aren’t going anywhere), with power up from the third spot on down.  Of course, they’d need a catcher as well.  As Casey Stengel said, if you don’t have a catcher, you’re going to have a lot of passed balls.  Or something like that.

All of this hinges on payroll being bumped up to at least the $100 million mark.  Why believe that might happen?  Because Bob McCown says so, and I’m inclined to believe that given his history with Paul Beeston he might actually have some info that the rest of us don’t.

Just stuff that’s been swirling about my cranium the last couple of days.

For your listening pleasure, here are The JaysTalks from the past two nights.

First Friday’s:

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And tonight’s:

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Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

10:40 AM Eastern

How amazing it is that Alex Rios finally made his debut with the White Sox Wednesday night, and they played 14 innings without scoring?  Rios went 1-for-6 with a single, hitting third and playing right field, and the Sox lost 1-0 to the Mariners in the extra-inning thriller.  They went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Could he possibly have taken it with him?  If so, the Jays got back a whole lot more than “financial flexibility” when they let the White Sox take him on waivers.

Even though it’s probably up on the podcast, here’s Wednesday’s edition of The Pre-Game JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:

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Tonight, it’s Roy Halladay in St. Pete against the Rays, in what won’t be his last start as a Blue Jay.  It’s also the Jays’ first chance to test if the bad mojo did indeed leave town with Rios (remember, he hadn’t actually gotten into a game with Chicago until the Jays finished their series with the Yankees.  It’s a stretch, I’ll grant you, but that’s how mojo works).

We’re on the air at 7:00 PM Eastern for a 7:38 first pitch, but make sure you tune in to Baseball Today at noon as well.  We’ve got a terrific interview with Jays bench coach Brian Butterfield about infield instruction, teaching defense, etc.  Also, we’ll have Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus, and we’ll talk about run differential and why it seems to be a predictor of results for everyone but the Blue Jays.  Are they a real outlier or does it just seem that way?

Also, a softball update – in my final regular season game (but not the team’s), I went 2-for-4 with a single, a double and two runs scored in a 15-8 loss.  The great Shi Davidi’s brother-in-law, Jason Wang, was on the hill for the opposition, and we actually had a nice little duel in my second at-bat, with me fouling off three or four two-strike pitches before flying out to centre.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.