The Bullpen: Hectic offseason ahead for Blue Jays' Yan Gomes

For the first time in its brief history, the World Baseball Classic has an expanded field of 28 countries, with 16 of those national teams playing in qualifiers for the final field of 16 to be staged in March 2013. A dozen teams were given automatic byes out of the last tournament in 2009, but the four countries that were winless in the double elimination tournament were placed as the top seed in four-team pools that were forced to compete for one spot, rounding out the field.

Already there has been one change to the field, as Spain went to extra innings to beat Israel 9-7 in the championship game of Qualifier 1 in Jupiter, Fla. The host team that had been to the first two versions of the WBC was South Africa, now eliminated. Israel's line-up featured former Jays outfielder Shawn Green who came out of retirement to DH and was 1-for-4 in the final game.

In Qualifier 2, Canada plays host-country Germany in the championship game on Monday afternoon in Regensburg. Earlier in the tournament, Canada beat the hosts 16-7. Manager Ernie Whitt's team was relegated to a qualifier because of losses to Team USA and Italy in '09 at the Rogers Centre. Whitt's team was handicapped by the fact the qualifier was in September, thus forced to use minor-leaguers, rather than any of the 17 Canadian major-leaguers that will be available should they win the pool. There are 147 Canadians in baseball's minor-leagues.

PREVIOUS BULLPEN BLOGS:

Baltimore Orioles top Oakland A’s as AL’s surprise team, Sept. 17

Jays manager John Farrell wants Chad Mottola as associate batting coach, Sept. 10

Meanwhile there was one player in the Jays clubhouse looking forward to his kick at the WBC can. Catcher Yan Gomes spoke enthusiastically about his upcoming experience as a member of Team Brazil, entered into a Nov. 15-20 qualifier with Colombia, Panama and Nicaragua. Brazil is ranked 33rd among baseball countries in the world, making them the long shot in Pool 3.

“It's going to be a huge honour, just kind of how it was being the first Brazilian in the majors – even bigger, just representing the country on the stage of the WBC,” Gomes said on the weekend at Tropicana Field. “I still have a lot of friends down there in Brazil that played and get in contact with me a lot. They kept up with me and my career.”

Gomes, a native of Sao Paulo, became the first Brazilian-born player in the majors when he made his debut on May 17 vs. the Yankees. In a four-game series in early August in Oakland, Gomes showed his versatility appearing in left field, at first and third base and behind the plate. He will be a huge part of manager Barry Larkin's plans to pull off an upset.

“I think that's really awesome,” Gomes said of the chance to play for a hall-of-fame player. “I'm looking forward to it too. I'll probably get to learn a lot from him.”

Starting at spring training, where Gomes impressed manager John Farrell with his versatility as a non-roster player, through his various stints at the major-league level, it's been an eventful year.

“It's definitely been a huge year,” Gomes said. “To top it off I'm getting married in a couple of weeks. It's just been a great year. It started off last year, just working hard and trying to get something going. I started off pretty good in spring training and just kept going. It's been a great experience.”

The key game for Gomes may have been a March contest in Sarasota against the Orioles. He travelled south with the team and drew a start at third base for an injured Brett Lawrie, banging out a couple of hits and making some nice defensive plays.

“It was big in some ways, but I wouldn't say it was the biggest game,” Gomes recalled. “But it definitely made them think that I can play some third too. That was the first time I had played third in my career. It happened to be in a big-league game in Sarasota. I don't want to take just one game out of that spring training. Just the whole experience, even off the field, while we were training and doing stuff on the side. Just the little things, being with big leaguers.”

In some ways, it was a difficult summer for Gomes, back and forth to the minors, with the travel to Las Vegas and the disappointment of being sent down again both being factors.

“At first I was upset, but it wasn't really that big of a deal,” Gomes said of each demotion.

“No matter how I was doing, it did take me a couple of days to get it going. Me and ('51s batting coach Chad Mottola) would work very hard at trying to get it going, back to where I need to be to get back up here. It worked out all right. To me it was really important (to finish the season back in the majors), not just to get the feeling of being comfortable up here. I know for my fiancée (Jenna) it wasn't nice, she hated the travel back and forth, but it just kind of kept the experience going.”

Yan and Jenna plan on being married in October, at which time Gomes will head south for a month of winter ball in the Dominican Republic and from there straight to Panama City to meet his Team Brazil mates. It will be a hectic offseason for the Jays' rookie.

“I'm sure we have a chance,” an optimistic Gomes said. “It just comes out of who's playing hot. It's just like any kind of match-up is. We'll see how we look. We'll give it our best that's all we can do.

BLUE JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW

SEASON: The Jays concluded a horrible week, losing all six games on the road trip, three at Yankee Stadium and three at Tropicana Field, heading to Baltimore. The Jays had an off-day Monday, then were rained out on Tuesday with a split doubleheader on Wednesday. The Jays were outscored 42-16 in the six games. They scored more than two runs in just two of the games, but the pitching did not respond in kind, losing 10-7 to the Yankees on Thursday and 11-5 to the Rays, Saturday.

The Jays enter the week with a sad 6-14 September mark. Since July 29, the Jays are 15-36 and have scored two or fewer runs in 25 games. Before the streak began, they had been one of the top offences in the AL in terms of home runs and runs scored. How tough has it been? At spring training, Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow were the clear 1-2 starters in the rotation. In the last 81 Jays games, a full half season, since June 23, the two men have combined for one victory.

YUNEL ESCOBAR: The Escobar press conference at Yankee Stadium to announce Escobar's fine, suspension and mandated interaction with the gay community was ridiculous, not in what it was trying to do but in how it was presented. Three days later, however, the follow-up Escobar press conference at Tropicana Field, called informally after manager John Farrell kept him out of the starting line-up his first game back as an eligible player vs. the Rays was far more sublime.

It seemed, at the very moment he was being punished in New York, the Jays' shortstop was totally unaware of the far-reaching societal impact that his stupid, homophobic actions of Saturday at the Rogers Centre had created. He seemed bewitched, bothered and bewildered by the enormity of the moment. He looked confused as he was escorted by club officials down the tunnel to the Yankee interview room on Tuesday.

The first problem was the translator was not good. His choice of words made Escobar look like a  cliché-spouting idiot, but the worst aspect of it was that the inept translator was handpicked by the Players' Association.

The second unhelpful decision was that club president Paul Beeston did not fly to New York, leaving the responsibility of representing the organization to young GM Alex Anthopoulos. This was not a player personnel problem, it was a franchise issue, a societal issue, a community problem over which Beeston should have presided. The Jays are Canada's team. Escobar appeared bewildered, unconvincing, simple and unapologetic. The fact is he was simply overwhelmed and without preparation or the proper support, given the quick turnaround.

But in front of a much smaller group on Friday in Tampa and with three days to ponder his own situation, having flown to Florida ahead of the team, able to go virtually one-on-one with a more familiar group of media and with the writers able to ask more specific questions and able to look into his eyes as he gave his answers in Spanish, translated by Jays' coach Luis Rivera, this briefing appeared to show far from a smug, smirking pro athlete deflecting questions with a wink and a nudge.

Escobar may not fully understand why what he did was so wrong, but he does understand, now, that a large group of people, an important segment of society with which he had been totally unfamiliar, felt demeaned by his actions. Escobar on Friday was still not able to properly express his regret, but that may be because he still has never understood the repercussions that his thoughtless actions of putting Sharpie to eye black patches, a feeble attempt at humour, had created. Farrell met with Escobar on Friday afternoon, deciding he needed another day to regroup. He was right. 

OMAR AND THE BABE: Omar Vizquel will never be remembered as a Blue Jay, but he has had two memorable moments in the last two months that will live forever in his mental scrapbook. On Aug. 15, the future Hall-of-Famer tied Harold Baines for 42nd on the all-time hit list at the Rogers Centre. It came on a hit off Gavin Floyd of the White Sox with Baines sitting in the dugout as a coach. Then on this current road trip, at Yankee Stadium on September 19, at the son of The House That Ruth Built, Vizquel tied the Babe himself at 2,873 with a hit off Andy Pettitte. The bronze bust of Ruth in Monument Park smiled. Vizquel was overwhelmed to have not only tied the legendary Bambino, but to have done it in New York. Vizquel started the final game he played at Fenway Park and will likely do so on Wednesday in Baltimore, if Farrell has the opportunity. He will be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. 

BUTTER AND BELICHICK: Jays' third base coach Brian Butterfield, a resident of New England, is such a huge Patriots fan that it's believed the Pats consult him before every college draft, or if not, then he calls them and adds to his immense knowledge of all things Pats. On Sunday after the Jays played the Rays in Tampa, Butterfield had plans for the evening when the team charter arrived in Baltimore. He had arranged for a limousine to take him to the Ravens stadium where he had passes to stand on the Pats sideline. He was hoping to make it for the second half. The Pats lost on a last-second field goal.

INJURIES:  The Jays have had 18 disablements this year. RH Dustin McGowan, RH Drew Hutchison, RH Sergio Santos, RH Robert Coello, LH Luis Perez, RH Jesse Litsch, RH Kyle Drabek, 1B David Cooper and LH J.A. Happ are all out for the season.

HUTCH UPDATE: Perez, Drabek and Hutchison were all enthusiastic visitors to the Jays clubhouse in Tampa, with hugs all around. Hutchison spoke to writers in the Jays clubhouse about his rehab.

“Right now I'm just going a day at the time, doing what they say to do,” Hutchison said. “Right now it's just range of motion stuff. Shoulder exercises.”

Hutchison won't even pick up a baseball for about 20 weeks from the moment of the surgery at the beginning of August. Recall that he had at first tried to rehab through exercise and rest before he was forced to undergo surgery, putting him a month behind Drabek on his rehab schedule.

“I'm working with Kyle and the training staff down in Dunedin right now, just taking it slowly,” he said. “There's not very much you can do. Kyle's been through it once already, so he knows what to expect. Obviously if you have any questions, you can always ask him and he has a pretty good idea what's going on.”

When will he be back? “It's early to predict. They're all different. Right now I'm just worried about getting healthy. I don't really have a time frame of when that is. But I'll take my time and get it right and get healthy.”

It would be an obvious, if futile exercise for Hutch to think back and wonder why it happened to him at the tender age of 21, with things going so well in his rookie year. He avoids that self-flagellation.

“It is what it is, it's over with, there's no reason to,” Hutchison said. “It happened it's time to move on and get right and get healthy. You do something and it's what you love to do, it is difficult.”

THE RANT

I consider myself a baseball traditionalist. For instance, I think W's matter for a pitcher and batting average matters for a hitter. But I'm also open minded, unlike some of those that have declared WAR on the game.

But here's where I break away from tradition. The second wild card has been a fabulous idea. Far from ruining the integrity of the game, far from allowing undeserving teams into the mix, the second wild-card has juiced the month of September like nothing before it. It's been great for the game.

In fact, I have this unorthodox theory that the second wild card is why the Jays have sucked so badly in September this year. The Jays are 6-14 in the final month. Recall in past years, the Jays have continued to play hard in September, using a regular rotation and regular position players in the annual period of expanded rosters, while their opponents, the majority of which are usually out of contention, have played minor-leaguers and started Double-A arms looking ahead to next year.

I may not have exact numbers, but the feeling is always that the Jays in the past have been playing to win September games much harder than have their opponents. This year there is a difference.

With more teams in contention, three from the AL east and seven overall in the league, teams are not in cruise control. The Jays are competing vs. teams that are still playing to win and, in Toronto's specific situation, with injuries having wounded their offence and a rotation still missing two of five starters, the Jays are being crushed. With one wild card they would have already met teams playing out the string and competed hard to get as many wins as possible. Even John Farrell admits that September is no longer like September where nobody takes performance seriously preferring to evaluate young players.

“In the case of our schedule this month, everybody we played has been a contender so it's not like we're seeing guys make starts against us as we're evaluating our hitters,” Farrell said, referring to the usual plethora of AA and Triple-A studs they normally face. “It's not like we're seeing guys come out of AA and start against us. We're seeing their regular turn in the rotation.

“We're seeing playoff intensity thrown at us and the game played like that at us. (The Jays have) done a solid job in competing against that and competing with it. The fact is they're getting valuable repetition and experience this month.”

There's one wild-card possibility of which MLB is totally scared but that I would love to see. It is primarily a possibility in the National League wild-card race.

As of Monday morning, there remained the mathematical possibility that there could be a six-way tie for the second NL wild-card spot at 84-78. How, you might ask? Here are the necessities for the remainder of the schedule to create MLB's deliciously uncontrolled chaos: Cards 2-7; Brewers 5-5; Dodgers 5-4; D-backs 7-3; Phillies 7-2 and Pirates 9-1. Just looking at those numbers, maybe a six-way tie is a long shot, but the possibility of a 2, 3 or 4-way tie for the new wild-card is not beyond the realm of possibility. Baseball better start explaining how that's going to work. Halloween is coming soon.     

MLB POWER RANKINGS        

Last Week's rankings in parentheses   

1. Washington Nationals (1)

Just like happened to the Rays in '08, finishing last often enough pays off 

2. Texas Rangers (2)

Are using September to sort out pitching rotation for playoffs

3. Cincinnati Reds (4)

Taking advantage of being in a bad six-team division but hanging in

4. Oakland A's (3)

Emerging as this team's MVP is Cuban rookie Yoenis Cespedes 

5. New York Yankees (6)

CC came back strong in last start and they'll need more of that to advance  

6. San Francisco Giants (7)

Nice call on batting crown. If you're caught cheating on exam they don't give you that mark

7. Baltimore Orioles (4)

Showalter easy call as manager of the year. Maybe Duquette as executive

8. Atlanta Braves (9)

Locked in at WC-1 and no chance at division, so nobody paying attention

9. Detroit Tigers (11)

Cabrera shouldn't win MVP 'cuz his 3B defence helps cost Verlander Cy Young

10. Chicago White Sox (12)

Ventura proving Sox genius for letting Ozzie swim with the Fishes

11. Los Angeles Angels (10)

Critics questioning whether Scioscia will be back. It should be his decision

12. Milwaukee Brewers (17)

No Prince, no Greinke, inconsistent Ax, no problem. They surged anyway

13. St. Louis Cardinals (14)

Carpenter comeback is feel-good story. This year they have spot and are holding on

14. Philadelphia Phillies (15)

All they needed was a little offence. Manuel must have become smarter 

15. Los Angeles Dodgers (13)

Magic Johnson has gone underground after promising championship post-trade 

16. Tampa Bay Rays (8)

Pitching staff sets AL record for strikeouts. Unfortunately hitters lead AL too

17. Seattle Mariners (16)

This is an organization with no major stars other than Felix but plenty of talent

18. Arizona Diamondbacks (20)

D-backs not making a move when the door was opened to them 

19. Kansas City Royals (24)

Will be a lot of off-season interest in some of their young arms

20. San Diego Padres (19)

Another organization that received no attention but on the way up

21. Pittsburgh Pirates (18)

Didn't Travis Snider say how great it was to be traded to a contender? 

22. Boston Red Sox (22)

Valentine developing a knack for putting his players in a position to fail  

23. New York Mets (23)

Nice ballpark, great baseball town, not a very good team 

24. Toronto Blue Jays (21)

Have never seen a Jays team deal with so many embarrassing moments

25. Minnesota Twins (25)

They can't give up on this roster because of promise to fans when Target Field built

26. Miami Marlins (26)

Girardi was let go after NL Manager-of-the-year. Where does that leave Ozzie?

27. Cleveland Indians (27)

Once promising starting pitching has been shredded as season goes on 

28. Chicago Cubs (29)

Anthony Rizzo will become a big-time player. But they need more 

29. Colorado Rockies (28)

Could this be the end of the road for manager Jim Tracy as well?

30. Houston Astros (30)

'Stros take heart looking at Nats role model of building through losing 

ONE FOR THE ROAD:

I regret, for myself, that I missed this week's trip to the Big Apple because of another conflicting assignment from The Star back in the GTA, that unfolded mostly on Wednesday as the Yankees series was Tuesday to Thursday. Staying home, as part of a team of seven Star news reporters, I found this week's GTA assignment for a future special section in our paper very rewarding. Upon further review, as I outline the day, to the casual observer it may seem this pleasure with the 24 hours is because I'm a little different than most people and sleep and food are an afterthought. Hey, life is too short.

Consider that I left home on Tuesday evening at 11:35 p.m. I drove to Greenwood in Scarborough for a 12:40 a.m. interview, then to Keele and Sheppard at 2:15 a.m., then to Black Creek and Eglinton for 4 a.m., then to Appleby and the QEW for 6 a.m., then to Acton for 7:10 a.m., then to Brampton for 9:30 a.m. then to Keele and Lawrence for 11:15 a.m. then to Kennedy in Scarborough for 6:00 p.m. I had five Tim Horton's medium coffees, black, one iced cappuccino, one large Monster energy drink, four bottles of water, one bag of pretzels (cuz I had to use the washroom at a Shell station at 3:45 a.m.), a Burger King Devil Whopper and a piece of apple pie. The breakfast of champions, is I believe what they call it. I got home from this odyssey around 9:45 p.m. making it a 22-hour tour of duty, logging a total of 540 km without ever leaving town – except for Acton, which was worth the drive.

In any case, I missed on TV most of the Jays' split doubleheader in New York, although I did see the Escobar saga play out on Tuesday. I caught up on the baseball action via late night highlights and the fine reporting of Mark Zwolinski in The Star. I physically caught up with the Jays in Tampa on Friday.

Ah, Florida. Other than Tropicana Field being such a joke of a ballpark, the trip to Tampa is usually quite pleasant. My modus operandi is to rent a car at the greatest airport in the world, Tampa International, stay at a hotel just across the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Gulf to Bay in Clearwater and make the 20-25 minute commute straight down I-275 to the Trop for games. Life is good.

The personal preference of staying in Clearwater is pretty much for the familiarity of being in the Jays' spring training sphere of influence, plus the occasional need to drive up to the Mattick Complex to see some minor leaguers, or some rehabbing major leaguers, or, one time, it was some guy named Vlad Guerrero, who looked like a pretty good prospect at the time but who ended up being too demanding.

Friday, I landed in Tampa and rented a 2013 Ford Escape. A review of the Escape? Too many blind spots, a sound system slanted at a weird 80-degree angle and one of those difficult computer screens that make you want to wear sunglasses at night when you turn it on and likely could lead to a Thelma and Louise cliff dive while you're trying to find a local hip-hop station or sports news using the seek buttons which are disturbingly flush to the console and hard to spot. Plenty of get up and go.

This is probably the easiest MLB ballpark to access if you have a car. South on I-275, veer off on the exit to old St. Pete, a quick right along Martin Luther King and another right on Central. I always try and get there early enough before a night game -- around 1 p.m. -- to be able to stop at historic Ferg's on Central Ave. for lunch. Clam chowder and a chicken wrap, all live sports on TV and always an available parking spot right in front of the popular pre- and post-game venue, especially at that late-afternoon hour. Oh and you can leave your windows down and the motor running because it's right across from a bustling police station. Parking lot, just flash your press pass, walk across the street into the press gate, elevator up one floor to the press box, ready to go. Did I ever say life is good?             

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY:

9/24/57 The final game at Ebbets Field as the Dodgers pack up and move to L.A. It's a 2-0 win over the Pirates in front of 6,702 fans... 9/24/74 The veteran Tigers' star Al Kaline collects his 3,000th hit off Dave McNally of the O's on a 5-4 win... 9/24/85 The Expos' Andre Dawson bangs out three homers, including a pair of three-run shots in the fifth inning in a 17-15 win at Wrigley Field. He ties Willie McCovey as the only players with multiple home run innings twice in a career... 9/24/92 Jays' DH Dave Winfield becomes the oldest player in history with 100 RBIs, in his 2,700th game at 40... 9/25/55  Tigers' Al Kaline becomes the youngest batting champion in AL history at 20... 9/25/61 a homer off Jack Fisher of the O's gives Roger Maris a tie with Babe Ruth at 60 home runs... 9/25/81 Astros' Nolan Ryan facing the Dodgers tosses his fifth no-hitter, an all-time high... 9/25/86 Mike Scott tosses a no-hitter vs. the Giants the first time a clinching game has had no hits... 9/26/83 Cards' RH Bob Forsch no-hits the Expos 3-0 at Busch Stadium. The Expos are embarrassed when Forsch hits Gary Carter in the butt in the seventh inning and laughs... 9/26/71 O's RH Jim Palmer wins his 20th game, joining teammates Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally as only the second staff in MLB history with four 20-game winners. First was the 1920 White Sox... 9/26/79 Phil Niekro of the Braves beats his brother Joe Niekro of the Astros to join him as the only NL pitchers with 20 wins. The only other time two 20-game brothers happened was '65 with Gaylord and Jim Perry... 9/27/83 Expos' Tim Raines joins Ty Cobb as the only players in history with 70 steals and 70 RBIs in a season... 9/27/96 Barry Bonds steals his 40th base joining Jose Canseco as the only 40-40 men in history... 9/27/98 Mark McGwire crashes homers No. 69 and 70 vs. the Expos on the final day of the season. No. 70 is against Carl Pavano... 9/28/41 Ted Williams chooses to play both ends of a DH sitting on a .400 average and goes 6-for-8 to finish at .406... 9/28/60 Ted Williams hits the final homer of his career against Jack Fisher of the O's... 9/28/95 Greg Harris of the Expos becomes the first player to pitch with both hands in the same game, facing two Reds right-handed and two left-handed... 9/29/54 The iconic catch by Willie Mays of the Giants off Vic Wertz of the Indians in Game 1 of the World Series at the Polo Grounds... 9/29/68 Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski, coming off a Triple Crown season the year before, wins the AL batting title with a .301 average the lowest in history. Runner-up is Danny Cater of the A's at .290. It's just one of the reasons MLB lowers the mounds in time for the '69 season... 9/29/71 Expos' pest Ron Hunt is drilled by Milt Pappas of the Cubs, the 50th HBP of the season, a MLB record... 9/30/27 Babe Ruth hits homer No. 60 off Tom Zachary of the Senators... 9/30/72 Legendary Roberto Clemente strokes his 3,000th career hit off Jon Matlack of the Mets. Three months later on a New Year's Eve on a mercy flight to Nicaragua, his plane goes down off the coast of Puerto Rico ending his life... 9/30/88 Dave Stieb of the Jays loses a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth on a Jim Traber double ripped inches over the glove of 1B Fred McGriff.                 

BIRTHDAYS: 9/24 Johnny Mac 38, Kevin Millar 41, Paul Spoljaric 42, Jim Acker 54, Hubie Brooks 56... 9/25 Dave Weathers 43, Sal Butera 60, Phil Rizzuto 95...9/26 Dave Martinez 48, Dave Duncan 67...9/27 Mike Schmidt 63, Gary Sutherland 68, Johnny Pesky 93...9/28 Charlie Kerfeld 49, Todd Frohwirth 50, Dave Rajsich 61...9/29 Warren Cromartie 59, Ken Macha 62.      

AL ROUNDUP

The Rangers have the classic situation in which they control their own fate. The A's are visiting Arlington for a four-game set and with a magic number to clinch the division of seven, a sweep of the A's would do it for them. Even a split would reduce the magic number to three games. OF Josh Hamilton has been dealing with vision issues and was not even in Seattle. He is battling Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera and Jays' 1B Edwin Encarnacion for the home run title. Wondering how RH Yu Darvish is doing? He leads the staff with 214 Ks and is one the Rangers pitchers that seems to be getting stronger as the playoffs approach. Last year's post-season hero, C Mike Napoli is batting .389 with three homers since his return from the DL with quad issues... The Tigers' Cabrera did not homer on Sunday but his two doubles gave him 40 for the year. He and Hank Greenberg are the only Tigers ever with 40 doubles and 40 homers. If the Tigers make it to the playoffs, MGR Jim Leyland should insist that CL Jose Valverde give up that silly choreography when he enters a game, the dramatic pose, the hop, the dance and sprint to the mound. That's great if you never blow a save, but he lost again in extra innings on Sunday and even to teammates it must be getting old... It's a pennant race and it's Alex Rodriguez, so why else should Yankees rookie Melky Mesa feel bad. Pinch-running at second base he raced around third with the winning run on a 1B in the 14th against Oakland. But he felt he missed third, screeched to a halt and scrambled back to the bag. The Bombers went on to win, thankfully for the kid. A major factor in the AL East race? The O's are 27-9 in one run games and 16-2 in extra innings. The Yankees 21-23 in one-run and 5-3 in extras. Jays MGR John Farrell talked about how the O's are helped in the future by their success in the past. He spoke of the streak of extra inning wins the Jays put up last year at the Rogers Centre: “You would be in the dugout saying, 'Just tie this game up and we'll win it.'...Following Sunday's oh-fer, A's RF Josh Reddick ran his hitless streak to 28 at-bats. He is batting .138 in September. LF Yoenis Cespedes has emerged as the A's MVP. He slammed his 20th homer on Sunday. He and Reddick are the first A's teammates with 20 HR each since Nick Swisher and Jack Cust in '07. The A's brought up RH Jeremy Accardo to bolster the bullpen for the final week. The former Jay was released by the Indians in August and had been pitching in a holding pen in Phoenix just in case, since the Triple-A Sacramento season ended.

NL ROUNDUP

It was a decision of the player, that was presented to MLB by the union, but when Melky Cabrera announced that he would withdraw his eligibility for the NL batting title it was the proper call. Rule 10-22 (a) states that a player can qualify for the batting title if his required plate appearances are shy of the number, however if you were to add the required number of hitless at-bats to his numbers to get him to 502 PA, and his average still leads the league, he wins the title. Cabrera was one appearance shy and would just lose a point from his .346 average. The addendum states that the procedure cannot be done for a suspended player under the Joint Drug Program for PEDs. In 1955 Ted Williams would have won the batting title if the rule had existed. Instead a 20-year-old Tiger Al Kaline became the youngest batting champ in history... After the Giants clinched the division on Saturday, MGR Bruce Bochy announced LH Barry Zito would be included on the post-season roster. He was left off in 2010... Cards' RH Jake Westbrook, a 13-game winner, has been shut down due to discomfort as he was attempting to come back... When LH Gio Gonzalez won his 20th game on Saturday he became the first wearing a Washington uniform since Bob Porterfield in 1953. Tyler Clippard has struggled lately in his role as closer, allowing eight runs in his last seven innings. Meanwhile former CL Drew Storen has 10 straight scoreless appearances and may get his job back... Brewers 3B Aramis Ramirez stroked his 49th double on Sunday. The club record is 53 by former Jays' 1B Lyle Overbay... Phillies' RH Roy Halladay was knocked out of Saturday's start vs. the Braves after 1-2/3 innings. He was examined and told reporters he has spasms in his right shoulder. His status for the rest of the season is to be determined... Reds MGR Dusty Baker returned to Cincy after four days in a Chicago hospital diagnosed with irregular heartbeat. The 63-year-old swung by the ballpark on Saturday but did not stay for the game. Chris Speier continued as acting manager in his place as the Reds clinched their second division in three years. CL Aroldis Chapman returned on Saturday from a club-imposed 11-day sabbatical to keep him rested for the post-season... RH Kris Medlen has been tabbed by Braves MGR Fredi Gonzalez as the starter for the wild-card game on Oct. 5. He is their hottest pitcher. Likely RH Tim Hudson would start NLDS Game 1 if they advance... If Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw can stand the pain, he can pitch a couple more times as long as the Dodgers are still in the wild-card race. Kershaw pitched five innings Sunday with an injured hip that specialists say will not suffer any more damage if he continues to pitch. It does hurt though.

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

The Blue Jays' eight farm teams combined for a 427-395 record.

Triple-A Las Vegas (79-64)  on Thursday the Jays announced that they were ending their affiliation with the '51s and were signing a two-year agreement with the Buffalo Bisons. The Bisons had been courted by the Jays after their agreement with Syracuse ended following the '08 season. But the Bisons, who had ended their relationship with the Indians, chose the Mets' bid, with the New York connection and all that. In four seasons at Las Vegas, the Jays affiliate was a combined 287-288. 

AA-New Hampshire (61-81) ended the EL season in last place.

A-Dunedin (78-55) posted the best record in the FSL's North Division and second overall. Jays lost the first round playoff series to Lakeland. MGR Mike Redmond was named to the FSL all-stars...

A-Lansing (82-55) posted the best overall record in the Midwest League.

A-Vancouver (46-30) won second straight Northwest League championship.

A-Bluefield (29-37) finished last in their division.

Rk-Gulf Coast Blue Jays (22-38).

Rk-Dominican Summer League (30-35).

The bullpen: Baltimore Orioles top Oakland A’s as AL’s surprise team

As part of the major league power rankings that can be found further down in The Bullpen, the teams ranked Nos. 3-4 overall are the Oakland A’s and the Baltimore Orioles, two teams currently holding the first and second wild-card spots in the AL standings.

The two surprise contenders faced off on the west coast on the weekend with the A’s taking two out of three. The A’s enter the week with a record of 84-62, trailing the Rangers by three games. Meanwhile the O’s are 82-64 and have been battling the Yankees for first place, trailing by one game. Which team is the bigger surprise?

PREVIOUS BULLPEN BLOGS

Jays manager John Farrell wants Chad Mottola as associate batting coach, Sept. 10

Blue Jays fans should never forget the Expos and baseball in Montreal, Sept. 4

The A’s have done this before under GM Billy Beane, parlaying great young pitching and a mix-and-match offence to create a contender out west. The formula is simple. Just hire a manager that’s not one of the elite, that doesn’t consider himself part of the show, a strategic genius, in this case Bob Melvin. Then give him a developing young rotation and a sturdy if no-name bullpen. Add a line-up with patience and power, with unofficial platoons at several positions. Mix for 162 games over a low heat and voila, if things work out, you have a contender.

Still, this is an amazing story. The A’s lost their only two veteran starting pitchers, Bartolo Colon to a 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs and Brandon McCarthy to a life-threatening head injury, a fractured skull suffered on a vicious line drive back through the middle.

That leaves the rotation with 23-year-olds, Jarrod Parker (11-8) and Dan Straily (2-1); two 24-year-olds, A.J. Griffin (6-0) and Brett Anderson (4-1) and 25-year-old Tommy Milone (13-10).

The former closer, Ryan Cook went to the all-star game representing the A’s, then in July was replaced by Grant Balfour, the saves leader among Australians. Middle relief is now manned by Cook, lefty Sean Doolittle, a former first baseman, lefty Jerry Blevins, side arming right-hander Pat Neshek and another nondescript but effective righty, Evan Scribner.

As for the batting order, the A's traded catcher Kurt Suzuki at mid-season and replaced him with rookie Derek Norris and Canadian George Kottaras. Third baseman Brandon Inge was signed after being released by the Tigers, was injured and has been replaced by Josh Donaldson. First baseman Chris Carter has been an A’s prospect for too many years to be considered a prospect, but is now a prospect. Shortstop Stephen Drew was a key acquisition obtained from the D-backs.

But it’s the outfield that has remained key to the A’s offence with Josh Reddick, obtained from the Red Sox in the winter, Cuban defector and rookie Yoenis Cespedes, signed partly as a result of his eye-catching YouTube scouting video, and veteran Coco Crisp, who provides whatever speed there is at the top of the line-up, for an organization that doesn't really value speed,. Second baseman Jemile Weeks was displaced by the former shortstop Cliff Pennington.

The A's rank 29th overall in batting average, 19th in runs scored, 25th in on-base and 18th in slugging percentage. Reddick and Cespedes are the only A’s that may reach 130 games for the year.

The Orioles must be considered the bigger surprise of the two clubs. They have not been a contender since 1997, in fact, have not won 80 games in any of the past 15 years until this one. The O’s have allowed 20 more runs that they have scored, rank 16th in runs scored, 21st in average, 23rd in on-base and 12th in slugging percentage.

The O’s farm system has not been productive and had very few good looking prospects when GM Dan Duquette took over, so he went about mixing, matching and looking for bargains. Compared to the A’s, the Orioles were plugging holes more than building towards contending.

The O’s have just one pitcher with more than 10 wins, 27-year-old Wei-Yin Chen (12-9).But they do have 19 pitchers with at least one victory. The current rotation includes Miguel Gonzalez, 28, who’s is 6-4, Jason Hammel, 30, who is 8-6, Zach Britton, 24, who is 5-3 and journeyman left-hander Joe Saunders, 31, who is 2-2 since being acquired in August.

The bullpen has been a no-name strength, led by closer Jim Johnson and setup men Pedro Strop, Luis Ayala, Darren O'Day and Brian Matusz. Consider that the O’s tried Randy Wolf and Dana Eveland in the rotation. It's been a work in progress.

As for the line-up, they have lost Nick Markakis for the season and long ago signed and then lost Jim Thome. Oh, the farm system did send them one blessing in rookie Manny Machado to play third base. He has seemed to come up huge more often than not and has solidified the defence. Other keys are catcher Matt Wieters, centrefielder Adam Jones and shortstop J.J. Hardy.

They did not know that Mark Reynolds could play a decent first base and Chris Davis could play right and they went to the scrap heap for left fielder Nate McLouth.

But the key that should have been the biggest clue to any potential 2012 success for the O's was the presence of manager Buck Showalter entering his second full season at the helm of the O's. In his second year with the Yankees he went from 76 to 88 wins; with Texas he went from 71 to 89 wins, with the Diamondbacks he went from 65 to 100 wins and with the O's, he has gone from 69 to 81 and counting. Yes, he took over during the season in 2010, but last year was his first full season.

It's a tossup, but because the view of the AL East as the strongest division in baseball during the winter, the choice as the biggest surprise between the two contending teams would have to be the O's.

BLUE JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW

SEASON: The Jays won their 66th game on Sunday with a 5-0 shutout of the Red Sox, ending the season at 11-7 against Boston. It was their first season series win vs. the Sox since 2005. The 66-79 record heading into Monday's off-day puts the Jays on pace to go 74-88 this year, the lowest win total since '04, when they were 67-94. Coincidentally, '04 was the third season under J.P. Ricciardi, while this is the third season under Alex Anthopoulos.

JAYS GM STANDINGS: Sunday’s win gave the Jays 232 victories in the first three seasons of Anthopoulos with 17 games remaining. Ricciardi had 231 wins in his first three years (2002-04); Gord Ash had 206 his first three (1995-97) with '97 being a shortened season after the strike settlement. Hall-of-Famer Pat Gillick won 166 in his first three years (1977-79).

HOMESTAND: The Jays were 2-4 on the just-completed home stand, losing two-of-three to the M's and then two-of-three to the Red Sox, salvaging the final game of both series. The Jays outscored opponents 25-21 in the six games, dominated by pitching, especially the bullpens. The Jays have won 10 of the last 19. Between July 29 and August 25 the Jays were 6-20, pretty much the season.

If there was one highlight starting performance, one that will stay with the young man the rest of his life, it was RH Henderson Alvarez outpitching his idol, Felix Hernandez on Thursday for an 8-3 win. Alvarez is four years younger than Fernandez, both growing up in the same area in Venezuela. Alvarez allowed three runs in seven innings, while the Jays pounded King Felix led by a two-run Adam Lind homer in the first and a three-run blast by Edwin Encarnacion in the fifth. It was Edwin's 40th home run, with 102 RBIs. Encarnacion becomes the eighth different Jays' player with 40 homers in a year. The club record is 54 by Jose Bautista who also hit 43 in '11. Carlos Delgado hit 40-plus three times, topped by 44 in '99. George Bell hit 47 in '87; Jose Canseco 46 in '98; Shawn Green 42 in '99; Tony Batista 41 in '00 and Jesse Barfield 40 in '86.

BULLPEN: The Jays bullpen is 5-2 with four saves in the last 19 games, since their last visit to Yankee Stadium on Aug. 26 – Brandon Lyon (2-0); Brad Lincoln (1-0); Darren Oliver (1-1); Steve Delabar (1-1); Casey Janssen (4 saves). Janssen in his last 14 games has a 4.50 ERA, allowing seven runs in 14 innings, on 11 hits, with two walks and 15 Ks. He has allowed two homers and blown two saves. The Jays have won both those games.

DISABLED LIST: 1B David Cooper (back strain) aggravated his injury and has been shut down. The Jays have had 18 disablements this year. RH Dustin McGowan, RH Drew Hutchison, RH Sergio Santos, RH Robert Coello, LH Luis Perez, RH Jesse Litsch, RH Kyle Drabek, Cooper and LH J.A. Happ are all out for the season. The club is currently battling the flu.

THE RANT: FUNDAMENTAL BASEBALL? ARRGHH!

I'm as much a fan of aggressive baseball as the next person. I grew up in the National League. But the Jays lack of understanding of the fundamentals of aggressive base running, who, what, when, where and how, and this club’s consistent lack of being able to execute and carry out what is being asked of them in terms of small ball and being smart has been both frustrating and appalling.

This is the major leagues. Usually to reach the major leagues, when you are possessed of above average speed, you know when and when not to be aggressive on the basepaths. And, oh yeah, you know how to bunt. The biggest culprits of ignoring game situations have been Brett Lawrie and Rajai Davis.

The other day, with already one out and already standing on second base, Lawrie chose to challenge a ground ball right in front of him. He was thrown out easily at third base with Yunel Escobar reaching first base. After the game, manager John Farrell was seen standing at Lawrie's locker, likely explaining his gaffe and why he should not have run. Minutes later when speaking to the media, Lawrie made no apologies for his overaggressive base running. In fact he was defiant. His logic? Well Escobar reached on a fielder's choice and made it to second on a passed ball, so what's the difference. Besides, it's the way he plays the game and he's not going to change. It's who he is.

This from the same guy who thought it was okay much earlier in the season to try and steal home with Jose Bautista batting with two strikes. Two strikes!! On that occasion, Lawrie was thrown out on a close play at the plate by the pitcher, but the fact is that with two strikes, Bautista on a pitch in the zone would have been compelled to swing the bat and could have injured Lawrie. Besides, he's your best RBI man. The third baseman did not see anything wrong there, either. He thought he could make it.

The Jays are apparently third in the league in successful steals of third (32 of 39) but that's not the point. You had better be safe when you are going with two outs. There is not much advantage in that situation. You are already in scoring position. There was a play recently with two out and Edwin Encarnacion batting where Davis took off to steal third. Seeing the lead runner on the move, Colby Rasmus took off for second as the trail runner, a beat late because it wasn't a called play. The centre fielder was thrown out easily, being tagged standing up not even at the dirt cut-out yet.

That's a lack of understanding of game situations. Even if Rasmus is safe, he's taking the bat out of the hands of Encarnacion. How often with nobody out have the Jays been thrown out at third base or home plate on a fielder's choice, replacing the runner in scoring position with a guy on first.

Then there was the game in Oakland where Davis was called into the game to bunt with runners on first and second. He popped the bunt towards third, failed to run and watched as the A's turned a double play. There was a game on this homestand in which Davis and Lawrie each fouled off two bunt attempts before being forced to swing away with two strikes. There was the game in which Farrell asked Lawrie to bunt the two runners over, opening up first base so the Red Sox could walk Edwin intentionally instead of pitching to Lawrie and Encarnacion with two men on.

How about Rasmus being doubled off of third base by second baseman Robinson Cano, throwing across the diamond on a play that Farrell praised as a stunning, athletic, instinctive gem by Cano. The manager was protecting his runner, because 12-year-olds learn that on a line drive with less than two out you freeze, lean back towards third because if it falls in you score anyway. If it’s caught you’re back to the bag. In no circumstance, no matter how sure you are it's a hit, do you get doubled off.

Winston Churchill said “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” It would be one thing if the Jays base runners and hitters showed that they had learned, or that they are good bunters, but they don't and they aren't. Tim Johnson's '98 Blue Jays were an undisciplined base running bunch that ran at odd times. But they at least paid attention to the basics of fundamental aggressiveness. There are times to run and times where it's better not to. The '98s won 88 games. This group may lose 88 games.

MLB POWER RANKINGS

Last week’s rankings in parentheses

1. Washington Nationals (1)

Second best team in franchise history — to the '94 Expos

2. Texas Rangers (2)

The AL West has become the monster division in baseball and Rangers lead

3. Oakland A’s (8)

There are no key veterans in this staff except Aussie Grant Balfour

4. Baltimore Orioles (4)

The O’s are following the personal trend 0f 90-plus wins in Showalter's second full year

5. Cincinnati Reds (6)

These guys faltered the last time in playoffs. Need Rolen to be ready for Oct.

6. New York Yankees (3)

A-Rod has a chance to convince everyone he's a clutch HoF player

7. San Francisco Giants (5)

The sweetest move would be to tell Melky to just go home in the post-season

8. Tampa Bay Rays (7)

The Rays have the best rotation in the post-season mix. Is it enough?

9. Atlanta Braves (9)

Once these guys are in the post-season they will be dangerous

10. Los Angeles Angels (10)

Time is running out but their rotation is capable of a streak

11. Detroit Tigers(13)

Tigers defence was a question mark and is still a question mark

12. Chicago White Sox (11)

Hopefully for the Chisox in Sept. nobody asks Rios for an autograph

13. Los Angeles Dodgers (14)

Even after the mega-trade with Red Sox this team is heavy with question marks

14. St. Louis Cardinals (12)

Manager Mike Matheny is a great guy but nobody is pulling for the Cards

15. Philadelphia Phillies (16)

These guys are just getting back to where they should have been all along

16. Seattle Mariners (18)

The M's have a young line-up that can all get better — next year

17. Milwaukee Brewers (19)

Ryan Braun has no MVP chance because he was also good when they were bad

18. Pittsburgh Pirates (15)

If there was a 100-game Manager-of-the-Year it would be Clint Hurdle every year

19. San Diego Padres (21)

With 28 HR Headley has 15 more than previous career high. Does question need to be asked?

20. Arizona Diamondbacks (17)

The Snakes are not very good but they seem to hang around and hover in the race

21. Toronto Blue Jays (22)

Jays are having trouble finding out what they're trying to find out. Who's ready

22. Boston Red Sox (24)

Valentine not helping himself dissing the hand that's dealt him

23. New York Mets (20)

The next thing this team can look forward to is All-Star hosts in '13

24. Kansas City Royals (23)

The last thing this team had to savour was All-Star hosts in '12

25. Minnesota Twins (25)

Organization prides itself on fundamentals but needs more talent

26. Miami Marlins (26)

No real vote of confidence for manager Guillen from owner Jeff Loria

27. Cleveland Indians (28)

Could Omar Vizquel be a candidate to manage Tribe?

28. Colorado Rockies (27)

Rocky Mountain Low, Colorado

29. Chicago Cubs (29)

Theo has already informed fans to expect more of the same

30. Houston Astros (30)

Teams in the AL West can't wait till next year

ONE FOR THE ROAD

Following is a ranking of personally preferred 2012 World Series sites, selected from among the current post-season contenders based on the working conditions for media, accessibility of the stadium and quality of the activities away from the ballpark, pre- and post-game and, basically, selfishness.

1. San Francisco Giants

Walking distance from downtown hotels, AT&T Park is one of the most unique settings in the majors, with McCovey Cove and a great view of the bay beyond the right field wall. World Series games begin at 5:30 p.m. local time leaving plenty of time for a post-game meal.

2. New York Yankees

It's Yankee Stadium and the Big Apple, after all. There's the tradition and the history to give tremendous depth to any Series story, plus it's a city the never sleeps — and lately that never sweeps. The only down side is getting out of the Bronx at one in the morning.

3. Chicago White Sox

This is the best city in baseball to visit, but all things considered, again, access to the ballpark is a detriment. In addition, this is the only organization in baseball that has decided that near the foul pole in right field is the best spot to seat the media. Yeah, I know, quit whining, right?

4. St. Louis Cardinals

Again, like New York, the story writes itself because of the baseball history oozing from every corner of the city. October is a sea of Cardinal red, with polite, enthusiastic fans and a 100 per cent baseball atmosphere. Again, stadium a short walk from downtown hotels.

5. Los Angeles Angels

Start with the weather, rent a car, stay near the ballpark. Easy access, friendly staff, great looking fans. Drive to brunch in posh Laguna Beach just 30 minutes away. Get back in plenty of time for pre-game interviews, plus it's always another 5:30 p.m. local start.

6. Baltimore Orioles

The refurbished, tourist friendly Inner Harbour is what Toronto should study as a model for their waterfront. I have a soft spot in my heart for Baltimore as a World Series venue because it's where at a Game 1 snowout vs. the Pirates, I first took my wife to dinner. Great ballpark.

7. Oakland A's

One might ask why S.F. ranks No. 1 and Oakland No. 7 when you always stay at the same hotel for both and take BART to the Coliseum. Two words — The Coliseum. What a dump, tough to get to once you get off the subway and horrible working conditions. But we'll always have 'Frisco.

8. Detroit Tigers

There are two options. You can stay in Windsor and commute, or stay in Detroit and have a short commute to Comerica. Used to choose Windsor but in the words of The Boss “Tonight can you get us a ride? Gotta make it through the tunnel Got a meeting with a man on the other side.”

9. Washington Nationals

My only trip to see the Nats was old RFK Stadium, in with the Jays at the Mayflower Hotel. I believe they gave me the Eliot Spitzer Suite. I've heard good things about the new ballpark and the location and it would be fun to see a new World Series entrant — even if I hate them.

10. Tampa Bay Rays

I still believe Tropicana Field is the worst ballpark in the majors, but the accessibility of parking, press box conditions, access to clubhouses and field and the quality of the media relations makes it worthwhile. Weather's always good and there is spring training familiarity.

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY

9/17/12 CF Casey Stengel makes his MLB debut with four hits and two steals. He goes on to a Hall-of-Fame career as a manager of mainly the Yankees and expansion Mets... 9/17/41 Stan Musial makes his MLB debut with a pair of hits... 9/17/55 3B Brooks Robinson makes his MLB debut with two hits... 9/17/80 RHP Rick Langford, currently a minor-league instructor with the Jays, gives up a homer to Rusty Staub and is relieved in the eighth, snapping a streak off 22 consecutive complete games... 9/18/56 CF Mickey Mantle of the Yankees slams his 50th HR vs. Billy Pierce on the way to the Triple Crown with one of the greatest seasons ever, batting .353 with 52 HR and 130 RBIs... 9/18/76 Frank Robinson as player/manager of the Indians singles vs. Rudy May of the O's in his final career at-bat as an active player... 9/18/87 Darrell Evans for the Tigers becomes the first player in history to hit 30-plus HR at the age of 40... 9/19/31 Lefty Grove wins his 30th game for the A's. It's the last time anyone reaches that mark until Denny McLain of the Tigers in 1968... 9/19/98 Alex Rodriguez of the M's homers to become the second player in MLB history to record 40 homers and 40 steals. The first was the 'roided up Jose Canseco with the A's in 1988... 9/19/68 Mickey Mantle slams the 536th and final homer of his illustrious career vs. Jim Lonborg of the Red Sox... 9/20/98 The Iron Bird, Cal Ripken, Jr. takes himself out of the O's line-up vs. El Duque and the Yankees, replaced by 3B Ryan Minor, snapping his consecutive games played streak at 2,632... 9/21/81 Steve Carlton of the Phils fans Andre Dawson for his 3,118th career K, setting an NL record. Amazingly, the Expos line-up that day in a 1-0 17-inning win over the Phils, included two future Hall-of-Famers (Dawson and Gary Carter), four future managers (Terry Francona, Brad Mills, Jerry Manuel and Larry Parrish) and five future MLB coaches (Jerry White, Tim Raines, Tim Wallach, Chris Speier and Wallace Johnson)... 9/22/11 Cy Young wins his final game of 511 in a fabulous MLB career, beating the Pirates 1-0... 9/22/57 Duke Snider cracks Hrs No. 39-40 of the year, the last ever at Ebbets Field as the Dodgers lead a West Coast migration heading to the Coliseum in Los Angeles... 9/22/68 The Twins starting pitcher is utility man Cesar Tovar who goes on to play all nine positions in a 2-1 win over the A's. The opposing SS Bert Campaneris is the only other man in MLB history to accomplish the feat... 9/22/93 The expansion Rockies play their final game at spacious Mile High Stadium setting a major-league attendance record of 4,483,350. The sight lines were terrible but the fans did not care... 9/23/08 Fred Merkle's famous boner for the Giants, as a walk off hit results instead, in an appeal at second base and a game-ending fielder's choice. Merkle's premature celebration results in a tie game and a replay for the pennant on Oct. 8 that the Cubs won. Oops... 9/23/78 RF Lyman Bostock of the Angels is killed in a case of mistaken identity by a shotgun blast in Gary, Ind., following a day game against the White Sox. The stunned Angels play with heavy hearts the next afternoon under former Jays manager Jim Fregosi... 9/22/84 The Tigers win their 100th game of the season, making Sparky Anderson the first manager to win 100 games in each league.

BIRTHDAYS: 9/17 John Franco, 52; Bobby Wine, 74; Orlando Cepeda, 75... 9/18 Ryne Sandberg, 53; Tony Scott, 61; Ken Brett, 64; Harvey Haddix, 87... 9/19 Jim Abbott 45; Randy Myers, 49; Joe Morgan, 69; Duke Snider, 86... 9/20 Tom Tresh 75... 9/21 Cecil Fielder 49; Danny Cox 53; Sam McDowell, 69; John McHale 91... 9/22 Mike Matheny, 42; Jim Fairey, 68; Larry Dierker, 66... 9/23 Dennis Lamp, 60; Jim Rooker, 70.

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

The Blue Jays' eight farm teams combined for a 427-395 record.

AAA-Las Vegas (79-64) missed playoffs with fifth-best record in 16-team PCL. In four seasons at Las Vegas, the Jays affiliate was a combined 287-288...Alex Anthopoulos begins negotiations with Buffalo.

AA-New Hampshire (61-81) ended the EL season in last place.

A-Dunedin (78-55) posted the best record in the FSL's North Division and second overall. Jays lost the first round playoff series to Lakeland. MGR Mike Redmond was named to the FSL all-stars.

A-Lansing (82-55) posted the best overall record in the Midwest League.

A-Vancouver (46-30) won second straight Northwest League championship.

A-Bluefield (29-37) finished last in their division.

Rk-Gulf Coast Blue Jays (22-38).

Rk-Dominican Summer League (30-35)

AL ROUNDUP

The Rangers are making pitching moves in an attempt to stay ahead of the A's in the AL West, that has far and away become the best division in baseball, taking over from the AL East. Rangers' MGR Ron Washington announced that 21-year-old rookie RH Martin Perez will take over the rotation spot of RH Scott Feldman as of Friday. In Feldman’s last seven starts he is 0-5, with a 6.99 ERA. In his 22 starts, the Rangers are 7-15. Feldman began the season in the bullpen. C Mike Napoli finally returned to the Rangers line-up, but will at least get four days off when RH Yu Darvish pitches down the stretch. Darvish in his six starts with C Geovany Soto is 4-1, with a 2.32 ERA. Darvish's endurance over the course of a full major-league season had been in question, but he's finishing strong...What ever happened to RH Ernesto Frieri, the light-out closer that the Angels seemingly stole from the Padres in May? On Saturday, with RH Zack Greinke within two outs of a shutout, MGR Mike Scioscia brought his closer in who promptly gave up back-to-back homers for a Royals' walk off win. Angels 1B Mike Trumbo homered on Sunday. It was his first extra-base hit since August 21, over 18 games. The Angels will have no excuses for their showdown vs. the Rangers at home. The rotation is set up with RH Jered Weaver, LH C.J. Wilson and Greinke... The Rays are suffering from a fading rookie LH Matt Moore who has lasted just four and three innings in his last two starts. OF Sam Fuld, the role model for wrist recovery for Jays' RF Jose Bautista, is out for a few days with a right hamstring strain. Kudos to Rays' MGR Joe Maddon who is constantly promoting his coaches to manage elsewhere, in the same way Terry Francona did when he was with the Red Sox. Maddon is pushing his bench coach, Dave Martinez, towards the soon to be vacant Astros' job. “Obviously if they chose him, they'd made a great choice, and I so wish him well,” Maddon said of Martinez. “We'd always hate to lose him, but that would be the evolution of his career. That ballpark and that city with their tradition fits perfect, and the fact that they're going to the American League, and his knowledge of the American League, I think would be very beneficial, too.”... The biggest differences between the Tigers last year and this year have been the closer and the defence. CL Jose Valverde should cut down on his entrance pantomime with all the accompanying choreography unless he is perfect. He blew and lost Sunday's game vs. the Indians, even though earlier in the game it was the defence that let them down. The Tigers lead the AL in unearned runs allowed. It will be tough for them to go into next season with 3B Miguel Cabrera and 1B Prince Fielder at the corners. A good rotation target for the Jays in the off-season might be RH Rick Porcello who throws a lot of groundballs and has not been helped by the Tiger pylons.

NL ROUNDUP

The Giants have been an amazing story. Even with the loss of all-star CF Melky Cabrera to a drug suspension and the disappointment of RH Tim Lincecum, the Giants have reached a magic number of nine as they start a 10-game home stand. In fact, they are said to be seriously considering just asking Cabrera to go home when his PED 50-game suspension ends, if they are deep in the playoffs. Little noted is the comeback of LH Barry Zito, who has helped right the rotation with some strong starts and his best season since '06. Zito is 12-8 and the Giants have won his last eight starts...The Cards wild-card hopes are looking up. They beat the Dodgers on Sunday for a one-game lead for WC-II and now play nine straight against the Cubs and Astros the only two teams in MLB with a winning percentage under .400. RH Chris Carpenter amazingly will be starting on Friday vs. the Cubs after a nerve problem in his right shoulder has kept him out all year... The Phils looked like they were charging until they got juiced at Minute Maid Park losing three of four to the woeful Astros. 1B Ryan Howard in Sept. is hitting .193 with 15 Ks in 15 games. The 'Stros even walked 2B Chase Utley in order to face Howard. LH Cliff Lee is facing the Mets Monday night and is 3-0, 0.99 ERA in his last four starts... Here's one that will make you go “Hmm!” Braves RH Kris Medlen and Nats' RH Stephen Strasburg had Tommy John surgery the same week in August 2010. While Strasburg has been shut down for the year due to an inning count, Medlen started vs. the Nats on Friday and shut them down. Medlen was used in relief the first chunk of the season, obviously saving enough bullets where if the Braves got to a wild-card game, he would be the logical choice for the start. The Braves have won the last 20 Medlen starts, the longest streak since the Yankees won 20 straight Roger Clemens starts in 2001... It's tough coming back as a hitter after time off in the middle of a season. Look at C J.P. Arencibia and 3B Brett Lawrie with the Jays. Look at 1B Joey Votto with the Reds. Votto is 10-for-33-.303 since coming back from a couple of knee procedures, but has just two doubles. “Driving the ball through the middle of the field, through the gaps, out of the ballpark, that will come at some point,” Votto said to Reds' media on the weekend. “Some players just have the natural stroke that you throw them in the lineup and all of the sudden they turn on a ball and hit it out of the ballpark. I feel like I've got a process swing. It takes a long time to get to where it needs to be and to stay there. The advantage — if I'm healthy — more often than not, it tends to stay there." The Reds MGR Dusty Baker has sat LH Aroldis Chapman for six days as part of a master plan to keep him fresh... One Brewers pitcher is on the way up and one is on the way down and the way out. The 23-year-old rookie RH Wily Peralta is 2-0, with a 1.80 ERA in his three starts, while RH Shaun Marcum, on his way to free-agency, is 0-1, with a 5.70 ERA in his four starts since returning from the DL with elbow issues. The Brew Crew is a red-hot 20-6 into Monday.

The Bullpen: Melky Cabrera's suspension shows Steroid Era won't fade

It seems that eight years after mandatory testing and performance-enhancing drugs were declared illegal in the game, the spectre of major-league baseball’s Steroid Era just won’t go away.

Slightly over one month after the feel-good performance of Melky Cabrera in Kansas City that earned him all-star game MVP honours, came the disturbing news that the 28-year-old San Francisco Giants outfielder failed an in-season drug test, due to excess levels of testosterone in his system.

If that wasn’t bad enough, on Sunday, the New York Daily News ran an exclusive story from its investigation that revealed a “paid consultant” of Cabrera’s agency, ACES of Brooklyn, N.Y., had concocted a scheme to purchase an online website, doctor it and place an after the fact ad for a supplement they could then say Cabrera purchased and used without knowing the ingredients. Fraud?

Sam and Seth Levinson are highly respected agents within the industry. They own ACES with a strong client list, but they insist that they knew nothing about the attempted fraud, that it was this “paid consultant” named Juan Nunez that had come up with and executed the scheme all on his own.

“The MLBPA (players’ union) has clearly stated that ACES has no connection to the website or this matter and, as reported, Juan Nunez has taken full responsibility for his acts,” Seth Levinson sent an e-mail to the Associated Press throwing his man under the PED bus.

“There is nothing more we can add and we will allow our reputation in the industry for 27 years to speak for itself.”

The ignorance defence would likely work in a court of law, but certainly not in the court of public opinion. Even though the suspension of Cabrera by MLB was announced just last week, the results have apparently been known by the player and his agent since sometime in mid-July. Cabrera is a free agent at the end of the season and stands to make millions on the open market, given his breakout season, batting .346 with 60 RBIs, leading the weak-hitting Giants into playoff contention.

The purchase of the online website by Nunez, allegedly acting on his own, cost approximately $10,000. The scam would only have worked using an existing website because the argument needed to be put forward that the substance, believed to be a cream, was purchased before the test was failed. It therefore could not have been purchased from a website that was created only after the failed drug test. Despite that, MLB investigators were easily able to trace ownership back to Nunez.

Synthetic testosterone is a popular method of cheating. It is a substance produced from soy or yams, in factories and applied using injection, patches or other means. I know one former all-star player, a long-time friend of mine, whose career was well on the downside.

He was desperate for a way to remain active and continue his career. He had just a couple of years of playing time left, max. With knees that were constantly breaking down, the player’s wife went online and purchased a cream to be applied to the knees that was supposed to relieve the pain and promote healing. The miracle substance seemed to work and the player innocently discussed it with me, which shows he didn’t know what it was.

Later, his name came up in a commissioner’s report on steroids. So what Cabrera’s side was actually suggesting with the phony website is not so outlandish.

“Sam and I absolutely had no knowledge or dealings with anyone at anytime associated with the website,” Seth Levinson said in a note sent to the Daily News. “I will state unequivocally and irrefutably that any payment made to the website does not come from ACES.”

The fact is that whether or not Nunez was acting on his own, the player and his advisors had a month to figure out a course of action. Turning a blind eye to fraud is not good enough. This course of action, this strategy of fighting Melky’s positive reading, stems from the Ryan Braun situation over the winter where the NL MVP was able to successfully fight a 50-game suspension on a technicality. Even some players were not happy he won. In the case of Cabrera, there is a clause in the CBA agreement that says a suspension can be overturned if the player can prove he ingested the material accidentally.

The Levinson brothers, who have many high-profile baseball clients and expect more in the future, are technically correct about Nunez not being a full-time employee and about him communicating from personal devices and about him having only his name on the purchase of the website, but they must take some responsibility for the strategy.

It would seem impossible that in a crisis of this magnitude for one of their highest-profiled clients, that they would not have their finger on the pulse of any offbeat strategy designed to avoid punishment and suspension. If they did not know, then they’re not doing their job.

Sitting back, watching with interest is the BALCO founder, the man acknowledged by baseball as the villain at the centre of the Barry Bonds investigation, Victor Conte sounds almost smug when he chimes in that this is nothing compared to the cheating that is still going on around baseball. Even commissioner Bud Selig is believed to have told owners at a recent meeting that they will be shocked by what’s going on. As one who has been encouraged by the progress baseball had seemingly made and the way the game has returned to its five-tool roots, my optimism has been shaken.

BLUE JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW

GAMES: The Jays had another pathetic week on the field, dropping three of four games to the White Sox and two of three to the Rangers, to finish the 10-game homestand with a record of 3-7.

“Certainly where we’re at and the way things have turned with the overall record, the daily approach doesn’t change whether we’re eight games over or eight games under,” manager John Farrell said. “The focus is everyday on coming in here and try to win today. That focus and energy and effort doesn’t change regardless of who’s in the lineup or who’s about to return. Winning is important. This is a bottom-line game. We’re all evaluated and judged on our record. That doesn’t change.”

The Jays record at week’s end was 56-65, with a Sunday lineup that featured light-hitting Jeff Mathis (.219) as the DH after David Cooper’s back spasmed up during batting practice. Mathis was batting sixth against the Rangers, followed by Mike McCoy (.208), Yan Gomes (.165) and Adeiny Hechavarria (.167). Compare that to the Rangers six-to-nine holes of Michael Young, David Murphy, Geovany Soto and Mitch Moreland, who combined on Sunday to go 11-for-19 with eight RBIs. The Jays managed just two hits as a team against Matt Harrison and company.

The Jays, since July 29 through Aug. 19, had posted 13 games with seven hits or fewer and 12 games with two runs or less. The record in those 12 low-run games was 0-12. The record when scoring three or more runs was 5-4. Much-needed help in the form of recovering players is on the way.

Earlier in the week, the struggling LH Ricky Romero reverted to the bad Ricky in a 9-5 loss to the White Sox. The best starts of the week were by newcomer LH J.A. Happ throwing six solid innings in a win over Yu Darvish and the Rangers on Friday and RH Carlos Villanueva in a 2-1 Saturday loss.

TRANSACTIONS: The Jays, on Aug. 14, signed backup C Jeff Mathis to a two year contract for $1.5 million per season, plus a club option for 2015 at the same salary. At the same time, the club signed C Yorvit Torrealba, 34, to a minor-league contract, reporting to AA-New Hampshire.

Torrealba, released earlier by the Texas Rangers, played four games for the Fisher Cats, two as DH and two behind the dish, and will report to the Jays on Tuesday in Detroit. The timing of the Mathis contract and the Torrealba signing was coincidental, although it was important that Mathis know he is a part of the Jays’ future, even though the newcomer will split time with Mathis.

“Anytime, in my whole career I’ve always grinded it out from year-to-year,” Mathis acknowledged the importance of job security in his decision to re-up. “Just...not the stress, but the not knowing of where you’re going to be in the next year, whether you know it or not or whether you’ve been in that situation before, there’s just something to be said about security. Being in a spot where people like you. It’s really nice to be here, nice to be wanted. Like I said, I feel like with the group of guys here we’re headed in the right direction. That’s ultimately what I want to be a part of.”

On Thursday, the Jays completed their 10-player transaction with the Astros by sending RH Kevin Comer from A-Bluefield to Houston. Comer, selected No. 57 overall in the June ’11 draft, had commanded a $1.65 million signing bonus, more than a million over slot. The Astros did what they needed to do in terms of re-stocking the organization, while the Jays may end up with just Happ and RH David Carpenter, if RH Brandon Lyon leaves as a free agent in the winter.

DISABLED LIST: There was good news on the injury front. On Monday, 3B Brett Lawrie (oblique) and RF Jose Bautista (left hand) were set to start for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays. Lawrie was to return to the Jays in Detroit, with Bautista needing more game reps and set to fly to Baltimore on the weekend.

Meanwhile RH Brandon Morrow made the final of his five minor-league starts on Sunday at AA-New Hampshire, 4-2/3 innings, 81 pitches and will join the Jays in Detroit. He is ready to throw 80 pitches in a major-league game. He should be activated and return to the rotation, likely on Saturday in Baltimore. That would be a Henderson Alvarez turn in the rotation. The big question then becomes who would pitch in Aaron Laffey’s turn on Monday at Yankee Stadium. On other Jays’ injury fronts, DH Adam Lind was expected to get some at-bats for the GCL Jays and at A-Dunedin. RH Dustin McGowan (shoulder) and RH Drew Hutchison (elbow) are out for the season, as are Sergio Santos, Robert Coello, Luis Perez, Jesse Litsch and Kyle Drabek. How was your week?

THE RANT

Earlier in the past week, speculation in New England was rampant that Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine would be fired at some point soon. The reasons for the suggested dismissal were vague, but somehow seemed from legit sources. The players, apparently 17 strong, had a meeting with owner John Henry and GM Ben Cherington to voice their displeasure with the decisions and the direction of Bobby V. Departed C Kelly Shoppach, who had been dealt to the Mets, denied that he wrote the e-mail complaint on Adrian Gonzalez’ phone chastising Valentine for leaving Jon Lester in a game to get pounded for 11 runs that prompted the meeting. Shoppach said he did not even attend the meeting.

The fact is Valentine has not fallen out of favour with the players, he has never been in their favour. Recall that after former MGR Terry Francona was dismissed in boorishly cavalier fashion last October certain players were rumoured to have been dismayed when Valentine’s name was initially brought up. That came prior to Henry’s fait accompli interview of Valentine, a coronation, that even the GM had not had on his schedule and which aced out seeming finalists Jays coach Torey Lovullo and Cubs manager Dale Sveum, the final two interviewees. Red Sox Nation has taken sides ever since.

Four months into Valentine’s first season, the initial suggestion for who would be his replacement in the Red Sox dugout was that the team somehow should wait for Jays manager John Farrell to fulfill his duties as an exile in Toronto following the 2013 season, the third year of his three-year contract.

After that the Sox could lure him away for the 2014 season. But that scenario changed in moments, with the creative media rumour mill, the unofficial shadow cabinet. Why wait for the end of his contract, became the question in Beantown. It didn’t take long for the pretzel logic of the rumour-mongers to suggest that at the end of the current championship season the Sox should just hire Farrell away from the Jays. Maybe they might even ask for permission, maybe not. Why? Because it’s Boston. All bow.

What is it about both Boston and New York that makes their front office, fans and media think that all their organization has to do is snap its fingers and whoever they want, whether a free-agent player, executive or manager will come running. Boston is a mess. Other than the possibility of a higher payroll, what makes the Red Sox and Yankees so smug? It’s not just Farrell. This attitude is eternal.

Besides, it’s not like Farrell has strong ties to Boston and owes them anything. Sure the Sox gave him a chance as major-league pitching coach and, sure, they won a second World Series in four years in his first season, 2007. But Farrell was born a Jersey boy, went to Oklahoma St., pitched in many different cities other than Boston, settled his family in Cleveland, worked for the Indians and is happy.

He remained as the Sox pitching coach for four seasons under Francona, who became his good friend. Francona, to his credit, was constantly pumping the tires of his coaches pushing them to become managers elsewhere whenever there were openings. There’s Farrell, Sveum and ex-Astros’ skipper Brad Mills. These guys feel more loyalty to Tito than they do to the Red Sox. How’d that loyalty thing work out for Tito? Francona ended up fired by the Sox and Farrell, among others, was not happy with the team for the way it treated his friend on the way out the door. A Sox front office leak teased about Francona’s marital problems and reliance on prescription drugs. Why would anyone want to be a part of that? Besides, what says the Red Sox are going to win something before the Blue Jays win something.

Farrell, in 2010, was given permission by the Sox to interview and he bought into the Jays’ plan in November. The Jays also bought into his. Farrell has been a big part of what GM Alex Anthopoulos is doing and fact is the Jays’ GM seems to treat his organization people with far more respect than the Red Sox do. So why does anyone assume that if the Sox crook a finger in his direction, Farrell will jump.

The attitude bothers me. Back with the Expos in the early ’90s, Dan Duquette replaced Dave Dombrowski as GM in Montreal after the latter had headed south to the fledgling Florida Marlins. Duke was a different story. He was a New England native, attended Amherst College and grew up dreaming of being with the Red Sox. Farrell does not have the same background. At one point, just two years into his GM tenure in Montreal, the Red Sox called and Duquette could not resist the Siren’s Song. Expos’ president Claude Brochu didn’t want to let Duquette go, but Duke argued if he stayed his heart would not be in it. That’s usually enough for a team to change its mind and the Expos did. But that’s different. There was a lifelong connection to Boston. Apparently the Sox and those around them think that everyone’s dream is to work for the Red Sox. The arrogance still irks me.

MLB POWER RANKINGS

Last week’s ranking in parentheses

1. New York Yankees (1)

Every time you look up OF Andruw Jones is doing something special

2. Washington Nationals (2)

The clock is ticking towards decision on what to do with Strasburg

3. Cincinnati Reds (4)

One of those teams waiting for a friend, Votto, that will only make them better

4. Texas Rangers (3)

Pitching will be an issue in a short series, plus Hamilton’s state of mind

5. Tampa Bay Rays (6)

Manager Maddon is special person when it comes to creating team environment

6. Atlanta Braves (5)

These guys are damn good and have come close when they weren’t as damned good

7. Baltimore Orioles (9)

The longer this team hangs in the more talk of GM Dan Duquette as exec of year

8. Chicago White Sox (8)

The issue here is that closer is a rookie and Peavy is having comeback for ages

9. Detroit Tigers (10)

These guys may be laying in the weeds like last year’s Cards

10. Pittsburgh Pirates (7)

Well at least they’re odds-on to finish above .500 first since ‘92

11. Oakland A’s (12)

The longer the season goes the more likely these guys wake up to reality

12. Los Angeles Dodgers (14)

Maybe they should be ranked higher, but earn it first even with first place likely

13. San Francisco Giants (13)

It’s not like Giants should be stunned by OF being accused of PED abuse

14. Arizona Diamondbacks (16)

Maybe Kirk Gibson greatest manager ever ‘cuz these guys aren’t that good

15. St. Louis Cardinals (15)

At some point expect these guys to pull reverse 2011 and plummet sans chute

16. Los Angeles Angels (11)

Don’t know why keep ranking these guys so high but still think can be WC

17. New York Mets (17)

There is nothing lovable about this team but Dickey and Wright

18. Boston Red Sox (18)

Terry Francona greatest manager in history to win 2 WS in this environment

19. Seattle Mariners (19)

King Felix said he thought about El Perfecto from 3rd inning on

20. Toronto Blue Jays (20)

For all those that a month ago said play all the young guys. No!!!!

21. Milwaukee Brewers (21)

Shaun Marcum injured, soon to be free agent. So who won that deal?

22. Miami Marlins (23)

Marlins mediocre team in mediocre park with meddling ownership

23. Philadelphia Phillies (24)

They should have focused more on hitters after last year’s drop-off

24. Kansas City Royals (27)

Love the arms in the bullpen even though hitting studs disappointed

25. Minnesota Twins (22)

Apologize for thinking “Twins Way” was something special

26. Cleveland Indians (25)

This is a Faustian call of what to do with this pitching staff next year.

27. San Diego Padres (26)

May be getting better as season goes on but record does not reflect

28. Chicago Cubs (28)

Have bunch of good young players and manager who had no ’12 chance

29. Colorado Rockies (29)

This is around time these guys start their charge. Wait until next year

30. Houston Astros (30)

Brad Mills advice from Nigerian Olympic basketball team did not work

AL ROUNDUP

A’s RH Bartolo Colon, 39, beat the Indians on Saturday for his 10th victory, the most of any season since he won 21 for the Angels in his Cy Young year of 2005. Colon was part of a trade with Montreal that built the Indians at the time and was one of the worst trades in Expos history. Colon was sent with a fringy reliever to the Expos for Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore and Lee Stevens... Some guys have no sense of the dramatic. In Kansas City on Sunday, RH Jeremy Guthrie was tossing a no-hitter vs. the White Sox, when Paul Konerko grounded a ball deep in the hole at short. The throw from Alcides Escobar came up short, but bounced up and 1B Eric Hosmer seemed to have a clear shot at it. The ball bounced off his glove and scorer Del Black ruled “base hit”. What ever happened to the unwritten rule that the first hit, especially fifth inning or later, should be a clean hit?... Rays’ MGR Joe Maddon is still the best motivator in baseball with his team building road trips, etc. On Saturday, the Rays came back from an 8-0 deficit to beat the Angels, capped by a two-run homer by Carlos Pena. The Angels pitching has fallen apart, although LH Scott Downs return from the DL may help stabilize the pen. The Rays scored 37 runs in four games vs. the Angels who started Dan Haren, Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson and Zack Greinke. If the Jays are looking for a common thread to their issues of late, there’s the Wells factor. In games that Vernon Wells has appeared in the Angels are 19-31. When he has not played, the Angels are 43-29... Speaking of pitching, RH Felix Hernandez tossed the second perfect game at Safeco Field this year this week. The other was by White Sox RH Phil Humber. That’s never been done. The M’s are working their way back to .500 which would be an incredible feat given how they looked through the first half. Could the dumping of RF Ichiro have changed the clubhouse? The M’s are 30-30 at home... Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but 1B Mark Teixeira has missed three games with inflammation in his left wrist and is expected to return in the next couple of games. It’s the same problem that has kept Jose Bautista out for a month... The Indians are 10-26 since the all-star break, through the weekend. C Lou Marson has thrown out just five of 55 base runners attempting to steal. That’s 9.1-percent. That’s not good... Red Sox LF Carl Crawford’s season has already been spoiled by injuries and now they must determine whether to shut the speedy outfielder down because of an injury to his throwing elbow that likely needs Tommy John. The Jays like to think they have been crippled by injuries, but the Sox have had 26 players on the DL this year, the most in the majors since at least 1987 when they kept track of such things. The 1979 Expos had one player on the DL all season as they won 95 games. The Expos used 14 pitchers for the year and the one DL was SS Chris Speier, July 1-15.

NL ROUNDUP

Prior to Sunday’s game, Reds’ 1B Joey Votto took some groundballs on the field at Great American Ballpark. He has been out since July 16, the same day the Jays lost Jose Bautista. But unlike the struggling Jays, the Reds have gone 24-10 without Votto... The Astros fired MGR Brad Mills on Sunday along with coaches Bobby Meacham and Mike Barnett. Barnett was the Jays hitting coach between 2002-05. Mills was replaced by AAA manager Tony DeFrancesco around whom the plucky Astros rallied for an 8-1 loss in his debut to the D’backs. The last Astros manager to be replaced after a season was Larry Dierker in 2001. Since then, Jimy Williams, Phil Garner, Cecil Cooper and Mills have all been in-season casualties... The Cards’ 19-inning, 6-3 loss to the Pirates on Sunday was their longest game since a 20-inning 2-1 loss to the Mets in 2010. LH Jaime Garcia was the starter in both those games. 3B David Freese was 0-for-8, the first time that had been done since Luis Alicea in 1988... Good news on the suspended player front for the Giants. RH Guillermo Mota, in the midst of a 100-game suspension for PEDs is beginning a rehab assignment (maybe another term would be better) in A-Fresno. He is eligible to return on August 28... A chance to see what sort of heavy mettle the young Nats have as they face their closest pursuers the Braves in a three-game set. Not pitching will be LH Gio Gonzalez who won on the weekend and ran his record to 16-6, tied for the NL lead in wins... Braves comeback RH Ben Sheets gave up four homers on Saturday for the first time in his career, rationalizing that at least they were mostly solo. Of course it’s hard for them not to be as he gave up three of the bombs in the space of four pitches... Small blessings for the Cubbies. On Sunday RH Chris Volstad made his 24th straight start without a win, since July 10, 2011. The good news was that he didn’t take the loss with his record staying at 0-9 and his ERA dropped from 6.96 to 6.88. LF Alfonso Soriano became the sixth player in MLB history with the unusual combo of 400 2B, 350 HR, 1000 RBIs and 250 SB. The other five are Hall-of-Famers Andre Dawson and Willie Mays, plus Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield... Marlins’ RF Giancarlo Stanton said he had no explanation why he had hit home runs in six consecutive games at Coors Field, the first six games he ever played there. How about the fact the place is a mile high above sea level. The feat set a MLB record, but the streak was snapped on Sunday.

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY:

8/20/64 The infamous Yankee bus incident – one of them anyway – where utility infielder Phil Linz plays Mary had a Little Lamb on his harmonica. Manager Yogi Berra tells him to stop then slaps the harmonica away. Berra and the Yanks go on to lose the World Series to the Cardinals and Berra is replaced by winning Cards manager Johnny Keane... 8/20/74 In one of the most dominant seasons by any power pitcher, Nolan Ryan fans 19 Tigers in a 1-0 11-inning loss. It is Ryan’s third game of 19 strikeouts that season. Ryan also had three games with 15 Ks and fanned 367 for the year... 8/21/47 the first ever Little League World Series is staged in Williamsport, with the home town Maynard Midgets take the title... 8/21/75 corpulent brothers Rick and Paul Reuschel combine for the Cubs to shut out the Dodgers 8-0, the first time brothers have combined for a MLB shutout... 8/22/65 the Giants and Dodgers rivalry was fierce. Juan Marichal accuses Dodgers catcher John Roseboro of throwing balls back to Sandy Koufax too close to his ear. He keeps doing it so Marichal pounds him over the head with his bat. Marichal is suspended just eight days and fined $1,750... 8/23/89 the Expos complete a homestand with a 22-inning 1-0 loss to the Dodgers as Rick Dempsey homers against Dennis Martinez who was only in the game because LHP Joe Hesketh told Buck Rodgers he couldn’t pitch. The next day Hesketh arrives at Dorval for the flight to San Diego and is told not to bother taking his suitcase out of the cab. He’s placed on the DL and left at home... 8/24/89 Commissioner Bart Giammati bans Pete Rose for life for allegedly gambling on baseball games... Giammati dies later that year and his successors Fay Vincent and Bud Selig continue to uphold the ruling... 8/26/72 recently deposed Cubs manager Leo Durocher replaces Harry “the Hat” Walker as manager of the Astros. Durocher becomes the second man to manage two NL teams in the same season. The first was Durocher with the Giants and Dodgers in 1948.

Birthdays this week: 8/20 Brad Arnsberg 49, Mark Langston 52, Graig Nettles 68; 8/21 John Wetteland 46; 8/22 Paul Molitor 56, Ray Burris 62, Carl Yastrzemski 73; 8/23 Randy St. Claire 52, Jerry White 60; 8/24 Cal Ripken, Jr. 52, Tony Bernazard 56; 8/25 Dooley Womack 73.

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

AAA-Las Vegas (73-55) beat first place Sacramento 9-4 on Sunday to move within 3-1/2 games of first place. RH Scott Richmond (10-7, 5.83 ERA) was the starter and winner. DH Jack Cust was 2-for-3 with 2 walks, 2 RBIs and is hitting .225. CF Danny Perales was 2-for-5 with 2 runs and is hitting .296. 1B Kevin Howard was 2-for-5 with a homer and is hitting .266. The 51s handed out awards and the Mayor’s Trophy, voted on by fans, went to SS Adeiny Hechavarria, as well as team MVP. The Community Service Award goes to CF Anthony Gose... AA-New Hampshire (53-74) beat Altoona 4-2 on Sunday. RH Brandon Morrow started with no decision. RH Ronald Uviedo (5-2) picked up the win in relief. RH Sam Dyson notched save No. 8, with a 1.37 ERA. DH Koby Clemens was 2-for-2 with a double and a homer. C Yorvit Torrealba finished at .417 on his prep for promotion to the Jays. RH Yohan Pino is 8-7, with a 3.48 ERA. RH Deck McGuire is 5-14, with a 6.26 ERA. RH Marcus Stroman is 1-0, with a 1.80 ERA in five games... A-Dunedin (29-25) lost 7-3 to Lakeland on Sunday. RH Jesse Hernandez (1-3, 5.97 ERA) was the starter and loser. 3B Brett Lawrie was 0-for-3. LF Kevin Pillar homered and is batting .333 with 14 steals in 14 attempts. RH Danny Barnes is 1-2 with a 1.47 ERA and 32 saves... A-Lansing (28-25) lost 9-2 to Lake County on Sunday. RH Brian McFarland (5-4, 5.29 ERA) was the starter and loser. 1B K.C. Hobson has 9 HR-78 RBIs and is batting .277. SS Andy Burns is batting .248, with 9 HR-37 RBIs and 15 steals. The Big 3 starters – Aaron Sanchez, Justin Nicolino and Noah Syndergaard – have combined for a 23-11 record, with 299 Ks in 279 innings... A-Vancouver (17-10) lead the second half. The young Canadians beat Salem 3-0 on Sunday. RH Kyle Anderson (4-2, 4.07 ERA) was the starter and winner (5.1IP; 6H; 1BB). 3B Kellen Sweeney was 2-for-4 with a homer. Despite a .222 average, Sweeney has 20 extra-base hits among his 48 safeties. 1B Balbino Fuenmayor stroked HR No. 8 and is batting .266 with 42 RBIs... A-Bluefield (24-33) split a twin bill with Danville, losing 5-4 and winning 3-2 on Sunday. LH Daniel Norris was the starter and loser in Game 1 (3.1IP; 6H; 5R; 3ER; 1BB; 5K; 7.97 ERA). LH Griffin Murphy pitched in relief (4.1IP; 1H; 1R; 0ER; EBB; 7K; 1.05 ERA). Murphy has 39 Ks in 34-1/3 innings. CF D.J. Davis was 3-for-8 in the DH, batting .389... Rk-Blue Jays did not play on Sunday.

ONE FOR THE ROAD:

When I returned from the recent 10-game road trip to Seattle, Oakland and Tampa, I was greeted by tragic news that my best friend, Kevin McGowan, had passed away in his sleep at the age of 58 while I was on the road. I had known him for 37 years. Kevin became the afternoon radio man at CFCF two years after I joined the team as a 19-year-old kid in 1973. Kevin was a kid too. We were the same age with similar interests, living on our own, working together to try and promote the Expos in the city, both on the clock and off. There was a silent bond between us that lasted a lifetime. We worked together, played together, laughed together and enjoyed life together. Kevin soon became the morning man at CFCF replacing John Robertson. His new 4 a.m. wakeups changed our night-life somewhat. Kevin went from Montreal to Windsor to work, then came back to CFCF for a second tour of duty. Later, he went to Winnipeg, then on to Ottawa where he ended up at KOOL-FM as their morning star, making his home in the Nation’s Capital with wife Lorna and daughter Alison. We didn’t see each other as often as we should, but made many trips together—spring training, winter meetings in Florida, Martinique, New Orleans, Las Vegas, New York plus less exotic locales like Minneapolis, where a young politician named Gary Doer, leader of the Manitoba opposition and a friend of Kevin’s, spent a night sitting on the floor with me and Kevin telling stories and over-imbibing during the ‘91 World Series. I was part of Kevin’s wedding party and he was in mine. He is godfather to my daughter Shannon. Now he’s gone. My wife Debbie and I left Thursday’s game vs. the White Sox in the sixth inning, spent the night in Belleville and drove up Friday morning to a memorial in Eganville. We went to Ottawa from there, took daughter Kelly to dinner, returning home Friday night in time to cover consecutive losses to the Rangers at the Dome on Saturday-Sunday. Baseball was put in perspective.

Richard Griffin’s Bullpen: Blue Jays draft class exposes flaws in new MLB rules

The Jays may have concocted and executed the draft model for other teams in the future, while at the same time exposing the flaws in the new rules under the current bargaining agreement.

The Jays had a budget of over $8 million for their 14 picks in the first 10 rounds. GM Alex Anthopoulos gave away rounds four through 10, selecting all grateful college seniors to fund the first three rounds and seven picks.

The strategy worked, as the Jays snapped up six of Baseball America’s Top 45 prospects, including right-hander Marcus Stroman, the closest to being major-league ready and outfielder Anthony Alford, the best athlete in the draft who the Jays are allowing to fulfill his commitment to quarterback at Southern Miss. But that is not the spirit of the draft. The Brewers, among many other teams, chose players that they believed fit the slot money that was attached to that pick.

The Jays, using their high-low strategy, signed 32 of their 44 draft picks overall, including all 14 in the first 10 rounds, but just 18 of the 30 between Rounds 11-40 that were slotted at a maximum of $100,000. The Jays were willing to go over their slot by 4.999-percent, in order to be penalized money by MLB that will be re-distributed to others, but not a future draft pick. They accomplished that.

The one player that they missed out on they would have loved to have signed was left-hander Ryan Kellogg, a 12th rounder from Whitby, Ont. Kellogg was a star on Canada’s Junior National Team that toured Florida in the spring. His personal highlight was facing Jose Bautista and popping him up to shortstop. Kellogg will attend Arizona St. University and be eligible again in the 2015 June draft.

If he remains healthy, Kellogg will likely be in the top half-dozen rounds of the draft next time. The Jays would have had to overwhelm Kellogg beyond the $100,000 offered. He had been expected to be drafted higher, but the club held firm to its offer. Many teams dealing with high school players included an education package above and beyond the bonus, so it’s not just about an education.

The Jays are thrilled with their draft and experts have rated them amongst the most successful organizations at interpreting and utilizing the new rules of slotting and penalties.

THE RANT: MR. OCTOBER SHOULD STICK TO HIS BEST CONVERSATION TOPIC, HIMSELF

Hall-of-Fame outfielder, Mr. October, Reggie Jackson shot off his mouth again last week and bit off far more than he can chew. In a far-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated, Jackson gratuitously ripped into some of his fellow Hall-of-Famers, saying that guys like Kirby Puckett, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton, Jim Rice and the late Gary Carter were not really Hall-worthy.

The fact the Kid had just passed away and was laid to rest this spring makes the Jackson rant disgraceful. Reggie also questioned Bert Blyleven’s credentials, insisting that he wasn’t the best pitcher of his era, that Jack Morris was the dominant pitching force of the ’80s. Yes, Morris deserves to be in, but so does Blyleven who, by the way, dominated Reggie during his career. Oh yeah, the current Yankees’ senior adviser suggested that current Yankee Alex Rodriguez’ stats should be questioned since he has admitted some steroid involvement earlier in his career. Jackson has since been advised to stay away from the club by ownership, while still hanging on, for the time being, to his title.

Now Reggie is a charming, opinionated guy that can be an entertaining raconteur, as I have observed in lively, funny visits to manager’s offices with both Felipe Alou and Cito Gaston. But his best stories should remain about himself. This other stuff is beneath what Reggie should represent as one of the game’s best clutch hitters — at least in the post-season.

Besides, as an active American Leaguer, when would Reggie have seen Carter catch enough to form an opinion? Reggie insists that if the writers are going to vote in players that have been linked to steroids that there will be a general revolt among current members in terms of a willingness to attend the inductions. That is a legitimate observation, but Reggie, just shut your mouth when it comes to the deservedness of others to rub shoulders with you on stage in July at the Hall-of-Fame. Hey Reggie, in a fight, I would take Rice to pummel you. And he still might choose to do so. In any case, through the ball club, Jackson issued a half-hearted apology.

“In trying to convey my feelings about a few issues that I am passionate about, I made the mistake of naming some specific players,” Jackson said. “This was inappropriate and unfair to those players, some of which are very close friends of mine. I think there are ways to speak from the heart without hurting people, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t take greater care in expressing my views.”

MLB POWER RANKINGS

Last week’s rankings in parentheses

1. New York Yankees (1)

2. Texas Rangers (2)

3. Washington Nationals (3)

4. Chicago White Sox (5)

5. Los Angeles Angels (4)

6. Boston Red Sox (6)

7. Cincinnati Reds (12)

8. Pittsburgh Pirates (7)

9. San Francisco Giants (10)

10. Los Angeles Dodgers (9)

11. Atlanta Braves (14)

12. New York Mets (8)

13. Baltimore Orioles (11)

14. Tampa Bay Rays (13)

15. Oakland A’s (18)

16. Detroit Tigers (19)

17. St. Louis Cardinals (16)

18. Cleveland Indians (15)

19. Arizona Diamondbacks (17)

20. Toronto Blue Jays (20)

21. Miami Marlins (21)

22. Milwaukee Brewers (22)

23. Philadelphia Phillies (23)

24. Kansas City Royals (24)

25. Seattle Mariners (26)

26. San Diego Padres (27)

27. Minnesota Twins (25)

28. Chicago Cubs (29)

29. Colorado Rockies (28)

30. Houston Astros (30)

BLUE JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW (45-44, tied-4th AL East)

With the all-star break taking up the majority of the work week, the Jays came back on the weekend to take two of three from the contending Indians, wrapping up the season series against the Tribe with four wins out of six games. After losing 1-0 to Justin Masterson on Friday, the Jays came back to win 11-9 behind the big bats in the middle of the lineup and 3-0 behind Carlos Villanueva.

On Sunday, with closer Casey Janssen having pitched two straight games, manager John Farrell stayed with Darren Oliver following a six-pitch eighth inning, allowing him to work the ninth for his first save since last April 27 against the Jays for the Rangers.

The Jays enter the new week having to go 45-28 in the final 73 games in order to win 90 games, which is the minimum to contend for the second wild-card spot. They need help.

In the meantime, the Jays got good news and bad news on the injury front.

The good news was that right-hander Brandon Morrow threw a pain-free bullpen session on Saturday and was expected to try it again on Monday on the way to returning to the mound for at least one rehab start in the minors later in the month. Morrow injured his left oblique on June 11.

The bad news is that injured closer Sergio Santos tried again to throw a bullpen on Saturday, with the pain in his right shoulder forcing a painful Jays decision. Season-ending surgery.

“The recovery time was taking longer than normal, so that’s initially when we backed him down to address some strengthening issues, or take the approach of rehab and strengthening,” Farrell told reporters. “As he got back through his throwing program, flat ground and long toss — he felt good in that regard — but when he gets on the mound with that increased intensity, that’s where he feels the discomfort. So that’s where the surgery is the next step.”

The date of the surgery and the exact diagnosis of the shoulder pain with Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles had yet to be determined. Santos was obtained by the Jays for prospect Nestor Molina last December. A former shortstop, the 29-year-old Santos had been signed following the ’11 season by the White Sox to a reasonable multi-year contract — then traded. The Jays owe him the rest of this year, at $1 million, plus $6.5 million guaranteed for 2013-14 and $2.25 million in buyouts for the three option seasons 2015-17. The best case scenario is that he comes back next spring and he earns his salary.

The bad news kept on coming for the Jays. During the all-star break, the club announced that left-handed reliever Luis Perez, who began the season looking like an all-star, has suffered a torn UCL and would likely have to undergo Tommy John surgery.

Perez (elbow) joined a list of eight injured Jays pitchers that includes Santos (shoulder), Morrow (oblique), Jesse Litsch (shoulder), Dustin McGowan (shoulder), Kyle Drabek (elbow), Drew Hutchison (elbow) and Robert Coello (elbow). Hutchison was expected to pick up a baseball and begin a throwing program by the end of July with September the earliest return. McGowan’s progress has stalled again, while Litsch, Drabek, Perez and Santos are done for the year.

The Jays continue to struggle with the secondary arms in the bullpen. At the end of June they attempted to option Coello, who had not pitched well, however they were forced to change that assignment to a disablement when Coello reported pain in his arm. You are not allowed to option an injured player, meaning that Coello will earn his major-league salary and accumulate major-league days of service while he is disabled. It also likely means he will never wear a Jays uniform again.

Another secondary reliever, righty Jesse Chavez was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas on the weekend. He entered Saturday’s game vs. the Indians with a seven-run lead to start the eighth. The Tribe went single-homer-walk-homer and Chavez packed his post-game bags. Chad Beck was recalled.

Farrell trusts Jason Frasor, Oliver, and Janssen. He has trouble any time he has to bring in Francisco Cordero, Drew Carpenter, Beck, Sam Dyson and Aaron Loup. The left-hander Loup was recalled to replace Perez. He had an impressive major-league debut on Saturday, retiring all six batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings with an 11-4 lead. It may be a different story at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park with a game on the line.

 

All-Star performance: The Jays’ lone all-star representative, Jose Bautista, had a busy week. He finished as runner-up to Prince Fielder in the Home Run Derby, hitting 20 homers in all. He played the first four innings of Tuesday’s All-Star Game, going 0-for-2, with a busy defensive day, chasing NL extra-base hits all over the field and making a diving, inning-ending catch to end an inning. On Wednesday, Bautista flew to Los Angeles for an appearance at The ESPYs award show and to promote his appearance in ESPN Magazine, the Body Issue.

Encarnacion signs: The Jays also announced the signing to an extension of Edwin Encarnacion. The 29-year-old Dominican agreed to a three-year extension, plus a club option for 2016. The salaries are $8 million for 2013, $9 million for 2014, $10 million for 2015, plus another $10 million club option, with a $2 million buyout.

The Jays now have eight players under contract though 2015 and beyond. Signed through 2017 is Sergio Santos; through 2016 are Bautista, Ricky Romero, Adam Lind and Encarnacion; through 2015 are Yunel Escobar, Morrow and McGowan.

AL ROUNDUP

Tigers ace Justin Verlander was pounded for five first-inning runs in the All-Star Game in Kansas City and he thinks he knows the reason why. He had never allowed five runs in any career start in K.C., but he was cranking it up over 100 m.p.h. in his 35-pitch frame, something he does not normally do in a regular start until he settles in after the early innings. “I know nobody wants to see me throw 90 m.p.h.,” Verlander said. “They like to see the 100 mph fastball. So, hey, I gave them that. It’s not like I was trying to give up runs; I went out there and gave everything I had. It’s just different than the way I normally pitch, which I feel really kind of messed me up.” With the importance of the all-star game in terms of the World Series, it’s not that Verlander was taking it lightly, but he did find something out about himself. He shut down the O’s for his 10th win on Sunday... Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine just won’t let anything fade away. With the White Sox set to visit on Monday, Valentine rekindled the Kevin Youkilis feud, blaming the popular Sox icon for not being willing to forget. Valentine just has an annoying, smug way of expressing himself. When asked to comment before Sunday’s game in Chicago, Youk refused to take the bait. His bat will do the talking in this series, which is something Red Sox management is likely not too happy about... The Red Sox are quickly returning to some semblance of themselves. Centrefielder Jacoby Ellsbury came back on the weekend and left fielder Carl Crawford is slated to return on Monday night... The Jays have had some interesting travel situations due to their Triple-A affiliate being in Las Vegas, but nothing like Angels’ rookie outfielder Cole Calhoun. The youngster was called up because of a nagging Torii Hunter knee problem. Calhoun played in the Triple-A all-star game in Buffalo. He flew Buffalo to Salt Lake City to Reno. Was recalled and flew Reno to Phoenix to Philadelphia to Newark, with a limo to Yankee Stadium. His luggage and equipment didn’t quite make the same trip, ending up in Detroit one city ahead of the Angels... The Yankees’ Robinson Cano talked about his choice of Angels first baseman Mark Trumbo for the AL Home Run Derby team. Apparently, at Angels Stadium, Cano went out on the field to ask Albert Pujols if he was interested in the Derby. “I see this big guy hitting balls into the rocks and I said ‘I have to have this guy on my team.’” The rest is history. Trumbo hit some of the longest shots in the Derby, but not enough of them... The Angels have had some keys to their resurgence, but none bigger than when they traded for closer Ernesto Frieri from the Padres. I remember the Jays were in Anaheim and they announced in the press box the Frieri deal and I just shrugged like, ‘So what.’ This streak is so what. Frieri went 26 1/3 shutout innings after joining the Angels, with the streak coming to an end on Saturday on a 3-run homer in New York by Mark Teixeira. The Angels hung on to win that game. “I’m a human, man,” Frieri said. “You can touch me if you want. I knew that was going to happen some time. I always kept saying to God, ‘When I give up a run, please don’t let it cost us a game’ and that’s what happened.”... The A’s resurgence into the wild-card and AL West mix has been credited to the dazzling array of young pitchers the A’s always seem to come up with. However, it should be noted that led by newcomers like centrefielder  Yoenis Cespedes the A’s have hit 92 homers, whereas last year at the same time they had just 47 round trippers. Cespedes had his first four-hit game on Sunday... The Rangers started the season like a 110-win team, but the offence has come back to earth. Josh Hamilton is 2-for-23 and has seen his average drop to .301. He has mentioned his busy all-star break schedule as a fatigue factor, but it can’t have been as rugged as Jose Bautista’s... It turns out the White Sox and GM Kenny Williams also need starting pitching and are looking at the same guys as GM Alex Anthopoulos and the Jays. By the way, Molina is 4-8 with a 5.01 ERA at two levels of the White Sox organization.

NL ROUNDUP

Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen is a master of deflection. With his team continuing to struggle, the controversial one has called Nats rookie Bryce Harper out. Guillen noticed that Harper’s bat may have been pine-tarred a little too high and complained to umpires during the kid’s first at-bat. Recall that after George Brett’s famous Yankee Stadium meltdown many years ago, the pine tar rule was clarified so that the only penalty is the bat is taken out of play. Nothing is reversed. In any case, the next time up, Harper looked over to Ozzie and waved his new lumber with a smile. That drove Guillen crazy and he ranted after the game. Hey Ozzie, “Just win, baby.”...The Braves have obviously decided that SS Tyler Pastornicky, a former Jays farmhand obtained in the SS Yunel Escobar trade is no longer their shortstop of the future. After injuries to SS Andrelton Simmons and veteran backup SS Jack Wilson, even with Pastornicky on the bench, manager  Fredi Gonzalez tried Martin Prado at short for the first time in his career then the next day traded with the Reds for minor league SS Paul Janish who will play every day. One has to wonder why the Reds would help the Braves in the midst of a pennant race. They obtained minor-league RH Todd Redmond... There hasn’t been a more “cheeky” ending to a MLB game this year than Friday night’s ninth-inning comeback win keyed by Everth Cabrera’s steal of home. Nursing a one-run lead with two out and runners on first and second, with two strikes on the hitter, the Dodgers’ closer Kenley Jansen walked off the back of the mound to clean his spikes and Cabrera took off for home on a straight steal attempt. A stunned Jansen turned and fired the ball off the screen allowing the trail runner, Will Venable, to score behind him. The Dodgers were then unable to score. Elias Sports says that the last time a tying or winning run scored on a steal of home in the 9th inning or later was August 22, 1982 by Glenn Brummer of the Cards against closer Gary Lavelle and the Giants. Uhh, in 2008, in Lockport, N.Y., as manager of the Oakville A’s, I had a 15-year-old kid, catcher Jason Deichert steal home in the final inning, two outs, to tie the game against a slow-delivering, flame-throwing lefthander. Sorry, Elias... The Cubs have some pretty good chips to deal at the deadline. Right-hander Ryan Dempster tossed six more shutout innings on Saturday to run his streak to 33 straight, while fellow righty Matt Garza twirled seven shutout innings on Sunday on the way to a sweep of the D-backs. Dempster’s is the longest scoreless streak by a Cub since Ken Holtzman in 1969. The Cubs record is 35 and 37 straight by Bill (not the Spaceman) Lee in 1938. Big Bill finished that season with a 22-9 record and a 2.66 ERA... The Phillies have good news with the return to the rotation of Roy Halladay on Tuesday... The Braves brought Ben Sheets back to the majors after two minor-league starts and two years off since his last MLB appearance July 20, 2010 for the A’s... The Jays were at one time first runner-up in the Aroldis Chapman sweepstakes. Granted, the Cuban fireballer is a bit of a social loose-cannon, with his off-the-field trouble and his on-field forward rolls, but he is a major talent. On Sunday he struck out the side for his 13th save, ending the game with a 102 m.p.h. fastball. In Chapman’s last 7 innings he has allowed 2 hits with 2 walks and 18 strikeouts. They swept the Cards.

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY

7/16/09 Ed Summers of the Tigers tosses 18 shutout innings against the Washington Senators, with no decision in a 0-0 tie, the longest shutout in baseball history... 7/16/20 The Bambino, Babe Ruth, against the Browns, sets a single-season home run mark with his 30th homer of the year, breaking his own mark of 29. He would go on to hit 54 homers... 7/16/41 The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio extends his hitting streak to 56 games, going 3-for-4 in a 10-3 victory over the Indians... 7/17/41 The streak comes to an end for Joe DiMaggio as Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Indians hold him hitless... 7/17/90 The Twins turn two triple plays in the same game against the Red Sox, but lose 1-0... 7/18/27 The Georgia Peach, now playing for the A’s, Ty Cobb doubles against former teammate George Gibson of the Tigers giving him 4,000 career hits... 7/18/70 The Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays bounces a single to left field against Mike Wegener of the Expos for his 3,000th career hit... 7/19/10 The great Cy Young records his 500th career victory, 5-4 over the Washington Senators... 7/21/73 The Braves’ Hank Aaron smashes his 700th career home run in an 8-4 loss to Ken Brett and the Phillies... 7/21/75 The lead-footed infielder Joe Torre of the Mets grounds into four double plays in a game vs. the Astros.

Birthdays this week: Lee Elia 75, Torii Hunter 37, Razor Shines 56, Joe Torre 72, David Segui 46, Dick Scott 50, Bengie Molina 38, Tony Oliva 72, C.C. Sabathia 32, Mike Bordick 47, Moe Drabowsky 77, Dave Stieb 55, Scott Sanderson 56, Tim Johnson 63, Cliff Johnson 65, Sparky Lyle 68.

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

AAA-Las Vegas (52-42) lost 12-5 to Sacramento on Sunday. CF Anthony Gose was 2-for-3 with a triple and a homer. He is hitting .293. RF Moises Sierra is hitting .295 with 14 homers and 52 RBIs. 1B Yan Gomes was 2-for-4 with a homer and is hitting .339... AA-New Hampshire (37-57) beat Portland 5-1 on Sunday. 3B Mark Sobolewski was 3-for-4 and is hitting .264. SS Ryan Goins was 2-for-4 with a homer and 2 RBIs. He is hitting .339... A-Dunedin (10-14) lost 5-2 to Fort Myers on Sunday. 3B Kevin Ahrens was 2-for-3 and is batting .250. C Koby Clemens is batting .310 with an OPS of .886. RHP Asher Wojciechowski is 7-2, with a 3.57 ERA. RH Dan Barnes is 1-2 with a 1.98 ERA and 22 saves... A-Lansing (14-9) beat Cedar Rapids 6-2 on Sunday. Canadian RF Michael Crouse has come down from Dunedin and was 2-for-3 with three runs and a double. RH Anthony DeSclafani (7-3, 3.26 ERA) allowed two runs in six innings. RH Noah Syndergaard is 6-2, 2.93 ERA. RH Aaron Sanchez is 8-1 with a 1.41 ERA. LH Justin Nicolino is 4-2, 2.98 ERA. LF Kevin Pillar is batting .322 with 35 steals... A-Vancouver (17-12) beat Boise 5-4 on Sunday. LF Matt Newman was 2-for-4 with 2 homers. C Jorge Flores was 2-for-5 with 2 runs and a double. RHP Javier Avendano is 3-1, with a 2.08 ERA and 32 Ks in 26 IP... A-Bluefield (9-14) was rained out on Sunday. CF Dwight Smith, Jr. is batting .247 with 3 homers and 11 RBIs. LH Daniel Norris (1-1, 3.31 ERA) has fanned 20 batters in 16-1/3 innings. RH Roberto Osuna is 1-1, 1.13 ERA... Rk-Blue Jays (6-18) RH Francisco Gracesqui is 3-0, 0.00 ERA. Brock University’s 3B Shaun Valeriote is batting .238. First round June pick OF D.J. Davis is hitting .234 with 2 HR and 3 RBIs.

ONE FOR THE ROAD:

The All-Star Game is not as much of a three-day party as people might think, especially with the Home Run Derby finally settling in as a Monday evening event that ends at around 11 p.m. Eastern Time. Monday’s All-Star Gala used to be a closed session for the participating players and their families, club executives and their guests and the media. In those days, everyone used to go. The GMs actually came to the All-Star Game and had a chance to discuss trade with about three weeks left to the deadline. In any case, this year’s gala was held in a huge party tent between Kauffman Stadium and Arrowhead, home of the Chiefs. The best stunt of the event was the bars made out of ice. Advice No. 1 is when leaving a tip for your bartender try not to leave coins, as they tend to freeze to the bar. Of course with temperatures at 33 C and the bar shrinking faster than the polar ice cap, the party’s last call called itself.

The best time I had was after the game itself. With an afternoon flight Wednesday, it was a chance to head over to the clubbing area of K.C.’s Country Club Plaza. Went to a club with live rock ‘n roll featuring a guy that sounded at times like Van Morrison and at others like Kurt Cobain. Had some Bar-B-Q pork, that, if not invented in K.C., was certainly perfected in this town. There was a big guy sitting in on drums wearing a Justin Verlander jersey, about 6-8, 260 lbs. He was introduced as Aiden Smith, a backup linebacker for the San Diego Chargers in town for the all-star game. Sounded fishy and I would have to push the BS buzzer on that one, but it worked out for him, anyway as he was swarmed by the local women buying him drinks and chatting him up following the set. Bottom line is he wasn’t a bad drummer. When the live music was done, I headed down the street for an upstairs patio on a beautiful Midwest evening overlooking the street, with a cold Heineken and a hot DJ. Life is good.

Richard Griffin’s Bullpen: Blue Jays prospect Anthony Gose shines at Futures Game

KANSAS CITY—If the Futures Game is a springboard to the major leagues then Blue Jays prospect Anthony Gose’s future is indeed bright.

In the third inning of Sunday's Futures Game at Kauffman Stadium, when the baseball jumped off the bat of 20-year-old Cardinals prospect Oscar Taveras, it clearly had extra bases written all over it. There were runners on first and third with nobody out for the World Team when the pitch was crushed. Gose broke quickly, raced back, left his feet and dove head-long in his finest Jim Edmonds imitation, snaring the ball in the end of his glove and sliding to a halt.

Impressive.

But the play was not over.

Gose popped to his feet and, flat-footed, threw a one-hop strike to first baseman Jonathan Singleton, barely missing doubling off Rangers’ prospect Jurickson Profar, who also had assumed it was going to be a hit. The U.S. team managed by George Brett went on to crush the World and its manager Bernie Williams 17-5, so the great defensive play early in the game was sort of lost in translation. But for those paying attention, it may have turned the tide for Team USA.

“It felt good to go out there and make a play like that and hopefully I can see it on TV tonight,” a smiling Gose said. “I'm hoping for my family and friends and everybody, so it was exciting. From the moment that they informed me I made the team through the whole game, it was exciting. A lot of talent on the field at one time. The group of guys that was here was pretty impressive.”

Even before Sunday’s game, the Jays knew that what they had in Gose was already pretty impressive. They had pinpointed him as a trade target as far back as the negotiations with the Phillies for Roy Halladay in December of ’09. But instead, they settled for Michael Taylor who they immediately rolled over to the A's for Brett Wallace. Oh well.

But when Gose was later included in a deal to the Astros for Roy Oswalt in 2010, Alex Anthopoulos leapt to the bat phone with Astros GM Ed Wade, moving Wallace to Houston for Gose. It is now paying off.

Success in the Futures Game many times translates into a trip to the major leagues often by the end of the next calendar year. The rapid rise happened for right-hander Henderson Alvarez a year ago. In addition to the great catch, Gose bounced a single through the right side, advanced to second when the throw missed the cutoff man and scored in the third inning. It was a great day for the 21-year-old.

 “Everybody here belongs around everybody, it's not just one person,” Gose said with a huge smile as he packed his baseball stuff for the trip back to Vegas. “The organization wouldn't have sent you if they didn't believe in you, think highly of you. So everybody here is sent for the same reason and everybody's a big piece of their organization.”

But what do the Jays do with Gose? The talented outfielder has risen steadily through the system, from A-Dunedin, to AA-New Hampshire, now to Triple-A Las Vegas, but the next step is his final step. The pleasant Jays' dilemma is that some time between spring training and right now, Colby Rasmus stepped up and took a stranglehold on centre field, putting up numbers, making plays, smiling and styling through the last two months like he, himself, belonged in Kansas City with the MLB all-stars. Gose has noticed and is in awe.

“What he's doing is unbelievable,” an admiring Gose said. “He's hitting .330 in the last two months, with 16 home runs. How can I not notice? It's unbelievable. The team up there is doing great. They've had some unfortunate injuries. Some pitchers and a couple of guys, so, other than that they're playing great. Just some unfortunate things have come their way.”

The great thing about baseball spring training is the opportunity it allows for players competing for the same position to get to know one another. They can stand around in the outfield together, they perform their fundamentals together, they hit in the same groups at batting practice and they locker next to one another for seven weeks. Baseball friendships last a long time and seem to cross all differences in background, personality and age. It's one of the nice things about baseball clubhouses.

“Colby, I told him he's probably one of the best defensive centrefielders in baseball,” Gose recalled a spring training conversation. “What he's doing is special and it's something that he's done early in his career.  He's doing it again now.”

In fact, the Jays have clearly been looking for a solution to their centre field glut, which led them one day this month to post a 51s starting lineup with Gose in left field. Try not to be so subtle, guys.

“It's hard to sit here and say I didn't think about it,” Gose laughed. “I've always played centre field my whole career. So coming up here it was always centre field, centre field, centre field. They told me to play left. Naturally thoughts crept into my head but, like I said, everybody up there's doing their job and they're playing well. Rajai (Davis) is a real big catalyst for the team. Colby at the top of the lineup, Raj at the bottom, and those guys. What they've got up there right now is really special and it's really doing well. They're performing. So, I'm back in centre and I'm playing and hopefully sometime I get an opportunity, whether it's this year, next year or down the road.”

Gose is batting .290 in his first season in the Pacific Coast League, with four homers, 38 RBIs, 75 runs scored and 29 stolen bases. When the 6-1, 190 lbs., speedster arrived in the organization, it was believed he needed about 1,500 more minor league at-bats, from the start of 2010, in order to matriculate to the majors. He now has 1,382 in that time frame. That time is coming.

But he's not there. Every year, the learning curve continues. In 2011 at New Hampshire, they did not allow him to bunt, made him swing the bat, looking for more power. It was a teaching tool.

 “Last year was finding the swing,” Gose explained. “I mean (batting coach) Justin Ashore did an incredible job with me getting me ready, getting me started on the path and finding the swing. Last year they just let me swing freely. It felt great. I was just hacking away. Then this year with (Chad) Mottola (in Vegas) just kind of fine tuning it and fixing the little things. I feel I've been able to be consistent and good things have happened for this year.”

At Triple-A, the organization has allowed Gose to add the bunt back into his repertoire of offensive weapons and he feels it has paid dividends, completing him as a top-of-the-order guy.

 “I'm bunting again,” Gose said. “I don't know how many hits I have on bunts, but I've been bunting a lot more, sacrificing a lot more. I think last year I only bunted five times the whole season. I think two of them were for hits, the others were for sacrifices. This year I've used it quite a bit and it's really helped me. It keeps me afloat when I'm not doing too well. It keeps me going, get a hit here and there and keep things rolling, getting on base.

“I'm hoping that's what my game will translate to, being the all-around guy, being able to help the team at whatever it is. To be able to hit the ball out of the park, hit the ball in the gaps, just been the all-around guy offensively. That's what everybody wants to be, the five-tool guy, per se, and help the team at any point, with anything that you can do.”

Gose found himself in the unaccustomed position of batting ninth in the Team USA order at the Futures Game. Why? Because the leadoff man was Reds' uber-prospect, SS Billy Hamilton, a man that already has 100 steals at A-Bakersfield. That total makes Gose look like lumbering Thomas on the base paths. Gose accepted and understood batting ninth. He spoke to Hamilton with admiration.

 “I asked him how do you do it? He said 'I just run' and I understand because that's what I would tell people when they asked me how I did it, I just run,” Gose said.

Which was essentially one of the problems when Gose arrived with the Jays' organization. He just ran. In 2010, combined at two Florida State League stops, Gose stole 45 bases but he was caught 32 times. That is an unacceptable ratio and the Jays have preached stealing in the right situations on the right counts. He has been listening and it's all been part of the process.

 “There's obviously situations, I've learned that as I've come along,” Gose said. “My first year I had a lot of success and I just ran. The next year I tried to just run and I had a terrible success rate. Last year was putting it together and thinking, being smart.

 “I had (manager) Sal Fasano, a great major-league catcher, who could nit-pick things, find things between the pitcher and catcher to help me out a lot. Mashore, with some of the drills we did, and this year it's the same thing. Find the right time, pick your moments, be smart about it. But I completely understand what (Hamilton) says, 'I just run,' because he's just running.”

For his part, Gose is on a run that will see him in the major leagues as early as Sept. 1. He must be added to the 40-man roster in any case at the end of the year, so why not bring him up for the final month, have him soak up the major-league atmosphere, maybe pinch run a little and the Jays can ponder their dilemma of what to do with all of these outfielders. It's a nice problem to have.

One solution might even be to think about moving Jose Bautista to first base, a position he has showed he can handle. He would need to agree and even with re-signing Edwin Encarnacion, he could be the DH again. There's plenty of time to work that out, but in the meantime, Gose is working hard to force himself into the equation. The future for the Jays’ young outfielder is very soon. 

THE RANT: TOO MANY UMPIRES SPIKE BACK

The Brewers have made it clear. They are interested in trading former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke by the trade deadline if the price is right. As such, the Minute Maid Park home plate scout seats were bristling with radar guns on Saturday for Greinke's last outing before the break.

But just four pitches in, Greinke raced over to cover first base, took a feed from first baseman Corey Hart and was a hair late as the Astros’ Jose Altuve beat him to the bag for an infield hit. The first batter, Jordan Schafer had tripled and he scored from third. No big deal, right? Wrong!

As Greinke ran past the umpire with the ball, making that great circle route back to the mound, he slowed down, got mad and spiked the ball in the infield dirt, having it bounce out towards second base. Greinke is a different cat anyway. He's not wired the same as most pitchers, most players, so it may have seemed a little unusual, but not malicious and not in the direction of the umpire as some Canadian third basemen from Langley, B.C., have been wont to do with other items of equipment.

In any case, first-base arbiter Sam Holbrook, who likely believes fans come to see him make his calls, immediately tossed Greinke from the game. Then he tossed manager Ron Roenicke. That's a clown move, bro'.

When a player strikes out, or when a player is called out on a close play at first base, you often see a helmet bounce or batting gloves, etc. The normal penalty, at the discretion of the umpire is a small fine and a written report to the central office in New York. That's enough.

That's fair, but Holbrook made the moment all about him. It's just another example of an umpire wrecking a good thing. It's happened all too often this season and needs to stop. Is there anything baseball can do except review a play like that and suspend Holbrook. But they likely won't.

So, because Greinke's being heavily scouted and because he's not playing in Kansas City, the right-hander volunteered to start Sunday's game in Houston, maybe for scouts. Guess who was working the plate? Correct, Sam Holbrook.

Now the umpire's not the reason Greinke was not very good on Sunday, lasting just three innings, but his presence didn't help and the fact that Greinke was forced so far out of his routine that any other result than three innings and out, would have been a shock.

Looking ahead, Greinke is also scheduled to start on Friday coming out of the break. That will be three straight games for his team, something that has not been done in MLB since Urban “Red” Faber of the White Sox did it in 1917. Faber started both ends of a twin bill in Chicago, then took a train overnight with his teammates to St. Louis and tossed a 16-hit complete game against the Browns.              

Baseball has the capability and responsibility to right wrongs. Someone should compile a video of all the umpire-player, umpire-manager confrontations, analyze them and do something about it. There's always been conflict with umpires, going back to forever, but this year has been ridiculous.

MLB POWER RANKINGS

Last week’s ranking in parentheses

1. New York Yankees (2)

While Derek Jeter’s average drops, Robinson Cano’s production rises towards MVP 

2. Texas Rangers (1)

Yu Darvish signing looking pretty good as rest of rotation gets healthy

3. Washington Nationals (4)

Bryce Harper late pick for ASG said “Surprised ... try to remain mellow, calm.”

4. Los Angeles Angels (5)

Dan Haren injury seems short-term but hampers their charge to top

5. Chicago White Sox (10)

Sox bullpen loaded with rookies and that’s a tough call in Aug.-Sept.

6. Boston Red Sox (7)

Sox lost Dustin Pedroia but get unexpected energy from Pedro Ciriaco 

7. Pittsburgh Pirates (12)

If GM Neal Huntington truly believes, he will be big time deadline “buyer”   

8. New York Mets (8)

Hard to believe that David Wright won't be starting at third base at the all-star game

9. Los Angeles Dodgers (13)

Lost SS Dee Gordon to thumb injury then started scoring runs again

10. San Francisco Giants (3)

Made their rush to top of division and have settled down. Melky's the one

11. Baltimore Orioles (11)

Right now, O's, Bucs and Nats sitting in playoff position

12. Cincinnati Reds (6)

Manager Dusty Baker still taking shots at Tony La Russa for all-star snubs.

13. Tampa Bay Rays (9)

David Price quietly making his case for Cy Young

14. Atlanta Braves (14)

Chipper Jones gets late all-star call at the only park he has not played in.

15. Cleveland Indians (15)

Hanging around in the hunt for AL Central. Have a puncher's chance

16. St. Louis Cardinals (17)

Yadier Molina leaves on bereavement leave and misses all-star show

17-Arizona Diamondbacks (16)

D-backs will need another miracle second half to repeat playoffs

18. Oakland A's (20)

Starting staff is young and talented and Josh Reddick is a steal

19. Detroit Tigers (19)

Need to find a contributing second baseman and one outfielder 

20. Toronto Blue Jays (18)

Alex Anthopoulos still likely to look for help rather than throw a man overboard

21. Miami Marlins (21)

Fish prez David Samson upset Giancarlo Stanton not replaced by teammate. Zero Marlins

22. Milwaukee Brewers (23)

Zack Greinke will be first since Red Faber in 1917 to start 3 straight team games

23. Philadelphia Phillies (22)

Ryan Howard is back with Chase Utley, but too little too late? 

24. Kansas City Royals (24)

Biggest game at home in years and 24 of 25 Royals have to pay to get in

25. Minnesota Twins (26)

If any team can be pegged for a good second half, usually the Twins

26. Seattle Mariners (25)

M's futile hitting recently is AL equivalent of NL Dodgers

27. San Diego Padres (27)

They have Carlos Quentin and Chase Headley as chips at the deadline

28. Colorado Rockies (28)

Pitching coach Bob Apodaca calls it quits during mile-low year on mound

29. Chicago Cubs (30)

Finally made a move up through the rankings from last to second-last

30. Houston Astros (29)

Rid of world's biggest first baseman (Carlos Lee) and led by smallest second sacker (Altuve) 

JAYS WEEK IN REVIEW (43-43; tied-4th AL East)

The Jays had a pedestrian week, going 3-4, entering the all-star break at .500, with a 43-43 record.

The bad news was there is no predictable return date to the rotation for Brandon Morrow. The good news is that the struggling ace Ricky Romero posted a quality start against the first-place White Sox on Saturday. The fact that he lost is secondary to the fact that he pitched well.  

Manager John Farrell said Morrow was throwing pain-free of the left oblique strain that had forced him out of the game on June 11, but that he occasionally felt it, even on a sneeze. That can't be considered him being on the verge of a return.

The Jays opened the week splitting a four-game set against the Royals at the Rogers Centre. However they lost the series finale on Thursday, 9-6 with a chance to win the series three games to one, then flew to Chicago and lost the first two at U.S. Cellular, to drop a game below .500. On Sunday they jumped on rookie Dylan Axelrod early in the series finale then hung on to win 11-9 with Casey Janssen efficiently picking up his 12th straight save without a glitch.

Left-hander Brett Cecil was given a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a pair of two-run homers by Colby Rasmus and Edwin Encarnacion, then had his disturbing issues with shutdown innings continue, giving three of those back immediately on an opening-inning three-run blast by former Jay Alex Rios. 

Cecil continues to be paired with catcher Jeff Mathis, who homered in the game, his fifth of the season, coming in the fourth off rookie Brian Omogrosso. That total ties his most since hitting five in 2009 and is four shy of his career best of the nine that he hit with the Angels in 283 at-bats in '08.

At the end of the week, even with all of the campaigning by Jose Bautista for a very deserving Encarnacion to be included on the AL all-star roster, it turned out that Joey Bats is the lone Jays representative in Kansas City. In terms of “sizzle” for the mid-summer classic, having Harper replace Stanton is a solid choice.

It seems after a third solid outing by left-hander Aaron Laffey that he will remain in the mix for the short term. One thing is certain, he did not lose his job to 49-year-old Jamie Moyer, who was quietly released from Triple-A Las Vegas a couple of days after his second start, which had been the length of his agreed to tryout with the Jays. If Laffey had spit the bit, maybe Moyer would have been given a shot, but the journeyman lefty, Laffey, continues to give Farrell innings every time out.

Moyer was told that the Jays would not recall him in the short time left before the all-star break. They offered to let him continue pitching for the 51s, but that number was becoming too close to his actual age, so he declined and is likely to retire — clearly not by choice. The Jays and Moyer sort of knew it was coming, the end was near. The Triple-A team flies commercial and when they travelled to Reno and Moyer was set to pitch in that other Nevada gambling town, it was reported he did not have a return flight to Vegas booked with the rest of the team, even before he had started. Toronto or bust!

It was like he was playing black jack and hitting on 17. The odds were never good.

Besides, Canadian right-hander Shawn Hill has even become a more solid choice at Vegas with a chance to contribute if the Jays were to need yet another fifth starter in the majors.

The other guy already on the staff that is a solid pro and one of the leaders of the young Latin pitchers, is Carlos Villanueva. I wrote a column on his leadership during the week and the 28-year-old right-hander is backing it up with some solid starts, from a better prepared position than a year ago.

The Jays continued to hang in this week, but realistically have to be considered more out than in, trailing the second wild-card by 2 1/2 games at the break, but needing to crawl over a passel of other contenders in what is looking like a solid Bud Selig initiative to maintain interest in extra markets throughout the summer. There are 10 teams within 2 1/2 games of a playoff spot.

 Injuries: A new addition to the lineup of the limping is Brett Lawrie. The exciting sophomore leadoff man felt some discomfort in his back during the game on Saturday and left the game, probably a veteran move. He had done the same thing in Milwaukee with a wonky knee after a slide on the wrong hip, but bounced back strong in Miami.

The Langley Flash sat out the finale in Chicago on Sunday, meaning he will have almost six full days off before returning to the lineup on Friday vs. the Indians. That is only good news if he takes care of it during the break when he will be away from the trainers, away from the clubhouse, on his own.         

AL ROUNDUP

 The funniest video clip of the week came late on Sunday, from Rangers Park in Arlington. The Twins were batting when a huge clap of thunder shook the high home plate camera and quickly cleared the field. It could have been a disaster but turned to high comedy as macho ballplayers melted down into God-fearing puddles of goo. Twins outfielder Denard Span tweeted that it sounded like “Jesus was coming.” Denard, would that be Alou or Figueroa? In any case, the reaction of former Expos outfielder and current Twins 1B coach Jerry White was priceless. White's arms spread wide and he quickly crouched down, creeping over to first base  umpire Jeff Kellogg, perhaps trying to use him as a human lightning rod. Hilarious. The Rangers are going to be tough to beat in the second half. They have several underachievers in their current lineup, led by all-star catcher Mike Napoli, but the rotation is back in full voice coming out of the break: Derek Holland, Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison, Roy Oswalt and Colby Lewis... As for Napoli and his selection in a transparent Rangers fan assault on stuffing the ballot box and the Internet that victimized White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, the ever-outspoken Pierzynski had some interesting things to say about his fine offensive season being overlooked by AL manager Ron Washington. “He had an opportunity to and he didn't do it,” Pierzynski said of Washington's half-hearted apology. “Obviously, he can feel as bad as he wants, but he didn't feel that bad.” Now, normally I'm not a big Pierzynski fan, but the way he then went out and handled this situation was great. Playing at The Cell on July 4, in the second inning, Alexi Ramirez singled to right. Pierzynski rumbled around third base and rolled over Napoli in a home plate collision to score. That's my style of baseball... Speaking of the White Sox, six of seven pitchers in their bullpen are rookies, with the only veteran being lefty Matt Thornton. That might explain GM Kenny Williams' recent claim from the Pirates of 26-year-old reliever left-hander Danny Moskos off the waiver wire. Hmm. What other team needs pitchers as much as the Chisox? Because of injuries you could easily make an argument for the Blue Jays and if they had also claimed Moskos during the waiver period, because of being lower in the current standings, the Jays would have ended up with him. So why not? He's an arm with a pedigree. Moskos is a former fourth overall pick by the Bucs in June '07 out of Clemson University. Ah, maybe that's why. Clemson is a notorious killer of long pitching careers under head coaches Bill Wilhelm ('57 to '93) and Jack Leggett ('94-now). Think Brian Barnes, Billy Koch, Kris Benson, Matt White and others. The institution of learning wins a lot of games, but does not produce what should be the corresponding number of quality MLB pitchers. Maybe the Jays think that same way, otherwise an underachieving former first-rounder is right up their alley... The A's have surprised the world winning 22 of 34 games to get back to .500. The A's staff has an AL leading 3.38 ERA and beat the M's in extra innings on Sunday. There may be a reason, one of the strangest ever, for the low-scoring on Sunday — other than two pathetic offences. “It was a little rough with the white baseball and the white seagulls and the sun. At the end of the day, we fought through the seagulls and we won,” A's second baseman Jemile Weeks said of the bad hitting background at the Coliseum. Where's Dave Winfield when you need him? Oh yeah, last time I saw him, Winfield was popping up to pitcher Rollie Fingers on Sunday afternoon in a slow-pitch celebrity softball game at Kauffman Stadium. Yikes.

NL ROUNDUP

The Marlins may, in hindsight, have made a supremely bad decision when they agreed to be the focus of the sports reality show The Franchise for an up-close-and-personal TV series. Manager Ozzie Guillen may soon feel like a changing his view of reality, by heading over to Cuba to look for a part in another proposed reality show Keeping up with the Castros. How bad is it? On Sunday, closer Heath Bell blew his sixth save and is in danger of being replaced. Ozzie's star third baseman Hanley Ramirez made an out and punched a dugout cooler, tearing up his knuckles for two stitches and coming out of the game. “I don't pay attention to stupidity. That made me mad,” Guillen said of his volatile star. Outfielder Giancarlo Stanton had arthroscopic knee surgery and is out six weeks just as first baseman Carlos Lee arrived. And prez David Samson is complaining that there are no Marlin all-stars without Stanton and that outfielder Justin Ruggiano should have been invited. David, you've got to be kidding... How anxious are the Cubs to showcase right-hander Ryan Dempster to interested teams? On Sunday, in the final game before the all-star break, the Cubs activated the classy Canuck and saw him toss five shutout innings against the Mets after being on the DL with tightness in his lat since June 18. Unless he is traded during the break, Dempster will start again on Friday vs. the D-backs. He is now 4-3, with a 1.99 ERA and is a free agent at the end of the season. He would look good in Jays blue... I'm not a big fan of the Braves’ Chipper Jones but you have to feel happy for him going to the all-star game in his final season. Coincidentally, Kauffman Stadium was the only current park of the 30 in which Jones had never played. Jones has played in 44 different ballparks, 15 of which are no longer in use. That still comes up short of Jamie Moyer and his 50 ball parks that he has twirled in... So how much has the Pirates operation been affected by the recent success? They are in first place at the break for the first time since Barry Bonds weighed 190 lbs. They have sold out the beautiful PNC Park nine times. GM Neal Huntington is looking to add a starting pitcher (competition for the Jays) and a corner outfielder (hmm? Rajai Davis, a former Pirate? Travis Snider? Eric Thames?). And A.J. Burnett is the fifth Pirates pitcher in 75 years to have at least 10 wins before the all-star break... You may have to pull a sheet over the Braves' playoff hopes if they are forced to use righty Ben Sheets in their second-half rotation. The 33-year-old former first rounder in '99 has missed the '09 and '11 seasons and is working his way back at Double-A for the pitching strapped Braves. The team may have lost sensational rookie SS Andrelton Simmons with a fractured left pinkie on Sunday. He hurt it on a headfirst slide into the foot of the Phils’ Chase Utley. The Futures Game featured just one Canadian this year, right-hander Kyle Lotzkar from Delta B.C. The 22-year-old was signed to the Reds by former Jays' Canadian scouting director Bill Bychowski, in the first round, supplemental in 2007. Lotzkar worked an inning on Sunday and was thrilled to be at AA-Pensacola just one step away from the majors. Lotzkar had Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2009 season, but at the same time had a 3-1/2 inch screw implanted in another part of his injured elbow. He understands that he needs to work out differently to protect his new body parts, but when he's on the mound he claims he never thinks about it.  

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY

7/9/46 Ted Williams dominates in the AL's 12-0 all-star win at Fenway Park. The Splendid Splinter bangs out four hits, including two homers and four RBIs... 7/9/68 an impressive string of four future Hall-of-Famers lead the way in a 1-0 NL victory -- Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal, Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver... 7/9/76 Larry Dierker of the Astros no-hits the Expos at the Astrodome. The pathetic Expos went on to win 52 games in the year of the Olympics in Montreal... 7/9/91 Cal Ripken Jr. slams a three-run homer off the Expos' Dennis Martinez at the SkyDome giving him All-Star MVP... 7/10/32 So you think some of today's franchises are cheap? Hall-of-Fame manager Connie Mack decides to save money for a one-game makeup in Cleveland by taking just TWO pitchers on the trip from Chicago to Cleveland in order to save train fare. The best laid plans, etc. The A's starter, Lew Krausse, managed to go just one inning, handing the ball to an unfortunate guy named Eddie Rommel. The game went 18 innings and Mack had no other pitchers. Rommel's line: 17 IP; 29H; 14R; 13ER; 9BB; 7K. He faced 87 batters and did not pitch again for another 41 days... 7/10/34 LHP Carl Hubbell fanned five Hall-of-Famers in a row, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin... 7/11/14 Babe Ruth makes his major-league debut with the Red Sox, beating the Indians 4-3 as a starting pitcher... 7/11/61 Relief pitcher Stu Miller is famously and literally blown off the mound at Candlestick Park in mid delivery, committing a balk for a 3-3 all-star tie that went to extra innings before the NL won... 7/11/49 Maybe it had something to do with the All-Star Game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, but Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe became the first African-Americans to play in the All-Star Game... 7/13/82 The All-Star Game is played outside of the U.S. for the first time. At Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Dave Concepcion homers off starter Dennis Eckersley for a 4-1 win. Five Expos were in the starting lineup... 7/14/67 Braves Eddie Mathews hits his 500th career homer against Juan Marichal of the Giants... 7/14/68 a year to the day later, Braves Hank Aaron hits 500th career homer vs. Mike McCormick of Giants... 7/14/70 Pete Rose in one of the most replayed all-star moments in history runs over catcher Ray Fosse of the Indians for the winning run in the 12th inning. That play cemented baseball's all-star game as different in intensity than other sports and served to send Fosse to a premature end to his career.

Birthdays this week: Andre Dawson 58, Bob Bailor 61, Joey McLaughlin 56, Ron Fairly 74, Bill Caudill 56, Pepe Frias 64, Donn Clendenon 77. 

JAYS MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

AAA-Las Vegas (50-40) had no game on Sunday. LF Travis Snider is hitting .317 with nine homers, 46 RBIs and a .959 OPS. DH Eric Thames is hitting .323 with two homers and 19 RBIs. SS Adeiny Hechavarria is leading the team with 58 RBIs. Canadian RHP Shawn Hill is part of a horribly mediocre rotation supported by a pretty good offence. Hechavarria and reliever Chad Beck were named to the PCL all-star game... AA-New Hampshire (36-52) split a twin bill with New Britain, losing 4-0 and winning 5-4. 3B Mark Sobolewski, 1B Mike McDade, SS Ryan Goins, RHP Sam Dyson and RHP Yohan Pino (4-3, 3.34 ERA) were named to the Eastern League all-star game. CF Jake Marisnick was promoted from Dunedin. OF Kevin Bailli is hitting .370 with a homer and 5 SB. The top two starters, RHP Deck McGuire (4-9, 6.01 ERA) and Chad Jenkins (4-7, 5.20 ERA) have started 33 of the Fisher Cats 88 games... A-Dunedin (7-11) beat Tampa 4-2 on Sunday. SS Kevin Nolan has 5 HR, 39 RBIs, with 12 steals. RHP John Stilson is 3-0, 2.82 ERA. LHP Sean Nolin is 7-0, 2.35 ERA. RHP Asher Wojciechowski is 6-2, with a 3.87 ERA... A-Lansing (10-7) beat West Michigan 5-3 on Sunday. RH Noah Syndergaard allowed one run in 6 innings and is 6-2 with a 3.06 ERA. LF Kenny Wilson was 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs and 28 SB. RF Chris Hawkins was 4-for-4 and is batting .289. RH Aaron Sanchez is 8-0 with a 0.63 ERA. He has struck out 70 batters in 62 2/3 innings. LF Kevin Pillar is batting .319 with 34 steals... A-Vancouver (14-9) lost 10-6 to first place Everett on Sunday. 3B Balbino Fuenmayor is hitting .316 with three homers and 20 RBIs. RHP Javier Avendano is 3-0, with a 0.45 ERA and 25 Ks in 20 IP. RHP Ian Kadish is 1-0 with a 0.79 ERA and 20 Ks in 11 IP... A-Bluefield (7-12) lost to Burlington 6-5 on Sunday. C Santiago Nessy hit his third HR and is batting .308. 2B Christian Lopes was 3-for-4 with his 3rd HR. LH Daniel Norris (1-1, 3.52 ERA) has fanned 18 batters in 15 1/3 innings... Rk-Blue Jays (6-12) RH Francisco Gracesqui (3-0, 0.00 ERA) has struck out 17 in 13 innings.  

ONE FOR THE ROAD

Flew out to the all-star festivities from Pearson on Sunday morning. Why is it that every airport landing in the American Midwest that I've been involved in since 1977, charter or commercial, has seemed like it is the rock-and-roll equivalent of touching down through a combination tornado, hurricane, cyclone and tsunami, with airplane wings flapping — unintentionally, of course — and uneasy flyers squeezing the armrests and whimpering like babies. Get a grip.

Such was the case with the Kansas City landing. And, also, I wonder whose idea it was to build the Royals' home Kauffman Stadium nowhere near actual Kansas City, out in the middle of the Show Me State. Someone should have showed them. Take a cab, go along back roads, up along some river and through the woods. Suddenly, around a bend you are surprised by the looming sight of Arrowhead Stadium with Kauffman Stadium over on the left. They are beautiful, but why way out here?

The Bullpen: Injuries leave Blue Jays at a crossroads

For the Blue Jays, this uber-eventful past week at home is either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning.

They either find out that nobody on the farm is ready to replace their three injured starters and begin to spiral out of control through the standings, or they discover that some of the guys on the farm actually will thrive with better defence and more thorough scouting of opposing hitters.

Anyway, wasn’t Hutchison going to be shut down at 150 innings, anyway? So instead of taking the final month off, he can take it in the middle of the season. That’s a glass-half-full view.

Of course, the other view is that the Jays are toast and might as well start re-arranging the deck chairs and offering up contracts of veterans on one-year deals at the trade deadline.   

This has been the story of the Jays’ roller-coaster season thus far. What’s down is up and what’s up is down. When they’re expected to win, they lose. When disaster looms, they bounce back and string Ws together. For the seven days starting on Monday, the Jays were 3-3, losing a series to the Nationals and sweeping the Phillies, without Roy Halladay, both at the Rogers Centre.

What makes the week so truly unusual is that nine pitches into Thursday’s series opener vs. the Phillies, the Jays had lost three games in the week and had lost three starting pitchers to the disabled list.

On Monday, Brandon Morrow strained his left oblique. On Wednesday, it was Drabek tearing his ulnar collateral ligament, likely headed for Tommy John surgery and on Friday it was a sprained UCL suffered by Hutchison. The organization and its fans are still reeling.

The frustration shone through in this most telling quote of the week from manager John Farrell that was spoken even before the Hutchison injury: “This is a challenge. Nobody gives a (bleep) about the Toronto Blue Jays except the people in the clubhouse.”

Frustration and defiance.

It’s significant. The three missing pitchers have totalled 207 2/3 innings, 37 starts and 16 wins. Those are tough numbers to replace. As of Sunday night, the Jays had not announced pitchers for either Tuesday or Wednesday at Miller Park against the Brewers.

The bullpen was amazing and busy over the six games this week. Overall, the Jays’ pen was 2-1 with one save, working 32 innings, allowing 26 hits, 8 runs, 7 earned, 11 walks and 27 strikeouts. Multiple inning relief performances, even by one-inning relievers, were the order of the day.

Leading the way in terms of bullpen work were: Luis Perez 5.1 IP; Villanueva 5 IP; Laffey 4.1 IP; Frasor 3.2 IP; Beck 3.2 IP; Janssen 3 IP; Cordero 2.2 IP; Oliver 2 IP; Coello 2 IP; Crawford 0.1 IP.

The starters combined to pitch 23 innings. Frasor led with four relief appearances.

The Jays on Sunday flew in 13 Jays fathers, including the infamous Tony Rasmus, father of Colby, who was vilified by Cardinals manager LaRussa and the organization for his allegedly meddling ways when it came to his son’s batting. Needless to say his disdain for the Cardinal organization was mutual. Rasmus said he hasn’t seen his son this happy playing ball in years.

“It’s a big deal,” Tony Rasmus said of the Jays’ gesture of flying all the families in for Father’s Day.

“The first thing my wife said was, ‘Did St. Louis ever do this?’ So we were really excited about the opportunity to get to do this.”  

The Jays this week signed 22 of their 54 draft picks, including OF D.J. Davis, an outfielder from Stone County High School, in Mississippi. He is the son of Wayne Davis, a former Blue Jays’ farmhand from 1983-86. The Jays signed Davis for $1.75 million, according to Baseball America, saving $250,000 on the slot for No. 17 overall. The Jays signed 11 of their 14 picks in the first 10 rounds. The three Jays picks remaining before the July 13 deadline are No. 22 RHP Marcus Stroman, No. 50 LHP Matt Smoral and No. 81 RHP Chase DeJong.

MLB POWER RANKINGS

Last week’s rankings in parentheses   

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (1)

Are always good early, but for L.A. the 162-game season always marathon of hope

2. New York Yankees (2)

A-Rod tied Gehrig’s record for slams, paid tribute to Iron Horse

3. Washington Nationals (4)

Harper, Strasburg best 1-2 punch under 24 in baseball 

4. Texas Rangers (3)

Rangers pitching melting down so fast, Al Gore is investigating

5. Tampa Bay Rays (5)

Matt Moore starting to live up to hype. Now what about the bats?

6. Cincinnati Reds (9)

Chapman million dollar arm and two-cent brain; Votto rules

7. Atlanta Braves (6)

Feeling the heat....and it’s not even the dog days yet 

8. San Francisco Giants (7)

Cain’s perfect game and Blanco catch highlight the week

9. Baltimore Orioles (11)

Everyone waiting for O’s collapse, but pitching hanging in

10. Chicago White Sox (8)

Sale and Peavy fuel a surprising renaissance

11. Los Angeles Angels (10)

Who knew Trout could help entire franchise swim upstream

12. New York Mets (12)

Worst idea in sports? Allowing MLB to overturn scorer’s decisions

13. Cleveland Indians (14)

Damon’s bid for 3,000 hits may not end well

14. Boston Red Sox (15)

When Sox get healthy this ranking should head north 

15. St. Louis Cardinals (16)

They do miss the 10-year face of the franchise

16. Miami Marlins (13)

Found out hotel this week is near where man’s face chewed off (see below)

17. Toronto Blue Jays (17)

Starting pitchers falling faster than Nik Wallenda with the hiccups

18. Detroit Tigers (18)

Catcher Alex Avila’s injury demonstrates his true value

19. Arizona Diamondbacks (22)

D-backs slowly climbing back to respectability

20. Pittsburgh Pirates (20)

Have not finished .500 since George H.W. Bush was prez 

21. Philadelphia Phillies (19)

Most disappointing team in baseball 

22. Oakland A’s (23)

This is team that will continue to improve as year goes on

23. Seattle Mariners (21)

Seems everyone that faces them goes to hill with “no-hit stuff”

24. Minnesota Twins (24)

Can franchise support both M’s – Mauer and Morneau?

25. Kansas City Royals (26)

Hosmer and Hochevar will need to help them move forward

26. Milwaukee Brewers (25)

Miller Field magic melts away like Gouda cheese on a hot sidewalk

27. Houston Astros (27)

Seems everyone that faces them went to hill with “perfect-game stuff”

28. Colorado Rockies (28)

Canadian LHP Jeff Francis in second tour of duty 

29. San Diego Padres (29)

If I became a free agent this is where I would want to write

30. Chicago Cubs (30)

Going nowhere. Dempster and Garza and pray for trade

THE ESSAY: WARREN CROMARTIE SPEARHEADS BASEBALL’S RETURN TO MONTREAL

The Expos experience was always something special for those major-leaguers that played in Montreal, whether it was the Jarry Park years from 1969-76, or the Olympic Stadium era from 1977-2004.

Those Expos players, especially in the years from ’75 to ’94, remained friends even after they left the organization in trade, even after they eventually retired. Whenever they get together, they still laugh, they cry, they reminisce, exchanging war stories of working, playing and partying in Montreal, enjoying the city, the organization, the fans and growing up with each other.

The fact is I have never seen a closer group of athletes in my 40 years in baseball, from spring training through the end of each season. Maybe it was the fact of being an English minority in a foreign land, living among fans that respected their space, yet lived and died with their on-field exploits.

Unfortunately major-league baseball is now gone and apathy seems to rule.

Montrealers have accepted too easily their team is gone, uprooted to Washington D.C. to become the Nationals. Quel dommage.

For one of those Expos players, former outfielder/first baseman Warren Cromartie, a man who has always found the time to return on a regular basis for various functions and charities, including an annual ALS fund-raiser to find a cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease, the outgoing and popular Miami native finally had had enough and wanted to do something to correct the absence of pro baseball.

I talked to Cro by phone the day that Gary Carter passed away. I spoke to him again at the Kid’s memorial service in Palm Beach Gardens. On both occasions, he was passionate and adamant, angry that the city seemed not to remember the Expos, especially in the early ’80s and early ’90s.

There were no shrines, no museums, no Expos logos, no fans wearing retro jerseys, nowhere to go for a history lesson on baseball in Montreal — the Expos, the Royals, anything.

Whenever Cro spoke individually to fans in the city, he knew they were still passionate about the Expos and about pro baseball, but, from his point of view, the various levels of government in Montreal and Quebec were neglecting, no, burying an important part of their sporting history.  

As such, with a little help from his former baseball friends, many of whom he had spoken to about the project only after Carter’s death, Cromartie formed an association called the Montreal Baseball Project (MBP) whose goal is to ultimately bring professional baseball back to the city, a move that he hopes will lead to the return of the big boy, major-league baseball.

Realistically, it won’t be that easy, maybe it will be impossible. MLB is more than ever a closed fraternity that seems to not want to expand to Canada, but Cro certainly deserves credit for trying.

This past weekend, June 14-16, featured a series of events for MBP, kicked off with an introduction of former Expos stars on the field before an Alouettes-Blue Bombers exhibition game last Thursday.

The list of former Expos on hand for the festivities included Cromartie, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Ellis Valentine, Larry Parrish, Wallace Johnson, Bryn Smith, Stan Bahnsen, Bill Gullickson, Rodney Scott, Rowland Office and Bill “Spaceman” Lee. Nice.

Further to a presence at the football game, the friends of baseball in Montreal staged a Friday golf tournament on Ile Perot and organized a Saturday dinner that was preceded by a Fan Fest and various clinics for young baseball players in the city. The beneficiary of any money raised was the Cedars Cancer Institute. The beneficiary of any attention raised was baseball in Montreal.

Cromartie’s efforts and those of his former teammates are admirable, but it will be a long grind. The first priority is to get a solid ownership group together. Cromartie is well aware of that. The second thing is to find a location for a stadium, one that could start small and be expanded if the idea catches on. The group can’t just start with a demand for major-league ball.

But a return at any level of pro ball, especially if it was affiliated with a major-league team, especially the Jays, would be preferable to having no ball at all. As such, good luck, gentlemen. Let’s get pro baseball back in Montreal.

THE RANT: DUSTY BAKER AND DEREK LOWE EXCHANGE INSULTS. WHAT’S NEXT?

Reds manager Dusty Baker and Indians pitcher Derek Lowe just plain don’t like each other and it’s turned into a nasty war of words. But, really, why is this considered bad and what makes this any different than the silly Cole Hamels-Bryce Harper incident that cost the Phillies’ pitcher a five-game suspension?

Make no mistake about it, the Office of the Commissioner is paying attention to a potential Baker-Lowe 2 this Monday in Cleveland. 

The recent fallout of what turns out is a four-year-old feud is this: On June 13, Lowe came to the plate in Cincy and was low-bridged by Reds starter Mat Latos by a 96 mph fastball.

Lowe turned his head and glared at the Reds’ dugout, specifically at Baker, who waved his index finger back and forth in Dikembe Mutombo fashion. “Don’t bring that weak stuff in here,” is the gist.

The two men had a similar thing going on four years ago when Lowe was with the Dodgers and was nasty as well. Here’s how the back-and-forth went. On Wednesday after the game, Lowe was asked by reporters about the chin music from Latos.

“Dusty will deny it. It has everything to do with him. You can go ask him. He’ll deny it like he has no idea. They’ve been trying to do this for years. I’d always come up with men on base. To say it didn’t come from Dusty, Mat Latos was with the San Diego Padres the last four years. He has no idea what’s going on.

“Again, you can ask him and he’ll say he doesn’t know (anything) about it like he always does. This goes back to my last year with the Dodgers. He made up some story. A lot of people got involved. People almost got fired over it. You can go ask him right now and he’ll say he has no idea what you’re talking about. But just watch the game. Mat Latos has nothing to do with anything that has gone on. How would he know? Why would you throw a 96 mph fastball, first pitch, inside to a pitcher? Ask him.”

Then on Thursday morning before the series finale, Baker was asked for any response to Lowe.

“He had some words for me. I really didn’t want to make a public thing or a public spectacle. He’s the one who brought it up. He had some choice words for me. I really don’t care if he respects me. It doesn’t matter. No. 1, you’ve got to ask him why he hit Joey Votto in the back two years ago.

“Yesterday, he took exception to a ball inside that didn’t hit him, then hit Brandon Phillips after that. I’m not denying nothing. I didn’t order anyone to hit him. I told (Mat Latos) to buzz him and make him uncomfortable. That’s what happened. Nobody hit him. Then he hit our guy.

“What he was talking about was something that he said and did a few years. You got to ask him what that was. You got a lot people involved in the situation that didn’t need to be involved in the situation. It didn’t come from there. Go ask him since he made it public. Understand what I’m saying. I’ll let it rest at that since he’s such a big man running his mouth talking about himself.”

Now here Dusty is admitting that he asked his pitcher to “buzz” Lowe. And then Lowe responds soon after by hitting Phillips. How is that different than what Hamels said and did?

As journalists and fans we get mad at those in sports that speak in clichés and without emotion. Then when someone does speak the truth, they are criticized again. We can’t have it both ways.

I don’t think Hamels should have been suspended and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Lowe and Baker not liking each other. But, really, if Hamels is going to be suspended, why not Baker, who said he had his man knock Lowe down and how about Lowe who clearly retaliated by hitting Phillips.

For the commissioner, it’s about consistency in the message. He shouldn’t have suspended Hamels, but what now? All or nothing.

AL ROUNDUP

The resurgent Yankees marched into Washington and swept the Nationals three games in front of full houses, extending the Bombers’ win streak to nine games. The Nats sure looked good in Toronto earlier in the week and sure looked bad at home. All of a sudden the Yanks’ rotation is shaping up with Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte.

The Angels have a tough decision when RH Jered Weaver returns from his sore back this week. He will likely bump RH Garrett Richards (2-0, 0.86 ERA) back to the minors. OF Vernon Wells had thumb surgery to repair a torn UCL in his thumb and is out at least until the end of July. The Angels have taken off without the former Jays’ star.

The O’s were happy to have 2B Brian Roberts back on the field after a year away with a concussion. His average is back to normal, but he has yet to produce an extra-base hit. It’s all about timing and he hasn’t got that back yet.

Rookie LH Matt Moore has won three straight decisions for the Rays and is heading towards the form that everyone expected after his dazzling playoff performance last year. “I like the fact that he commanded his breaking ball without trying to overthrow it, and then it started becoming a strike,” manager Joe Maddon told Rays media. “Now they have to honour the fastball and breaking ball mentality. That makes it very difficult.” 3B Evan Longoria began a minor-league rehab on Saturday at Triple-A Durham.

The A’s Cuban CF Yoenis Cespedes came off the DL stint recovered from his thumb issues. But now he has been battling left hamstring woes, although he remains active. If the following story sounds familiar it is because it is. OF Manny Ramirez asked for and was given his release by the A’s because he was not being promoted from the minor leagues fast enough. Manny had finished serving his 50-game MLB suspension for a second PED failure, but the A’s kept him at Triple-A. Ramirez asked for his relief. It parallels the story of Jays’ minor league DH Vlad Guerrero who insisted he be recalled right away or given his release. He still has not re-signed.

The Rangers have been trying to seamlessly integrate right-hander Yu Darvish into the North American style of pitching. However, after noticing that he was struggling with fatigue issues, the Rangers gave him an extra three days between starts and he responded with 11 strikeouts in a 6-2 win over the Astros. OF Josh Hamilton had been sidelined on the weekend with dehydration and a stomach virus. It’s a condition that has run rampant in one form or another through the Rangers clubhouse. Starter Derek Holland had the worst case, going on the DL and losing 15 lbs. He wants to play again on Monday in San Diego.

The White Sox will start former Jays right-hander Zach Stewart on Monday against the Cubs. Veteran John Danks is still not ready to return to the active ranks.

 

 

NL ROUNDUP

The Nationals invaded Canada for three games and left no prisoners, behind the impressive play of 19-year-old outfielder Bryce Harper and 23-year-old right-hander Stephen Strasburg. The last time Washington made as big an impact in Canada was ’04 when they swooped in and stole the Expos back to D.C. We will always remember. It was nice that at the same time, they were celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the War of 1812, conveniently forgetting that with the help of the British, we went in and burned down their White House. I think they are still ahead by stealing the Expos, our national NL team. The first visit by Harper to Canada will forever be remembered for his classic answer to the unfortunate TV broadcaster that asked him if he might be celebrating Tuesday’s monster homer off the Blackberry sign in centre field at the Rogers Centre with a nice Canadian beer, since the drinking age is 19 in Canada. Harper’s response: “That’s a clown question, bro.’ ” Harper and his family are Mormons. As good as Harper and the Nats were in Toronto, they were swept by the Yankees. In Saturday’s game, Harper was 0-for-7 with five strikeouts.

The Marlins offence has been struggling and hitting coach Eduardo Perez has been taking some heat but gets a spirited defence from manager Ozzie Guillen. The art of Tweeting has never seen a more prolific practitioner than LF Logan Morrison, who is raucous and irreverent. He got in trouble last season and was sent briefly to Triple-A New Orleans as punishment. 3B Hanley Ramirez suffered a slight fracture of his nose as a baseball rattled off his face in a batting cage. Much maligned closer Heath Bell has converted 11 straight saves and has not blown an opportunity since May 4.

The Giants highlight of the week was Matt Cain’s perfect game against the Astros. He threw 125 pitches and was supported by a sensational diving catch in right centrefield by Gregor Blanco. The lowlight came when 1B Aubrey Huff injured his right knee hopping the short fence in front of the dugout to join in the celebration.

Mets manager Terry Collins was so concerned about Canadian left-fielder Jason Bay and his second concussion in the past 12 months that he sent him home for the weekend after crashing headfirst into the wall on Friday. Bay, who Collins feels may be done for the year, was booed by idiot Mets fans as he was helped off the field.

Cubs Canadian right-hander Ryan Dempster knows he’s trade bait at the deadline. He is 3-3, with a 2.11 ERA and would be a solid acquisition for teams, including the Jays. “I’m not naive, I’m not oblivious to what’s going on,” Dempster told Chicago media. “But it’s really kind of, not out of my control, actually it really is in my control. It’s one of those things if I focused on that and I worried about that, I wouldn’t be doing a very good job as a teammate to those guys in there, and I wouldn’t be doing a very good job for myself if I wasn’t focusing on what I need to do.” Dempster has been 10 years in the majors and the last five with the same team, meaning he can veto or approve any trade.

The Braves lost NL ERA leader Brandon Beachy to right elbow soreness and the DL. He will be replaced in the rotation by RH Jair Jurrjens, recalled from Triple-A. Jurrjens at one time was considered one of the bright young starters in the game.

The Astros optioned Brett Wallace back to Triple-A Oklahoma City after 1B Carlos Lee returned from the DL on the weekend. How far has Wallace’s star fallen since he was regarded as the Jays’ first-baseman of the future in a follow-up to the Roy Halladay deal?

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY

6/18/76 The A’s eccentric owner Charlie Finley showed his hatred and disdain for the new rules of free agency. He sold stars OF Joe Rudi and CL Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox and LHP Vida Blue to the Yankees at the June 15 trade deadline, but commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who often had butted heads with the irascible insurance magnate from Chicago, negated the deals citing “the best interests of baseball.” ... 6/18/86 the Angels’ Don Sutton posts his 300th career victory. It was against the Rangers, a three-hitter... 6/19/38 after consecutive no-hitters, Johnny Vander Meer worked into the fourth inning against the Boston Braves before ending his hitless streak at 21 innings... 6/20/90 former Expos star C Gary Carter, then with the Giants, caught his 1,862nd game, eclipsing the MLB record of Al Lopez. Carter later went to the Dodgers and back to the Expos... 6/20/86 The struggling White Sox fired manager Tony LaRussa after a slow start, replacing him with future Phillies and Jays skipper Jim Fregosi. LaRussa signed shortly after that with the A’s... 6/21/39 the Iron Horse, Yankee 1B Lou Gehrig announces his retirement after it is discovered he is suffering from ALS. His illness ended his consecutive games streak at 2,130... 6/21/64 On Father’s Day, Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning tosses a perfect game at Shea Stadium that I remember seeing live on TV. The closest thing to a hit was C Jesse Gonder ripping a line drove speared by 2B Tony Taylor. Bunning was the second pitcher ever to record no-hitters in both leagues... 6/22/90 the struggling Braves fire manager Russ Nixon and replace him with Bobby Cox. Pretty good move... 6/23/63 eccentric White Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall hits his 100th career HR and famously circles the bases backwards. Pitcher Dallas Green was not amused, but the fans and his teammates were.

Birthdays this week: Lou Brock 73, Andres Galarraga 51, Lou Gehrig 109, Dickie Thon 54. 

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Triple A Las Vegas (39-31)...The 51’s lost to Colorado Springs 16-4 on Sunday. 1B Adam Lind was 2-for-5 and is batting .412. C Travis D’Arnaud is batting .335 with 15 homers and 48 RBIs. SS Adeiny Hechavarria is hitting .332 with 47 RBIs. LF Travis Snider was 2-for-5 in his second game back and is hitting .337. RHP Jesse Chavez is 7-2 with a 3.84 ERA... AA-New Hampshire (24-43)...The Fisher Cats beat Bowie 4-3 in 13 innings on Sunday. 1B Mike McDade was 1-for-6 and is batting .308. The biggest disappointment has been the back-to-back first-round draft picks from 2009-10, RHP Chad Jenkins (2-6, 5.84 ERA) and RHP Deck McGuire, who pitched 5 innings on Sunday and is 2-8, 6.62 ERA. RHP Joel Carreno is 1-4 with a 4.71 ERA... A-Dunedin (41-23) ...CF Jake Marisnick is batting .262, with three homers, 26 RBIs and eight steals. RHP John Stilson is 3-0, 2.82 ERA. LHP Sean Nolin is 7-0, 2.35 ERA... A-Lansing (47-22) ... the Lugnuts beat Great Lakes 9-2 on Sunday. LF Kevin Pillar hit his third homer, with four RBIs and is batting .319 with 27 stolen bases. Pitching is the story at Lansing as RHP Aaron Sanchez leads the way with 6-0, 0.77 ERA. He worked four innings with no decision on Sunday... A-Vancouver (2-1) ... the Canadians lost 7-3 to Spokane. 1B Balbino Fuenmayor was 2-for-4 and is hitting .429.

ONE FOR THE ROAD

This week’s road trip takes the Jays and me to Milwaukee and Miami. I’m covering those two stops and am looking forward to Miami. Not so sure about Milwaukee. I think the last time I was in Milwaukee for the all-star game a few years ago, it rained for two days, including Home Run Derby Monday and at the hotel I was assigned, the bellman that brought me to my room proudly told me that this was the hotel — located near Marquette University — that notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer used to lure some of his victims. Didn’t see that referenced in the online brochure.

That was also the all-star game that ended in a tie and prompted the rule change where the all-star winning league earns home field advantage at the World Series. Not Bud Selig’s proudest moment as he sat confused in the field-side box seats in the 12th inning as managers and umpires told him there was no more pitching.

The post-all-star game party was held in tents just outside the Brewers stadium and I remember being unable to order a Miller Lite. Only Bud and Bud Light, ironically in the shadow of Miller Park. Bud was the official beer of MLB and all that, but had nothing to do with making Milwaukee famous. Strange.

Are there two more polar opposite cities in terms of reputation than Wisconsin’s biggest little city on the shores of Lake Michigan and Florida’s capital of cool with South Beach, art deco and all.

Last time I was on Miami Beach, was for a winter meetings. The Clevelander is my favourite South Beach night spot, with outdoor bar set up around the swimming pool with rickety foot bridges, throbbing dance music and cold beer. Joe’s Stone Crab for lunch is a must. The most bizarre place I went to was with Jeff Blair of the Globe & Mail, a Goth bar called The Kitchen. It was pitch black inside, with no lighting and you had to feel your way around. The music was equally bizarre. Blair loved it.

Oh, by the way, the hotel I chose is on the MacArthur Causeway, which was in the news recently right near my lobby, when some nut job ate the face off another guy. I detect a trend with me and road hotels. From Florida, the team heads to Boston and will be joined for coverage by The Star’s Brendan Kennedy.

Richard Griffin’s Bullpen: Why Joey Votto is baseball’s best hitter

The most intriguing Jays moment of the week may have come on Thursday morning in Chicago. Veteran infielder Omar Vizquel was asked to do an interview, live on the field, prior to the White Sox day-game series finale with MLB Network and the irreverent Kevin Millar.

After leading Omar on a fast-paced entertaining trip down memory lane with some great video of his early years, some of his more spectacular defensive plays, a rating of great plays by Asdrubal Cabrera and John McDonald from the past week, his home backyard full of exotic animals including kangaroos and his personal choice of colourful wardrobe and underwear, the interview got serious.

With a clubhouse full of mesmerized young Jays teammates, led by third baseman Brett Lawrie, RHP Brandon Morrow and others gathered around the TV hanging on every word of the veteran with a Hall-of-Fame resume, someone Lawrie half-jokingly labelled and Tweeted afterwards as “the most interesting man in the world” Millar asked Vizquel to name the shortstops that may have been handed down the torch of defensive excellence.

Vizquel thought about it, then started with Cabrera from the Indians, Alcides Escobar of the Royals and Elvis Andrus of the Rangers. Glaringly being left off of Omar the outmaker's list of current shortstop excellence was his current teammate Yunel Escobar, whose reputation locally is as one of the game's best defenders. Vizquel was brought in to help mentor Yunel. He probably just forgot.

The Jays’ week consisted of a six-game, seven-day road trip to Chicago and Atlanta that ended with a 3-3 record. Following an off-day Monday, the Jays won two of three against the White Sox and dropped two of three to the Braves. Manager John Farrell made a major lineup decision on Tuesday at U.S. Cellular Field, shifting Lawrie and Colby Rasmus to the 1-2 slots in the batting order.

The lineup changes, moving Kelly Johnson and Escobar to more comfortable middle of the order RBI spots, worked out immediately, with Lawrie and Rasmus combining for eight hits in a Tuesday win over the Sox. Their contributions slowly declined as the week went on, hitting rock bottom Friday and Saturday, in losses to the Braves. But the two men at the top bounced back Sunday.

The Jays' pitching highlight of the week was Morrow's two-hit complete game against the Chisox on Wednesday. The dynamic right-hander was aided in his cause of going the distance by outfielder Rajai Davis crushing a two-run homer to left in the ninth. The extra run buffer allowed Morrow to complete the job, despite letting two runners reach base before retiring the side. Morrow now has three complete games and three shutouts. Does Morrow deserve an all-star nod? Yes.  

In Atlanta, the Jays continued their recent history of ineptitude at Turner Field, running the losing streak to eight games before salvaging the series finale on Sunday. Staff ace Ricky Romero was unable to go five innings, but Carlos Villanueva picked up the win in long relief.

Congratulations to SS Nicholas Lovullo, selected by the Jays in the 38th round of the June draft out of Newbury Park High School in California. One of the smaller high school programs in Cali, Newbury Park reached the state championships. Lovullo, the son of Jays' first-base CCH Torey Lovullo, has signed a letter of intent to attend Holly Cross College in the fall.

MLB POWER RANKINGS

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

Mattingly will make people forget Tommy Lasorda...and that's good

2. New York Yankees

Finding their highly-paid rhythm without Mariano and Pineda

3. Texas Rangers

As Hamilton goes so go the Rangers. Look forward to Oswalt debut

4. Washington Nationals

If you keep finishing last for so long, it eventually pays off

5. Tampa Bay Rays

Both Rays and Nats building dynasties upon past failures

6. Atlanta Braves

Will need to make sure bullpen stays fresh to avoid collapse

7. San Francisco Giants

Getting Posey back healthy brings them back to '10 WS team

8. Chicago White Sox

Ventura, Mattingly, Matheny. Who needs managerial experience?

9. Cincinnati Reds

Fab Votto brings day-by-day hitting clinic to teammates

10. Los Angeles Angels

El Hombre was right. Albert Pujols does not deserve that designation

11. Baltimore Orioles

Can a bird have Achilles heel? If so, with O's it's still pitching

12. New York Mets

This is unbelievable renaissance because Collins had been horrible manager

13. Miami Marlins

New team name, new stadium, new stars, same old Ozzie — minus Twitter

14. Cleveland Indians

Tribe are the O's of the AL Central. Not as good as they threaten to be

15. Boston Red Sox

Toughest division in the thick of it all despite train wreck DL

16. St. Louis Cardinals

Sans Albert, sans Berkman, but avec Freese and Beltran

17. Toronto Blue Jays

All of a sudden it's a two-man show with Romero and Morrow

18. Detroit Tigers

Fielder and Cabrera and still under .500. How is that possible?

19. Philadelphia Phillies

Has Doc's dogged work ethic and unbelievable workload caught up

20. Pittsburgh Pirates

Say what!!!!!!

21. Seattle Mariners

It's a slow process but this offence is going to be good

22. Arizona Diamondbacks

Last year's playoff run may have been a mirage. Up-Hill climb

23. Oakland A's

Billy Beane's big dream continues. To win an Academy Award

24. Minnesota Twins

The Twins can never be held down for long because they play it right

25. Milwaukee Brewers

You knew this was going to happen losing Fielder. Changes at deadline?

26. Kansas City Royals

These guys were supposed to be surprise contenders. Surprise!! No

27. Houston Astros

Preparing to be patsies next year in AL West by improving slightly now

28. Colorado Rockies

Manager Tracy likes to climb his mountains late in the season

29. San Diego Padres

Beautiful park, beautiful city, beautiful weather, should be better team

30. Chicago Cubs

Theo Epstein is a genius. Discuss.

THE ESSAY: BASEBALL’S BEST HITTER IS JOEY VOTTO

He may never win the Triple Crown. He may not win a World Series ring. But it says here that Etobicoke native, 28-year-old, Joey Votto may be the best pure hitter in baseball.

The Cincinnati Reds first baseman is so good that he could be handicapped by his own rules with narrowed foul lines drawn in just for him, maybe just right-centre to left-centre field, and still he would bat .300.

Votto, by the power of his own hard work as a youngster and young pro, may have already taken more batting practice swings than any Canadian-born hitter in history. Votto is driven to excel and has. In a Sports Illustrated story published earlier this month renowned writer Tom Verducci pointed out some stunning facts:

1. Votto has not popped up to the infield all season. In fact, he has popped out to the infield only three times over the past four seasons. Crazy.

2. The average NL hitter bats .198 when he is behind in the count. Votto hits .300 when he is behind in the count.

3. Votto has pulled a ball foul into the stands only once in his entire major league career. “Sure, I remember it,” he said. “It was my rookie year. It wasn't that deep — maybe 20, 30 feet foul. I haven't hit a long home run foul in my whole career.”

Votto does not even worry about foul lines because he allows pitches to get deeper into his strike zone before crushing them, His patience, plate discipline and consistency are greater than perhaps any other current major leaguer. In addition to that technical prowess, the great Canadian hitter plays in the Great American Ballpark, a perfect venue for his powerful alley-to-alley power stroke.

Maybe that’s why with free agency looming after the 2013 season, Votto was willing to sign so easily an extension with the Reds, for a stunning 10-years, $225-million with an option for 2024 that would likely keep him in Cincinnati the rest of his career.

If healthy Votto is Hall-of-Fame bound.

Votto, through Sunday, had 48 walks and 48 strikeouts, hitting .362, with 26 doubles, 10 homers, 38 RBIs and an OPS of 1.127. At 28, Votto is entering his prime. That's scary. To this point, Larry Walker is the best Canadian hitter ever. Check back with us in 10 years. This guy is good.         

THE RANT: JUNE DRAFT CHANGES ARE A JOKE

I used to be a big fan, an admirer of clever manipulators of the major-league June draft, of imaginative GMs that knew how to take advantage of the rules. The draft seemed a perfect balance for building small market franchises, combatting the vagaries of six-year major-league free-agency, which was forever dominated by the same half-dozen large market teams, led by the damn Yankees.

But this year's re-structuring of the MLB June draft under the new CBA has been a bad joke. The first 10 rounds, the first 366 selections, were assigned precise dollar numbers. Each franchise had its own total bonus number depending on draft position. From there, it got more ridiculous.

New rules? If you signed any player among your first 10 rounders for, say, just one U.S. dollar, you could then carry over the remainder of MLB's slotted amount to the rest of your top 10 choices. But if you failed to sign said player, you lost that total cash amount. Stupid rule No. 1.

There's more dumbness. In Rounds 11-40 the maximum MLB bonus for any player is $100,000. Anything over that counts against you as a penalty that if exceeded, cumulatively, for this year, would include a 75-100-percent cash punishments and potential loss of draft choices next year. That's for going over, but if you strong-armed, signing your kids for under $100,000, hey, good on you. Teams, with scouts sitting in a prospect's living room, family and advisors close by, can play hardball with picks 11-40, at a mandated 100 grand, shrug and say, “Dem's da rules.” Ridiculous rule No. 2.      

Clearly, major league owners wanted to strictly control costs and included this amateur rule in the Collective Bargaining Agreement last October as an easily traded-off bargaining chip since all it does is cost money to young prospects — who are not yet union members and the majority of whom will never be. It was an easy call for the union to five away amateur player bargaining power.

So MLB wanted to bring all teams into line, without rogue GMs ruining the human game of draft monopoly by actually trying to compete and win against the big-market behemoths. The big markets think they have won. The politically correct, politically savvy Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos claims that all GMs were consulted on the draft changes. I respect Alex, but that is total ball crap.

More likely is that someone from the Commissioner's Office may have stuck his head through the door last November or at an earlier GM's meeting and said, “Hey guys, we're putting a slotting cap on the draft and these are the rules. Just so you know. If you have any comments, email them.”

The die was cast unilaterally. Big money always talks. There is no way that Anthopoulos and what constitutes the majority now comprised of young, imaginative, energetic GMs would have approved the new rules.

But unfortunately for Bud Selig and his unindicted co-conspirators that made this decision, boys will be boys and GM rogues will be rogues. It turns out Anthopoulos is both a boy and a rogue. I admire AA a little less after this draft. The whole concept sucks, but fact is he plays by the rules.

The Jays had 14 picks in the first 10 rounds. The first seven were guys that can become major leaguers, the second seven were marginal college players, all of them college seniors with limited options, that were just happy to be there. The 10th round pick out of the Naval Academy, Alex Azor, signed for $1,000 and told MLB.com that he would have signed for a hot dog. The fourth rounder, Tucker Donahue from Stetson, signed for less than $10,000. Ridiculous.

It used to be teams took a chance to find diamonds in the rough later on in the draft that nobody else thought they could sign and, via personality and imagination, were able to re-stock the system. Now teams are looking for grateful fringy seniors in Rds. 4-10 to accumulate a war-chest of cash for players that actually have a chance to make a MLB impact. The spirit of the draft is out the window.

Because of those undeserved, mostly wide-eyed grateful picks in rounds 4-10, the Jays were able to bank a huge surplus to overpay their top seven picks. It's smart, but it sucks for the intent of the draft, which is parity. Because of the move to draft undeserving prospects — not just by the Jays — guys like Canadian lefthander Ryan Kellogg were pushed down as far as the 12th round. Stupid!

Baseball should be embarrassed by the new rules. I never thought I would say it, because I was a member of management from 1973-95, but much-hated uber-agent Scott Boras is right. Yikes, I said it.

What had been the one aspect of the draft that levelled the playing field for small and medium market franchises was that draft choices had nowhere else to go once selected and the money that was  required to throw at them was always far less than for established, traditional six-year free agents.

That admiration I have for clever drafts goes back to my Expos days when brilliant, then-scouting director Gary Hughes convinced Delaware native Delino DeShields to give up a basketball scholarship to nearby Villanova, a deal inked in stone with iconic coach Rollie Massimino, choosing instead to play baseball as a raw high school shortstop. DeShields made an Expos impact at second base and was eventually traded to the Dodgers for future Hall-of-Famer Pedro Martinez.

Hughes also selected Cleveland St. baseketball star Tyrone Kingwood who had vitually zero certifiable major-league skills at the time. But he was a superb athlete. One worked out. One didn't. But the admiration was in the effort and imagination. Glory days.

But, of course, that was under the old guidelines, where in a still single-digit draft round or with a sandwich pick awarded from an unsigned Type A or B free agent you could choose a studly high-school player either from another sport or with college ambitions that nobody felt was sign-able and convince him his best avenue to stardom was with your team, rather than University of Whatever.

That's exactly what the Jays did in 2010. They took a safe, sure thing, a college kid with their own pick, Deck McGuire, then with compensation picks for Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas selected high school pitchers Aaron Sanchez and Noah Syndergaard, who have both become cornerstone pitching prospects for the young Jays moving forward.  That wouldn't happen anymore.

That's also what the Jays did in 2011. They took a first-round chance with Tyler Beede, a young right-handed pitcher committed to Vanderbilt. But in case they couldn't sign him, they protected themselves with Daniel Norris, the best high school left-hander available in the second round using the money saved from not signing Beede to secure Norris. Smart, plus the Jays received another pick for Beede, 22nd overall this year, with which they selected Duke University reliever Marcus Stroman.     

The new rules suck. Hopefully there is an escape clause for baseball, a chance for adjustment before the next CBA is negotiated. This entire drafting process sucked. Those who invented the new rules erred badly. There were 61 college seniors selected, most were manipulated and undeserving of their ranking but were used to sign other high picks their saved money could secure.

The deadline for signing drafted players is July 13. It will be interesting to see the mess that's left, the players that are left when the dust settles.     

AL ROUNDUP

The O's in the 21st round of the June draft selected OF Julien Service, from Sinclair High School in Whitby. What makes this mid-round pick interesting is that the O's previously had no Canadian scouts until January, hiring Tyler Moe, a former Brantford Red Sox third baseman and one time teammate of Brewers closer John Axford.

If Service agrees to terms, it will be Moe's first signing and the Orioles first Canadian selection since former Expos' GM Dan Duquette took charge in Baltimore. The O's hope to welcome 2B Brian Roberts back to the active roster Tuesday, batting leadoff against the Pirates.

Roberts had suffered a concussion last May 16 and has not played a major-league game since. He has been rehabbing at Triple-A Norfolk. Recall that Jays 2B Aaron Hill was concussed on May 29, 2008, running into shortstop David Eckstein's elbow trying to make a catch in short centrefield in Oakland. He missed the remainder of the season, returning for Opening Day, '09...

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine is not winning friends and influencing people in his comeback season.

The positive thinking that Valentine has displayed is just that he's positive the umpires are missing calls for his pitchers in the Nats weekend sweep at Fenway. The irascible skipper was ejected by home plate umpire Alan Porter on Sunday after a close pitch not called strike three by closer Alfredo Aceves was followed up by a game-winning double.

“Alfredo struck the guy out on a pitch that the whole ball is on the plate and he calls it a ball," Valentine said. "Then he hits an RBI. I've got guys busting their butt, battling their butt off. It's not right. Good umpires had a real bad series this series — a real bad series — and it went one way. There should be a review.”

Bobby V was ejected during Dustin Pedroia’s final at-bat of the game. He will be fined. The bad news for the Sox is that the players are following the lead of their manager and they won't win. The men in blue always have the final word...

The Yankees injury that has been overshadowed by the losses of Mariano Rivera and Michael Pineda has been Brett Gardner. The news only got worse. Gardner, out since April 17, has been shut down again with left elbow woes. He will see Dr. James Andrews on Tuesday. Gardner is a good defender and his 49 stolen bases in 2011 led the league...

The fact that the Rays are winning games and in first place in the toughest division in baseball is amazing, considering the lineup of retreads and never-will-bes they send out on a daily basis.

SS Elliot Johnson? INF Sean Rodriguez? 2B Will Rhymes? 3B Drew Sutton?

The real key to the Rays success is manager Joe Maddon. He is in the lead to defend his manager-of-the-year title. Good news for the Rays is that 3B Evan Longoria is headed out on rehab option and could be back within 10 days...

White Sox manager Robin Ventura is proving, along with Mike Matheny of the Cards and Don Mattingly of the Dodgers, that prior managerial experience may be overrated and that a solid baseball mind is more important. Sox GM Kenny Williams makes sure that he emphasizes the contributions of his new manager in settling the clubhouse. Subtle shot at his former guy Ozzie Guillen? Well, yeah.

The Sox will try DH Adam Dunn in left field when the Sox travel for their NL park inter-league experience. The Sox are being critiqued in local papers for not signing Brandon Inge when he was released by the Tigers, or some other experienced third baseman, now choosing to go with second baseman Orlando Hudson at the hot corner. But when Hudson was working his way up to the Jays, then-scouting director Tim Wilken told me he was actually a better defensive third baseman when they were scouting him.

Indians LF Johnny Damon is struggling in his quest to reach 3,000 career hits. Damon is 258 hits shy of the magic number, but is hitting .190 in 29 games since joining the Tribe. He has 13 walks and 12 strikeouts. Damon would likely need this and two more major league seasons with regular at-bats to reach 3,000. He can still play a little left field, but his chances seem slim. Jays' future DH Vlad Guerrero has emphasized his desire for 51 more homers to reach 500. Vlad's chances are slimmer...

The Tigers were expected to run away and hide from the rest of the AL Central after signing Prince Fielder and bolstering the bullpen with veterans. But the tone was set early, even though they swept the opening series Jose Valverde struggled to close out wins. That has continued, but Valverde has bounced back from a back strain to pitch nine good games in a row, with a win, five saves and one run allowed. Ace Justin Verlander has been mortal and catcher Alex Avila has been on the DL since June 6.

Controversy of a different sort hit the Royals camp this week. After a winning effort, left-hander Bruce Chen was doing a TV interview in the dugout when catcher Humberto Quintero stepped in behind him and made a clearly offensive racist gesture, like the kind the Spanish national basketball team made in their team photo at the Beijing Olympics. Clearly he did not mean harm, but education is required...

NL ROUNDUP

Former Hall-of-Fame manager, Tommy Lasorda suffered a mild heart attack while in New York to represent the Dodgers at the June draft. Commissioner Bud Selig noticed Lasorda was a little out of sorts and insisted he go to the hospital. He was released mid-week and was able to catch a flight back to Los Angeles. Lasorda is also a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall-of-Fame in St. Marys, Ont., mostly on the basis of his 107-57 record over nine seasons with the Triple-A Montreal Royals...  

Future Hall-of-Fame third baseman Chipper Jones sounds like he regards Rome and Toronto much the same way. Jones was sent on a rehab assignment to Rome — no, just the one in Georgia — for what was supposed to be a three-day injury rehab. Instead, Rome got old in a day and he cajoled his way into the major-league lineup in time for Sunday's Jays game.

Okay, Jones didn't like Rome, but recall that during the World Baseball Classic, Chipper complained about having to play round one in Toronto, staying in his room when not at the ballpark. Sure it was March, but still, Chip, buy a winter coat and loosen up. He may go to Cooperstown, but he will never be invited into the Canadian Hall at St. Marys...

The Phils are in trouble. RHP Roy Halladay is still out with his right lat strain. He is expected to return some time after the all-star break and will not pitch in Toronto at the end of June. He was declared symptom-free on June 5. Given his history of quick return from injury, Doc may be back before the break. Physician heal thyself.

The Phillies have suffered seven walk-off losses and the amazing thing, working against manager Charlie Manuel is that in those seven losses, closer Jonathan Papelbon has not pitched at all. Many managers in a tie game on the road will use their closer, taking a chance to score in the top of the next inning. That's your best shot. Manuel trusts his deep pen — 0-7...  

It's not just the Jays that have had trouble closing games. Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, who had not allowed a run through June 7, blew his first save on Friday vs. the Tigers in a game the Reds won, then allowed two more runs on Sunday against Detroit, still regularly hitting 100 mph on the radar gun.

Chapman proved he's not a true closer by leaving the ballpark before the media was allowed in the clubhouse. Chapman's interpreter had no comment. The best closers in history have all been standup guys. Dennis Eckersley after Robbie Alomar's home run, after Kirk Gibson's home run. Tom Henke, Sergio Santos? They may not always do the job but they're always there answering questions in front of their locker after blowing a save. They use it as therapy, closure. They may be out there again in 24 hours...

Marlins' first baseman Gaby Sanchez was recalled Sunday from Triple-A-New Orleans. Wow. New Orleans and Miami? That's not a bad either-or for possible cities in which to play baseball. The most dramatic difference between Triple-A and the majors that I can recall was when the Pirates had their top farm team in Hawaii. Hmm! I'm getting recalled from Honolulu to Pittsburgh?? Yikes.   

Cubs' Canadian right-hander Ryan Dempster raised his record to 2-3 with a 2.31 ERA with a win over the Twins on Sunday. He's been a hard-luck story, but has won two in a row after benefitting from 18 runs in support.

“I had good command again,” Dempster said. “I was able to keep the ball at the fat part of the plate and just moved it around, changed speeds and made a lot of good pitches.” Dempster is decidedly on the trading block for president Theo Epstein by the July deadline and the Jays are among those teams that have inquired about the cost. That's just GM Alex Anthopoulos doing his “due diligence” but it would be a nice acquisition in a season that seems like it will be 81-85 wins for the Jays, as it is. Dempster is earning $14 million in the final year of his contract and will be a free agent.

The Jays will be visiting Milwaukee next week and the Brewers home magic has been non-existent.

After going 57-24 with Prince Fielder leading the offence at Miller Park, the Brew Crew is 16-17 at home and looking for answers. Closer John Axford, from Port Dover, is suffering the same fate as Valverde.

On Sunday, Axford entered with a four-run lead, recorded one out, allowed two runs and left with the bases loaded. The Brewers held on. Axford was forced to defend his honour on Twitter, which has a pack-of-wild-dingos mentality when it smells blood. Axford is best athlete in the Twitter-verse at answering his critics, deflecting criticism with humour and self-deprecation. The Brewers have a Canadian GM in Doug Melvin and assistant in Gord Ash and have tied Anthopoulos and the Jays with four Canadians selected in the June draft, the most of any MLB franchise.          

THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL HISTORY

June 11, 1990 Nolan Ryan tosses his sixth career no-hitter, 5-0 over the A's. He's the first to throw no-hitters for three teams and in three decades...6/11/95 Rondell White of the Expos goes 6-for-6 in a 10-8 win over the Giants, hitting for the cycle...6/12/70 Dock Ellis of the Pirates blanks the Padres 2-0 while claiming he was high on acid. Ellis told High Times he woke up that day and thought it was Friday until his girlfriend showed him Saturday's paper. Dock walked eight and hit one and giggled in the seventh inning and pointed out to Dave Cash that he had a no-no going. Ah, those were the days...6/13/03 Roger Clemens with the Yankees wins his 300th game in an interleague game in St. Louis, although he now claims it was his wife Debbie on the mound that day...6/15/28 Ty Cobb steals home for the 50th and final time in his career, this on the front end of a triple steal, The Georgia Peach never met a catcher he didn't spike...6/15/38 Johnny VanderMeer of the Reds tosses a second straight no-hitter, a feat that has never been duplicated. It should be noted it was the first ever night game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and a new experience for hitters with 60-watt bulbs...6/16/09 Jim Thorpe make his pro pitching debut for Rocky Mount of the Eastern Carolina League. That eventually cost the greatest athlete in history his 1912 Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, in Stockholm Sweden. King Gustav in presenting the medal for the decathlon said to Thorpe, “You, sir are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe is reported to have replied, “Thanks King.”

Birthdays this week: Ernie Whitt 60, Tony Castillo 55, Peekaboo Veach 160, Lance Parrish 56, Ron LeFlore 64, Manuel Lee 47.

 

When the Charleston River Dogs had a rain delay recently, comedian Bill Murray came to rescue.

 

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

AAA-Las Vegas (35-28)...The 51's beat Fresno 8-7 on Sunday. 1B Adam Lind was 4-for-5 with two doubles and raised his average to .405. C Travis D'Arnaud was 3-for-5 and is batting .332. SS Adeiny Hechavarria is amazingly tied with D'Arnaud for the club lead in RBIs with 41 and is hitting .324.

AA-New Hampshire (22-34)...The Fisher Cats are a disappointing 9-24 at home after losing to Bowie 6-5 on Sunday. 1B Mike McDade is the brightest offensive light batting .308. The biggest disappointment has been with back-to-back first round draft picks from 2009-10, RHP Chad Jenkins and RHP Deck McGuire who in 22 combined starts are 4-13 with a 6.68 ERA. 

A-Dunedin (41-20) ...The Jays on Sunday beat Clearwater 8-3 in front of 608 paid fans at the park formerly known as Grant Field. CF Jake Marisnick was 3-for-5 with a triple and two steals and is batting .268. LF Travis Snider was 4-for-5, hitting .400 after being activated from the Vegas DL. RHP John Stilson was the winner, running his record to 3-0, 2.82 ERA. LHP Sean Nolin is 7-0, 2.43 ERA. 

A-Lansing (54-19) ... The Lugnuts have one of the cooler nicknames in minor league ball and the best record in the Midwest League. The Lugnuts beat Lake County 4-1 on Sunday. LF Kevin Pillar was 2-for-3 and is batting .323 with 22 stolen bases. Pitching is the story at Lansing as RHP Aaron Sanchez leads the way with 5-0, 0.66 ERA, allowing 20 hits in 41 innings with 21 walks and 47 strikeouts.

ONE FOR THE ROAD

The past week took me with the Jays to Chicago, one of my fave road cities in baseball. The downtown area of Michigan Avenue from the lake with its concrete beach on the north to the Chicago River near the Tribune Building is fabulous for walking and shopping in the summertime. Great city. The Red Line gets you to U.S. Cellular Field from the Grand-State subway station in less than 30 minutes, one stop past Chicago's Chinatown. After the game there are plenty of late night stops with live jazz and late night menus serving well after 2:00 a.m. I only managed to try three of them. My favourite mis-spoken line of the week came on Wednesday at Mother's on Hubbard where the woman bartender cracked to another customer from north of the border: “I hear that the only two sports in Can-ay-dee-a are curling and hockey.” Can-ay-dee-a?? As close to being cool as Toronto as any city in North America, but it officially stays open muck later, which is civilized but tough with a 6:30 wakeup call.

Griff's Power Rankings, Week 13

(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1-Dodgers (2)

Manny love-fest for PED return is ridiculous

2-Red Sox (1)

Sox have shown holes despite their apparent depth

3-Yankees (6)

Bombers fundamentals a little out of control but they’re winning

4-Angels (4)

Halos ruled inter-league; need to play better in division

5-Giants (7)

Need to stay healthy. Big Unit hurts shoulder batting; stay tuned

7-Tigers (5)

Magglio’s hair sold on e-bay; purchaser rumoured to be David Samson

8-Rangers (10)

Rangers sweep of Rays gets them back as legit contenders

6-Rays (3)

Need bounce back after wilting in Texas heat

9-Cardinals (8)

Take Albert Pujols away and these guys are the Padres

10-Brewers (11)

Problem with small-markets, they can’t make any personnel mistakes

11-Mariners (14)

Russell Branyan has revived his career – and the M’s

12-Rockies (9)

Tulowitzki starting to rebound but he’s no Ricky Romero

13-Marlins (16)

The worst division in baseball can be had by anyone – except Nats

14-Twins (17)

M&M boys going back to all-star game – and maybe playoffs

15-White Sox (19)

Return of Carlos Quentin will add much needed LF power

16-Blue Jays (12)

Congrats to Hill, Halladay and maybe Lind for all-star nods

17-Phillies (13)

Jimmy Rollins will surely bounce back and Phillies will rise

18-Cubs (15)

Milton Bradley needs a helmet in right field

19-Reds (18)

Need one more solid starting pitcher to contend

20-Braves (24)

RHP Tommy Hanson is the real deal, but where’s the help

21-Astros (21)

Berkman starting to heat up with Tejada; could start to climb

22-Mets (20)

Mets may be on the same bus, but not the same page

23-Orioles (22)

If only the O’s had some decent pitching to support the young bats

24-Pirates (23)

Bucs are the new four-year major-league learning program.

25-Royals (27)

Soria back from DL give them sorely needed closer

26-Padres (26)

Those atrocious desert camouflage jerseys don’t deserve better

27-A’s (25)

Jason Giambi done when he left the Yankees; .152 June average

28-Indians (28)

Wedge gets vote of confidence – until end of season

29-Diamondbacks (29)

Snakes not playing good fundamental baseball; getting worse

30-Nationals (30)

Only Bernie Madoff has scammed more from naïve investors

Griff's Power Rankings, Week 12

(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1-Red Sox (2)

Hold down No. 1 because they’re consistently relentless

2-Dodgers (1)

Manny’s on the horizon, but it seems an annoying distraction

3-Rays (11)

After a slow start as defending AL champs, Rays on the rise

4-Angels (9)

Stunning 14-4 in inter-league gives leg up in AL West

5-Tigers (4)

Continue to lead AL Central and refuse to give an Inge

6-Yankees (6)

Congrats to Mariano on 500th save and first ML RBI

7-Giants (8)

Impressive starting rotation gives them a chance

8-Cardinals (3)

DeRosa batting cleanup as protection for Pujols? Trouble

9-Rockies (10)

Rox clubhouse has upbeat attitude under players’ manager Tracy

10-Rangers (7)

Middle relievers have Rangers fortunes on steady decline

11-Brewers (12)

Enter week on top of decidedly mediocre NL Central

12-Blue Jays (14)

Hill comeback would be complete with all-star nod from players

13-Phillies (5)

How to explain as many home wins as Nationals, worst in AL

14-Mariners (15)

Take a bow Ichiro for 1,900 career hits; Junior for franchise HR 5,000

15-Cubs (13)

The more you see of Zambrano the more Michael Barrett was self-defence

16-Marlins (16)

Any young, talented, still-developing team has a chance in NL East

17-Twins (20)

Any team that plays sound fundamental ball has a chance in AL Central

18-Reds (19)

Nice to see Joey Votto battling back and able to contribute

19-White Sox (21)

Chisox; as volatile and erratic as their manager, but plenty of talent

20-Mets (17)

K-Rod sacks-loaded walk to Mariano proves he’s not in same class

21-Astros (18)

‘Stros have not yet launched; countdown still on hold

22-Orioles (23)

Jays enter week as close to the O’s as they are to the Bosox

23-Pirates (25)

McLouth trade right move opening spot for McCutcheon

24-Braves (22)

At some point Bobby Cox will retire; this team may do it

25-A’s (24)

Young starters don’t have a Doc Halladay to take pressure off them

26-Padres (28)

Pads seem happy just to compete and strive for .500

27-Royals (27)

Zach Greinke has 10 of the Royals 32 wins heading into week

28-Indians (29)

In the words of John Wayne in the circled wagons, “It’s too quiet out there.”

29-Diamondbacks (26)

A.J. Hinch as manager is not working out; GM must be responsible

30-Nationals (30)

Last time this franchise was this bad was ’76 Expos

Griff's Power Rankings, Week 11

(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1-Dodgers (1)

Joe Torre has plethora of young power arms. Manny who?

2-Red Sox (2)

Dice-K back on the DL. They’re deep in starters though

3-Cardinals (8)

Pujols 26 HR-68 RBIs with more than half a season to go

4-Tigers (10)

Give them an Inge and they’ll take a mile

5-Phillies (3)

Slowly taking control of division; now can think about title defence

6-Yankees (4)

A.J. suspended, C.C. strained biceps, Joey G. S.O.S.

7-Rangers (5)

Andruw Jones trying hard to rehab his career

8-Giants (9)

Most intriguing five-man rotation in the majors with trio of Cys

9-Angels (11)

Have not played well; have not pitched well; compete because of talent

10-Rockies (16)

Critics said manager Tracy overmatched in Pitt; not saying much now

11-Rays (6)

Upton and Crawford most dangerous 1-2 combo in baseball

12-Brewers (7)

Brew Crew status very tenuous as Fielder and Braun shoulder the load

13-Cubs (13)

Former Jays Rule 5 guy Randy Wells now joins rotation

14-Blue Jays (12)

Accardo dehydrated in D.C. demands Obama stimulus package

15-Mariners (22)

King Felix becoming the consistent ace they dreamed of

16-Marlins (17)

Fighting Fish have a chance in swamp that is the NL East

17-Mets (14)

Bullpen supposed to be a strength; now a roll of the dice

18-Astros (18)

Bourn becoming the threat at leadoff Astros traded for

19-Reds (15)

Part of Micah Owings arsenal is his hitting; value muted in in AL parks

20-Twins (20)

Larry Walker enshrined at St. Mary HoF; Morneau has chance to eclipse

21-White Sox (21)

Ozzie Guillen might be even better manager in NL; loves inter-league

22-Braves (19)

Have struggled since classless dismissal of Glavine; baseball karma?

23-Orioles (27)

I would pay to watch the O’s play; not always good but make it exciting

24-A’s (29)

Re-sign Giambi to bring back glory days; how’s that workin’ out?

25-Pirates (23)

City of Champions with Steelers and Penguins; Bucs not so much

26-Diamondbacks (25)

Worst baseball decision of ’09 –no-experience A.J. Hinch as manager

27-Royals (24)

If Zach Greinke is mortal then Royals are in trouble

28-Padres (26)

Tony Gwynn at top of order is only similarity to ’98 WS Padres

29-Indians (28)

Tribe’s Wedge comes up short; should have gone to 7-iron

30-Nationals (30)

Nats could sweep ’27 Yankees twice and still rank 30th overall