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.