The Roundup

Goose eggs, get it? Jays 2, White Sox 0? No?

Shaun Marcum was at his very best coming off a nasty little flu bug in Boston and earned each and every member of the Friday night crowd their very own slice of crunchy, flavourless Pizza Pizza pizza by K-ing 9 batters on his own. Wilner says he's on the cusp of jumping on the “Marcum - potential Cy Young winner” bandwagon, which is the highest form of praise The Oracle can give a pitcher. Marcum definitely reminds me of Brad Radke v. 1997, 2001 and 2004. And Brad Radke-esque is a compliment in my books.

I never cash in my ticket stub for 'za and have had some difficultly wrapping my head around the popular enthusiasm for the promotion. If it was for a bag of peanuts, or $1 off the purchase of my next ticket to a Jays game, well, that'd be a different story. I digress.

As awesome as the pitching has been since the series finale in KC last Sunday, there is still justifiable concern with our anemic offense. That's 6 runs scored over the past 4 games. Jesse "the Body" Litsch takes on John Danks, the guy who broke Overbay's hand with a pitch last year, in this afternoon's matchup. Here's hoping he has a thoroughly disagreeable go of it.

McLeod notes that Paul Godfrey is completely and utterly unconcerned by the club's slow start (and/or anemic offense) as they return home after the roadtrip from hell.

“We've played 30 games and I think the media is trying to blow this up as if the season's over for us,” he said. “As I've said, Colorado Rockies, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees have worse records than we do at the present time. Last year, three of those teams made the playoffs.

“So, let's everybody calm down, let's everybody wait and see what happens as the next few weeks go by and we can reassess things as we go along.”

So Paul, was that a vote of confidence for your general manager and manager?

“You know what, I've got a full vote of confidence for everybody out on the field and everybody in the offices,” he said.

That's why they love you, Paul, the fans I mean.

Griff is hard to figure. He usually shits all over JP and the club when things are going ok, but has now decided to go all optimistic since the Jays started losing games by the bushelful. You truly are one strange cat, man.

Jeff Passan at Yahoo, a very fine baseball writer, has much praise for the upstart Rays. They're for real, but for real real? Now? I still peg them for a .500-ish finish. We'll get a second look next week.

And last but certainly not least, The Taos made a very eloquent defense of this odd pursuit of ours, sports blogging, in response to the Buzz Bissinger v. Will Leitch of Deadspin debate on Costas Now. I can't come remotely close to saying it as well as they have, but when I sit down to bang out something for your reading pleasure it hits the screen little different from the sort of conversation I'd have with my brother and Jay K. with the game on and a cold beer in hand. My/our aim here is to be as informative and intelligent as possible without boring you; if you like what we do, you'll come back and check us out again tomorrow, if not, you're free to drop a dollar on the Star and read Cathal Kelly/Mark Zwolinski/Richard Griffin at the kitchen table before you head off for work. I'm not offended one way or the other because this world of ours is big enough that each niche audience has an equal right to the sort of coverage they prefer. And that said, I'd like to pass comment that the unpaid masses on the interweb, be it the DJFs, the Taos, Jon Hale, the Ghostrunners, dozens of Bauxites, and countless others are doing it with far more passion, entertainment value and competence than the mainstreamers. And that I suspect, is where their fear originates from.

Good work lads, all of you.

ELSEWHERE:

* The Creaky Old Yankees can expect to do without Jorge Posada until June, but he does escape surgery.

* The Bad Teammate of the Year Award goes to recently released Pirates prospect Olivio Astacio.

-- Johnny Was