I'm moving this week also. If you have any extra boxes, I'm only about 955 miles down the road and I could probably use a hand with this mattress.

Here's to hoping Doug Davis has some of that Rangers Sweeping Compound left in his sports bag.

I just moved, and it was hell. Last minute hassles about the lease that had to be settled about the lease, and then a 2-hour trek to Coney Island to get the keys at 7 PM when we had to be out of our old place by dawn. Next time I get movers.

Speaking of those about to move, the Montreal Expos have the 3rd best record in all of baseball.

Amazing.

Do we have any Montréal natives in the Box?

I hear you guys. I'm moving in July, and I'm in finding-a-place-is-hell mode...

Went to the ballgame yesterday, and scalpers were offering me "cheap tickets near the Blue Jays' wives," as there was almost no walk-up crowd. The weather was brutal; John Sterling began his broadcast with "And it's another horrible, miserable day here in New York!" In any event, we kept our upper-tier tickets, since there were nine of us: two Jays fans, two Yankees fans and five neutrals who were pretty favourably disposed to a Yankee defeat. We moved back in our section to sit under the upper-deck roof, and had several rows to ourselves.

Some quick observations: We were wondering if Boomer quit or was ordered to buy time for Contreras. Boomer himself seemed to admit the former after the ballgame.

Cat is seeing the ball really well right now. On every swing he took, he just ripped a line drive (fair or foul).

Juan Rivera, inexplicably, has gotten rather...husky. I had the following exchange with Cliff, one of the Yankee fans in my group:

Cliff: He's got "Shane Spencer Syndrome."
Me: Oh, so he's genetically predisposed to put on some pounds?
Cliff: No. He's gained weight without any corresponding gains in power or potential.

Heh, heh.

Finally, and I don't know if this was picked up on TV or radio, but there was some highly entertaining interplay between Vernon Wells and the Bleacher Creatures. I don't know if he was refusing to flip them balls between innings, or if it was simply a matter of him being the opposing centrefielder and having a little fun with it, but they were all over Vernon all game. In the sixth inning, the fans closest to the hitting-background black sections waved their hands throughout the at-bat as if to distract a free-throw shooter, chanting "Vernon Sucks!" After Wells ripped a double to left-centre, he pointed out to the bleachers and they booed. Then he doffed his batting helmet in mock tribute, to a mix of louder boos and laughter.

The Creatures got some revenge when Wells missed his diving attempt at Soriano's triple; they really let him have it. (By the way, where was Shannon's backup on that play?) To their credit, though, they were much more respectful (from what I could tell) when Vernon was shaken up on his crash into the wall in right-centre, and he drew applause when he got back on his feet. From my seats overlooking first base I had a good angle on that play, and it would have been a *spectacular* catch if he had hung on.

Great game, a lively debate on "Moneyball," and a Jays team on the verge of a four-game sweep. What more could anybody want?

Oh, yeah -- the sun for a change! It's trying, but not quite succeeding as of yet. Hazy and mild conditions for Mr. Davis this afternoon.

"Anybody who wants to beat us right now, they better bring their 'A' game" -- Carlos Tosca, responding to Jerry Howarth's question about Jeff Weaver. He's still not sure whether Vernon Wells will be in the lineup, but Shannon Stewart is getting his first day off this season. Reed Johnson plays RF and leads off, with Cat in left. There's also no sign of Hinske, who thrives against Weaver, so we can assume Eric's sore hand/wrist is far from 100%.

Derek Jeter is leading off, with Matsui second and (as Jason suggested yeaterday) Soriano dropped to third in the Yanks' lineup.

Taken the first three of four vs the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, facing Devil Ray whippin' boy Doug Davis, with no Stewart or Hinske, new fangled lineup with Soriano finally three hole...this should be interesting.

Hinske's out again. Not knowing the specifics of the injury, it might be worth it to put him on the DL for a couple weeks to get him completely healthy.

Good news from the farm system yesterday. Jason Arnold's five shutout innings (4 hits, 2 walks, 6 Ks) to help the AAA SkyChiefs complete a doubleheader sweep -- Mike Smith pitched well to win the opener. Vince Perkins continued to look right at home in the FSL: 2 hits, 2 walks, 5 Ks in 5 IP, to improve to 2-0 with an 0.82 ERA since his promotion. Dunedin closer Jordan DeJong (1.16 ERA) notched his 15th save. Russ Adams has a .378 OBP, with 28 walks and just 20 strikeouts; he's also flashing prototypical leadoff-hitter speed, with eight stolen bases and five triples.

Just to add a quick couple of comments about the minor league prospects. Has anyone seen the rapid turnaround of Jason Perry? A month ago he was struggling for Dunedin, barely able to crack .200. He's got his average to .299 now!

As for Miguel Negron, I think it's still too early to write this guy off. He seems to be making a Rios type tunraround this season, with his average up to .330. He's got to do a better job of getting walks though. 1 through 94 at bats isn't going to cut it. You might have to hit to get off the island, but you aren't going to make the Jays playing that way.

Would everyone watching the Sportsnet Broadcast today agree that the Jays color platoon of Cerutti and Candiotti have been "scuffling"? I think Candiotti described a player as "scuffling" approximately 16 times through two innings. Scuffling is beginning to lose all meaning ...

Ok, I was wrong about the Myers signing.

One little Soriano error, and all of a sudden, Weaver lost his composure. Wells walked, Delgado was hit by a pitch, then a Myers double made it 2-1, and a Phelps RBI sac fly cashed in the third Toronto run. Hudson singles, and it's 4-1.

Josh Towers is heating in the fourth...so it looks like Hendrickson will start tomorrow night after all.

So for the time being, there's only one bullpen lefty. Interesting, for a team that thought they needed three last month. Davis struck out Giambi in the most critical AB he's going to face; he'll be on a very short leash now, but has finished five solid innings (85 pitches) and is in line for the W, if the bullpen comes through.

What a marvelous double by Delgado to lead off the sixth. He steered a perfect pitch on the outside edge into the opposite-field corner. Carlos should have scored on the Myers single, but wasn't watching coach Butterfield wave him home when Rivera bobbled the ball. However, it didn't matter, because Josh Phelps delivered a line-drive RBI single; it's 5-1 with two on and nobody out.

It's going to show in the box score as Greg Myers being caught stealing, but Dave Berg swung through a curveball with the hit-and-run on, so there was no further damage. They're not even going to let Davis begin the sixth; Sturtze is taking over with a 4-run lead.

"Ok, I was wrong about the Myers signing."

Me too.

Jeter leads off with a home run ... Count me among the many people second guessing some of Tosca's bullpen usage...I though Sturtze could pitch one more. Then again, hindsight is 20/20 and with the team in line for a four game sweep of the Yankees (The Yankees!) in New York, I shouldn't be complaining.

"The Eagle" Aquilino Lopez makes it all better

Walker gave up a homer to Jeter, a single to Matsui and a walk to Giambi -- not a very good outing, and putting the Yankees in a position to tie it up. Aquilino Lopez came on to fan Posada and Mondesi, ending the threat. Myers knew just what to call -- vicious splitters and nasty sliders -- and the rookie was superb. 5-2 after seven; bullet dodged.

Josh Towers is heating in the fourth...so it looks like Hendrickson will start tomorrow night after all.

As you know, the Jays won't be concerned about the Davis/Hendrickson back-to-back problem this week, as they'll be facing different teams.

Why does Josh Towers have such a low uniform number? I've never seen a pitcher wearing #7 before.

I thought it ws a bad idea to take Sturtze out in favour of Walker (before Walker threw a pitch). Aquilino saved the day, however.

I can't recall any single digit uniform number on a pitcher. David Cone with 11 is the lowest I can think of.

This may be heresy, but this is a perfect time for a bunt.

In fact, Craig, note that Woody tried to bunt.

Sorry, that was Berg

Manny the Jays should just forget about little ball - they're awful at it anyway.

Yikes! Ugly bunt attempt.

Let's keep the starting rotation away from Berg when they practice bunting for the upcoming St. Louis-Cincinnati trip.

Maybe the Jays....

[Politte about to come in in the bottom of the 9th] I don't like the idea of bringing in Politte for the third day in a row against the same team. I'd let Miller have a go at closing it out.

After retiring Matsui, Politte served up another gopher ball (it's becoming a bad habit) as Soriano made it 5-3, then Giambi ripped a hard line drive up the middle for a single. But Cliff popped up Posada and dominated Mondesi -- SWEEP!

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

If tomorrow weren't a holiday here in New York, I'd bring a broom and a Jays cap to the office!

Woo-hoo!!!!

The way the bullpen is used will cost us a few very precious games.
The team is on a 85 wins run. Granted. With a heaven sent front runner pitcher ( a la Philly ), some wisening in pen management ( a la Scioscia ) and some tinkering in the bench, those 10 wins needed for the wild card run could be attanaible, if we had hold on to Loaiza and Lyon...

Some maddening nibbling tendancies by Jays pitchers but they got away with a lot today including some poor pitches which could have been hit a lot further than they were.

Lopez's splitter/changeup/whatever is a lot better than I thought and I'm surprised he doesn't mix it in more to righties...he throws the fastball so seldom he needs to have something to mix in with the slider. The splitter moves inside to a righty and would give him a different look. If he actually trusted and used his fastball more early in the count I think he'd be that much better.

All of the small ball attempts failed for the Jays today...it looks great when it works, awful when it doesn't. In any case, it's hard to complain about a sweep of the Yanks but the bullpen has been worked hard this series, Politte in particular. As soon as I saw his fastball going over the middle of the plate I knew Soriano would hit it far.

The Jays got lucky today. Extrapolated Runs predicted the Yankees would score 7.6 runs versus 3.1 runs for the Jays. This method takes the offensive production and assumes a normal distribution of the events. Unfortunately for the Yanks, their distribution was almost as inefficient as is possible (3 solo homeruns, no runs scoring in any other way although there were 9 other hits and 3 walks). The method doesn't know about the error Soriano made. Pretending that was a single, XR ups the Jays total to 3.7 runs.

No club is going to win a lot of games when XR predicts a 4+ run victory for their opponents, though it does happen quite a bit when its less than 2 runs.

The Yankees played better and better as the series wore on, so I don't think that this sweep will adversely affect their performance in the upcoming series against Boston.

I'm thinking that Torre is going to give Weaver's spot to Contreras next time around.

It's perhaps worthwhile recapping the whole series:

Game 1 XR: Toronto 8.6, NYY 4.6 (result 8-3)
Game 2 XR: Toronto 4.3, NYY 3.0 (result 6-2)
Game 3 XR: Toronto 4.1, NYY 3.8 (result 5-2)
Game 4 XR: Toronto 3.1, NYY 7.6 (result 5-3)

Series XR: Toronto 20.1, NYY 19.0 (24-10)

EBH Toronto 16 (12-1-3), NYY 11 (4-2-5)
W-K-HBP Toronto 10-34-1, NYY 13-28-3
SB/ATT Toronto 0 for 2, NYY 4 for 4
GIDP Toronto 1, NYY 5
Singles Toronto 24, NYY 23
Sac Flies Toronto 3, NYY 1

XR does not take errors, non-caught stealing pickoffs, wild pitches or passed balls into account.

The Jays got lucky today. Extrapolated Runs predicted the Yankees would score 7.6 runs versus 3.1 runs for the Jays.

... and therein lies the perfect opportunity for journalistic hacks.

[bs]The Jays are confident and are thus capitalizing on their scoring oportunities, even when few in number. The Yankees, conversely, are in a tailspin and are showing little focus in clutch situations.[/bs]

Or something like that.

the perfect opportunity for journalistic hacks

You rang?

Today's game was a Genesis win. You know, "In the Big Inning..."

Back to the discussion about low uniform numbers for pitchers, Jeff Juden wore #7 when he was with Cleveland in 1997 (the year Kenny Lofton spent in Atlanta) and Rob Bell wore #6 right after he was dealt to Texas in 2001.

And to answer everyone's next question: yes, I also find it disturbing that I can remember this stuff.

I'm sad about the bunt attempt, even sadder than about missing completely a game where the hated Yankees get swept up like so much fallen debris.

I had been hoping that they would somehow go through the season without trying to bunt... while that's not really a good idea, it would make the contrarian little devil that sits on my left shoulder very, VERY happy.

I wish I'd seen the game, though. On the other hand, the park was way fun. Jay's first picnic.

Incidentally, I'm free, free, blissfully free to hit a game against the Pale Sox this week - first game of the year and yes I've had the withdrawal shakes for about two weeks. Anyone got a suggestion for a good one? And who wants to go?

Craig,

I've got a ticket for tomorrow's game. I'd love to meet up with you somewhere outside the gates.

great to see the jays take it to the yanks, its seems like ages since the atmosphere surrounding the jays has been this good, actually maybe the start of 2001.....remember that april record. phew was that an ACCURATE reflection of the team.

On another note, i hate to say this but i will, i can see the series vs the sox (white that is) as being tricky. hope the team comes away with a series win but i'll be happy with 2 wins out of 4, as stupid as it sounds considering the current form of both teams. the eternal optimist, um, maybe.......

btw I'm wondering when Hinske will be back? anyone........

This has been an immensely satisfying weekend -- a four-game home sweep looked extremely good on those Yankees, and served as more than a measure of revenge for the opening series at Skydome. The amazing thing is that none of the games were even really all that close -- today was the relative nail-biter. This Blue Jays squad has every reason to be flying extremely high, and I couldn't be happier.

Having said that (you probably could see this coming), I'll now do my customary balancing act and sound a note of caution. The Yankees clearly aren't as good as they appeared when they were 18-3, but nor are they this bad -- this was a case of a hot Toronto team catching an ice-cold powerhouse. New York will remember this series later this season -- with a healthy Giambi and Williams, not to mention Jeter in full-season mode -- and the Blue Jays had better be ready.

In addition, I couldn't agree more with Robert's statistical evaluation that the Jays were fortunate to come out with a sweep. Today was a good example: Doug Davis looked every bit the waiver-wire pickup, but he got the breaks (and, to be fair, the K's when he needed them). Bubba Trammell popping up with two on was a gift, and a couple of strike-three calls were borderline. That's the way the game is, of course, and Toronto missed getting those calls last month, but all of this to say that this team is still getting its act together. The offence in particular will soon slow down: the catching platoon is hitting way over its two heads, Vernon is not a .300 hitter, and Stewart will cool off as well. Add to that Hinske's continued wrist-injury problems and Chris Woodward's drought at the plate ... I don't think this team needs to worry about acquiring talent for a pennant race.

By all means, enjoy this run and especially this sweep -- I certainly am, the foregoing notwithstanding. To my mind, however, this was a very happy confluence of events more than anything else. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, of course.

Well in a way's it's just balancing things out from how poor the Jays were against the Yanks earlier in the year. The Yanks are a better team but 6-1 for them was overblown. The Jays are certainly fortunate to make it 6-5 (today's game could have been much different) but if luck was involved then it counterbalances things from earlier in the year.

Random musings

Looking Bad:

Bubba Trammel
He was horrible. He's in there to hurt lefties as a DH and he was not good. If you're the 'lefty masher' DH and you can't look good against Doug Davis...that's just ugly.

Godzilla
He's looking (right now) like a Taller, Slower, Asian Otis Nixon. Choppers up the middle every time. I assume he can be the HR threat he was in the JP league but then again...Tuffy Rhodes???

Weaver
Guzman syndrome (or maybe we could call it Stieb's disease). The second sacker boots the leadoff hit and BOOM his no-hit stuff goes out the window. I thought to myself (an inning earlier) that he was cruising to a possible no hitter (the velocity and movement looked filthy).

Raul
As$Hol!#%
He teased us with the hustle, patience, power thing and now (so far) he's bringin' it for the Yanks. Grrrr....

Jeter
I thought Candiotti's 'book' on Jeter looked very solid/prophetic. Busting him up and in is good. Feeding him low and away stuff is bad. Strange that the same catcher (Myers) could call both AB's...

I'm thinking that Torre is going to give Weaver's spot to Contreras next time around.

I wonder what it would take to pry Weaver away from the Yankees...

I wonder what it would take to pry Weaver away from the Yankees...

Trade them Escobar! :-)

The offence in particular will soon slow down: the catching platoon is hitting way over its two heads, Vernon is not a .300 hitter, and Stewart will cool off as well.

I agree that the catchers are hitting over their heads, but I think the offence is genuinely good. Delgado is close to his career high, and Berg and Bordick are a bit better than expected, but Phelps, Woodward and Hinske are actually down from last year. Cat hit this well two years ago, and Stewart has been a consistent .300 hitter for years. Wells is still improving, and while he might not be a .300 hitter, I think he's going to be a .280 hitter with lots of power.

Having said all that, I think the Jays aren't going to make it this year, unless one AL East team and one AL West team melts down completely. They only have three quality major-league pitchers (Halladay, Lidle and Politte), plus some guys who are a little bit above replacement level. The original estimate was for about 85 wins; they might make 90 if everything breaks right.

I think Aquilino should be considered the 4th quality pitcher. He has one of the highest strikeout per BF rates in the AL among relief pitchers (last time I looked he was #6 on that list).