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.

Games All Weekend

Jays home for a while and that means live reports from the SkyDome.

There'll be a much more in depth report filed here over the weekend, but I'll address this one theme that seems to be consuming the Fan 590 tonight, that's compleletly fucking ridiculous.

To all those people calling in and complaining about how crazy and off the wall fans were at the SkyDome tonight, with there being no security and whatnot... Have You Not Been To A Home Opener In the Past 10 Years??? They are always fucking crazy, and off the wall. Factor that with it being against Boston, so all the Massachusetts boneheads coming down... also that it is a FRIDAY NIGHT game, if you were expecting tea time at Cullen Gardens, then yeah, it was a real eye opener.

Sanity returns for the rest of the season. Stop whining and bask in the win.

Go Jays.

Game One Thoughts

After finishing my weekly Tuesday pick up basketball game, I ran to the closest bar nearby. I won't tell you what that bar was, but it was the shittiest bar I've ever been to in my entire life. They had the Jay game on for my first twenty minutes I was there, but after a group of stereotypical puckheads came in and asked for them to turn on the Leaf game, the bartender obliged to their request, and I was treated to a pointless hockey affair.

I quickly asked the bartender to please put one of the televisions to the opening day game of our beloved baseball team, and he obliged. I became the only patron situated infront of that TV. The rest of the patrons hooted and hollared for every meaningless Leaf goal.

Anyways, quick thoughts on the game.

Observation One: This game had an unbelievable atmosphere. Intense, and it really felt that the game meant a lot more than it actually did. Great television.

Observation Two: Despite the horrible settings to watch the game in, away games are still better to be watched in bars, because you don't have to listen to the commentators.

Observation Three: The Jays new uniforms are much better than their last incarnation. The numbers and lettering font is still not great, but a vast improvement over last season's.

Observation Four: Is it me, or does Overbay always seem really tense in late and close games? I don't have any numbers... for the statistically inclined, does anyone have Overbay's career numbers in late and tight situations?

Observation Five: Marco Scutaro is on pace for 300 stolen bases.

Observation Six: I don't get the Joba hype.