Ok, NOW I'm worried . . .

So, Vernon Wells is apparently out until, most likely, the All Star Break. And, by the way, Jeremy Accordo joins him on the DL today too. That's four players shipped to the DL in 3 days if you are keeping score at home.

Even the "irrational" optimist that I was on opening day, I knew this team had one of the smaller margins for error in the league. While I was convinced (and still am) that our frontline players were collectively as good as anyone's, there's only so much talent you can put on the shelf and still make that claim. Having Vernon Wells' bat replaced in the lineup by Brad Wilkerson's is a pretty massive blow.

The Jays called up "ShuttleBug" Inglett a day after sending him down, along with Armando Benitez to fill out the roster . . .

(I pause briefly to again consider the plight of Brandon League)

. . . and this forces me to conclude that the Jays saw something in Lind when he was up here that they think needs addressing with every day work in the minors - either that or Shannon Stewart has incriminating photos of JP in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

So, what are we looking at for the next six to eight weeks? A Stewart - Rios - Wilkerson OF every single night that's what. (ugh!)

Mike Wilner suggests that perhaps Wilkerson gets the leadoff duties for a while with the need for Rios to take up some of Vernon's slack (not to mention his massive suckage since he started leading off which may or may not be a coincidence) but I'm wondering if the Jays are not going to presume that Stewart isn't going to hit well anywhere but leadoff . . . So not to dispute the oracle but so maybe you see something like this:

1. Stewart
2. Wilkerson
3. Rios
4. Rolen
5. Stairs/Mench
6. Overbay
7. Hill
8. Zaun
9. (SS)

Am I the only one who trembles in fear at having our two potentially weakest hitters in the one and two hole? Oh well, it's not like our run production can possibly get WORSE and hopefully either they will somehow manage to hit, or one of them will eventually get ditched for Lind or for a player acquired via trade.
The challenge is for the 3-8 hitters above to wake up and produce enough runs to keep us competitive until the hoped for cavalry arrives.

All that said, even I am beginning to have my doubts. It's one thing to have a Stewart or a Wilkerson or a Benitez as a role player on your team, but if they become important players, you need to be getting some breaks and right now, we just are not getting any breaks at all. The freakish hitting slump continues, and it's gotten to the point where I have to ask if there's some sort of bad karma thing going on here? Is it really SO wrong to hate the Yankees?

~WillRain

How the mighty have fallen

I was looking across Rotoworld and wondered what our old pal Shea Hillenbrand was up too. Thought this was amusing.

Free agent Shea Hillenband said he's had feelers from only one club, the Giants, so far this winter.

"Something will come up," he said. "I've got about 10 years to go." Hillenbrand will likely get a major league deal this winter, but it's not going to be for the usual $5 million-$6 million.

By the way, the date on that roto-update? Jan 1. I still don't think he's received as much as an MLC. Feel free to tell me if he has though. One thing is for sure - you know you're in trouble when even the Giants won't give you a MLC. I still can't believe we got our closer for this piece of shit.

You know, this wasn't going be the point of my post, but imagine how good the Giants could have been:

Rotation - Cain, Liriano, Lincecum, Zito, Lowry/Bonser?
Bullpen - Nathan, Accardo, Wilson, Hennessey, etc.

Now granted, they still wouldn't have a single offensive player. But damn, that pitching staff is incredibly scary. As long as that lineup could score 1 run a game, they'd win 3 out of every 5 games. A 600 winning % gets them to 97.2 victories a year. Could someone remind me why Brian Sabean still has a job, and I don't?

Twitchy.

Morning Roundup

SPIKE LEE: "Would you like to subscribe to my newsletter on the White Man's Evils?"

ECKSTEIN: "I feel asleep during Inside Man."

In one for the history books, the Yankees apparently threw a perfect game against the Jays yesterday that was called early on account of a lack of players. Not liking the weather, players and fans alike gave up the ghost on this one around the fifth inning. Just keep that in mind before you put too much stock in spring numbers, sports fans.

JP will not go about saying this player has that role locked up, it's just alien to his DNA. When asked the seemingly innocuous question of whether Accardo fills the set-up role for us when BJ's healthy, Gibby said yes and JP said "woah woah woah." That's fine by me, not letting anyone get complacent seems like a pretty good idea. To think that resident leper Jason Frasor is going to take high leverage innings away from Accardo strains belief, but do what you have to do. Blair also reiterates that money is top of the list when it comes to bench construction, which means Stewart should have a definite edge over Sparky when it comes to our little LF duel.

Wilner seems to think Gibby could slot Rios in as our number two in the lineup.

The Yankees are an old creaky bunch that played bad baseball for about 3/4 of last season before going on a Zeus Hercules end run to clinch the Wild Card. Just how vulnerable are they this year? If you've got a very short attention span, Ken Fidlin answers that question for you in about 400 words. I'll have a look at some numbers and revisit this over the next few days.

ELSEWHERE:

Add Jonathan Paplebon to the list of rising stars disgrunted by their pre-arbitration salaries. Guys, you get millions for signing your first contract, before even playing a single pro game, and you'll become millionaires when you hit your arbitration years. The bigger question for Hamels, Fielder and Paps is whether their first free agent contracts will have eight or nine digits. As a thousandaire, I think I know a bit about money.

Are the O's going to trade Brian Roberts or what? They're apparently weighing a package from the Cubs that would likely include a shortstop who can't hit and a pitcher who can't throw strikes. Ok, ok, I'm being a bit facetious. If you're going to blow a team up, you might as well blow the whole damn thing up and trade everything you've got that isn't part of the future.

It might have been funny when David Spade did it in Black Sheep, but this is just discomforting. I mean, it's a plausible excuse, right? How many times have you got out of the shower in your hotel room, had your towel fall off, tripped, and landed completely naked in front of the window over-looking the pool with your dick in your hand?

-- Johnny Was