Blue Jays option Ricky Romero to Class-A Dunedin

Hours after manager John Gibbons had confirmed to media that Ricky Romero would remain in the Blue Jays' starting rotation, the club announced that the struggling lefthander was being optioned to Class-A Dunedin of the Florida State League.

Romero had been the Jays' opening day starter in 2012, but had slumped horribly, finishing the season with a 9-14 record and a 5.77 ERA, losing 12 of his final 13 decisions. Among 36 qualifiers for the ERA title -- more than 162 innings pitched -- Romero finished last in all three categories of ERA, WHIP (1.67) and WAR (-1.7). 

All winter and throughout spring training the Jays had maintained their confidence in Romero as the team's fifth starter, but GM Alex Anthopoulos hastily called an emergency staff meeting after Romero had pitched 4-1/3 innings vs. the Pirates, allowing six hits and three walks. The decision was made to send last year's ace to the low minors. The meeting was attended by Anthopoulos, Gibbons, pitching coach Pete Walker and AGM Tony LaCava.

The club had assured Romero all winter and at a pre-spring training meeting that he would be in the rotation, however he has spent the last 10 days attempting to incorporate an adjustment to his delivery that Walker maintains will benefit his health in the long run. That was the key that allowed them to make the move with a clear conscience.

"We ran out of time in making the adjustment," Anthopoulos said of the reason that the change was made. 

Romero, 28, has $23.1 million guaranteed remaining on his contract, through 2015. The GM said there is no timeline for Romero's return, but that the necessary adjustmenst of a more direct line to the plate would have to be completed before a return could even be contemplated.

Anthopoulos immediately called lefthander J.A. Happ to notify him that Romero had been optioned and that he would become the fifth starter heading into what is expected to be a contending season for the Blue Jays.

 

 

 

 

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).

Blue Jays prospect Marcus Stroman suspended 50 games: Griffin

Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday that Jays' prospect, righthanded pitcher Marcus Stroman has been suspended 50 games, testing positive for a banned substance that the club identified as Methylhexaneamine, one of 56 stimulants on the MLB list.

Stroman was selected 22nd overall in the June 2012 draft out of Duke University, receiving a signing bonus of $1.8 million. He was awarded as compensation for the Jays not signing their first round pick, Tyler Beede in 2011. Stroman began his career at A-Vancouver, of the Northwest League, then was promoted to AA-New Hampshire. Experts predicted that Stroman could be the first selection from the '12 draft to reach the majors.

"Despite taking precautions to avoid violating the Minor League testing program, I unknowingly ingested a banned stimulant that was in an over-the-counter supplement," Stroman said. "Nonetheless, I accept full responsibility and I want to apologize to the Toronto Blue Jays organization, my family, my teammates, and the Blue Jays fans everywhere. I look forward to putting this behind me and rejoining my teammates.”

Stroman will sit out the last seven games for the Fisher Cats and the first 43 of next season. He will be allowed to participate in spring training and spring games. 

"Obviously, you never expect something like that to happen," Jays' assistant GM Tony LaCava said. "That being said, it's a stiff penalty for him to pay. He unknowingly took a product that was over the counter, had a stimulant in it and the burden is on the player, so he's obviously going to pay the price. To his credit, he's standing up to it. He made a mistake, he ingested it and he's accountable for that. The 50 games is the price he's going to have to pay."

 

 

 

 

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?

Blue Jays mailbag: Colby Rasmus changing perceptions on and off the field

I am usually a huge admirer of Rays manager Joe Maddon, but his reaction to Nationals' manager Davey Johnson's obvious gamesmanship in calling out Rays reliever Joel Peralta on his pine-tarred glove is baffling to me. If I was Johnson, armed with the knowledge that Peralta, a former Nationals reliever, always pitched with pine tar on his glove, I would have done the same thing. It's all about winning. Even Charlie Sheen can tell you that.

The rulebook states that a pitcher may not “apply a foreign substance to the ball, or have a foreign substance in his possession.” Pine tar is clearly such a substance. The rule was broken. Umpire Tim Tschida had no choice but to eject the Rays' middle reliever. Maddon lost it on Johnson after the game. Johnson responded by telling Maddon to “read the rulebook” and calling him a “weird wuss” and “the guru over there.”

Great stuff in a sport that needs more characters willing to show some emotion.

However, the result, an eight-game suspension for Peralta, is something I'm sure Johnson was not angling for. That's a little excessive from baseball and Peralta is appealing to have the penalty reduced. The lesson, one guesses, is that bouncing a helmet one-hop off an umpire like Brett Lawrie did with Bill Miller, is only half as offensive in games missed as a little pine tar on the glove. That's dumb.

The strange thing is that Peralta was not necessarily cheating. He apparently sweats a lot on the mound and when his hand gets slick, he touches the tar with his fingertips and gets a better grip on the ball (or that's the story he's sticking to).

In a way it makes it safer for hitters that might be injured if a slick ball gets away from a pitcher. Recall left-hander Kenny Rogers in the '06 World Series and the extremely black brim of his pine-tar slathered hat that was zeroed in on by Fox TV cameras and the subject of mush discussion in the booth.

Rules change and maybe this one needs to. Up until two years ago, a pitcher on the dirt of the mound could not touch fingers to mouth or a ball would be called. Now he can do that as long as he makes a wiping move to his uniform. It's all about pace of the game.

Maddon is a smart guy. Maybe he was just deflecting attention away from his pitcher and his team, relieving some pressure on his reliever by going on the offensive against Johnson.

Maddon blustered this is one of those things where you have to “read between the lines” of the rulebook and allow the players to regulate themselves. The next time out, with his suspension under appeal, Peralta pitched again against the Nats, but this time using Jeremy Hellickson's glove. What? Pine tar can't be applied to that? In any case, Maddon said he was going to check every Nats reliever that came in, but umpires put the kibosh on that idea.

I like the whole brouhaha. Two really good managers playing mind games.

The fact is that Johnson was right. It wasn't about the glove. If you can throw an opponent off his game, all's fair. I remember managing against Whitby in a minor bantam tournament. A Whitby player was not seriously nicked and the manager came on the field to check on his kid. As he trotted off back to the third base dugout, he turned his head and said to his pitcher, “You okay?” I raced onto the field and made the umpire count that as a mound visit. Was I being unfair? Well, yeah. But the guy was really mad at me and may have missed a key decision later on.

Hey, maybe on his next road trip the brilliantly innovative and colourful Maddon can give his players the theme of dressing like “Sport's greatest cheaters.” That would be fun. There could be David Price as Boston Marathon cheat Rosie Ruiz. Or Ben Zobrist as Bronx 14-year-old Little Leaguer Danny Almonte. Or Carlos Pena  as '36 Olympic high jumper Dora Ratjen, the German who turned out to be a guy named Hermann. Or Jose Molina as figure skater Tonya Harding. Or Evan Longoria as Hand of God soccer cheater Maradona.

In summary, Johnson was right, Maddon was right for covering for his players. Baseball was wrong for handing out eight games and maybe the rules need to be modified.  On to the mailbag:

Q-Hi Richard,

With Rasmus starting to look like the keeper we hoped he would be and with the continued development of some of our top prospects in Las Vegas, I started putting the pieces together for 2013. What I realized is that aside from a potentially potent offence, we may have the best defensive team in the majors next year. The Jays could potentially have a starting OF of Rasmus, Gose and Bautista, an infield of Lawrie (3B), Escobar (SS), Hechaverria (2B), D’Arnaud (C) and your pick between Lind, Cooper, Gomes, Arencibia, or Encarnacion at 1B. That's a lot of youth in a starting side but would I be right in saying this would be the top defensive team in the league if you believe all the reports on Gose, Hech, and D'Arnaud?

All the best,

Aaron Hickey, Sydney, Australia

A-I must say I was wrong about Colby Rasmus. I have maintained that he doesn't fit in the Jays' clubhouse and might never ... but that was last year when he was struggling at the plate and having trouble finding close friendships. This year, since Day 1 of training camp, he found a kindred spirit in catcher Jeff Mathis, a central Florida kid with similar interests. They speak the same language. This has spun off into solid relationships with other teammates.

He has even showed a wry sense of redneck humour that includes making fun of media as they wander through the clubhouse. He has loosened up everywhere including his signature two-out, arm wheel and flourish to his fellow outfielders after he makes a catch. His dad, Tony, was in Toronto on Father's Day and noted Colby's new ability to be himself, which apparently was discouraged under Cards' skipper Tony LaRussa.

Manager John Farrell was asked if he thinks of himself as the anti-Tony LaRussa: “More than anything, you deal with people as they are -- differently. I'm not saying you take a custom approach. You've got some basic elements that you try and get across to everyone. Everyone has their own personality and you try and bring out the most in each guy. Thankfully, he feels good about himself and where he's at right now.” Farrell has much to do with that. By the way, Tony Rasmus looks like he would be fun to play golf with. 

As for the potentially potent defensive Jays lineup, I agree that if that was the rotation, it would be pretty good, especially in the outfield and up the middle of the infield. However, you're talking about three rookie starters – Gose, Hechavarria, D'Arnaud -- in a lineup that must be constructed to compete. It can be done, but it would be a giant leap of faith in some unproven youngsters.

Q-If the Jays continue to have bullpen issues, and can sign Marcus Stroman before the end of the month, do you foresee them bringing him up to the big club in August. Of all the college pitchers in the draft, Stroman supposedly is the most major league-ready.

Vladimir Guerrero seems to have overvalued himself. No other team has wanted his services ever since he decided to just leave and quit on the Jays. Do you think his career is over?

Why don't the Jays call up Deck McGuire and/or Chad Jenkins? At the very least give Scott Richmond another shot. Jesse Chavez, Carlos Villanueva and Aaron Laffey are all guys who are better suited to coming out of the bullpen and being the long guys. You might as well see what you have with McGuire and Jenkins even though they have struggled in Double A. AA really messed up this offseason by not signing a veteran innings eater like Kevin Millwood or Hiroki Kuroda.

Jason Sinnarajah, San Francisco

A-With regard to Marcus Stroman, even though the right-hander had a good season at Duke and is a mature college pitcher, if they do sign him, he would need to be seen at the minor-league level and, besides, bringing a pitcher to the majors right away has never been the Jays' style. First of all, it gets the major-league clock ticking and what if he does not succeed right away in the first two months. Then they send him down next April and that counts as a first option. The Jays would prefer to start 2013 with any of their first-year pitchers, including Stroman, on a regular minor-league contract so that they can start his major-league clock on their sked and maximize the control they have down the road.

Vlad definitely jumped the gun and overvalued himself. Of course we all think we're better and more valuable than we are. In Guerrero's case, I truly believe he surprised his own agent, Bean Stringfellow (love writing that name) by giving the Jays an ultimatum. AA never ever includes an out clause in  any of his minor-league invites for veteran major-leaguers.

Handshake.

The AA agreement is always if you want out just tell us and we'll give you your release. He feels that word of mouth among players and their agents that the Jays are men of their word and that a verbal agreement with Toronto is all you need is better. He feels that this trust inside the walls of the industry is important to establishing the Jays as major players in free agency. Whether that's right or wrong, he sticks to his guns. I agree with him.

As for who should be called up to start, I would take a chance with Chad Jenkins. The Jays at the major league level play better defence and have better scouting reports and some pitchers thrive in the majors when they struggled – at least statistically – in the minors.

“I thought Chad threw the ball very well at spring training and yet he's somewhat, I don't want to say plateaued,” Farrell said. “He's kind of going along at the Double-A level. We're in a situation where need might necessitate that faster development track and some guys may respond in a favourable way. I'll tell you this, if needs continue to arise because of unfortunate circumstances, we may just put ourselves in a position to say 'You know what, let's give them the ball, give them the opportunity and see how he fares'.”

Q-Three starters gone in one week. Totally unheard of and two of them won't be back until the 2014 season. AA is stuck. Getting a good ML starter for prospects isn't going to happen so do you try and move Escobar and Arencibia for pitching because you have two top prospects waiting in the wings to take over their spots. I would rather see them rush them up than watch young pitchers not ready for prime time get battered about. Guys in the clubhouse will lose their will to win if they have to score more than 6 runs a game. So does AA have any other choices?

Dave Walker, Scarborough

A-Three starters on the DL in one trip through the Jays rotation is something I have never seen in my 40 years in baseball. But it's a leap of lack of faith to say that two of them won't be back until 2014. The Tommy John procedure has reached the point where 12 months is a pretty good estimate to have a pitcher back on the mound. Of course it all depends on the individual effort that any pitcher is willing to put in. But we're not even sure yet that Drew Hutchison is going to undergo the procedure, while Kyle Drabek could be back by next year's all-star break if everything goes well. Granted, for Drabek it is his second Tommy John surgery. Dodgers' starter Chris Capuano is an example of a pitcher that came back to pitch in the majors after two such operations.

Also, how can you make that sweeping statement that “getting a good ML starter for prospects isn't going to happen.” Think Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Randy Johnson, Gio Gonzalez, Mat Latos, the list goes on and on. In fact, that's the No. 1 way to get ML starters is with prospects. As for guys losing their will to win because they have to score six runs a game. That's the most ridiculous statement of the bunch. When a player puts on his uniform, he's not thinking about giving up on even one game, one at-bat, one pitch. It's his livelihood and pride takes over and a vision of his personal future as a professional baseball player is most important. You can't just rattle off your opinion as fact.

Q-Richard,

I am surprised that this question hasn't been asked yet, but here goes nothing...During the offseason AA and Beeston made mention that Rogers wouldn't have a problem supporting a larger payroll, when the players and fans show the support. It would seem to a fan that the players are really showing that they are ready to compete even after the loss of three starting pitchers in under a week, they have battled day in and day out for wins, and even when the lose they are right there in battle. So that is one point down, the players have shown they are ready to compete, AA has to stand up and now make his commitment to the team to take it to the next level. The second is the Fans. Aren't the Jays 5th in the largest attendance rate increase in all of baseball? The Fans are supporting the team at the stadium, and one would think the TV ratings have dramatically increased, oh and by the way, how about Jays merchandise, I read somewhere they are in the top five of merchandise sales now. The Fans and Players have stood up and showed that Baseball in Toronto is ready to compete, when will AA and Beeston show their end of the deal? Let's Go Blue Jays.

Scott Cochrane, Niagara-on-the-Lake

A-Those are good points about Beeston's off-season explanation of fans support leading to increased payroll, but the optimum time to add intelligent payroll is next off-season. Any Blue Jays payroll increase right now would likely be for expiring contracts for veterans from other teams poised for free agency. There are other, rare, opportunities for a guy like, say, 1B Justin Morneau if the Twins choose to go in that direction, trying to open a permanent position for Joe Mauer. Morneau has $14 million left for 2013 and I would do that if he proves he is healthy. But for Beeston and AA to respond moving forward properly to the promises they made, they must add new talent heading into 2013. To overpay now in 2012 yielding huge prospects for short term contracts, just because fans are calling them out, would be short-sighted. But let's keep your point in mind heading into the offseason. 

Q-I have a sort of off topic question - Cito Gaston. I have had heard many people wonder why he hasn't managed another MLB team since his World Series years in Toronto. Even Cito seems to wonder why this is.

 I remember during his first tenure with the Blue Jays as manager. In interviews and articles, he would always say that he never wanted to be a manager - always downplayed his desire to be a manager. Didn't seem to care if he was fired or not.

 Do you think his attitude is what kept him from managing another team? What team would want to hire a guy that did not seem to care if he got the job? I have always viewed Cito as a guy that wanted to manage again - but never showed a strong desire.

 He never was a great strategic manager, but his handling of players (especially the veterans) was excellent - he would always bring out the best in his players.

Chris Hiuser, Tecumseh

A-The most obvious response is that Cito was never given credit for what he did with the Blue Jays, because of the offensive talent on these two teams. The perception was that Gaston was a good batting coach reluctantly taking over a highly-paid, supremely talented Jays team as manager in '89 and just posting a line-up and watching them win. It was not a fair assessment. However, I guarantee one thing. If Gaston was white he would have managed again even after being fired by the Jays in '97.

Cito came close to managing with the White Sox. It came down to Ozzie Guillen and him. He had lunch with Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf at the Tampa Airport and Gaston recalled that it was a very positive get-together. The next day the Sox announced Ozzie as manager. The edge may have been in Guillen's history as a player with the White Sox.

After that, Cito interviewed with several other teams including the Brewers. At the last minute he withdrew his name from the Brewers' candidacy and from that point on he refused to just interview with teams. His feeling was that the commissioner's “affirmative action” mandate that every team needed to interview a minority candidate before naming a new manager – except, it seems, the Jays, when they hired John Gibbons full time. It made it seem like teams were just calling him in as a token interview to meet the requirement.

Gaston felt that his two World Series rings spoke more eloquently than any two-hour sit-down interview about personal philosophy ever could. “If you want me, just hire me.” Cito's not the only African-American to come to that conclusion. Hal McRae also stopped going to interviews.   

Q-Richard,

As a Canadian who moved from Canada between the Blue Jays World Series wins, I really enjoy your column and insight. With divided loyalties, I was fortunate to be at Miller Park last night for one the wildest games I can remember since game 4 of the 93 World Series. I was hoping to see Lawrie face Shaun Marcum, but it was still good to see Garth Iorg coaching first base. Aside from the 5 lead changes, 3 walked in runs, 1 hit batter run, a grand slam, consecutive home runs (3 and then 2), a strike out/passed ball to keep an inning going, there was lots of Canadian content.

Well everyone is familiar with Brett Lawrie (who played in Appleton), John Axford, Gord Ash and Doug Melvin, there were also pinch hit appearances by George Kottaras and Taylor Green. That makes 4 Canadians to play in a major league game. Do you know if that is a record? 

I am looking forward to the Lansing Lugnuts coming to Appleton next month to showcase the Jays upcoming talent. It's a nice park and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a community owned team, similar to the Packers up the road in Green Bay. Let me know if you come to town and I'll buy you a cold one at the Leinie Lodge.

Thanks
,

Scott Fraser
, Appleton, Wisconsin

A-The Leinie Lodge looks like a great spot to meet for a cold Leinenkugel and a brat. I agree with you about the craziness of that Tuesday Jays-Brewers game at Miller Park. The whole series reminded me of the series in May 2010 at Chase Field in Phoenix when Edwin went crazy in that high-scoring three-game interleague series against the D-backs. In fact the weather in Milwaukee this week was very Phoenix-like as well. As for the four Canadians in one game. I was asked that question in the press box by the irrepressible Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. My recollection is that there had been other games with four Canadians in the same box score. I think the day Lachine, Quebec's Denis Boucher made his debut for the Expos back on September 6, 1993, his catcher was Windsor's Joe Sidall and his right fielder was Maple Ridge's Larry Walker I looked it up. There were no Canadians for the Rockies that day, but as the P.R. guy I had to do the research on most Canadians in a game and I believe it was four. I just misplaced my notes from 19 years ago. Forgive me.   

Q-Hello Richard,

I want to thank you for including my daughter's question about Brian Jeroloman and Koby Clemens in Mailbag. She was thrilled. I've never been a fan of Paul Beeston, not sure what he brings to the table. It is repugnant to read he is friends with a creep like Clemens, who has laughably escaped prosecution. And what ever happened to the story that Clemens was dallying with the underage girl? 
Good message to the youth of the country. Barry Bonds, LeBron James, Dany Heatley, etc.....

Thanks again,

Selby Martin, Toronto

A-The legal process is what it is and the case against Clemens of perjury and obstruction of justice, for which he was found not guilty, was weakened considerably when Andy Pettitte remembered that he had mis-remembered his conversation with the Rocket from the early '00s. That left the prosecution as a he said/he said with Brian McNamee. I'm not sure how necessary it was for Clemens to be found guilty and spend any time in jail. The Rocket's legacy has been tarnished forever.

As for the mystery woman you ask about in Roger's past, that was country singer Mindy McCready who was linked romantically to Clemens in an explosive New York Daily News piece in '08. McCready has recorded five country albums, but when she is alleged to have met Clemens, it was as a 15 or 16-year-old karaoke singer in a Fort Myers bar in '92.

McCready tearfully confirmed the sexual relationship to the paper in April of 2008, two months after the Rocket had appeared in front of a congressional committee on performance enhancers, a tough stretch for Clemens. Clemens, through his lawyer Rusty Hardin, threatened the Daily News with a defamation suit, claiming the relationship with McCready was as a family friend and that his wife Debbie was aware of the friendship. McCready apparently mis-remembered, according to Hardin. And, hey, what did LeBron ever do except leave Cleveland and win an NBA championship, proving he is one of the Top 10 players in NBA history?

Q-What does the recent spate of arm injuries mean for the Jays' incremental arm development plan? We've been so careful not to overwork the arms, yet it doesn't seem to matter, eh?

Tony Baer, Baraboo

A-That's a very good question. The Jays are perhaps going to have to review their minor-league methods. The Jays traditionally take draft pick signees and nurture them in their first few years as pros. A kid may have been over-worked as a high school or NCAA stud, but the Jays send them to spring training and have them on strict inning and pitch counts as the season goes on.

For instance the Lansing staff is loaded with pitching talent, but for the first two months they piggy-backed at a maximum of three innings up to four, five etc. Then after they've been in the system a couple of years, they give each pitcher a total innings limit in the minors and again when he reaches the majors.

Major league pitches are considered more stressful. For example, the Jays had planned on limiting Hutchison to 150 total innings this year. A couple of years ago, they shut down Brandon Morrow and Brett Cecil in September and sent them home as healthy scratches. The options are like teaching a baby to swim by either giving him or her lessons for months or by throwing them in the deep end of the pool.   

Q-Hi Richard,

Two questions from me: 1) In my view, the team pile-on walk-off celebrations are getting out of hand. I thought streaming out of the dugout and jumping on each other was reserved for clinching a playoff spot, but now a Rajai Davis single in June will spark one. Is there an old guard vs new guard feeling about them in the baseball world? 

2) The Blue Jays voted to contract the Expos in 2001, and when they moved to Washington I boycotted MLB and the Jays by not buying game tickets. Will the Blue Jays ever apologize to Expos fans for that vote or should I see a therapist about learning how to let go? Thanks!

Seth Bernstein, Toronto

A-I agree with you on walk-off celebrations. I think the thought process in all things on the baseball diamond should be “What would Henry Aaron do?” If the Hammer hit a game-winning home run during the regular season, I have trouble in my mind seeing him taking a giant leap onto home plate and then bouncing around with teammates like Hannibal's troops going through the Alps on pogo sticks. I have trouble seeing Mr. Aaron delivering a shaving cream pie in the face to Eddie Mathews as he's sitting for a TV interview. So, no. Don't do it.

As for your displeasure with the Jays on voting for contraction back in '01. I too had a huge problem with that and have written as such through the years. It would have been a stand admired by other major-league owners if the Jays had stuck with the other major-league Canadian team. Bud Selig wanted a unanimous vote, well, other than the Expos. Carl Pohlad who abstained in Minnesota. But he stood to get a big payoff in contraction and he couldn't get approval for a new stadium, since built. Yeah, I hate the Jays for that one moment, but if you love baseball, let it go. Enjoy the game.    

Q-Hi Richard;

After a Jays game I go to their website and scroll through the box score. A batter that is hit by a pitch, or walks, or gets on due to catcher interference does not get credit for a base on the total bases line. But if the bases were full when this happened, he'd get an RBI. Someone like Bautista should be credited with over a hundred bases a year. Isn't a walk as good as a hit?

No one should feel bad about Vladdy being released. Talk to the Orioles about the rally-killing, inning-ending double plays that he grounded into. This has been a bad year for former stars. Vladdy, Moyer, Ramirez, and Matsui doing little with the Rays. Even Thome is not earning his salary.

Thanks Richard,

Art Hilderman, Winnipeg

A-That's why a stat like OPS (On-Base plus Slugging) is an important gauge for offensive contribution. It gives much credit to walks as part of the on-base and for power as a calculation of total bases divided by at-bats. It's not perfect, but if you go online and sort any team by OPS or career Hall-of-Famers, it comes out in a pretty meaningful order.

Vlad was not going to put the Jays over the top and I had already started to hear that inside the Jays' clubhouse, which is a very good environment right now, there was not a lot of sentiment to parachute Guerrero into the mix. That was even before Vlad quit I was hearing that. The last guy that came to the Jays because he needed some home runs for 500 was Frank Thomas and how did that work out?

Q-If Chad Mottola is so great at fixing broken Blue Jay swings (e.g. Lind, Snider, Encarnacion), why don't we just make him the hitting coach? Lind's recent statement to the Star that, when he gets recalled: "Chad won't be there and I'll have to be able to adjust by myself -- is kind of sad, no?

Tony Baer, Baraboo

Q-Hi Richard,

One consistent pattern for the Blue Jay minor league hitters is that, on going from AA to AAA, they almost always hit better, often significantly. This year's examples include D'Arnaud, Gomes, Gose, Hechavarria and Sierra while in the recent past, others were Arencibia, Lawrie and Thames. While there may be a 'Las Vegas' factor at work, I also wonder if the Blue Jays might improve by promoting Mottola to be the major league batting coach. What do you think? Also, in all the discussion of possible promotions, why isn't Moises Sierra mentioned? He is reported to be an excellent outfielder with good power and is currently batting over .300.

Bill Reynolds, Toronto

A-I thought back at spring training when Dwayne Murphy went home for a couple of weeks for some family issues and Mottola stayed in major-league camp, I believed that the Jays might be thinking about adding Mottola to the major-league staff as an associate hitting coach. In fact, both World Series teams last year, the Cards and the Rangers had already stumbled upon that process. Think about it, the pitching coach has the bullpen coach to bounce ideas off. The hitting coach as 13 players and one cage and one pair of eyes and ears. I think they should add Mottola as an associate. He came up last September and he and Murph are on the same page, with some differences. That's a good thing.

Q-Hi Richard,

I'm already thinking about next year and was wondering if the best route for the Jays to put plus players in every position would be to move Bautista back to third and move Lawrie to second base.

 I have to think that finding an outfielder with a left handed power bat would be far easier than finding a quality second baseman. I also foresee the possibility of a very flexible line-up with multiple options at OF/1B/DH and catcher however without Lind we are still in need of some left handed bats.

Andrew Blakeney, Toronto

A-I disagree on pretty much all of that. Bautista does not want to play third base and he is your best player. I might try and convince him to play first base. Lawrie is going to be  a Gold Glove third baseman. If he played second base I could see him on a double play pivot where a guy slides in hard, with Brett descending to sit on his chest and chew his face off. (sorry I'm in Miami and distracted) You would have to keep three catchers to have both D'Arnaud and Arencibia if J.P. was to move around other positions. That's the one with three catchers that may not be as problematic for me.

Q-When JP Riccardi came in he tried to implement an offence that had players work the count in hopes of getting to the middle relievers early. It failed miserably and Cito had to be brought back to fix things. Now Farrell comes in with the same mantra and look what has happened to the offence.This type of offence may work in Boston, New York or Texas where you have six all-star type players in your line-up but it has been shown that with our collection of castoffs it doesn't work here.

Don't you think it's time to go back to a Cito-type of offensive approach because everyone is sick of constantly watching Jays players take first pitch fastballs down the gut and then striking out on a curve in the dirt. Yes the Jays may get to the bullpen earlier but usually they are losing 4-0 by then and the fans have either left the building or turned off their TVs and radios.

Gus Bolin, Keene, ON

A-I've never been a fan of taking strike one and getting yourself into a pitcher's count right away. And when opponents know that a team philosophy is to work the count they become less reluctant to pound the strike zone on the first pitch. If they are aware, however, that you are looking for a certain pitch, certain spot and that even on first pitch you will crush it, they make a mistake, they become more careful and are more likely to miss on first pitch and all of a sudden the hitter is in charge.

Another problem for the Jays' young hitters is that under Cito, batting coach Murphy was delivering a message of controlled aggression. Then a year later, the same Jays guys step into the batting cage and Murph is suddenly preaching working the count and having 7-10 pitch at-bats to get the starting pitcher out of the game. It's like when Bob Dylan went through his Christian phase. “Say what, Mr. Zimmerman?” Don't think that mixed message is confusing? Ask Adam Lind.

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.

Blue Jays mailbag: Is it time to bring up Gose, Hechavarria and d'Arnaud?

Adeiny Hechavarria at bat with the Las Vegas 51s. BRENDAN KENNEDY / TORONTO STAR

 

It's Father's Day weekend. Of all the major pro sports, the NHL and MLB seem to boast the most family connections, generation after generation of players and their sons.

As such, Happy Father's Day to these Blue Jays father-son connections: Sandy Alomar (Sandy Jr. and Roberto); Jesse Barfield (Josh); Mickey Brantley (Michael); Sal Butera (Drew); Jose Cruz (Jose Jr.); Doug Drabek (Kyle); Cecil Fielder (Prince); Tom Fletcher (Darrin); Dave LaRoche (Adam, Andy); Clyde Mashore (Damon); Gary Matthews (Gary, Jr.); John Mayberry (John); Dave McKay (Cody); Hal McRae (Brian); Bob Oliver (Darren); Gary Roenicke (Josh); Dick Schofield (Dick); Diego Segui (David); Chris Speier (Justin); Ed Sprague (Ed); Mel Stottlemyre (Mel, Todd); Dennis Werth (Jayson); Maury Wills (Bump).

And a special Father's Day wish to Jays' manager John Farrell. His 21-year-old son Luke, last October was being treated for a re-occurring tumour on the back of his skull. He spent over a month at a state-of-the-art clinic in Boston accompanied by father John and mother, Sue. The junior at Northwestern U. in Chicago, started back to class in early December and resumed pitching for the Wildcats for the spring season. Luke has rebounded well and earned a pitching spot in the highly-regarded Cape Cod Summer League near Boston. For Luke and the Farrells' two other sons, it will be a Happy Father's Day.    

Q-Hi Richard,

Your mailbag rocks. Please do it regularly. Rather frustrating when I try to look for it on Fridays and came out emptyhanded.

 Questions:

1-The current Washington Nationals team, any leftover from the Expos era, whether they are players or management?

2-What so good about Bryce Harper? 19-year-old playing every day?! Who would you compare him to?

3-If you have to point your finger, who will you blame for the current Jays' mediocrity? AA's bad assessment of the AL East state? Farrell's lack of experience? Lack of leadership/maturity amongst players? It seems like they lost something from last year.

4-When JP was in charge, he tried to trade Rios for either Lincecum or Cain. I think he would still be around if he were able to get that done, agree? Was this rumour real or not? Supposed Rios did live up to his potential (5 tools), would you still make that trade -- an all-star fielder for an all-star pitcher?

5-What is so good about Buster Posey? Is our d'Arnaud as good? How can he earn respect of his pitchers being so young? And batting cleanup too? He is no I-Rod, no?

Thomas Lam, Richmond Hill

A-I can relate to your curiosity in that first question about any leftover Expos from '04 when the franchise left Canada. When the Nats were in Toronto this week, I was looking to find out exactly the answer to that query, because in my own mind, I don't really connect the Nats with Montreal any more. It's a total disconnect. In fact when I did a preview of the Nats series I forgot they were ever the Expos. I always find it strange whenever they honour an Expos star like Andre Dawson on the field.

There are just three Expos connections that I could find: Rosie the clubhouse manager, who started with the Expos in the '90s. John Dever the P.R. director who replaced P.J. Loyello, now a v-p with the Miami Marlins, who had replaced me back in '95. F.P. Santangelo is a TV broadcaster and used to be a terrific utility man with the Expos in the '90s before moving on to the Giants.

What is so good about Bryce Harper? Damn, he's good. I was really looking not to like him, to walk in the Nats clubhouse and see this arrogant, punk kid walking around like he owned the place. I wanted to  dislike him after the SI cover at 16 years old, after the GQ interview, brief as it was, plus the fact that I was managing players his age, with my rep team in Oakville a year ago and could have used him on my team when the umpires screwed us out of a championship trophy in Michigan at the All-American Classic in June. But after seeing him in the Nats clubhouse treat the environment and the people around him with respect and after watching him play for three games, I think I'm a fan. He is going to be good for the game as long as he stays healthy.

Harper hit two ground balls so hard they accelerated past Kelly Johnson at second base for singles. His home run to centre off the “c” on their huge banner gave Blackberry an unexpected hard drive. In Game 2, with Lawrie stealing and not slowing down, Harper fielded a one-hop single in right and almost threw him out at third base. Then there was the drag bunt single that undressed Edwin at first base as he tried to field and tag in one motion ending up on his back in foul territory with the ball bouncing harmlessly away. That was the play that made me think Harper as Mickey Mantle. I saw Mantle play at the tail end of his career and that drag bunt was one of his signature plays. Harper has said that the 34 on his jersey is his 3+4=7 tribute to the Mick.

For Question 3, I blame the Jays' current mediocrity as an extension of last year's mediocrity when they finished 81-81. I blame the fact that AA came up short on the search for a veteran third starter, trying hard for Mat Latos and not so hard on Gio Gonzalez and coming up short in terms of satisfying the other teams' demands. He would have had to give up major-league ready talent for either guy and he felt that would be spinning his major-league wheels.

4-Yes, the conversations that Ricciardi had with the Giants for a starter were very real. But it was more a fishing expedition towards Brian Sabean with Alex Rios as the bait and when Lincecum ended up winning a Cy Young, the story became that the Jays could have had Lincecum for Rios, which is not quite true. Discussions between the Jays and Giants were ongoing and, at the time, Rios was at his trading peak. But there were many Giants names in the discussion that included Lincecum and Cain. The feeling was that the Giants, once discussions got more serious, would substitute other names in the mix to try and secure Rios. But it makes a good story.

5-Man you have a lot of questions. Buster Posey to me, if the Giants make the post-season, should be given serious NL MVP consideration. He's a rookie in '10 and they go to the World Series. He's hurt in '11 and they are awful. He's back healthy and they're in playoff position. Not much else needs to be said.  As for d'Arnaud, the past two seasons at New Hampshire and Vegas he has started slowly and come on strong offensively. Behind the plate, he is a sponge, soaking up information and using it correctly. His arm is strong enough and his footwork on throws is solid. There's only one Pudge – actually two, in Ivan Rodriguez and Carlton Fisk. But the good thing for d'Arnaud is that Posey proved that a team can win with a rookie catcher behind the plate.      

Q-Richard,

Maybe you can explain AA's thinking... I can understand wanting to give Cooper an extended audition...but keeping McCoy over Gomes seems to go the other way. Rajai over Vladdy still feels strange to me, and I really don't understand keeping Omar at .215 rather than bringing up a SS/2nd base of the future. We seem to be rebuilding, sorta, kinda, but not really! What's going on?

Peter Thomson, Elizabeth City, NC

A-”Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Those are the immortal words of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy discovers that the Wiz ain't so big and smart as he likes to let on. Such might be the case with AA as he manipulates his roster through the middle of a disappointing stretch. Let's go down the list of players that you mention:

Cooper is not being given an extended audition. He is keeping someone else's seat warm and filling in for a stalled Adam Lind and a departed Eric Thames.

The Gomes demotion was simple. They needed his versatility for the games in National League parks. They used the 10-day rule twice (a player can't be recalled for 10 days after he is optioned except in the case of replacing an injured player). The first time they sent Gomes to Vegas 12 days before they headed to their first NL park and recalled him 10 days later. The second time they saw that Morrow would likely have to go on the DL, so they sent Gomes to Vegas and recalled Aaron Laffey and Evan Crawford. Gomes went and hid out at the SkyDome Hotel for 24 hours and then miraculously re-appeared on the roster replacing Morrow (15-day DL). He lost Airline points but got some extra Marriott points. The Gomes demotions are more about rules than merit.

Vlad screwed up the best-laid plans. His impatience in terms of waiting until the Jays' interleague trips were over cost Vlad a chance with the Jays. It will be interesting to see if he gets a major-league job before June 25, the date the Jays head to Boston after the interleague ends. The Tigers might be a good landing spot, since Dave Dombrowski was the GM when he signed in MTL.

Q-Hey Griff,

So now that the Jays season is over, who do they trade for prospects? I'm thinking anyone on a one-year deal, like Johnson, Oliver, Encarnacion, etc. Also CoCo if anyone bites (the number of GMs that believe in former closers is incredible), but I'm thinking he'd have to be waived. Though you could consider using him as an innings eater to save our young arms and get us a higher draft pick.

Rob B., Oshawa

A-The moment has not arrived yet, but there might come a time this season when the fan base needs a boost in order to remain the fan base.

In that case, if the Jays spiral out of the race in the next month look for any veteran on a one-year deal to be offered in trade to a legit contender. Darren Oliver is the kind of talent that contending teams are looking for down the stretch. Luis Perez and Evan Crawford can fill that LH relief role. If Johnson is traded, Hechavarria could begin his MLB career. I would not trade Edwin. I think AA wants him back but because of his injury history is not interested in negotiating during the season. As for CoCo Cordero, I love the guy and he has not been as bad as fans think. There is a mob mentality out there and all it takes is a groundswell of anti-CoCo crisping on platforms like the Wilner Show and the torches are lit and the pitchforks raised. “Bring me the head of Francisco Cordero!!” There is no doubt the next generation is pushing hard at Vegas.

Q-Hi, Richard.

What really happened with Guerrero? Is this good, bad or insignificant?

Chris M., Collingwood

A-It's insignificant, followed by bad. There would have been no problem for me in seeing him get a shot with the Jays. The guy can hit and the buzz would have been good for us in the media. See my blog earlier in the week for a full view on his departure.

Q-Hi Richard:

Although the Jays are still in tight contention for a wild-card, one gets the ominous feeling from watching them the past three weeks that their fortunes are on the decline. I'm not sure with an under-performing Romero and Drabek, injuries to Morrow and Santos, with only Hutchinson really performing as expected or better, this staff can really contend. We also have question marks at 1B/DH (bye bye Vladdy) and LF which remain unanswered. How do you envision Anthopoulos addressing these issues over both the short- (deadline) and long-term (end of season)?

Brian Campbell, Ottawa

A-I'm believing now that every time the Jays starter warms up at the Rogers Centre, they should pipe in over the sound system the theme music from Jaws.

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the mound.”

In the last stretch of games there was Betemit's line drive off Morrow, Aviles's line drive off Alvarez, Morrow's stabbing pain in the left oblique that led him to the DL and Drabek's popping in his elbow, making him sound much like the  Black Knight defending the bridge in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “It's just a flesh wound!”  

Hutchison is performing well but he is on a 150-inning count. As for the other issues and the end of the season, I believe that whenever it is the Jays feel they are no longer in wild-card contention that the clock will start on the future stars like Hechavarria and Gose. The Jays need to know.

Q-Howdy Richard,

As much as I hate to see Morrow out for an extended period of time the curious conspiracy theorist in me is intrigued by the reaction of Ownership and Management in the next coming days and weeks. To me it seems like two roads can be taken, you ramp up any plans of bringing in Major league talent to the roster in order to stay competitive in the AL East Race or you start preparing your talking points for the end of the season along the lines of 'we battled inconsistency all year and the Morrow injury really put us back....yadda yadda, etc etc.'

My point being it is one thing to pass on a talent like Prince Fielder this past offseason when the asking price turned out to be understandably unreasonable but it is quite another to pass on pursuing pitching talent like Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster, and/or Wandy Rodriguez when your team is above .500 and 4 games out of first place in the standings midseason.

 Do you think this situation will lead to some insight into the collective minds of management and Rogers or am I reading too much into it? Getting back to my inner conspiracy theorist, If ownership resembled a Mark Cuban, Maverick type, who runs his team with a passion to win, we think we know what path would be taken while an owner constantly checking balance sheets and quarterly profit margins they might see this as just the excuse they need not to take on salary to stay competitive.

Your thoughts? 

Derek from the East Coast

Derek Andrews, Fredericton

A-I don't believe the Jays will give up on this year til the mathematics dictate. As such, I can see them making a move for a starting pitcher before the middle of July, since they have injuries and Hutchison on an innings-limit. It would be a short-term acquisition with long-term possibilities. But after that, in August I can see the Jays throwing veteran one-year contracts overboard and bringing up their future core players to give them a better idea what they have to do in the off-season. If Hechavarria is a player, they may not need in '13 to go out and acquire a second baseman., If Gose is a player for the moment, they may not need to go out and find a leadoff man. The big question becomes behind the plate. 

Q-Hi Richard,

I'm really beginning to wonder the authenticity in Paul Beeston's statement that he expects the Blue Jays to make the playoffs at least three times over the next five years. The fact of the matter is that it is becoming quite clear that Rogers is not willing to make the commitment to make this team a contender. Take for instance the Blue Jays silly stance on the fact that they will not go beyond their own self imposed player value. Because of this, they did not trade for market value for Mat Latos. They will not sign free agents beyond 5 years, and hence the loss of Prince Fielder. They will not go beyond their own value on signing international free agents and thus have lost out on Aroldis Chapman and Yu Darvish. Imagine if Rogers had opened up their vault, and in a perfect world added Fielder, Darvish, and Chapman to this year's roster. All the cost would have been is money, and in each case, the Jays could have had all three. The irony of it all is that all these three players would have fit the exact needs of the current Blue Jays roster: a power hitting first baseman, a starting pitcher, and an elite closer.

I've always felt that the biggest curse to Blue Jays fans is the success of Tampa Bay Rays. Since they have shown that they can win on a very tight budget, I begin to wonder if Rogers is thinking the same thing, and will continue to rein in their millions of Rogers customers dollars.

Zaki Ameen, Milton

A-The Latos situation is interesting. The Jays had a nice package of prospects on the table for San Diego, but the Padres pulled the trigger on the Reds deal without getting back to AA. The difference was that they knew all Anthopoulos had to offer was excellent prospects that were still at low Class-A and the Reds had players ready for the 40-man roster and guys that could play right now. It doesn't seem to have affected in a positive manner the Padres standings in the standings, but if the Jays had to give up current MLB talent for Latos, they felt it would not be something they could afford or wanted to do.

The rest of the points you make – Fielder would never have come here, even with the ability to go beyond five years, Chapman would have been nice and I think the Jays made a mistake on Darvish by not competing hard. But, really, most major-league teams' fan bases could have the same complaint about their own ownership. If the Jays do nothing to add a player before July 31, send me another question. I may have changed my mind. Maybe all Rogers want from the Jays is “wireless content.”

Q-Jays fan, temporarily living in Chicago for the summer.


 What's the latest on Santos??

Omair Rana, Chicago

A-Sergio Santos started throwing from a mound on Monday June 4. He threw again on Wednesday and Friday that week, but suffered a setback and had to take a step backwards and has not thrown since. He is still working out cardio and strength, but will resume from Square 1 when his shoulder settles down. That's not a good report, but the Jays are still putting up a brave front. No timetable.  

Q-The Blue Jays have a pretty good team this year, is the rest of the league afraid there might be a repeat of the 1992-93, with the all bad calls against the Jays, are the umpires making sure that does not happen?

Shirley McArthure, Niagara Falls

A-There does not need to be a conspiracy of the men in blue. The umpires are just relying on their own short-tempered, elephant-like memory of Jays players reacting to calls. Do you think the Jays being in a World Series would be any worse than Tampa or Florida?

Q-When will Farrell pull the plug on Cordero? He's had a great career, but he's just not effective now. Yet Farrell has consistently gone to Cordero over Frasor in important situations. Cordero made sense when Santos first went down. But we've now seen that he doesn't have it anymore. Do you agree that Cordero should be moved down the depth chart? Personally, I'd consider cutting him loose and bringing up a kid. I was at one of the Boston games and the whole section groaned when Cordero got up in the bullpen. The natives are getting restless.

Kevin Siena, Toronto

A-Cordero's pitching has not been as bad as his record – as long as he stays out of the closing role. I recall a game where he gave up four hits in an inning. The first three were groundballs that found holes. The last one was a double off the wall. That's the one fans remember. Cordero clearly will be available in the final three months for any team that wants him. I think from what I've seen that he and Jason Frasor are pretty much interchangeable. There is no upside to cutting him loose. I think it's best to wait for some kind of an offer that will get some minor-league depth player in return.

Q-Hey Richard,

I wanted to get your thoughts on Wandy Rodriguez. I personally think he would be a great fit as a No. 3 starter behind Romero and Morrow. He's a guy who can give you close to 200 IP, hasn't had an ERA over 3.60 in the last 5 seasons and is under team control through 2014. He will most likely be available come trade deadline day if he's not traded before then. What do you think the Jays would have to give up for him? In addition, what are some other names Jays fans should keep their eye on leading up to the July 31st trade deadline as a potential starting pitcher? Finally, IF they do manage to bring in another starter who do you think gets sent down/moved to the pen? Thanks! Keep up the great work!

Josh Cymbalista, Thornhill

A-To me, I always thought that Rodriguez would have been a good offseason acquisition, but I don't think he's a No. 3 starter on a winning team. He'd be a solid No. 4 and if the Jays made a pitch for him at the deadline, he would give them a No. 4 that is under control through 2013 which is the final season of a three-year, $34-million deal, with another option for 2014. They could decide next winter to keep him or trade him. The Astros need young talent. The Jays have plenty of that. If it's not Rodriguez, I think the price for Ryan Dempster would be more reasonable than for Matt Garza. From the Brewers, Zack Greinke could be a nice short-term piece with time to make a long-term decision. The Jays and Brewers have had a good trading relationship, but players have a say in where they go. As for who goes to the pen, there is the innings-limit for Hutchison, plus the recent injuries to consider.   

Q-Hi Richard,

I enjoy the mailbag. It is my understanding that there are pay restrictions in place for the first year of a minor-league contract but after that the system is open. If this is correct, and with the new penalties in place for teams that exceed the MLB draft signing bonus, is there any indication that the Blue Jays or other teams may try to entice those hard-to-sign draft picks (like Anthony Alford) by paying them on the back end by offering rich minor league contracts.

Aaron Asee, Toronto

A-I'm pretty sure that MLB also monitors minor-league contracts and it would be pretty transparent if all of a sudden a second-year pro is pulling in a million bucks. What I worry about is that if GMs already were able to figure out how to beat the new system by drafting college seniors that are grateful just for the opportunity to play a year or two of A-ball, then they may have already figured out a way to beat the system in other ways that approximate the ideas that you suggest. Under the table?

Like the Scottish caddie at historic St. Andrew's who was asked by the  blustery American tourist whose bag he was on: “What do you call a Mulligan over here in Scotland.” He replied: “Cheating.”

Q-Dear Mr Griffin,

What do you make of the withering of Brian Jeroloman ? He is performing (?) atrociously at New Hampshire.
 And, why on earth did the Jays sign Koby Clemens, given the logjam of genuine first base prospects in AAA and AA?
 Thank you.

Thea Varley, 
Toronto

A-Jeroloman's high point and his low point crashed together in Toronto in August-September 2011. The Suffern, N.Y., native late in '11 was called up to the major leagues (high point) and never got in a game (low point). Meanwhile, the tsunami of Jays' catching prospects had formed a tidal wave of talent on the horizon that has caught up to and swept over the 27-year-old who was once considered a prime Jays' major-league prospect. There is Arencibia, d'Arnaud, Carlos Perez, Yan Gomes and when A.J. Jimenez went down earlier in the year, they brought Sean Ochinko up to Double-A to catch.

As for Koby Clemens, he was added to the minor league ranks as a favour from Paul Beeston to Roger Clemens, who was with the Jays in '97-'98, surprising the world by choosing the Jays as his free-agency landing spot. Clemens and Beeston are friends. The Koby experiment seemed like it was coming to an end at spring training when it looked like there might not be a spot for him at any level, but injuries and the fact that he has some tools have kept him in the system.  

Q-Greetings Richard,

Yesterday, my wife and I, retirees, watched the Jays nose under the .500 water line for the first time, and I suspect this bunch of deck chair shufflers will accelerate to the bottom, on merit.

We went to watch Strasburg pitch in any event, knowing he'd bury this weak Toronto bunch. 
It was a lovely sunny day, at least, and the beer (at $10 !) was cold. 
On two occasions we tried to buy food: the lineup for all food was approximately 15 minutes long, even during play, so we contented ourselves with the beer. Only one harried server worked each food counter. Isn't this mediocre organization smart enough to anticipate more customers on a day when the opposing pitcher is named Strasburg?

Must we be subjected to ear-piercing, gawd-awful "music" between each batter? Is the younger generation that bored? Do we require a command to "Make Noise" from the scoreboard? Our ears are still ringing. Doesn't this club need to create premium seating (not club boxes) for fans who want to watch the game away from the diaper changers (yes!), fans who arrive in the third inning, and the constant movement to the concession stands by the children and the grossly obese?
 Aren't we tired of AA's flanneling speeches that admit nothing? 
Doesn't he need to (quickly as possible ) package the likes of Drabek, Arencibia, Escobar, etc. onto another dull-witted organization? 
Are these enough questions?

 Thank You,

Selby Martin, Toronto

A-I hope the Blue Jays are paying attention. The music is one thing that is not going to change. Hey dude, the Big Band Era is over. Hip-hop rules.

 

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.

Mailbag: Does Jose Bautista's frustration with umpires hurt his reputation?

The Texas Rangers are coming to town on Monday and the three-game series against the AL champs is well worth the price of admission. The powerful Rangers have been to the World Series two years in a row and seem even stronger this season.

How good are they? Consider that the Rangers rank first in the AL in runs scored, batting average and slugging and boast a team OPS of .847. And, oh yes, Yu Darvish is pitching the first game vs. the Jays on Monday, bringing a large entourage of Japanese media with him.

The Jays will continue on after hosting Seattle and Texas to tangle with the remaining AL West teams, the Angels and A's on the coast. Fans should have a good idea at the end of the coast trip as they head to Minneapolis, how the Jays stack up this season.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery from the latest physical setback to the tenacious Dustin McGowan and on to the mailbag.

Q-Hi Richard,

Been following you on twitter lately. Thanks for the replies and the RTs. My question for you is what's the deal with Bautista? And NO I'm NOT talking about his stats! Rather, from my perspective, he seems more cocky this year when dealing with umpires (e.g. will make faces when borderline pitches go against him, talks back to umps, etc).

I have a three-part question for you about this:

1: Is this actually happening or am I just noticing it this year because he's off to a slow start (e.g. this is a non-issue when you're hitting HRs)?

2: Assuming it isn't just in my head, does behaving this way hurt get you a bad rep among umps? In other words, is this going to come back and haunt Bautista? 

3: Assuming it earns Jose a bad rep, whose job is it to talk to Jose about it (e.g. Farrell, AA, teammates)?

Thanks,

Francis P., Ithaca, NY

A-I think cocky is a poor choice of words. Yes, Bautista has changed his demeanour this year unintentionally, but as you suggest, a lot of the facial expressions and anger come from frustration. I do believe the whiny reaction is hurting him with umpires and maybe even hurting his teammates by association, with the same umpires.

The Jays don't want to be known as a whiny team, although the Yankees are the worst at it and it doesn't seem to affect them too much. Since Jose is the clubhouse leader it's up to him to regulate himself. Trust me, he knows it's happening and he talks freely about the frustration and the close calls that don't go the Jays way. When he starts hitting it will ease.

Q-Hi Richard,

Two comments that maybe you can elaborate on.

John Farrell's use of his bullpen has not improved over last year and may in fact be worse.

Thames stat line for April will be worse than Snider's from last spring yet all we hear is that he will have a long leash, while Snider leads the world in every major offensive stat at AAA.

Matt Meisner, St. Catharines

A-In answer to your bullpen comment, I honestly believe that this year's Jays' pen is much easier to figure out than was the relief corps in 2011. Farrell has already been better this year after a season of experience.

At the start of last season, recall the Jays' closer role was up in the air. Frankie Francisco was supposed to be it, but he had always been a notoriously slow starter and was injured at training camp to boot. Jon Rauch became the closer by default, while Octavio Dotel was the equivalent of a right-handed specialist, with little ability to retire lefty hitters. 

Of course Dotel now has a World Series ring and looked great down the stretch with the Cardinals. He said he had been misused in Toronto. Marc Rzepczynski was a poor man's Scott Downs, whom he was replacing, and Jason Frasor was, well, Jason Frasor. Casey Janssen had not yet come into his own at the start of last season and Carlos Villanueva it seemed was the complement every five days to Jo-Jo Reyes, until taking over as a starter himself. Then came the trade with the Cardinals for Rasmus that decimated Farrell's bullpen.

This year is easier. I could manage this pen. Santos is the closer with Francisco Cordero as the setup man in the eighth. Janssen, Frasor and Darren Oliver are the seventh inning combo, while Luis Perez has come on like gangbusters passing everyone on the depth chart. Villanueva can be a solid long guy but hasn't had many opportunities. How do you screw that up as a manager. Farrell can't do anything about births or injuries that have cost Santos games, so to say he has not handled the relievers as well as lat year is somewhat a case of perception over reality. The 16 innings of relief in the first two games in Cleveland certainly did not get the pen off on a regular path and rhythm.

As for the Thames/Snider debate, this seems to be one of the hot topics of the season thus far. Snider has done this before in the minors, ripping it up then coming back to the majors and levelling off, falling off and returning to the minors again. Both Thames and Snider are Jays' assets. They are both young and they are both valuable either here or elsewhere without the thought of kicking either one to the curb. The situation will play itself out.

Q-Hi Richard,

Do you think Eric Thames will last in left field for the Jays? Looks like he's an average defender, with average speed, and average batting, with not much power. It also appears he doesn't have a plan when he's at the plate and has taken some awful swings. At this point I think Davis is a better option for the Jays. Your thoughts?

Paul Rudan, Campbell River, B.C.

A-Thames is an average to below average defender. He has average speed. It's tough at this early stage of his career to rate his batting average and his power. He has started to gain more plate discipline where he does not as often get himself into pitchers' counts by swinging at off-speed pitches down and out of the zone, but he's not all the way there. That perception of how a player looks on any swing should be minimized. That's why the rules give you three strikes, so you can have some awful swings on pitches that you guessed wrong on and then in the same at-bat, bounce back and get a big hit.

As for Davis, I love the reserve role that was outlined for him with the Jays this spring. A disrupting weapon in late innings off the bench and an occasional starter in the outfield against certain left-handers depending on matchups. He is not an everyday player, but he can be a significant contributor.

Q-Hi Richard,

I know the Jays made a committment to Thames to start the season, but when does that change? 
Snider has a hit in every game this year in Las Vegas and either a 2B or HR in 8/10. How much longer do we have to wait to see the true future left-fielder take his place? Thanks,

Adam G., Brooklyn, NY

A-These things have a way of taking care of themselves. If Vegas manager Marty Brown and 51's hitting coach Chad Mottola were adamant that Snider needed to play in Toronto and had nothing else to learn at Triple-A then I believe the move would already be made.

GM Alex Anthopoulos is not about winning games in Las Vegas or New Hampshire. He is about winning games in Toronto. I like Snider as much as anyone and to me, it was a coin flip at spring training, but their feeling was that it was Thames' job to lose and he didn't lose it. If Snider is gaining confidence with his great start, that's good for him.

Q-I like Eric Thames and his game but I am sad Travis Snider wasn't able to crack the lineup or live up to his lofty promise after such a strong start to his career. I am hopeful there is a place for him on the club at some point in the future if he can earn it as he just looks like he can be such a force if he can ever put it all together. My question is, should the Jays remain injury-free in the outfield and should Snider somehow NOT get traded this year do you think he would be a lock next year as the 4th outfielder considering how he would be out of options and the Jays seem to hate seeing players lost to another club for nothing? All the best and keep the bag coming...the best Q&A blog out there!

Aaron Hickey, Sydney, Australia

A-I remember being stunned in Minneapolis at the old Metrodome watching from the press box when Snider crushed two home run balls off the upper-deck facade in right field in the same game at the start of the '09 season. With his humble attitude and respect for his old coaches, his father and the game of baseball, it looked like the sky was the limit. Less than a month later he was gone back to the minors -- and that was not the last time he has been yo-yo'd to the farm. His defence improved last spring under the tutelage of coach Torey Lovullo, but he still has trouble with consistency at the plate. He's a year younger than Thames and they are both still not to their prime baseball years. Sometimes we are all too impatient.

As for next season, yes Snider will have no options left, but that is not a reason to keep him as a fourth outfielder. Between the end of this current year and the start of next year, it says here that the Jays will entertain offers for one of the two outfielders and that one of them will be traded.

Q-I haven't heard any talk of the Jays hosting the all-star game again. How long before that happens? It's been 20 years. With this up and coming team it would've been a perfect opportunity to put the Jays on the map again with the all-star festivities within the next few years.

Kam H., Richmond Hill

A-The Jays hosted the All-Star Game in 1991, the second full season that the SkyDome was open. It was the traditional carrot on a stick for the city of Toronto handed to them for building a new stadium. It's been 21 years since T-O hosted the midsummer classic and there are 30 franchises. Do the math. Besides, all-star games have become most times a bribe, a reward to municipal or state governments that are willing to bend over for baseball and take one for the team, usually by building a new stadium using some public money, then in a glitzy announcement they are awarded the big game from Bud Selig so they can present a questionable study that shows that hosting the game brings in a jazillion dollars in tourist money. If baseball is fair, then the Jays would get the next game in 2022.

Q-”Prince has been to the post-season one time and, in fact, Jose Bautista has as many WS rings." could possibly be the dumbest response to a very legitimate question I've ever heard in my life. 

For me, you lost all credibility with that answer. To insinuate that Prince's lack of rings at the relatively young age of 27 in a very team oriented sport such as baseball somehow justifies AA's non pursuit is at best moronic and at worst a frightening sign of your limited baseball knowledge.

Nolan Michael, Toronto

A-You are certainly pulling out just a small part of the response and opinion that was given in that mailbag and presenting it as me saying it is the only reason for not pursuing Prince Fielder. Why is it that stats aficionados universally seem to have absolutely no sense of humour or sense of the absurd or the ability to see the game as a game. They are like the Christian right. Everything must be black or white, right or wrong and if your opinion does not agree with my opinion then you are wrong...and an idiot to boot. The great thing about opinions in baseball is that everyone can have one and since it's an opinion it can't be right or wrong. That's what makes the game so arguably great. God bless you Nolan.

Q-As far as your comeback player of the year assessment goes, your criteria doesn't seem to hold for past winners like Aaron Hill and Cliff Lee - granted both came back from injuries (so maybe this is additional criteria)? Hill, for instance, never has a pre (nor even post) award OPS close to Rasmus' 2010 total. Similarly, Lee only had one decent year prior to his win and it was at 2.3 WAR versus Rasmus' 3.2 of 2010 (WAR being perhaps the best measure across these diverse positions).

Yes, Hill's previous .291 batting average and Lee's 18-win season stand out, but the value of Rasmus' OBP, defence, baserunning, and more shouldn't be underrated even if the focus on traditional stats tends to do that. You may be right about how many Comeback Player voters feel, but it doesn't negate the fact that Rasmus' 2010 was superior to the pasts of other winners and a monster 2010 could (and perhaps should) facilitate his being honoured thusly.

Derek Maisonville, Montreal

A-The comeback-player is not even an official award, so it's hard to say who the voters are, but one thing I do know is that if you are coming back from serious injury, you have a far better chance of winning it than, say, a Colby Rasmus who surely had a great OPS as a 23-year-old then slumped for a couple of years, maybe because of factors like “manager-angst” and “urban sprawl”. If you're young and healthy and coming back to some good numbers like Rasmus, that shouldn't and doesn't mean squat. I never doubted those readers that said Rasmus 2010 numbers were very good. But does that suddenly mean every hot rookie who encountered the sophomore jinx should be a comeback-player-of-the-year candidate. I just know and undersand how the comeback award is voted for and a guy like Rasmus has no chance. Besides, he's not coming back to defence, because defence, like rust, never sleeps.

Q-I think they should do something about the hitting coach, like replace him. What do you think ???

John Finch, Burlington

A-Many times, a major-league hitting coach is the one to take the fall for a team's failure to hit. Admittedly, it was a tough transition for Dwayne Murphy from Cito Gaston's philosophy where a 10-pitch at-bat, as Adam Lind put it this spring, would draw Gaston's response of “What took you so long,” to the John Farrell response of high-fives all around for wearing a starting pitcher down, even if you end up making an out.

Farrell believes that the weakest point of any team is its middle relief and if you can get to that early then you have a better chance of winning. Murphy had to convince some of his same pupils, the ones he had earlier convinced to be uber-aggressive under Cito to change their philosophy again. It's not easy and Murphy probably has the easiest target on his back if the offence continues to founder. But who knows, by the next mailbag they may all have turned it around and the Jays offence could be on a significant roll.

Q-Hi Richard,

Still anticipating your infamous mailbag. I know it's early but how much longer can the Jays wait for Lind to come around? I've had enough. I believe more in Thames' hitting ability than Lind. The Jays offence is a big question mark thanks to the lacklustre production of Joey Bats (whom I think will end up with a .265/30/95) and non-leadoff hitter Escobar. I really would like to see Davis playing almost every day. His career avg. is around .275. The lineup would be more productive with Davis leading off followed by, Johnson, Lawrie to start off and I'd put Colby to bat ahead of Lind. Any thoughts? April's a soft schedule and they should take the most advantage from it.  Any thoughts? or am I off in your opinion?

Kam H., Richmond Hill

A-The Jays' offensive success all comes down to the success of Jose Bautista. That's just the Jays' bottom line to winning and he knows it, his teammates know it, the fans know it and opponents know it. Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion hit better when Bautista is on a roll. If it was up to me and there was a clean slate for the Jays' lineup, I might at this point go: Johnson, Lawrie, Bautista, Encarnacion, Lind, Escobar, Rasmus, Arencibia, Thames. But that's just me.

As I discussed earlier in the mailbag, I prefer Davis in the role he fills right now. In the 8th or 9th inning, if Rajai is starting you will never be sure when he is going to be coming up or if he ever does come up in those key innings, you can't be sure whether he is going to reach base. Meanwhile, if you have him on the bench through seven innings you can control when he reaches base as a key weapon in late innings in a close game.

April may be a soft schedule and they needed more wins, but the thing about this year's Jays is that they are going to be better in August than they are in April, especially when it comes to the young startng pitching, which has been better than expected already. So that improvement should offset any issues about the schedule.

Q-I commend the work of AA in the last couple years and I believe that the Jays are two players away from truly contending for the next few years and that the dynamite lefty arm of Aroldis Chapman would be a great addition as the #3 starter.  What would it take to pry Chapman loose from the Reds and do you think that the addition of a top-3 lefty is needed? I don't want to wait for the kids in the minors! GO JAYS & GO SPOS 4EVER

Dave Loney, Ottawa

A-I'm with you about commending the work of AA, but from there on out with the rest of your letter I need to comment. When the Jays are finally contending, they don't want it to be for simply the next two years as you suggest. They want sustainability in contending and that means tapping into their own minor leagues for future bargaining chips in trade in areas of need and tapping into the farm system for solid major-league talent to replace other solid major-league talent. The Jays are two years away from opening that long-term door to future opportunity, especially with regard to outfielders, catchers and young starting pitchers. The cupboard is full.

As for your pitching suggestion, the Jays had their chance already at signing Aroldis Chapman when AA decided not to enter the Reds' stratosphere of over $30 million for four years for the Cuban free-agent. They will not go there, but they do have some minor-league talent that can be similar-type impact guys at a great financial savings. The Jays are being patient in that regard, understanding that help is on the way, but, for the record, they were foiled in their bid to get Chapman's teammate Mat Latos from the Padres.

Q-Did you see the latest SI power rankings based on team WAR? 

The Royals are ranked #7 while the Jays are down at #20.  The article says that the Royals are due for a turnaround based on their team WAR.
 My question is what do you think will happen in the likely scenario that the Royals finish near the bottom of the league?  Will FanGraphs admit that WAR is just plain wrong?

Eric E., Toronto

A-”WAR, huh, yeah, what is it good for
? Absolutely nothing, uh-huh. 
WAR, huh, yeah, what is it good for? 
Absolutely nothing
. Say it again, y'all.” Edwin Starr.

 

 

Q-Hi Richard,

Well I've been impressed and excited by the start so far, and I'm not greatly worried about AA's 'failed attempt' to get a #2 or #3 starter in the offseason. I just look at all the home-grown possibilites and wonder which one is going to be this year's Juan Guzman. Although with a longer career trajectory, of course. Who do you think has the best chance of that?

Bryan Willis, Vancouver

A-The failure to get a #2-3 starter like Latos or Yu Darvish is what will cost the Jays a chance to contend this year. I agree that there will likely be a Juan Guzman-type surprise performer pop up either later this year or early next season, but the Jays needed someone solid all year in 2012 if they were going to seriously contend for a wild card. What it would take now is a huge season from Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow, plus someone else stepping up in the second half. I have a hard time seeing Henderson Alvarez as that guy because, despite his solid repertoire, he's won just once in 14 starts and despite the low regard in which Ws are looked upon, that is how they rank teams in the official standings.

Q-Hi Richard.

Why do the Jays have so many call-ups from Double-A? You would think they would come from Triple-A Las Vegas. Also, why do they say the Triple-A Pacific Coast league is so 'hitter-friendly'? Thanks!

Terry Fallat, Espanola

A-Basically. Double-A can be seen as a league for talented young players on the way up. Meanwhile Triple-A is a balance, a mixture of players on the way up and players on the way down. It is a holding tank for potential major-leaguers to fill in with the big club due to disablements.

In the Jays' case, they purposely don't send many of their best young pitchers, kids on the way up, to Las Vegas because it is such a hell-hole for pitching. Organizations know that before a player can establish himself as a major-leaguer, he needs to experience failure. Ask Ricky Romero. Ask Travis Snider. Ask Kyle Drabek. Most top draft choices never failed as kids. They never did in high school and they never failed in college. But it's a given they are going to fail as pros.

So, for your young pitchers, do you want their first failure to be at Triple-A? Not really. Pitching in Vegas and in the PCL is nasty. Most parks are at altitude where the ball carries. The air is light, the winds blow and the infields are rock hard and uneven because of the weather, usually hot and dry.

Meanwhile at Double-A, in the Eastern League and Manchester, New Hampshire, it's more sublime for the Jays' young stars – New England clam chowder, Sam Adams, warm summer nights and young baseball players just like you. Plus, in the Jays' situation, the kids are confidently aware from precedence that they might be just one step away from the majors. Trust me, the Jays would love to have their AAA affiliate somewhere like Buffalo.

Q-Richard,

I have a quick question on scoring in baseball. When the Jays use their funky defensive set up where the third baseman is lined up behind first base like against Tampa's Luke Scott. When he grounded to Lawrie is it still scored as ground ball to third and put out at first even though it was a ground ball to right field. How would it make sense in the box score later?

Brian Runciman, Oakville

A-That's one thing I have never agreed with. Yes, you're right, the play to Lawrie was scored a 5-3, so if you were looking at your official scorebook a year from now you would believe the pull-hitting Scott had gone the other way, unless you also chart direction. It basically is just a bookkeeping notation so that when the official scorer is adding up putouts and assists after the game for the league records, he has the right players involved and doesn't have players changing position for a batter at a time.

Recall that in the Cleveland series in extra innings, Farrell brought in a five-man infield with Omar Vizquel emerging from the dugout to replace Eric Thames, standing next to second base and giving the Jays three men on the left side of the infield and two on the right. Well, even though Vizquel never left the dirt of the infield, he was listed as the left fielder because he replaced Thames. It's now the only time he has played the outfield and is silly because he didn't really play the outfield. There has to be a better way because it does not re-create the game with accuracy and isn't that what scoring a game is all about?

Q-Hi Griff,

What is up with Joey Bats? I have seen him take more "ugly" swings this year more than ever. He was always patient to me, but now seems to be reaching at balls out of the strike zone. Is this cause for concern? Another point, Brett Lawrie is also struggling. Is he up too soon? I love my Jays, but this series with Baltimore is giving me fits.

Anton Forde, Freeport, Bahamas

A-Bautista has taken a lot of ugly swings, especially at balls up in the strike zone. He seems to be popping a lot of balls up and is not hitting as many balls on the screws as he has the past two seasons. It's cause for concern only if it continues indefinitely. Bautista is an intelligent player, an intelligent hitter. Once he gets back to only attacking balls in the strike zone, the numbers will all rise.

Lawrie is not up in the majors too soon. He is a free swinger that makes contact. He is a major-league player and will continue to get better.

Q-I was wondering if you believe there would be any benefit in signing someone like Vlad Guerrero as a threat off of the bench. Is he too expensive to have around as a pinch hitter and sometime DH? He's past his prime, no doubt, but he would also represent much more of a game changer than Ben Francisco, I think.

Mark Twain, Charlottetown, PEI

A-The Jays have worked hard since the Frank Thomas debacle to not hire aging one-dimensional hitters that can only DH. Vlad has reached the point where he is just such a player. Like Johnny Damon, Guerrero would not be an expensive sign at this stage of his career, so that's not the reason. But a player like Edwin Encarnacion is exactly what the Jays seek in a DH so that he can play a position in the nine inter-eague games in NL ballparks each year. Besides, Vlad has led an active life in baseball and may be done as a player. Your comment on Ben Francisco is a good one. If they don't have a defined role for Francisco, since he now doesn't even go in for defence ahead of Rajai Davis, then he has little use as a fifth outfielder.