Grrr. There should be a "(Kidding)" up there after the last sentence. I'm not going to post each time I write a new piece of A's gibberish, and I certainly won't inform anyone by e-mail.

Before I lost control of this site (not that I'm complaining; this is infinitely more fun than blogging by myself to an audience in the single digits) it was supposed to be about baseball, not really Toronto-specific. I had a forum for those rants already. So speaking only as 1/9 of the authors and the BB tech support dude, I welcome viewpoints from outside the GTA, and items about other teams. Not instead of our Jays obsession, but in addition to it.

Though my heart is with the resurgent home team, I'm also a fan of the A's and Twins, and like the Angels more now because I happened to "pick the right horse" at the beginning of last year's playoffs. I've loved the Cardinals since Musial was still playing, so they're my NL team. But I enjoy reading anything about the Pastime, so even if someone posts an analysis of Gord Ash's influence on the Brewers, it's fine with me. And Gitz, I'd rather predict statistics for pitchers than try to figure out "Finnegan's Wake."

Rotisserie baseball is risk-reward guesswork, and BB readers should be reminded that when Gitz, Mick and I expound on "our" teams for ESPN, the readers want helpful fantasy info, not an assessment of the club's philosophy, internal front-office struggles or possible 2003 amateur draft picks. There's room for that here, though. It's all good.

Johnny, thanks for the "props." I aspire to be the left-handed Little Ricky Helling.

Any A's inclusion in Blue Jays speak is fine by me, these two organizations are kissing cousins, anyway.

Interesting take on the Lilly hype, and perhaps a much needed dousing of cold water. This article and Mick's earlier comparison of Lilly vs. Weaver leads me to believe that perhaps I jumped the gun.

I don't know about John Thomson, though. It's not like he moved to Pac Bell or Safeco.

Ted,

Thanks for reading. Now pick up the pace on the mound!

Gitz, thanks for the update on all these future Jays!