ooh ooh I'm a wild one.

Dihydrogen Monoxide

I prefer to call it Hydroxyl Acid.

With regards to the HD announcement, I sat beside one of the VPs of engineering for Rogers on the train in February. He told me that they were about to announce that they would be broadcasting every home game in HD this season. They've got another HD truck being built and another on order so that they can broadcast road games in the near future.

Great guy - had plenty to say about the future of the Jays. I asked hime whether or not he had the seniority to fire Rob Faulds. He said no.

Alright, since we're so high on Rogers today. I live in downtown Toronto and Sportsnet is on channel 22 for me. Does anyone else get poor reception on that channel? I'm on cable not satellite. It's clear and then you get a bit of snowy haze and then clear again. It's very minor but I'm thinking its going to show up nicely on the green field. I have a new TV and the other channels are fine, channel 21 which is infomercials is also dodgy but who cares. I think I'm stuck with it but has anyone persued this with Rogers?

Hey
Is it just me, or will the Syracuse team have a great line up this year.

1. Adams
2. Hall
3. Gross
4. Rios
5. Hermanson
6. Quiroz
7. Ford-Griffin
8. Sequea
9. Clark

That is great OBP guys in sport 1, 2,3,8,9, and some guys in the middle that can drive them home. They should break the mold of bad Syracuse seasons.

Sequea plays 2B?

Yes, Clark 3B, Ford - G 1B, Hermanson DH

Eddie, Sequea played a lot of 2b last year.

Actually, if the Sky Chiefs were trying to maximize their offence, they'd flip-flop Clark and Adams, but for the Jays' purposes, it's better if Adams leads off. He's old enough (24 in August) to be given the opportunity to sink or swim.

Off topic... but who's worse, Richard Griffin or Dave Feschuk?
And why is the Star's sports coverage so bad?

Men Without Hats?

Syracuse and Manchester rosters have been released. Some surprises:

* Russ Adams will start at AAA. Aaron Hill at AA
* Dominic Rich gets bumped back to AA
* Bruce Chen is one of Syracuse's starters, along with Justin Miller
* Jason Durocher will stay in Florida to get more work in there
* John Ford-Griffin starts the season on the DL
* Big Hitting Paul Chiaffredo starts in AA
* Brandon League is in the bullpen at AA (this one needs an explanation from the Jays)
* Vince Perkins and Chad Pleiness did not make AA, I assume they will start at Dunedin
* Justin Maureau did not make the Manchester bullpen either

I will update the depth chart when I get the Dunedin and Charleston rosters

They're both bad. I don't understand why the writers for the Star- Feschuk, Griffin and Cox are so negative. It must suck for the glass to always be half empty...

Wanting to eventually use League as a reliever might be understandable. But putting him in the pen instead of giving him regular innings in the rotation is not understandable. You can still give him the volume of innings he needs to develop and then make the switch to relief later. The AA rotation is hardly deep either so I don't much understand the move.

Brandon League pitching out of the bullpen was referred to as "dumb" in yesterday's roundup and I agree. We have a power arm who is 21 years old and they have moved him to the bullpen? Starters at AA include 27 year olds Lee and Ozias along with Reimers. As a fan I don't see the benefit of this, and would love to hear the Jays take on it.

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
alsiem, before we got StarChoice I remember having troubles with a couple of channels via regular Rogers cable. The response I got when I called was that I was too picky about how things looked! Yeah, I am. So I got StarChoice instead.

This weekend I'm sleeping. It's been a rough week.

That reminds me - the SkyChiefs are in Ottawa the week after next to play the Lynx. I'm gonna hit atleast one game - is anyone else interested in going?

April 12 - 4:05
April 13 - 1:05
April 14 - 1:05

Mail me if you're interested.

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
They're both bad. I don't understand why the writers for the Star- Feschuk, Griffin and Cox are so negative. It must suck for the glass to always be half empty...

Is it just me, or is the FAN a lot less negative this year so far? I don't mean the regular Jays guys, but the morning and afternoon crews.

The Star lost me last year. There's no way I'd go back to reading them. Strong opinions are fine, even strong negative opinions, but strong negative opinions based on conjecture and deliberate misinterpretation? Come on.

The Star's sports section is working hard at alienating informed readers.

I was surprised that my Dad stopped reading the Star, for pretty much the same reason, despite being from a totally different demographic (he's not into stats in any way, shape or form -- he's what I would consider a traditional 'regular' baseball fan). He said he couldn't take how the Star's sports coverage was all about the writers, not about the teams or the games.

I thought that was a pretty astute observation on his part.

I think the FAN is owned by Rogers Communications? So that might have dictated the change in tone.

I think the FAN is owned by Rogers Communications? So that might have dictated the change in tone.


Wilner is a pretty enlightened guy, and has been a vocal supporter of the Jays since the start of the Ricciardi years. This has probably rubbed off on the rest of the on-air guys at the FAN...

The Dodgers acquired Cody Ross from the Tigers for a reliever. Ross is 23, slugged over .500 in triple A Toledo (a neutral environment) last year. His arm in rightfield is reportedly strong and he stole 15 bases, with an acceptable success rate. The beefs on him are: his w/k ratio (last year 32/86) is poor, and he's only 5'11', 180 lbs. I'll buy the first, but not the second. If he can develop a little better plate discipline, he'll be a fine major league outfielder. For the life of me, I can't understand why the Tigers, of all teams, wouldn't want to give him some kind of a shot. How much are they paying Higginson again?

http://www.dhmo.org
Most of the FAN guys are not particularly baseball fans, as far as I can tell. This makes it easy for them to be weathervanes. But even during the height of the fire sale talk in late '01, they were never *that* negative.

COMN for more on the dihydrogen monoxide threat.

Not much publicity on this yet, but the Dome will be open to the public on Sunday afternoon for the Tigers and Jays batting practices. Detroit has the field from 1:00 to 3:00, and the home team thereafter. Last year, with the Yankees in town and Matsui-mania, it drew about 1,500 fans and about 200 Japanese reporters. This one won't be as crowded, so it's a terrific autograph day, if anyone knows an eager young collector.

If you go to the practice, set your VCR to tape "The Off Season," a one-hour documentary on what Roy Halladay, Orlando Hudson, Vernon Wells, Pat Hentgen, Kevin Cash and Chris Woodward were up to this winter. That's also at 3:00 Sunday, on Sportsnet, which plans a repeat broadcast right after Monday's game.

Hi everyone, never posted here before but have been checking it out for months now. Some of the (if not the) best analysis of the team out there.

Anyway, I'm in Ottawa and would definitely be up for any future cheer club events. Someone mentioned checking out the Skychiefs when they were in town, and I would definitely be up for that as well. That would be a great opportunity to see the prospects up close.

P.S. Sorry but I have no idea who anyone is, so it may take me a while.

Ryan

Sorry, we already have enough Ryans.

Okay, not really. But what is up with that?

I wouldn't lump Griffin in with Cox and Feschuk. The latter two make compelling arguments and legitimately challenge popular opinion.

Frankly, I love the way that Cox attacks the old-school hockey establishment and its antiquated viewpoint on how to deal with violence in the game.

Similarly, I think Feschuk has been bang on with respect to his assessment of the Raptors front-office (i.e. a complete lack of vision despite a really nice guy at the helm, until yesterday).

I agree they tend to be negative, but at least they're informed and can construct a decent argument. In contrast, the entire basketball-writing staff of The Sun exhibits a shocking lack of understanding of the game they cover and rarely do they come up with an original idea.

Geoff Baker looks like he could offer the same sort of intelligent but edgy material that Cox/Feschuk do, but they need to keep him away from Griffin and unruly editors.

Unfortunately, I really have nothing good to say about Griffin, so as my mother used to say...

Welcome to the site, Ryan. With the number of people named Ryan here (I think we're up to four or five now), we're getting closer to the ultimate goal of total domination of the Batter's Box.

For those of you who are not yet named Ryan, you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

I don't have a problem with Cox, but Feschuk is terrible.
He longs for the days of Isiah Thomas! He thinks that Thomas was better for the franchise than Grunwald. He thinks Thomas is a competent GM and coach!
Feschuk obviously has an axe to grind. I don't mind some of it, as I agree that it was time for Grunwald to go. However, if he goes, Peddie and O'Neil have to go too. The worst part is that the best thing for the Raptors is if the Leafs lose in the first round of the playoffs, as it increases the chance that Peddie won't be back.

I don't think that Feschuk is any different that Griffin. The only major difference is that right now the Raptors aren't very good, so it looks like Feschuk knows what he's talking about, as opposed to Griffin, who preaches against success.

Entirely too many Ryans around here. Probably too many Mikes, too. We need a Randolph, or a Walt. Maybe a Pierre.

Is there a Ryan O yet. If not, can I be him?

http://economics.about.com
The worst part is that the best thing for the Raptors is if the Leafs lose in the first round of the playoffs

How's that the worst part? There doesn't seem like a whole lot of downside there. Nothing funnier than a team that tries to buy a championship getting bounced out in the first round. :)

Cheers,

Mike

Feschuk is terrible... He longs for the days of Isiah Thomas...

Well, to be fair to Feschuck, Thomas is the only other GM the Raptors have had. So it's not so much that he's grinding an axe, he just has no other points of reference. He doesn't seem to know much about basketball, or really even like basketball (other than just being a general "sports fan", it seems to me) and with the legendary and irritating provincialism of Toronto writers, he doesn't pay much attention to what is going on elsewhere.

So if Grunwald is bad, Thomas must by definition be good, because he's the only other GM in Feschuck's universe.

I tired of this quickly, many years ago.

I find the local media were incapable of nuance in their analysis of Grunwald... either he was the greatest thing since sliced whiskey, or he was an incompetent boob who was almost as bad as a Leafs GM. There was no middle ground - no recognition that he had some solid strengths (making trades to help the team, and drafting amateur talent), some indifferent areas (relationships with the staff and players), and some terrible weaknesses (valuation of players in contract negotiations, and particularly in signing and evaluating free agent talent).

I really think there was a chance, if this had been (say) Detroit or Los Angeles where there's a very solid and sensible basketball press who know the pro game well, for the Raptors' management to evaluate Grunwald and get him help where he needed it, in terms of understanding the dollar figures. It never hurt GG in trade negotiations, because there the cap constrains what you do very heavily and the $ are less important than the talent.

But the press never picked up on what was going on, and without a steady drumbeat on the topic, the MLSE top brass (who understand the sporting side of basketball about as much as they do particle physics) weren't able to see the problems that were right there in front of them. Grunwald never got the help he needed. I mean, they eventually brought in Jack McCloskey, who's about 80,000,000 years old and knows as much about the contracts side of the modern game as Francois Mitterand. McCloskey is a trades guy, an ass-kicker and a handshaker - that wasn't going to help GG.

mmm ... sliced whiskey

There doesn't seem like a whole lot of downside there. Nothing funnier than a team that tries to buy a championship getting bounced out in the first round.

cheers to that. i can't wait to see the looks on all the leafs fan's faces when the lose..again.

Anyone doing anything interesting this weekend?

i'm in a band and we're playing in beautiful cambridge ontario on saturday. we have a song called "do the pat tabler". if we ever record a version of it i'll put it on our website and let you guys know.

Out of curiosity, where can we see the lineups and rotations of the minor league teams? For instance the Fishercats site has the team roster with League and McGowan listed but not how they will be used.

Great guy - had plenty to say about the future of the Jays. I asked hime whether or not he had the seniority to fire Rob Faulds. He said no.

Can we petition the guy that does have the requisite seniority?

Not much publicity on this yet, but the Dome will be open to the public on Sunday afternoon for the Tigers and Jays batting practices.

Coach, I took my sons to this event last year and we got great autographs on baseballs - Halladay on one and Delgado on another that Carlos tossed to my then 7 year old.

When I didn't see any reference to it on the Jays web site, I e-mailed Nicola Prabhu (a contact in the box office at the Dome) who e-mailed back that the event was cancelled this year.

I'm not sure which is true, but i'd hate for Bauxites to trek down to the Dome on Sunday and find it locked up!

The roster on the Manchester site is updated but the Syracuse one seems incorrect, as Frederick and Rich are on it - where was the Syracuse roster released - is there a link?

Is there a Ryan O yet. If not, can I be him?

There's a Ryan01 already but he can barely string together an intelligible sentence never mind provide insightful baseball commentary. :) You don't wanna get mixed up with him, but Ryan O. sounds good, welcome aboard.

Chiaffredo in AA?! Who's the backup Catcher, are they holding a spot for Willy maybe or will Umbria or Yepez fill in for now?

i think that maybe brandon league is relieving until dustin moves up. maybe jp wants league to want mcgowan for a couple of weeks to show him how to pitch.

Chiaffredo in AA?!

Presumably to get him play as a starter. Chiaffredo was awfully impressive - surprisingly so - in camp and while the team will want to keep Q with his mates/peers at Syracuse, Chiaffredo deserves full-time play to see what he can do with it. Last year may not have been a sample-size fluke!

If he's really improved with the bat, I think Chiaffredo is the best current candidate to be the first guy called up in case of a catcher injury. (And will be until the team sign Tom Wilson or someone - I hope they can get Wilson for Syracuse, he'd be a great leader for the young guys, a tutor for Q, and a good bat off the bench if someone goes down in Toronto).

By the way, Jayson Durocher and John-Ford Griffin will stay in extended spring training to rehab their injuries.

Will I forget anything else? Dick Scott also told the Star that Griffin may in fact go to NH instead of Syracuse.

Yes I will! The Syracuse Post-Standard has a rundown of the SkyChiefs roster.

One more! From the article:

Starting pitchers (5): Jason Arnold,* Chris Baker,* David Bush, Bruce Chen, Justin Miller.*

Relief pitchers (8): Scott Cassidy,* Vinnie Chulk,* Jason Frasor, Talley Haines, Mark Lukasiewicz,* Josue Matos, Dave Maurer, Mike Smith.*

Catchers (2): Guillermo Quiroz,* Jose Umbria.

Infielders (5): Russ Adams, Howie Clark,* Shawn Fagan,* Jorge Sequea,* Glenn Williams.*

Outfielders (4): Gabe Gross,* Jeff Guiel, Noah Hall, Alexis Rios.

It's possible that League will work 4-5 innings in relief as part of a tandem. Either that or they want to protect his arm a bit to start the year.

Let's not jump on this move until we hear the rationale.

Incidentally, anyone know anyone around Trenton, New Jersey?

The Trenton Thunder have a TV game against New Hampshire on June 20th on CN8 in Trenton and I'd pay for someone to tape the game for me.

Chiaffredo in AA?! Who's the backup Catcher, are they holding a spot for Willy maybe or will Umbria or Yepez fill in for now?

What with these guys and Quiroz, the Jays' list of minor league catchers looks like quite the Scrabble festival.

Robert, if they are protecting League's arm then he should be in Dunedin with Rosario until it warms up. Young pitchers need innings without the mind games of relief. Knowing that he would pitch every 5 days, even on a restricted pitch count, would be better than sitting around waiting for his shot. If the roster was loaded with pitching prospects than an arguement could be made for bumping him to relief but its not.

Cool! There are actually *four* New Hampshire games on Comcast this year, and CN8 appears to be some sort of regional channel. I've advertised on Primer for someone to tape games for me, hopefully I'll get a response. I'll be happy to pass tapes around to interested parties to get a look at the AA talent when I get them.

Hey, Moffatt:

You're just bitter because this guy beat up Shean Donovan in a certain game last January.

What with these guys and Quiroz, the Jays' list of minor league catchers looks like quite the Scrabble festival.

Don't forget about Robinzon Diaz, Erik Kratz and Jeremy Knicely

Dean's point about protecting League's arm is a good one. Dunedin is the place for hurtin' arms right now, and regular work as a starter (with the regular side work that comes with it) is generally better.

I really think this move is to familiarize League with coming out of the pen, that the team sees his future as a reliever.

Minor league watchers: Does the promotion of Hill to double A mean that Juan Peralta will start the year in Dunedin? Peralta is a very interesting player, and did well enough in Auburn that he might be given the opportunity to skip Charleston. By all accounts, he has terrific range. With the pitching talent that Dunedin promises to have, Rosario, Vermilyea, Banks, Isenberg, Pleiness and Perkins, this should be one fine, fine club.

By the way, our very own Gitz has a very fine A's Preview as a special guest over at The Hardball Times.

Thanks, Gitz, and good on ya.

http://economics.about.com
You're just bitter because this guy beat up Shean Donovan in a certain game last January.

Nobody likes to see their teams up and coming stars get "beat up". If the Leafs had any, you'd understand this.

Former Flames like Clarke Wilm should have more respect for their former organization.

Besides, you're the one who should be bitter. Your team has scrubs like Clarke Wilm in the active roster. :)

Cheers,

Mike

Just getting your goat, Mike. Here's to a Wilm-free playoffs, and I'm happy that the Flames are there.

I think Peralta will be @ Charleston and Raul Tablado will be the shortstop at Dunedin. I saw Peralta play at Medicine Hat and his defence is solid and I think his bat will come as he fills out and keeps buying into the organization's hitting philosophy. The pitching on the two A clubs should be good but I wonder who is going to drive in any runs for them. Vito is dinged so some of those latter round draft picks are going to have to step up and Snavely needs to rebound.

Suffice it to say that Justin Miller didn't take his "demotion" too lightly... From Rutsey's Roundup:
As for his plans last night? "I'm going to drink until I puke," he said.

Mike Ulmer, returning to baseball/social commentary, expresses his views on the Jays' plans for June 25th. Surprsingly, Ulmer also felt the need to declare his heightened gaaydar capabilities that will protect him for the day.

An update on today's game against Cinci:
- Jimenez led off the game with a HR (what else?) off Towers
- Pond returned the favour in the 1st off Paul Wilson, with a shot of his own, over the fence in center. The game is 1-1 in the bottom of the 3rd.
- Hudson isn't in the lineup again today, and Wilner's reporting that Hudson might miss opening day, recovering from the mild strain in his left oblique muscle.

Mike, it's possible Peralta will make the jump but I think it's more likely that Tablado (backed by Mayorson/Hassey) play SS at Dunedin this year. Peralta's still very young and will really need to make some improvements with the bat. I don't see much point in rushing him at this point.

http://economics.about.com
Just getting your goat, Mike. Here's to a Wilm-free playoffs, and I'm happy that the Flames are there.

I know.. it's all in good fun. And thanks.

The guy I share an office with is a Habs fan, so the hockey trash-talking is pretty much 9 to 5 for me. :)

Cheers,

Mike

don't know where else to ask:

anyone played this year's round of console bb games? ASB 2005, MLB 2005, MVP 2004? not sure which one to grab; haven't played a bb game on any of the newer systems. i can't freaking wait for opening day...

Gomez doubled in Myers tie the game... 2-2 in the 5th. Guiel has taken over from Delgado at first.

(By the way, are there any other competetive Scrabble players here?)

are there any other competetive Scrabble players here

I play for fun, but I'm pretty lousy at it. I'm usually satisfied if I break 300.

(By the way, are there any other competetive Scrabble players here?)

Yeah, but I spell it 'competitive'

!

ouch!

http://economics.about.com
(By the way, are there any other competetive Scrabble players here?)

I play Scrabble from time to time against my girlfriend, and she absolutely slaughters me at it.

I'm more of a dodgeball kind of guy.

Cheers,

Mike

Hey guys,

I just thought I would introduce myself. I've been reading for close to a year now and have posted a handful of times....

I'm 23 and just finishing up my Honours BA at U of T. My major is English Literature so expect to see me working at an Indigo or Second Cup sometime soon.

Anyways, I was thrilled to find this place and am consistently amazed at the quality of the posts here.

Thanks.

Braden.

On the Team990 in Montreal they have Baseball Prospectus radio between 10 and 11am. This Saturday Michael Lewis (Moneyball) will be giving an interview. Click on the link provided and go to the Listen icon along the left side.

...And it turns out the Orlando Cabrera story yesterday was an April Fools joke. I think the moral of the story is we'll buy anything negative about Carl Everett -- And for good reason! Even better though is Cabrera's sense of humour and how much fun he obviously has playing ball.

The link above is a broken link, if you use this link, it will work.

The game ended in a 4-4 tie. How fitting!
-----
The Jays are 16th in ESPN's latest rankings . What a joke!

Courtesy of John Manuel at BA, here's the rationale for the Tigers trading Cody Ross:

The Tigers made the Cody Ross for Steve Colyer deal for a simple reason today--they want to avoid a repeat of 2003 in Detroit. "We like Ross," said Steve Boros, a special assistant to GM Dave Dombrowski, "but we need to win some in Detroit, and to do that, we needed another lefthander in the bullpen"

This second lefty in the pen thing has gotten way out of hand. Every generation has its silliness- the 60s had fast leadoff hitters who wouldn't take a walk (not to mention bell-bottoms), and the 00s have this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2004/news/story?id=1692140
ESPN's Phil Rogers offered the newest Power Poll today. (COMN) Your Toronto Blue Jays rank SIXTEENTH.

Fire away.

I think Rogers is talking into account chance to win, bearing in mind the divisional competition, as opposed to simply which ballclub is better than which.

Anyways, Phil really, really likes the Marlins. Chacun a son gout.

The whole ranking system is on crack. Padres one above the Tigers? Reds above Expos? Twins AND ChiSox above the Jays? Mariners above Phillies? Forget that, A's above Philly?? It's seriously flawed.

Welcome, Braden! Very glad to have you here!

I'm not just a competitive Scrabble player, it's an unhealthy competitive.

Ten teams won more games than the Jays last year, and Toronto improved its roster in all areas, and now there are 15 better teams? ESPN is coasting; shallow coverage by shallow analysts for shallow fans.

I'm hoping to make it to at least one of the Syracuse-Ottawa games in April, depending on if and when I can get off work. I'll post a thread about it a couple of days in advance of the games; getting tickets to the Lynx in April is about as difficult as catching CSI promos on Spike TV.

Your Toronto Blue Jays rank SIXTEENTH

I thought they were as high as 8th not so long ago.

As much as I love to listen to Rob Dibble on the Dan Patrick show, he too is an idiot when it comes to baseball. Yesterday, he gave a quick rundown of the AL East and said that Baltimore will likely surpass the Jays because of better pitching. The Jays "have NOOOO pitching".

I'm not sure which is true, but i'd hate for Bauxites to trek down to the Dome on Sunday and find it locked up!

Me too, GregH, and thanks for calling me on that. There will be Sunday afternoon practice, but I was wrong -- it is NOT open to the public. I'm extremely sorry for the misinformation. Everybody stay home and watch the documentary.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1080911713242&call_pageid=969907729756&col=970081563083
The Star mentions in its Highschool Notebook that convenors, as per usual, aren't able to book diamonds until mid-May (meaning a schedule that gets pushed to the brink of exams). As an alternative they're looking at a Fall baseball season but worry that Football players might be excluded from participating. Speaking as a grad from a school with no football programme but a competitive volleyball programme (which also takes place in the Spring and competes with the baseball team for participation) the change in season would be welcomed but I worry about cold weather increasing the risk for injury if it goes too deep in the Fall.

COMN for that piece and for a former GTA high school student who's signed on with an Intercountry League team.

To clarify, it would be a Fall season in the future, this season is still going ahead as planned for the Spring

http://mothershipconnection.blogspot.com/
"anyone played this year's round of console bb games? ASB 2005, MLB 2005, MVP 2004?"

For what it's worth, take MVP 2004, if only for the reason that naming a game "... 2005" with the 2004 line-up is just annoying. I'm pretty sure MLB 2013 will be out before March next year...

MVP has the better and easier to pick-up gameplay.

i really only play sports games for their franchise or dynasty modes. do any of the new baseball games have multiplayer franchise mode? also, which has the best franchise mode? sorry if this is off topic.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/scores/20040402/cintor.html
Actually, the Reds-Jays game ended at 5-5. COMN for the boxscore. Nice to see a tidy inning from Aquilino.

(By the way, are there any other competetive Scrabble players here?)

I've been in the National Scrabble Association for seven years. Don't play as much as I used to, though.

Fall baseball would be good for UFA; we don't have a football team. What would be better is if Toronto Parks and Rec actually cooperated with the Board of Education. Instead, the kids (who should benefit from the work of both those organizations) get the short end of the deal.

superdevin, I play High Heat for PS2 and it has career modes and whatnot, though I haven't extensively played through them. I know there are budgets, etc, but I don't know the details.

The '05 in '04 thing is weird...I think the madness started years ago and they just haven't been able to stop (they could call ASB 2005 ASB 2004, but no one would buy it...)

I've heard ASB is more realistic in terms of gameplay and scoring, areas where console games are traditionally weak. I played the MLB series for a while, and the pitcher never threw a ball, never tried to steal or hit and run, and games were decided by 15 runs. I'd like to see some close games...

Anyone know how Hinske is doing in the error department this spring? We heard the usual stuff about him coming into the spring lighter and having worked on his D. It would be a big lift to the team if he retuned to his 2nd half ROY defence.

For that matter, how has Woodward looked with the glove?

Lucas and Jordan, it's too bad we live in three different cities, as it would be nice to catch a good baseball game on the tube, and then play a competitive game of scrabble (or two) after. I've been to the long-standing Scrabble Club in Toronto a couple of times, but haven't gone for some time.

Going from the boxscores I've picked up (so anecdotally), Hinkse hasn't improved. And I couldn't even venture an educated guess on Woody.

By the way, our very own Gitz has a very fine A's Preview as a special guest over at The Hardball Times.

(Cue Ralph Wiggum's voice)

I'm special.

(End Ralph Wiggum's voice)

Thanks for the plug, Craig.

While we're on the subject of both video games and Scrabble (rather rare), I'd just like to point out that you can play Scrabble online at games.com. I've only played a few times, but as nerdy as it sounds (we've had THAT conversation before), it's pretty fun. I'm sure Lucas, Jordan, and Steve Z could settle the score while listening to a Tom and Jerry broadcast.

Isnt UFA a part of Western Tech now?

Where would your teams practice?

UFA's in the same building with Western, the schools share the field with Western but each school has its own gym. High Park is also a 15 minute walk from the front steps. It's actually quite advantageous compared to the former location where we were a considerable distance from anything resembling a baseball diamond (commonly using West Toronto's pint-sized facilities or Trinity where we got the trees and joggers).

(Cue Ralph Wiggum's voice)

Oh no you don't.

Has Towers walked a single batter all spring? Pretty impressive.

I bought MVP baseball last year and this year, and I liked it both times. In terms of gameplay, its best aspects are the fact that it doesn't use cursor batting, and its pitching uses a hold, release, and click method similar to older golf games.

The franchise mode is great: you control a team, and it's AAA and AA teams (although the minor league players are fake, but editable), and each player can be happy or upset, depending on how they're playing, how the team's doing, and how much they're being paid. It's great fun, and it's a good step up from last year's. You have goals that you have to meet in all levels, and the better you do, the bigger your budget is. It's only single player, though.

It has some good unlockables: old stadiums (including the Polo Grounds), legendary players (including my favourite, Phil Neikro), and retro uniforms.

If you have the PS2 version, you can get roster updates, too.

It has one minor glitch: lefthanders, for some unknown reason, can't hit the ball as far as righthanders. You can play around with gameplay sliders to increase power, and that helps, but basically what it means is that Wells has a better chance of hitting 75 home runs than Delgado, despite Delgado having a better rating. It's annoying, but not fatal, but it's one of the oddest problems I've ever seen in a video baseball game.

With that said, I'd still recommend it. It's easy to play, the franchise mode is great, and I'm a sucker for the little things like the Astrodome, bench-clearing brawls, and the ability to edit the ratings of any player. Right now I'm editing the Jays roster to make Pond, Arnold, and a few more of the AAA'ers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neel/040402
Craig, are you paying the guys at ESPN? COMN for the second plug Burley's received by Eric Neel, this time it's for the five-question preview of the Jays at Hardball Times. Congrats.

Also of interest on that page...Neel is taking emails on potential nicknames for Carlos Delgado. In the current installment he's set up a poll to vote on the best nicknames submitted last week for Garret Anderson.

Whah - now there's an E. Zosky too?!?

For those interested, the condensed version of z's post above is

Zac rando! ph! w