Pronounced EE-muss, I figured that's close enough to "enormous" prospect. I did pull a side muscle reaching for that one, thanks for asking.
Wednesday afternoon, the Jays had to rally to tie the Phillies 7-7 in Clearwater, Florida. How clear is the water there, anyway? Anyways, Brad Emaus (#69 in your program, #1 in your hearts) is having a fine spring so far with a .333 batting average after a 2-for-3 performance that included a two-run homer yesterday afternoon. The 22 year-old, soon to turn 23 on March 28th, could be in Toronto sooner than later if he keeps this sort of thing up and hopefully he will find more interesting things to do than plucking eyebrows. An 11th round pick out of Tulane in 2007, Emaus had a nice winter ball showing in Hawaii where he slugged .556 after a solid year in Dunedin last season with a .463 SLG.
At the dish, Jason Lane contined his hot spring by hitting his 5th homer and is batting .350., Cody Haerther had a 2-for-2 day at the dish with 2 RBI and Howie Clark was 1-for-1. On the mound, it wasn't quite a banner day for Jesse Litsch, who gave up 4 runs (two unearned) in 4 2/3 innings while Scott Richmond, no doubt hurt by the lack of activity from the World Baseball Classic, gave up 3 runs in 3 1/3 innings but did strike out four. The good news was Jeremy Accardo pitched a clean inning and picked up a K to lower his ERA under 10.
Tonight, the Jays send Casey "The Fugitive" Janssen (cue awesome theme music here) to the hill against the Yankees where he'll face some guy named Burnett. Gee, I hope he can stay healthy for this one. First pitch from Tampa is set for 7:15 p.m. EDT and can be seen on MLB.TV.
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In the World Baseball Classic Wednesday night, Japan beat Cuba 5-0 to advance to the semi-finals. They join the U.S., Venezuela, and Korea in the final four that will be held at Dodger Stadium beginning Saturday. Japan will play Korea to determine seeding in the Pool 1 final this evening at 9:00 p.m. EDT at Petco Park in San Diego. The loser of tonight's game will play Venezuela on Saturday and the winner will face the U.S. on Sunday.
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In other baseball news, the Edmonton Cracker-Cats of the Golden Baseball League have been renamed the Edmonton Capitals (as Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta, get it?). Just recently, the Ottawa Rapids/z of the Can-Am League changed their name to the Ottawa Voyageurs. It's a chance to turn the page for both franchises which suffered from crappy ownership, especially in Edmonton. The good news for Edmonton ball fans is the team is now owned by Oilers owner and local resident Daryl Katz. Hopefully, it's onward and upward for both teams as they try to keep baseball on the map in the Great White North.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20090319100323788