Watch Out Star Wars Kid

You've got some competition now. This charming young fellow wishes to show us all the weirdest batting stances in baseball. Enjoy!

Kindred Spirits

Vernon Wells - Breaks wrist May 9th, put on the Disabled List
Jeremy Accardo - Injures forearm May 9th, put on Disabled List

Vernon Wells - Born December 8th

Jeremy Accardo - Born December 8th

Coincidence? Or some birthday Voodoo?

What's New on the Farm?

With speculation rising already that the Jays could be using farmhands to acquire another big bat for the lineup, it seems logical to take a bit of a gander at the Jays system to see what's there that could be for the taking. We've already seen a glimpse of David Purcey, who made his best left handed Daniel Cabrera impression in his major league debut.

For all the grief the Jays have had over the state of their relatively weak minor league system, most baseball experts agreed that the Jays had a very good 2007 draft. With that in mind, let's see how some of the newer young Jays are doing this year.

In Low A ball, there are a couple of names that stand out, including the Jays highest pick in last year's draft, Kevin Ahrens. From what I've been able to gather in my relatively quick research, Ahrens is showing some promise for a guy drafted right out of high school. The switch hitting third bagger has yet to hit a homer, but is hitting a respectable .291 thus far and is 3 for 3 in stolen base attempts.

Sandwich pick Justin Jackson is one of Ahrens teammates in Lansing. Jackson was a guy whose stock fell quite a bit in last year's draft, as he was once projected as a surefire top 20 pick. Scouts were dazzled by the high schoolers defensive prowress at shortstop, but there were concerns over his bat. Thus far, it looks like Jackson has been making some great strides in the hitting department. Hitting .313, Slugging .494, and already with a long ball, the speedy infielder is also an impressive 6 for 7 in stolen base attempts. Batter's Box recently saw Lansing play and came off most impressed with Jackson. I think it's pretty safe to say that we should start polishing up his Hall of Fame bust.

A guy I've never heard of until yesterday on JaysTalk with Ricciardi, is pitcher Kyle Ginley. He's destroying low A ball thus far, and a promotion seems likely. The kid thus far is 5-0 with a 1.24 ERA, with 36 Ks in 36 innings.

Moving up to Double A, Travis Snider is shitting the bed thus far, but there is no need to panic, given the small sample size... and the fact he's just two years out of high school. Snider's knocked a couple out of the park in New Hampshire, and his average has nowhere to go but up. As a top 15 prospect in all of baseball, he won't be hitting .143 come June.

Recently promoted Brett Cecil has let up 4 runs in 7 innings thus far in New Hampshire, and his rise to the majors will probably be quite swift, as he, unlike the other kids mentioned in this post, is out of college.

Blog Resurrected

I'm sorry. I think whatever readership this blog once had has now been decimated to none, because of the inactivity here without warning. Chalk it up to a number of not really great reasons, and this blog's been pretty much abandoned over the past three weeks or so. I hope to make semi frequent posts once again... and less time is spent at the ballpark, or other out in the city venues and more time at home... watching the games on TV... and saving a few bucks.

On to today's post...

For the working stiffs, like yours truly, who are unfortunate, like myself, to ride the TTC every morning, nothing is more frustrating than not being able to access the radio in the tunnels of Toronto, and listening to the same library of songs on the IPod every morning gets a little tiresome. However, I've found a nice little way around this problem: Podcasts.

Download these suckers in the morning, and you've got yourself some entertainment as you head to the office. Here's what I've been listening to lately, and give strong recommendations to download. Hopefully, this will make your morning's a little bit more tolerable.

1. ESPN's Fantasy Focus with Matthew Berry & Nate Ravitz. Berry & Ravitz are ridiculously entertaining. They podcast every weekday, and each show is about 20-25 minutes... just long enough to give you the baseball info you need, but not too long to get tedious. One of the show's strongest suits is its ability to not take itself seriously. Berry usually goes well off topic for the majority of the show, offering his insights of why Anne Hathaway is hotter than Megan Fox, and Ravitz was talking about figure skating the other day. But the meat and potatoes of baseball analysis is still there, and it's always entertaining to hear them pull their hair out trying to understand what's going on with the Jays' bullpen.

2. The Drunk Jays Fans Podcast - This came out of nowhere, and is a brand new podcast that I downloaded the other day. Based out of The Score studios in Toronto, the DJFers first broadcast showed a lot of promise. With their podcast cherry popped, there could be some listening gold on the horizon with this show, and is definitely worth a subscription. Judging by the length of the podcase, I am guessing that it will be a weekly show.

3. ESPN's Around the Horn - Yeah, it's mostly Bill Plaschke and Jay Mariotti sounding really stupid the majority of the time, but it's sports opinion, and it's not horrible. Like David Archuletta, it's got pep.

Big Hurt Released

Frank Thomas has been released. Adam Lind will be called up and be the full time Left Fielder. Matt Stairs and Shannon Stewart will take over the Designated Hitter duties

It's a swift move that seemed inevitable 24 hours ago after his benching, but one that really raises eyebrows. Many baseball notables mentioned Thomas' loss of bat speed during Spring Training and early on this season, and there has recently been a noticable change in Thomas' plate approach to compensate for this deficiency. But, as everyone knows, Thomas has always been a notorious slow starter, and outright releasing the player obviously is more than a pure baseball decision.

After all, take a look at the line up treaded out today against the lefty:

D. Eckstein
A. Hill
A. Rios
V. Wells
R. Barajas
M. Scutaro
L. Overbay
G. Zaun
J. McDonald

Yeah, that's Rod Barajas hitting in the five spot. And Marco Scutaro in the six spot. Ouch.

Let the Barry Bonds rumours start percolating once again.

Weekend Blur

I've missed the last couple of games... but the Jays have mustered a little bit of a winning streak (2 games!!) in my absense. Burnett tosses this afternoon, in a must win game for the Jays (according to some insane callers in to Jays talk). Win or pack it in.

According to Drunk Jays Fans, who've sourced the Fan590, BJ Ryan returns to the team today, and is ready to throw which is pretty fantastic, considering the moderate woes the pen has faced the last week. Even a recovering Ryan is better than an erratic League and a now hittable Accardo. There will most certainly be bumps along the way with Ryan's return to awesomeness, so let's not start jumping off the bridge after BJ's first blown save.

I've been digging up some really bizarre baseball related stuff the last couple of days, and will put it up here shortly. Also, a Shaun Marcum opinion piece is on the way. Hold tight, folks. Four series in, and the Jays could be a part of three sweeps. Things are a changin'.

Another Reason to Listen to the Radio

Turn off the TV. Either go to the games, or listen to them on the Radio. Here's a sampling of today's great broadcast on the Fan.

(Wilner & Ashby talking about players forging their birth cirtificates so that team's draft them thinking they are younger than they actually are... Wilner mentions that there was a player picked up by the name of Isabel Giron, who used younger sister's birth certificate to pose as someone five years younger)

Ashby: In that case, they didn't need to forge the certificate.

Short Pause

Wilner: Well, except in one category.

Where's Brandon?

Myseriously absent from any game situations thus far in 2008 has been Brandon League. Even Randy Wells and Jason Frasor have seen some action. This is quite distressing. We have put up an APB on the corner of this page to find out where he is.

Easy as 123

A great weekend of baseball. With stellar preformances from some unlikely sources (The Big Hurt providing two huge hits in April already!?), and some great production from the new kids on the left side of the infield. The most encouraging signs thus far are the fact that Vernon appears to be back in 2006 form, Alex Rios looks ridiculously comfortable in the three hole, and Jesse Litsch & Shaun Marcum looked absolutely great.. particularly Marcum.

But let's keep things into a little perspective here... a lot of credit towards the wins can go directly to the players from Boston. The Red Sox looked absolutely beat this entire weekend. They were ridiculously sloppy on the field, and didn't muster any type of energy throughout the games. This is not the Boston team we will see later in the year.

All in all though, a great start to what should be the best season of baseball in over a decade.

Oakland's in town Tuesday to Thursday, and there should be around 20,000 there each game. It will be quiet, but it will allow me to actually focus more on the games now, rather than being distracted by 'fans' wanting everyone to watch their antics.