Don't you hate pants?

/fave Primer post of the month

Not terribly thought provoking but...When you people go to SkyDome, what do you eat?

Personally, I find the hot dogs offensive, the popcorn and nachos stale (even though they are now sealed), the pretzels barely edible and end up settling for a piece of pizza, only to regret it as soon as it's in my hand.

Oh, and I would have booed Justin Timberlake too. When you go to see AC/DC and the Rolling Stones, you don't want to waste an ounce of your attention span on a Backstreet Boy.

Beer is food. I eat beer.

Sometimes peanuts. But I usually eat on the way to the game.

Peanuts and beer. Mmmmm. What time do bars open?

Craig, the scary thing is, I was just about to post that.

Early midseason playoff predictions...go!

Mine: AL East Yanks, Central Twins, East Mariners, Wildcard Sox
NL East Braves, Central Cards, West Giants, Wildcard Cubs
AL Champs Mariners, NL Champs Giants
WS Champs Mariners

I don't know if this idea interests anyone else, but I just wanted to record my predictions so I can gloat or pout when the appropriate time comes.

I eat before the game - I work downtown, so I grab something at a food court, and then walk over to the Dome. I don't remember the last time I actually ate anything there, other than the popcorn.

Has there ever been a time when the food at a Toronto baseball park was acceptable? The food at Exhibition Stadium was even worse - they sold hot dogs out of coolers, believe it or not, and eating their pizza condemned fans to two days of indigestion.

The frightening part is that the food was actually at its (relative) best when McDonald's was selling it, for crying out loud.

There's nothing that the Jays can do about the ballpark food, of course, as they don't own the Dome.

There's nothing that the Jays can do about the ballpark food, of course, as they don't own the Dome.

I wish on every shooting star I see that the people that own the Dome would let St. Lawrence Market vendors lease space during games instead of crappy wappy SmartServe, or whatever they're called.

Here's something I was wondering about. It's a new (at least, I've never seen it before) of trivia question. The form of the question is this:

Bos-Tor-NYY. Active. Who?

And the answer of course is Clemens. Unless there's someone else out there who played for those teams in that order.

Is this fun? Can enough players be uniquely identified this way for it to be worthwhile trivia*? Obviously it's not interesting for guys like Delgado.

Here's another.

KC-Mil-Mtl-NYM-Cal-StL-Fla. Not active. Who?

*assuming there is such a thing

* Indicates a change since Opening Day.

AL East Yankees Central Twins West A's WC Mariners
NL East Braves Central Astros West Giants (*Diamondbacks) WC Cards

AL Champs A's NL Champs Astros WS Champs Astros

That's my story, and except for the Giants (I had them coming one behind Arizona) I'm sticking to it.

Let's see...not Gus Polidor (I really didn't think he was the answer, I just wanted to bring up Gus Polidor), not Orestes Destrade, not Jerry Browne...

Bob McClure.

Gus Polidor was the 25th man on my league-winning '87 Strat team. Terrible, terrible hitter, but he played three infield positions and the alternative was the '87 Wayne Tolleson.

Bob McClure it is.

Heh... I still remember most of that team's lineup.

Tony Fernandez and Harold Reynolds in the middle infield, Robin Yount in center, Tom Brunansky in right, Dan Gladden in left. Jim Gantner played third base for me. Wally World at first.

I had a catching platoon; don't remeber who was in it but Chris Bando was my 3rd catcher. I traded for Matt Nokes at one point, might have been the next year.

Mike Boddicker and Jim Clancy were big in my rotation, and Don Carman was in there somewhere, and I had Eichhorn which rocked.

When I was a kid, I lived near Detroit and Matt Nokes was easily one of my favorite players. Why? He looked like Luke Skywalker of course.

(((Mick steps to the Mike)))

Is it just me, or is it incredibly obvious that Kevin Appier is going to end up back in Kansas City, trying to finally get to the playoffs with the team for whom he is fourth all-time in wins?

And Appier is "only" 35 ... it's not impossible to think he could hang around and get the 50-some wins he needs to become the club's all-time leader. He strikes me as a guy who cares about personal recognition like that.

The Appier release surprises me. I mean, the Angels have to pay him anyway. Couldn't they have traded him to Atlanta or something for a C-prospect and loads of cash? He's only 10 months removed from a pretty good season.

Back to the food, I despise those Trophy peanuts at the 'Dome. Saltiest peanuts I've ever eaten. I don't mind the hot dogs, though I'd rather just buy a vendor dog outside and bring it in, and the nachos are fresher at least now that they're in the sealed package. The subs, despite being Mr. Sub, are dead awful. I've never eaten the pizza.

Has anyone tried the sushi? It's a little scary to consider buying sushi at SkyDome, but it looks pretty good, and actually seems to be about the same price as in the outside world instead of being 75% more expensive like everything else.

Whoops, wrong thread.

I meant to post this here: Three hours to go, and Kelvim's still a Blue Jay. Are we happy?

Well. since it's open mic, I guess I'll use it to make my first post here. Been reading for a few weeks and I like what I see. I'm not a Jays fan, but being a baseball fan in Canada, without the extra innings package, you can't help but watch and follow the Jays.

My 2cents for the topic:

Favourite Jay as a kid: Jesse Barfield (and later Fred McGriff)
Current favourite Jay: probably vernon Wells - not too adventurous, but I don't watch (or can't bear to listen to) them quite as much since the Faulds-Cerutti era began

Anyone else notice that Boston released Chad Fox? Maybe the Jays will claim him too, because he can't possibly stay this bad.

Chad Fox has had injury issues throughout his career, its entirely possible that he's too banged up to pitch well anymore. I think the Jays should still get him because he has some upside and they would only have to pay him a pro-rated portion of the major league minimum, which they'd have to pay somebody anyway. He might be a diamond in the rough, and there's no harm in finding out.

SOMEBODY make a trade. I keep checking and there's nothing. Driving me nuts.

Well, Mick emphatically insisted he wouldn't, and was met with token resistance (a nod to Spicol), but you'd have to say at this point that our man Roy stands a good chance of winning the Cy Young. He could meet one of Mick's criteria, "Won a ridiculous (23+) number of games", but as cautioned he may not be the only one to do so. The key is his big winning streak, which got him into the (inter)national spotlight and took away the familiarity advantage of guys like Pedro, Mussina, Mulder, Zito, Hudson.

Looking first at the guys who have won more than 10 games, since we're talking about the Cy Young and not "the best pitcher".

Pitcher	IP	W	ERA	WHIP	K/BB
Roy	175	15	3.29	1.10	5.52
Ponson	148	14	3.77	1.28	2.33
Mulder	160.1	14	3.03	1.15	3.26
Moyer	138.2	14	3.50	1.24	1.96
Loaiza	143.2	13	2.19	1.06	3.48
Pettit.	138.2	13	4.41	1.33	3.70
Pineir.	144.2	12	3.17	1.20	1.88
Ortiz	127.2	12	4.44	1.45	1.53
Wells	139.2	12	3.80	1.20	6.55
Lidle	144	11	5.81	1.44	2.02
Meche	130.2	11	3.86	1.29	2.12
Lowe	134	11	4.84	1.48	1.61
Mussina	138.2	11	3.38	1.06	5.08

I'm going to throw out Pettite, Pineiro, Ortiz, Lidle, Meche, and Lowe without further explanation. If anyone wants to make a case for any of them, go right ahead. I feel the numbers above are enough to say that they don't have a realistic shot of getting attention from the voters. A closer look at the remaining 7 candidates:

Pitcher	W	L	CG	IP	ERA	WHIP	BAA	HR/9	BB/9	K/9	K/BB
Roy	15	2	2	175	3.29	1.10	0.248	1.08	1.18	6.53	5.52
Ponson	14	6	4	148	3.77	1.28	0.258	0.61	2.61	6.08	2.33
Mulder	14	7	7	160.1	3.03	1.15	0.251	0.73	1.91	6.24	3.26
Moyer	14	5	0	138.2	3.50	1.24	0.243	0.85	2.93	5.73	1.96
Loaiza	13	5	1	143.2	2.19	1.06	0.226	0.69	2.07	7.23	3.48
Wells	12	3	3	139.2	3.80	1.20	0.284	1.16	0.71	4.66	6.55
Mussina	11	6	0	138.2	3.38	1.06	0.234	0.98	1.69	8.60	5.08

I can't think of a good reason to prefer Ponson over Roy, and there's less reason to believe that he'll keep up the pace over the rest of the season.

Mulder looks to be the strongest competition, with the aura of being part of the Big 3, an improved offense behind him over the rest of the season, and a good shot at the playoffs. Roy will have to maintain his leads in BB/9, K/9, and K/BB, and will have to continue to throw a ton of innings. Perhaps more so than any other team, innings pitched are the key to Wins as a Blue Jay starter. The offense will surely back you up, and the bullpen will surely let you down.

Moyer is an un-sexy pitcher with an unimpressive K/BB, and Roy trounces him in IP, K, K/BB, and BB/9. At the risk of contradicting myself, I'll postulate that he could be hurt by vote splitting with Meche and Pineiro.

Count me among those who still expect Loaiza to come down somewhat, but if he doesn't he could be a problem; he has been better than Roy in several ways, and has gotten a lot of media attention. While the attention will help, I can also see it hurting: the voters, like the rest of us, will struggle with the notion of Loaiza being a great pitcher. Roy's IP advantage should be substantial by the end of the season.

If Wells stays healthy over the remainder of the season, he could be a contender, but with him that's a big if. Supposing he does ward off the obesity and other ailments for the rest of the season, expect vote-splitting with...

Mussina, a scary candidate. He has great rate stats, a solid career with no Cy Youngs, plays in New York, will make the playoffs. Making up 4 wins over the rest of the season will be difficult for him, and it's safe to postulate that he'll end up with 10 or more losses.

If the season ended today it would come down to Halladay or Mulder, Halladay's winning percentage or Mulder's 7 CG, Halladay's winning streak or Mulder's status as a Big 3 starter.