Jays @ Yankees - April 3rd

4:05 p.m. - Good news first. Dustin McGowan's stomach flu will not keep him from starting tonight. And X-rays on Marco Scutaro's right hand, which was hit by a pitch last night, are negative. Also, Matt Stairs makes his season debut tonight in left-field and batting second in the order.

Add that to a convincing 5-2 win against the Yankees, and the clubhouse seems pretty content a few hours before the rubber match of this opening series.

One amusing note from the daily bull session with manager John Gibbons. The Post's Jeremy Sandler brought his laptop into Gibbons' office and showed him this strange and amusing feature at the New York Times.

A mathematician has taken the statistical data about the tendencies of the 30 major league managers and expressed it in the form of facial expressions, called Chernoff faces. It looks a little kooky, but I'm sure it's good enough to get someone a nice fat grant from Elias Sports Bureau.

Gibbons looked at his own representation, which strikes me as a little Kilelber elf-ish owning to his reluctance to bunt, and asked, "What is that (expression)? Puzzled?"

Then he took issue with his virtual hairstyle, which as best as I can tell has something to do with the use of pinch hitters and runners.

Bottom line: he looks a damn sight better than Phil Garner's avatar, which looks deranged.

Cathal Kelly

Jays vs. Yankees - ALCS Preview

Well, hope springs eternal.

Early morning in Dunedin - 8:50 right now. Press box quiet. Flags whipping in right-centre. Storms predicted for later today (thanks to the awesome computing power of the Channel 9's Doppler 9000), but hopefully we'll get a game in.

Phil Hughes versus Jesse Litsch today and what's sure to be an understrength Yankees batting order (does such a thing really exist?). Line-ups to come.

Song of the Day: Let's do a shoutout to the Bombers with the Bronx's greatest hip hop export, Grandmaster Flash. Any day that starts with The Message is bound to be a good one. By the by, the fact that Rolling Stone only saw fit to make this song #51 on the top 500 of all time is a musical crime.

For now, let's just enjoy a Gulf Coast morning. See you soon.

Toronto line-up:
1 - Eckstein
2 - Rolen
3 - Johnson
4 - Wells
5 - Thomas
6 - Overbay
7 - Hill
8 - Stewart
9 - Zaun

Also, pitchers Jamie Vermilyea, Ryan Ketchner and Jeremy Cummings have been reassigned to minor-league camp.

Cathal Kelly

Jays vs. Indians - The telltale nail

Lovely day in Dunedin. Does it hurt to read that? That's why I said it. Cleveland-Toronto just under way.

*****

In A.J. Burnett fingernail news, it seems the infamous meeting between his index finger and his car door happened more than three months ago - November. And he lost quite a bit of it - "three quarters" of the nail, according to him.
Burnett's taking 'hair and nail' vitamins - Biotin. He's becoming a regular at the local nail salons. He's got his mom and wife consulting on growth promotion.
The nail - or lack of it - prevents him from throwing the spike curve, the yin to the yang of Burnett's high-quality fastball.
But it isn't panic time yet.
"Right now, it’s not bothering me," Burnett said. "But, like I said, if in month and a half, two months it ain’t there, we might have a problem."
Er, yeah.

Song of the Day: I polled Spencer, the sports web master, for his pick this morning. Spencer is much crueller man than I, prone to wallowing in the misfortune of others. It's a misanthropic tilt that tends to affect all editors.

He suggests anything by Nine Inch Nails. There isn't enough Biotin in the world. I'm going to narrow that to 'Head Like A Hole', which I would argue is the only NIN song. They've just spent the last 20 or so years rerecording it to different lyrics.

1:14 - I'm late. Top of the first in the books. Shaun Marcum enjoyed a three-up, three-down start. A strikeout of Josh Barfield to start and then a pair of 4-3 groundouts.

Shannon Stewart kicks it off for the Jays with a groundout to second. The Jays line-up:

1 - Stewart
2 - Scutaro
3 - Rios
4 - Overbay
5 - Barajas
6 - Snider
7 - Coats
8 - Santos
9 - Inglett

Maybe they're saving the heavy powder for the Yankees tomorrow.

1:18 - Scutaro steps in against Fausto Carmona and doubles down the left-field line. A couple of pitches later, he moves to third on a passed ball.

1:19 - Rios knocks one back up the middle. 1-0 Jays.

1:20 - Rios steals second. Man, he looks quick this year. He always looked fast once he got going, but he has a much quicker first step this spring.

The key digit in Burnett's line

The first wrinkle of spring. After all the feel good stuff about B.J. Ryan's quicker than anticipated recovery and the addition of character and class through Scott Rolen and David Eckstein, we have some clouds gathering, well, over there.

After today's game, A.J. Burnett was a little too surly for this time of year. They keep telling us this stuff doesn't matter yet, right? Then he up and left before the post-game picnic for season ticket holders. Can't tell if he came back.

The first word out of his mouth after his two-inning, two-run appearance was 'Healthy'. You know what that means.

Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg revealed that Burnett hasn't thrown a single curveball this spring because of a fingernail issue. Apparently, Burnett lopped the top off the nail on his index finger by catching it in a closing car door. "Can't they get this guy keyless entry?" the Globe's MacLeod quips. Heeeey-O!

Even a manicurist couldn't fix what fifty pounds of steel broke.

That means no spike curves for at least two more weeks. Plus the change-up is thusfar a 'non-factor' Arnsberg judged.

Cathal Kelly

Media frenzy

CityTV has descended on Knology, raising mere sport to the heights of infotainment.

Because of more directional nonsense (yes, yes, I'm beginning to believe that I may actually be the problem as opposed to an angry God), I arrived late. Found the media parking swallowed up by huge, humming CityTV truck - presumably providing power. Or possibly baking Gord Martineau's hair.

Here are today's line-ups:

Toronto

1 - Eckstein - SS
2 - Johnson - LF
3 - Wells - CF
4 - Thomas - DH
5 - Rolen - 3B
6 - Stairs - RF
7 - Overbay - 1B
8 - Hill - 2B
9 - Zaun - C
SP: Burnett

Cincinnati

1 - Jay Bruce - CF
2 - Norris Hopper - LF
3 - Jeff Keppinger - SS
4 - Brandon Phillips - 2B
5 - Edwin Encarnacion - 3B
6 - Scott Hatteberg - 1B
7 - Ryan Freel - DH
8 - Chris Dickerson - RF
9 - Paul Bako - C
SP: Bronson Arroyo

Today's song, in honour of my directional incompetence, is Can't Get There From Here, all the way back to Fables of the Reconstruction when R.E.M. hadn't sold their souls to the devil Mammon.

Cathal Kelly

Road to nowhere (i.e. St. Petersburg)

A 90-minute adventure on the way over here this morning. This is what happens when two guys who've only been on the beat a year (myself and the Globe's Rob MacLeod) decide to car pool.

First, I forget my credentials. Then we took our first of many incorrect detours. Then I got to the end of Robbie's scribbled directions and the last two words read, 'Tropicana Field', which is not where today's game is taking place. The Rays play their spring games at Al Lang Field.

Then in the midst of our reasonable decision to 'find the water' we lost the Gulf of Mexico which is, like, really big. We wandered into one of Tampa's many unsavoury neighbourhoods ("If we get rear ended, I'm not stopping," MacLeod said while I got ready to use my laptop as a bludgeon). Then we finally found someone chopping weeds off a phone pole (no word of a lie) who pointed us in the right direction.

Jeff Blair, who was still getting out of bed when MacLeod left, was standing on the field as we walked in.

"Is that Blair down there?!" MacLeod says, aghast. Seriously, I have to take the lion's share of the blame for this mess. I actually told him, Left, and it was, like, totally wrong. Sorry, Robbo.

LATE ADDITION: Blair now informs me of our fourteenth mistake. That's not the Gulf of Mexico. It's Tampa Bay. Oh.

PRE-GAME

Dustin McGowan getting the start. To commemorate the occasion, and McG's home state of Georgia, our song of the day is Peaches' Downtown. I also choose this song because I really do need someone to 'take me downtown' - downtown St. Pete's - though not exactly in the way Peaches means it.

At some point, one assumes that baseball will start happening. Check yesterday's post for today's starting line-up, featuring our first look at Shannon Stewart.

12:45 - The only thing with the outdoor pressbox here (and it's a mere quibble, sitting out here with the fans is fantastic) is the proximity of the PA system and the artistic merits of 'Walking on Sunshine' - which are few. This the Rays last year spending their spring at the beautiful Al Lang field. Next year, they move down to distant Port Charlotte (I'm already worrying about the traffic).

The current site of Al Lang will become the Rays new big-league ballpark by 2012. It should be spectacular, though without a dome, it might get a tad windy in there during the frequent tropical storms. Right now, they have a small stamp of a home plate sitting in shallow right field, where the actual home plate will soon be. Since that's only about 300 ft. from the water, we're assuming they're thinking landfill here.

LINE-UPS

Toronto

1 - Johnson (CF)
2 - Stewart (LF)
3 - Rios
4 - Hill
5 - Scutaro
6 - Barajas
7 - Adams
8 - McDonald
9 - Thigpen
SP: McGowan

Tampa Bay

1 - Akinori Iwamura
2 - Carl Crawford
3 - Carlos Pena
4 - Cliff Floyd
5 - Rocco Baldelli
6 - Willy Aybar
7 - Hector Gimenez
8 - Jason Bartlett
9 - Fernando Perez
SP: James Shields

No Evan Longoria for the Rays. Bummer

First pitch to be thrown out by newsman Sam 'Brows' Donaldson. Saw him close-up earlier. I swear to you - that hair is real.

MacLeod leans over to remind me that his first name is spelled 'Robby' not 'Robbie'. This is what I need in my life - another editor.

THE GAME

1:00 - Donaldson reaches home plate. Kudos.

Halladay (Sung to the tune of 'Holiday')

Roy Halladay sees his first game action today, allowing writers everywhere to unleash a torrent of medical/Western cliches in his honour. Yes, yes, yes, the Doctor is in, Doc Halladay's First Stand, the Doctor will see you now ... to the bench, the Doctor has hit you in the head so hard with a fastball that you need to see ... The Doctor.

Halladay is due for two innings of work this afternoon against Detroit. After Nate Robertson was given the day off yesterday, we will also see two of Detroit's main components - Robertson and Justin Verlander.

Also, we should be seeing most of the Jays revamped line-up. That will follow once I've screwed up the courage to brave the cold (yes, 12 C. Poor me.) and walk to the clubhouse.

10:05 - A brisk but rewarding journey - not one, but two line-ups

Today vs. Detroit
1 - Eckstein
2 - Rios
3 - Wells
4 - Thomas
5 - Rolen
6 - Stairs
7 - Overbay
8 - Hill
9 - Zaun
SP: Halladay

Much discussion amongst Assembled Media (A.M.) about whether or not this is a harbinger of the Opening Day selection. Remember the bet that manager John Gibbons with A.M. about predicting that first real action against the Yankees in a month's time.

Saturday @ Tampa Bay
1 - Johnson
2 - Shannon Stewart
3 - Rios
4 - Rolen
5 - Scutaro
6 - Barajas
7 - Russ Adams
8 - John McDonald
9 - Thigpen
SP: Dustin McGowan

Also, Jason Frasor is a scratch today because of flu. Jamie Vermilyea takes his place

As an aside, a few locker observations. Lockers in baseball are a bit like tarot cards - read correctly, they reveal something about the future.

The set-up at Knology reveals the following:
- Scott Rolen has taken the double locker just inside the door, the real estate generally occupied by an all-star vet. Last year, Frank Thomas enjoyed that spot. In previous years, it was the territory of Bengie Molina and Carlos Delgado.
- The coveted placement alongside Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett has been taken by reedy young reliever Vermilyea. Last year, Josh Towers asked for and received that locker.
- While most of the youngsters and non-roster invitees in camp are clustered off to one side (in the pedestrian traffic zine between the door and the backrooms), top prospects Travis Snider and J.P. Arencibia are smack in the middle of the regulars, like Rios and Ryan.

Song of the day: In honour of Halladay's expected demolition of a no-name Tigers line-up, we offer up Band of Horses' The Funeral. Prime-time teen dramas almost ruined this song, but it's too quality to be beaten down for long.

Noon: One more early lockerroom observation.

Halladay has four baseball cards stuck above his cubbie - A.J. Burnett's, Shaun Marcum's, Dustin McGowan's and ... wait for it ... Jesse Litsch's.

Couldn't ask the man if this is his subtle way of declaring his choice for the fifth starter. Halladay was already wearing his pre-game scowl and ensconced in his cone of silence.

Settling in now for the start. Proving that they're big enough not to take offence at hosting the Jays B-list yesterday, the Tigers have sent a pretty respectable line-up to Dunedin:

1 - Curtis Granderson
2 - Placido Polanco
3 - Edgar Renteria
4 - Marcus Thames
5 - Jacque Jones
6 - Ryan Raburn
7 - Brandon Inge
8 - Jeff Larish
9 - Max St. Pierre

Take that together with the fact that the Globe's Jeff Blair has provided me with a pirate TV link where I can get my Wire fix in Florida and the fact that the drive home from Dunedin is always smooth as silk, and the afternoon is shaping up pretty nicely.

5 mins. to first pitch: The yearly spring Canadian anthem adventures have begun. Today's singer brought a small, but very obvious slip of paper and read/sang 'O Canada'.

"I hope the anthem doesn't blow away," quipped CP's Shi Davidi.

This, of course, cannot begin to compete with last year's lowlight. A local American Idol contestant loused Canada's national song up so badly the poor girl had to haltingly apologize to the crowd once she'd finished singing.

Halladay taking the mound now. I'll give you the blow-by-blow for the first little while.

1:07: Curtis Granderson grounds the second pitch weakly to second. 4-3 out. I think Halladay can begin spending that Cy Young bonus.

1:11: After Placido Polanco singles up the middle, Scott Rolen advances quickly on a tricky, high-hopping Edgar Renteria hit and handles it beautifully for the out. I don't see Troy Glaus making that play.

On the road with ... the Tigers

Rooooaaad trip. First commute of the season across I-4 to Lakeland's gorgeous Joker Marchant Stadium. Owing to my great love of Florida drivers - possibly the worst on earth, excepting Quebeckers (in fact, most Florida drivers probably are Quebeckers) - I left the piloting up to the National Post's Jeremy Sandler. Left, Sandler! LEFT!

It's only ten o'clock, but the parking lot is a lot more crowded than I remember from last year. That may have something to do with Mssrs. Cabrera and Willis. And Rob MacLeod from the Globe is already fretting about the traffic heading home. He's not the only one.

The Jays bus should be pulling up momentarily. A few interesting things on tap from the understrength squad they're sending today (Aside: Here's a little puzzle for the initiated: Find the league mandated four starters in today's Jays line-up. After you get past one, disqualify yourself for cheating).

How will Jesse Litsch look in his first game setting? And how will Gustavo Chacin, who's fallen at least three spots in the pecking order since last spring, do following him? Will Ben Coats, a long-shot to crack the 25-man as a utility player, impress? Personally, I'll be watching Travis Snider with curiousity. His elbow's been bugging him this spring, but he'll get a chance to show us that big swing as today's starting DH.

Snider is an absolute tank of a kid - 5-foot-11, 245 pounds - the proverbial fire hydrant. He was talking about size and how so many of the kids his age in camp are trying to put on weight.

"They're saying 'I'm 185 and I can't gain a pound no matter how much I eat'. I tell them, 'Dude, I was 185 when I was 13," he laughed.

For all the talk in the scouting reports about how Snider will have to watch his weight, there isn't any jiggle on that frame right now. He's a very solid 245, which is downright scary.

Cathal Kelly

P.S. Sandler has been peppering John Gibbons with his 'word of the day'. Yesterday: somnambulant. Today: well, apparently he doesn't know yet. "It's a very organic thing," Sandler insists. "Gibby has to ask me." Good Lord, Sandler. You should be concentrating on the ride home. It's only seven or so hours away.

Not being very good with words (obviously), I'm going with a song of the day. I like to start a game with some rally music on the old Bose headphones. Today, in order to kick things off on a pulsing electro beat, 'Genesis' by Justice. Call it my homage to Cadillac. And France.

P.P.S. Sandler has decided on his word of the day - obsequious. Gibbons apparently now wants the word emailed to him, rather than read out. Sandler, I think he's brushing you off, man. Vocabulary building is too important a subject to be trusted to the Internet. That's for sports.

End of the Second Inning - Jesse Litsch has given up four hits and four runs, including a two-run shot to Curtis Granderson. Considering this is the nearly full-strength Tigers line-up, two runs per inning seems fairly reasonable. MacLeod is still going on about the traffic. I've pointed him to our traffic link (above).

Top of the Third - Travis Snider's very first at-bat as a Toronto Blue Jay - a five-pitch walk. Detroit's Matt Mantel didn't throw anywhere near him. This kid is 20 years old and they're already scared of him.

Game over - Detroit 4 Toronto 1. Jesse Litsch rocked. Gustavo Chacin and David Purcey solid. Toronto's replacement killers line-up supplied only four hits. But tomorrow, Detroit's B-Team should be on hand at Dunedin ready to be taken advantage of by Roy Halladay.

However, the poor traffic outlook should have Sandler on his A-Game.

Bosom chums on the left side

Another quick thought on Scott Rolen and David Eckstein who, for obvious reasons, have been bunched together as a pair here at spring training.

I asked Rolen if he and Eckstein as close off the field as they seem to be on the diamond.

"We have great mutual respect," Rolen said. Then he paused. "Well, I can’t say mutual cause I don’t know if he respects me (laughing) Ideally, great mutual respect as players and as teammates. We’ve taken good care of each other along the way."

Eckstein, who's constant ear-to-ear grin makes the perennially chipper Aaron Hill seem dour, easily confirmed the 'mutual' part of that.

"He's class on and off-the-field," Eckstein said of the big man.

But they are clearly thick as thieves in the clubhouse. Yesterday, St. Louis beat writer Joe Strauss was in camp interviewing the pair. Later, he lamented to John Gibbons how the corner in the Cardinal lockerroom where Rolen and Eckstein once held court was going to be a sadly quiet place this year.

Cathal Kelly

Thoughts. Many of which aren't about baseball.

Moving day, and a good day for it. It's unseasonably chilly in the Tampa/Clearwater area this morning, hovering somewhere in the range of 7 or 8 degrees. A massive rain storm blew through last night, leaving me giddy at the prospect of surviving my first hurricane (hey, I don't have to pay to repair the roof).

My hopes were bumped when I heard the staff at a local Borders planning their evacuation routes. (By the way, the first four episodes of the first season of Friday Night Lights are pretty swish. Even if you have to watch them on an MacBook)

Sadly, no hurricane. But enough gale force to blow the dust out of my rental apartment. Cleaning averted again!

The team will stretch out beginning around 9:30 and then arrange their afternoon golf game. Remember to wear tearaway pants.

If you've arrived here in search of actual baseball info, here are the pitching starters for the first five grapefruit league games

2/28 (@ Detroit) Jesse Litsch
2/29 (vs. Detroit) Roy Halladay
3/1 (@ Tampa Bay) Dustin McGowan
3/2 (vs. Cincinnati) A.J. Burnett
3/3 (vs. Cleveland) Shaun Marcum

And here's the travelling line-up for the first game in Lakeland. If the formatting is balky, blame the Globe's Rob MacLeod. I stole it off his blog (hey, I'm a hell of a writer, but one lousy typist (that's what my mother tells me). I take those sorts of shortcuts where I can - with McEll's permission of course):

Pitchers: Josh Banks, Shaun Camp, Lance Carter, Gustavo Chacin, Mike Gosling, Litsch, Jean Machi, David Purcey and James Vermilyea.

Catchers: Rod Barajas, Curtis Thigpen, John Schneider.

Infielders: Russ Adams, Chip Cannon, Joe Inglett, Pedro Lopez, John McDonald, Sergio Santos, Marco Scutaro and John Tolisano.

Outfielders: Buck Coats, Reed Johnson, Adam Lind, Wayne Lydon, Ryan Patterson, Travis Snider, Matthew Watson and Eric Nielson.

PROVISIONAL LINE-UP:

1 - Reed Johnson - LF

2 - John MacDonald - SS

3 - Marco Scutaro - 2B

4 - Rod Barajas - C

5 - Adam Lind - RF

6 - Buck Coats - RF

7 - Chip Cannon - 1B

8 - Joe Inglett - 3B

9 - Travis Sinder - DH

*****

Another in the many signs that I am now in Florida. The pick-up idling in front of me had a faded bumper sticker on the back panel. It was emblazoned with a hammer and sickle and read: "Seat Belt laws. Helmet laws. What's next, Comrade?"

Didn't get ahead of the guy quickly enough to see if he was suffering the after-effects of severe head trauma.

Cathal Kelly