Taking 'Em Down a Peg

Starting the day's action the Jays are in third place after finally leap-frogging the O's (how did they string the non-suckage out for so long?) and are looking up at the second place Rays. Yep, them. Nothing to be proud of per se, but let me take the erstwhile contenders down a peg.

It's hard not to feel like your corn flakes have been pissed in whenever someone mentions Frank Thomas' line with the A's. Well, an eye for an eye. Remember way back a month ago when certain folk were touting Eric "The Dude" Hinske as an early candidate for the AL Comeback player of the year? A "New Pena" many said, citing his early numbers as evidence that Rays brass could shake mega-slugger bats out of the retread tree at will.

Hinske was off to an absolutely torrid start the last time his Rays rolled through TO in early this month, boasting a 1.018 OPS when the series began on May 6. And then reality set in. Through May he's hit .197/.234/.361, bringing his overall line down to (a still respectable) .248/.333/.511. In a delicious twist of irony, Rays Index is now talking of the man so recently touted for post-season awards as a DFA candidate.

What's next for The Dude? Reduced PT and probably part-time utility duties, which most pretty much every Jays fan on the face fo the earth knew was the only role he's really fit for.

-- Johnny Was

The Roundup

(Sad voice): 'Topes lose. Topes lose...

I suppose luck can run in your favour for only so long and "lustily" booing Eric Hinske has little effect on The Dude's one-man wrecking crew act against his former team. And all of this compounded by the fact that we're now down two shortstops for God knows how long.

Eckstein came out in the 5th with what we expect to be some minor hip discomfort and then J-Mac went down with a nasty ankle injury after catching his cleat on a seam in the field turf in the 6th. The Oracle was talking postgame like a 15-day DL stint is the best case scenario (it's never good when a player can't walk off the field under his own power) and 60 days is entirely possible.

Cruel mistress fate bitch slaps everyone who wanted to see more of J-Mac as a defensive replacement.

Marco Scutaro will be greedily licking his chops as he is the most likely recipent of playing time at short until Eckstein is well enough to play again. I'd figure that Joe Inglett gets called up for a bench slot as J-Mac's replacement, but won't see a minute of PT on the infield. The Oracle expects to see Jorge Velandia instead because the dude is a natural shortstop, has been chugging at AAA, and has some ML experience. Since there are no official updates as of yet, rampant speculation is pretty much all I've got for you at this point. Stay tuned.

I don't mean to be glib, but these injuries will likely have little short-term effect on the club's overall performance. Shortstop had been the NL pitcher's slot in the lineup as Eck and J-Mac combined for an anemic .231/.309/.306 line. Mac wasn't even being used for defensive purposes until the end of the White Sox series. We had only been getting average D from Eck, which is what you can reasonably expect from Scooter as a short-term injury replacement. It sucks losing J-Mac for a prolonged length of time, but his is a loss we can weather. If we start banging out 10 hits a game (as we did last night for only the third time since April 20), the Ws will come regardless of who's Scotty Rolen's left hand man.

Checking on the injury, Griff cites some disgruntlement from Eckstein on the planned loss of an inning or two of PT per night under Gibby's new shortstop rota, but one must take all things he writes with a grain of salt/disbelief.

It's Marcum-Garza tonight in game 2 as the Jays seek to win the series and leave town squared away at .500.

ELSEWHERE:

* If New Yorkers are incapable of accepting the fact that Joba Chamberlain will occasionally surrender a run or two, they're certainly not going to like what they see of him as a starter. Why, he might surrender as many as 3 runs over the course of a 7 inning start! How can this be? How can this be???

* Another reason to dislike A-Rod. Daddy, how did you meet mom? Well, darling:

“I scouted her out for a month,” he said. “I wanted to see her routine, and I wanted to see what time she came in, see how consistent she was. And sure enough, she was like a machine. She would come in right after work, and get on the treadmill and do her abs. And finally, I build enough courage after about 3 1/2 weeks. And I said, ‘I know you are going to go do some abs after. And do you mind if I join you?”

How romantic!

* Straight from the Aruban Penal League to the Texas Rangers, the ghost of Sidney Ponson throws his second straight quality start in a 10-1 laugher over the Mariners. Every time Ponson's name comes up Jay K. mentions something about picturing him drunk on a jetski punching out judges. Now THAT is a ballplayer, folks.

-- Johnny Was

The Roundup

On a personal note, today the Missus and I celebrate two years of marriage, an institution which at times can instill as much fear as Jonathan Papelbon's splitter when you're behind 0-2, be rockier than a start from Josh Towers v.2006, and take you to euphoric Joe Carter World Series winning home run highs. I'm not trying to make any particular point, it's just an observation.

(For some inexplicable reason Dave Stewart's death stare popped to mind...)

On a final non-Jays-related note, I'd like to note my satisfaction that the NHL season is now over as temperatures finally hit double digits. That is all.

The big news today is that Rich Harden is being scratched due to some minor lat soreness. This is a pleasant turn of events for a couple of reasons. The first being that he pummelled the Bosox twice in his first two starts of the season--which is hardly a surprise seeing as he has bona fide ace stuff when healthy--and missing him this series certainly won't hurt our cause. The second is somewhat more esoteric. I like the idea of Harden (who has a $7.5 million club option for next year before hitting free agency) being solid this year, but missing a half dozen starts due to niggling injuries that'd scare off potential trade suitors.

That's right, I'd like to see him pitching here in 2009 or 2010, and it's really got little to do with the fact that he's Canadian. Well, sort of.

Even though good young Canadian talent is often overlooked by the Jays in the draft, I'd like to think that we will take a page from the Book of Schuerholz and start targeting Canadian free agent talent. It's nothing to do with nationalism (but if that puts butts in seats then so much the better) and everything to do with economics.

The Braves have long had a policy of targetting Georgia boys (and those from neighbouring regions in the Braves market) and successfully locking them up on hometown discounts. I'm all for being more like the Braves; are you saying that you're not? Who are the Georgia boys currently on the Braves 40-man?

* Brian McCann (Athens, GA)
* Chipper Jones (DeLand, FLA)
* Jeff Francoeur (Atlanta, GA)
* Tim Hudson (Columbus, GA)
* Mike Hampton (Brooksville, FLA)
* Chuck James (Atlanta, GA)
* Mark Teixeira (born in Severna Park, MD, but played his college ball at Georgia Tech)

That's a pretty sizeable chunk of talented local players for one roster. (Yes, I am aware that Mike Hampton is a giant albatross hanging around the club's neck.)

In conclusion, not targetting talented local kids who grew up cheering for your team and might be willing to parlay that into a hometown discount is just silly. Hence my interest in Rich Harden.

Back to more immediate concerns, it's looking like we'll see the following three pitching matchups:

Tonight: Burnett-Chad Gaudin (ex-Jay given to Billy Beane as an early X-mas gift in 2005)
Weds: McGowan-Greg Smith ( a very hittable AAA lefty replacing the injured Justin Duchscherer) OR Lenny DiNardo (shitty bullpen lefty)
Thurs: Marcum-Dana Eveland

Of the three A's starters, the young Eveland is the only one with a pulse. Expect the Jays to take two of three handily.

One little matter that hasn't been commented on elsewhere to my knowledge was the deliciously correct decision to slot Aaron Hill into the 2 hole in Sunday's game. Has he found his proper home, or was this a one day experiment with Eckstein taking a breather? Move Stew down in the order, Gibby. Come on.

For those of you who can tolerate his Hank Hill accent and constant overuse of "I tell you what", John Gibbons was on the Fan this morning.

Now, several clever fucks predicted that the upstart Rays would finish third in the AL East and ahead of the Jays this year, chuckling to themselves at how tart a thought that is. Let me tell you why that won't happen.

Eric Hinske has already racked up 13 ABs and has started in RF in four of the Rays six games to date. Acceptable bench player he may be, but you don't win with Hinske as a regular; I promise you that. The Rays have also chucked a bunch of ABs at black holes like Shawn Riggans (C), Willy Aybar (3B), and Jason Bartlett (SS; ok, his D more than makes up for his pitcher's bat).

If the Rays finish .500, it'll be a tremendous accomplishment. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, you witty little tossers.

-- Johnny Was