Once battling for First, now the Jays are in last place. Such is the lot of a Toronto sports fan.

the jays should climb back up to second or third.. if they stay healthy

Order has been restored to the universe.
:)

Don't drink the shot glass full of rum I have before Jobu!!!!!!!

Cuban shows up, and the big bats explode for 19. An omen?

We need the win this afternoon to win the series and for morale. Big Z is on the mound today against Sheets (I think - not sure about the Brew Crew), and that alone should be entertaining.

How is it that one my assistants has been to 3 games, is going again this afternoon, all work-related, and I haven't managed to go once?

Is very bad idea to steal Jobu's rum.

Is VERY BAD idea.

Fantasy players: If you have the room, pick up Max Scherzer (AZ). He makes his first start on Monday. In his debut (relief appearance) he retired all 13 batters he faced and K'd 7. Some debate that he has the secondary stuff to start but he should at least get by until the scouting catches up. Regardless, he'll strike out batters in bunches and that has value on it's own.

My Dodgers are putting together and impressive streak. Right now they're the hottest team in the league.

It finally happened.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nat...,1839323.story

Yeah, saw this earlier. it is sad, but I think that the skankee/sox thing is being a bit overplayed, as the woman had already been in a fistfight with a girl accompanying the guy who was hit. I think the Hatfield McCoy thing sells papers. As a Red Sox fan it would be easy to say "just another typical drunk Yankee fan" but that would be a ridiculous exaggeration and a disservice to the young man who died.
Oh yeah, speaking of rivalries, congrats on your fella's award.:no: :no:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...2&sportCat=mlb

This one's better ;)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...rivalry/080430

goddamn drunk yankee fans

ok now that that is out of the way ;)

The rivalry is a bit overplayed, although the fans take it more serious than the players do. Some people hear all this hype about the rivalry and just go way too far with it.

That's pretty awesome! "I'm Esteban Yan." Listing the rainout was classic.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...s=bos&psp=news

Girlfriend: Deadly Fight Not About Sox-Yankees
Scuffle Involved Two Women, Friend Say
POSTED: 8:26 am EDT May 7, 2008
UPDATED: 9:07 am EDT May 7, 2008
Girlfriend: Deadly Fight Not About Sox-Yankees
BOSTON -- The longtime girlfriend of a Red Sox fan who was hit and killed by a car outside a Nashua, N.H. bar over the weekend said the fight that preceded his death had nothing to do with the notorious Sox-Yankees rivalry, which was widely reported.
Donna Dionne, 29, told the Boston Herald that Matthew Beaudoin, 29, had been trying to defend a female friend who had been punched by Ivonne Hernandez, 43, outside Slade’s Food & Spirits early last Friday.
Hernandez was charged with second-degree murder, aggravated drunken driving and reckless conduct and was ordered held without bail after allegedly mowing down Beaudoin and others outside the bar following the scuffle.
Beaudoin died of massive head trauma later that day.
Dionne said Beaudoin had tried to break up the fight between the two women, and when Hernandez got in her Dodge Intrepid, several people outside the bar noticed the Yankees bumper sticker on it and began chanting, "Yankees suck."
Dionne told the paper the group was just mocking Hernandez but the original scuffle was not about the team rivalry.
She said she had dated Beaudoin for 12 years and the couple had talked about getting married.

As we suspected. Fucking sensational journalism.

I'm disappointed that the Figueroa was designated for assignment. I'm also disappointed that he let the Nats' dugout get to him like that. I'm even more disappointed that the Mets are crying about what the Nats did considering the shit they pulled last season.

My advice: Sack up and play ball. Let your gameplay shut them up, and quit yer bitchin'

NY teams are always the biggest crybabies.

in other news, I'd say the Longoria trade is working out nicely for the Rays.

and .. Boston is sucking it up.. :slurp:

Trade? You mean extension right? He's not exactly doing great but he has a league average OPS+ (104). Regardless, they may have called him up about a week or so too early. There is a cutoff sometime around the third or forth week of the season where you can call someone up and even if they stay the rest of the year they won't get a full year of service time. You'd think the Rays took care of that but if not, that is a big mistake on their part.

So...who was that team in the "B" hats that came to Baltimore this week?

They looked like the Red Sox, but they sure didn't play like them.

(Though I'll give Manny credit; that was a HELL of a catch he made today.)

How about them Indians lately?

Last 5: 5 and 0. Combined team era: 0.19

43~ Scoreless consecutive innings by the starters currently.

Indians best record ever is 47 scoreless innings by starters, all it takes is one more game to break Indians history.

I'm more than aware that streak will not last though.

Baseball is quite fun this year so far, so many predictions are way off. I love it!

God forsaken Indians.... if they were any fuckin good they'd be hitting and have an ERA of 0.00 in their last 5 games.

Bunch of overhyped, overpaid, underachieving AA bush leaguers..... fuck them and CC is the biggest loser of them all, can't pitch his way out of a paper bag.

(These views are not necessarily those of the writer's.... but it has been noted that since the writer originally posted his hated for the team.... it has gone 9-4, beating the Yankees 2/3 and 5 shutouts.... coincidence? don't believe in them)

yeah.. don't know why I typed trade.. maybe it's lack of sleep or something ;)

he's not a superstar or anything but he looks like he could be solid. especially on a team that is overachieving like the Rays. They'll need a steady contributor to stay on a winning track... now if Boston could only acquire Kasmir..

I don't have any criticisms for Longoria right now. He's been young for his level at every stop and usually excelled. He could be a very good player.

Speaking of young players getting locked up, the Brew Crew just signed Braun for 8 years, $45M. Moving him to LF was a good idea and he's done well there. He still needs to learn some plate discipline but this should be a good deal and they'll have control over what would have been his first 2 years of free agency.

I may be giving them too many breaks, but they have been incredibly beat up lately. The freakin plague that went through the clubhouse, then a bunch of nagging injuries (seriously, they were on their 8th choice for an outfielder last night) and playing something like 29 games in 30 days. Shoot, they were playing without their freakin manager for the whole Balt. series. I know most teams have to deal with a lot of this, but I do feel like the ship will be righted and they will get some good pitching and timely hitting, and hopefully keep half the team off the DL (for crying out loud, Buckholtz is seriously on the DL for a fingernail?!)

No matter how I look at this, I can't see how it's a bad move. Braun is for sure a journeyman player (barring injury) meaning that he'll be around for a long time. He may not reach the potential that a lot of Brewers fans see in him (but what do they know? They're generally drunk and stuffed full of cheese), but they've got one outfield position locked down for the longterm. He may not be a perenial All-Star, but he'll be good. The gravy comes if he IS a perenial All-Star.

As for my Cubbies, I'm not counting on anything right now. We need to see if there's going to be a June Swoon or not this year, but the big bats are looking good right now. I was at the game yesterday (rooftop at 1044 Waveland) and Edmonds looks like he still has something in the tank. He's not an every day player right now, but he'll platoon well.

Your Cubbies beat my DBacks pretty well last weekend. That really sucked. At least we had the Rockies to beat up on this week. After this sweep we are 8-1 against them this season.

Webb is now 9-0. Sick.

Justin Upton, the kid is unbelievable. He got buzzed near the head by a couple of pitches by Fuentes and then with a 3-0 count he . He's got crazy power, amazing speed, and

He doesn't turn 21 until the end of August and he has a .932 OPS right now. FWIW, if the DBacks don't lock him up and buy out some free agency years he will hit the FA market at 26 years and 2 months. The problem with most free agents is that they are past their prime. He'll be at the start of his peak years.

I'm looking forward to the interleague games, I wonder if Melvin will use Micah Owings as the DH when he isn't pitching.

Only 2.5 games out in mid-May.

Orioles magic, baby!

<div><object width="420" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x5fece&v3=1&related=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x5fece&v3=1&related=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5fece_orioles-magic-2008_sport">Orioles Magic 2008</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/gatecitycanes">gatecitycanes</a></i></div>

(Kevin Millar is the freakin' man.)

What, no manny high 5?

Holy crap is that high on the unintentional comedy scale. Freakin hilarious! The whole thing is gayer than French soccer, yet they somehow managed to get the guys to take it seriously enough to get together to film it. priceless.

It's actually from the team; they're playing it after wins now.

And the song is a classic song made back in 1979 (the original Orioles Magic year). It gives me chills whenever I hear it.

Wow, it's like The Superbowl Shuffle, only the suck factor is dialed way up.

Crazy that not only did one person think it was a great idea, but a whole bunch of other people said, "you know, that IS a great idea."

Well, because it WAS a great idea.

Some of you guys just don't want to have any fun in baseball, do you? :p

My friend, as long as the Baltimore Orioles are around, we will have fun in baseball. (apparently at their expense, but nevertheless...):p :p :D

Looking at batting averages, runs and home run tallies..... does anyone find it coincidental that all seem to be way way down this year?

The pitching is not that much better yet right now it seems to be dominant.

I think the steroids or lack thereof are starting to truly show.

Hitters age, numbers go down but not this many so fast.

Only problem with this way of thinking is that it presupposes that it is only the hitters who are (were) juicing. Tons of the PED users were pitchers, so you could say it should have evened out...
I wonder if it has more to do with the recent lack of expansion. After the most recent expansion, I think the pitching got a little more diluted than the hitting and now it may be recovering. Who knows. We could get to the end of the season and the numbers could be the same anyway.

MLB batting splits:

2008:
2007:
We aren't through May yet, but the numbers aren't that far behind last year.

There was discussion last year about the power numbers and whether it was steroids (the lack thereof) or the weather. The numbers then went up through the summer.

I would bet that the same thing happens this year. The cold usually has an effect early in the year.

Yup, and these seasons seem to start earlier every year. WHen games are getting snowed out, that should be a pretty clear sign. (BTW, did I hear correctly that MN's new stadium is open air?)

The college football one and the baseball one are jumbled up in my head (I worked on GL-only wraps for both - didn't get either), but I know one of them is. I just don't know which.

Ok, I stopped being lazy and looked it up myself.
http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/b...park_model.jsp
Yup, it's open, no retractable roof or anything. Would someone like to explain this one to me. The Red Sox schedule frequently features a beginning of the season road trip for the first week or so, because the Boston weather in the early part of the season sucks, I can only imagine what it is like in MN at that time of year. Didn't the last of the snow just melt?

Ryan Braun is a BEAST

155 career games, 45 homeruns, 128 rbi, .313 average. RIDICULOUS.

Good for Lester. It's nice when the average guys do great things.