"Where have all the left-handers gone?"

Kansas City

Bjork, Hunter (or is it Joga?)

I am a little confused by the whole Talley Haines situation. Tosca, who is Mr. Positive says:

"He's going to have to throw a little harder, which is a hard thing to get a guy to do. Either that or come up with some kind of cutter," he said. "His fastball is straight and doesn't have a whole lot of pop to it. He needs to keep hitters honest and keep them off his changeup."

Wow, what an endorsement. Surely this was not news to the Jays and they knew this before they drafted him. Any thoughts on why they grabbed this guy (and why they are keeping him)? Didn't the Jays lose someone to get Talley?

Go Oilers!

http://economics.about.com
Any thoughts on why they grabbed this guy (and why they are keeping him)?

Talley Haines last season at AAA Durham: 67.2IP, 11BB, 64! SO, 2.53 ERA. At worst he'll be an asset to the Syracuse team.

Didn't the Jays lose someone to get Talley?

Nope. Jays didn't lose anyone in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft this season.

Cheers,

Mike

definitely 'Hunter'...was in my CD player yesterday, made me wonder why I missed her toronto island gig last year. Then I remembered it was because of the $60 ticket.

Pat Borders is quite probably coming back to the bigs.

This is completely off-topic, but I know several people here have Season's Passes.

Has anyone received their Pass yet? The Jays called me about renewing in October and I ordered the Passes then, and was charged at that time. But to date I still haven't received them, and every time I call they give me a different date to expect them, but I still ain't got them! Also, I was a bit ticked because they told me in October that Opening Day tix would be sent with the passes, but now I have to go down to the Skydome sometime before Opening Day to pcik up tickets.

Am I the only one twisting in the wind like this?

SEASON'S PASSES

I understand that you go to the box office before each game and they give you best available for that game. Then I assume that you move around to the best empty seat available. Break even is about 5-10 games, depending on what you normally spend.

Is that right?

Well the first part is right--you show up the day of the game and get the best upper deck seat available. Moving to the best empty seat would, I assume, NOT be encouraged however. Not saying I didn't do it last year, but... :)

The break even point would be nine games, since you spend $81 for the pass, and the seats you get are $9 each.

For Opening Day, they were supposed to send a ticket with the passes, but now that's changed. Instead, you have to go to the Dome to pick up tickets. It's the one occasion where you can go sometime before game day. This is because of the schmoz on Opening Day last year, when pass holders either couldn't get tickets on game day because it was a sell out, or had to line up for a loooong time and missed part of the game.

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
I didn't ask what the delivery date was, but I did call the other day to change the name on our second pass from Guest to my wife's name. They said they were coming "soon".

Last year we didn't get ours until the third week. Just kept going to the window and giving our names. It wasn't a problem.

Just recently discovered this site and have been lurking for a while, you folks are doing a great job. It's nice to have a place to come for some intelligent baseball/Jays discussion.

Am I right in my belief that the Jays are out of options on both Bob File and Jayson Werth? Tosca has already said that he didn't see how he could get a 12th pitcher enough work, will that spell the end of File's days as a Jay? Too bad considering his ST performance thus far. I guess there are no guarantees for Werth either considering the play of Simon Pond. It will be interesting to see how things work out. Seems to me that we have more talented OFs than ML ready pitchers.

Greetings from a cruise ship docked in Bari Italy! I'll be back soon!

Greetings from a cruise ship docked in Bari Italy! I'll be back soon!

Darn you Donkit, you lucky sun-of-a-gun. Enjoy yourself, and know that you're making others extremely jealous :)

One of my best friends is in Italy right now on a free trip, while it is snowing and below freezing here in Ottawa. Where's the justice....

I noticed Fransisco Roasario is the topic of one of BA's prospect profiles in the AL East. I know that it can't be presented on the site word for word, but anyone with a BA subscription care to summarize ;)

The BA story is written by Larry Millson of the Globe. It is a general piece, looks like it was written for the print edition. Summary...Rosario's fastball is effortless and explodes out of his hand. He has just thrown FB's and changeups so far this spring. He is working with Gil Patterson on a slider/breaking ball.

I received my Star passes in the mail yesterday.

For Rosario, it's mostly stuff we know or have read before. His velocity is looking good but it will take time to get his command and feel back. He's throwing mostly fastballs and changeups right now and Patterson is working to give him a breaking ball with more tilt, something like a slurve/cutter instead of the flat lateral moving slider he had before.

I can't believe that Boomer Wells never threw a pitch with hot-dog condiments on it, if only by accident.

Manhattan just beat Florida. I had Florida getting out of their bracket. Now I'm hosed.

I had Brock University. How are they doing?

If you can walk and talk...

Jays lead 4-1 after 6. Delgado has a HR and a single. Towers pitched five innings, gave up one run on four hits. Hinske had a 2 run double.

Gerry, is there free Internet radio on that game?

No radio, I heard a Wilner update on the Fan

Thanks Gerry, at last I heard, the Fan reported it was still 4-1 in the seventh.

Is there any word on Lilly? When is he scheduled to pitch in spring training, if at all?

Final score was 7-2 Jays. Rios hit his second HR in the 8th of Todd Van Poppel. I believe Ted Lilly was due to throw on the side today. Look for him in a game over the weekend.

Brian, thanks for posting and for your compliments! Werth is definitely out of options, and I have the sense that File is too. I think it's quite conceivable that the Jays could head north with both Werth and Pond; combined with Wells, Cat and Johnson, that gives them five outfielders, and Pond can fill in (though not terrifically) at first and third as well. That may spell bad news for Howie Clark.

I'm less sanguine about File: the pitching staff won't need many bodies in the first month of the season, though if Lilly's injury remains serious, the pen might need reinforcement for a while. I expect we'll see this sort itself out over the next few days.

Thanks to Gerry and RBillie for the comments on Rosario...

If all he ever manages to command is his current mid-90s fastball and change-ups, Rosario will be an ace reliever. If he adds a solid third pitch someday ... look out.

Lilly update from Yahoo sports.......

Toronto LHP Ted Lilly (injured left wrist) threw batting practice for the first time Thursday. ``He threw a couple of curves and a couple of sliders,'' pitching coach Gil Paterson said. Lilly is slated to pitch two innings in a game next Wednesday. ``With no setbacks he will be ready for the season,'' Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca said

BOB FILE: just hearing the name, and based on the name alone, makes me think "oh no". Imagine listening to the announcer on TV, in a 2-2 game, 8th inning, men on: "and Tosca comes to to the mound and is going to give the ball to... Bob File." It's not a name that inspires confidence, like Bob Walk (whose face is as handsome as his name). Bob File: a man born to mop up.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-reds-bluejays&prov=ap&type=lgns
Here's the AP summary of the game, Justin Miller scheduled to start Saturday vs. Boston.

COMN.

Larry Millson of the Globe looks back at the Hendrickson for Speier deal in "Traded pitchers begin to settle in with their new teams". He also discusses Miguel Batista, who wasn't traded, but is new nonetheless.

Not that anyone has brought it up recently, though it was a consistent theme in the extended interviews with the Star guys last year. This is another classic example of clearly some bored copyeditor writing a headline to fit the space without reading the whole story very carefully.

Every time I see something like this, even a seemingly minor misapplication of terminology, it makes me want to scream, as a former newspaper writer who had plenty of opportunity to cringe at headlines slapped above my byline. I once had a layout assistant change an already bad headline so it fit better -- and ended up making the headline mean the exact opposite of the story.

Columnists and beat reporters don't write their own headlines. It is one of the great unknown truths of print journalism. Incidentally, one small part of my job these days often entails writing headlines for information other people have submitted (after rewriting that information into legible form). So I've been on both sides and tend to agree with whichever one I am currently on.

Thanks for the info, Gerry. I was beginning to get worried that Lilly might night be ready for the start of the season.

I just picked up my passes last week. I had to go down in person to pick up mine and my friends. The fun part however was how comicaly bad they printed our Italian-Canadian last names on all the cards in big white letters, which has provided us with more amusement then you would think.

I as Joe Buscemi became Joe Buschme
my friend Rick Valenzano became Rich Valenzo
Dave Giralico became Daive Giralicho
and Mark Digiandomenico became Mark DIgian Domenico

Everythings more fun using aliases. God Bless those ticket takers.

This may be old news, but it seems Paul Molitor may have been hanging around with some shady characters (COMN). Fixed boxing matches, no less. I'm sure Pete Rose supporters would be in a frenzy if this story ever got any serious play.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=1761952
Oops, don't think the linked worked. Try C'ing OMN now.

Fordin's posted today's notes, and a report on Lilly's progress.

Sequea went 2-5 with a first-inning triple off Claussen.

Does anyone know of any real minor league rule 5 success stories, or does Sequea have the potential to be the most impactful minor league rule 5 draftee of all time?

The Skychiefs official website has us up-to-date with the minor league camp, including today's match between the Chiefs and Cats. It also gives us an idea of what those rosters will look like. Chacin, a starter at Syracuse? Where does Godwin fit in the Chief's outfield?

Since we're grammar-conscious here, it should read "Chiefs' outfield" or even "Chiefs outfield," not my careless "Chief's outfield". Now I can sleep tonight!

It also gives us an idea of what those rosters will look like. Chacin, a starter at Syracuse? Where does Godwin fit in the Chief's outfield?

Not so fast. Remember Rios, Gross, Hall and Hermanson are still in big league camp. Godwin is likely headed for AA. Same with the pitchers. Rosario, League, McGowan, Chulk, Bush are still in major league camp. The Syracuse Cat game is more like a Cat Dunedin game.

Funny that none in that Syracuse roster is a short stop...

The fun part however was how comicaly bad they printed our Italian-Canadian last names on all the cards in big white letters

You'd think that a fellow named Ricciardi might have something to say to the ticket personnel on that score....

Well he got his as JP "Ricklardy"