Mick circulated this amongst the Cab -- uh, Roster last night, and it's just too good not to post, even though it now refers to last night's games and the tense is future, not past:

- Jeff Weaver faces his former Yankee teammates -- who will be plenty
pleased if he treats them like he treated the opposition last season while in pinstripes -- while David Wells returns to his twice-told-tales home of Toronto to match up with the Jays.

- John Halama (Devil Rays) and Randy Johnson (Diamondbacks), who were once traded for each other, match wits for the 1998 expansion cousins.

- Cory Lidle, who flirted heavily with the Cardinals in the off-season, returns wearing Cincinnati, not St. Louis, Red against another former Jay in Chris Carpenter.

- Speaking of former Jays, that's Kelvim Escobar set to toe the rubber for Anaheim against Peter Munro for the Astros in another matchup of ex-Torontonians.

- Another former Jay, John "Wayback" Wasdin takes the mound for the Texas Rangers -- too bad they didn't pick up former Phillie hurler Doug Nickle to face off with Florida's Brad Penny.

Incidentally and a propos of nothing, Lidle, Halama, Wasdin and Weaver (for about five seconds) are all former Oakland Athletics.

All of Mick's story lines turned out to be worth watching. Wayback, picked up off the scrap heap, beat Penny in an upset at least as surprising as Halama outpitching the Big Unit or Weaver outlasting Vazquez. Neither Lidle nor Carpenter figured in the Reds-Redbirds extra-inning decision, though both pitched well.

And then there's Kelvim. The $18.75 million riddle wrapped in the enigma threw 112 pitches, some of them near the plate, in less than six innings. He struck out six, but walked seven of the free-swinging Astros, and gave up seven hits. Pete Munro, who earns substantially less, combined with three relievers for the shutout.

(Delgado) was expected to take live batting practice on Friday for the first time since he hurt his ribs, but Tosca held him out after he experienced soreness from his activities on Thursday.

This does not sound like someone who will be in the lineup Tuesday. If Cat's groin doesn't let him play, the 3-4-5 will probably be Johnson, Hinske and Zaun for a while longer. That's not exactly Murderer's Row, but it's fun to watch them scratch and claw. If Lilly, Batista and Doc can continue to make quality starts, we'll see more low-scoring nailbiters like last night.

I'm really impressed with the innings that Lilly is giving us this year. Of the three new additions, I half expected him to be the shakey one.

Here's a question: Seeing Lilly's odd position on the rubber, do pitchers ever change up their footing to give their pitches a different look? Is it easier for a pitcher to adjust to the new target, or for the batter to adjust to the new arc of the incoming pitch?

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2985
Apologies if this has already been covered, but Will Carroll had this on Wells in yesterday's UTK (COMN - subscribers)

Wells is listed as out for three weeks with a calf strain, but there are some saying that the problem is with his Achilles. Wells denied this in a story on the Jays site, but knowledgeable sources say that the worst could be true.

Before one of the broadcasts this week, Wells explained how the injury is at the bottom of his calf. The two calf muscles merge into the Achilles, so I can understand the speculation that it could be a tendon injury, which could be much worse than a muscle strain, I just don't believe it. He has a walking cast and with it, his toes are configured higher than his heel. I think this is in an effort to stretch the strained soleus so that it doesn't shorten and start to pull the Achilles away from the heel. I also think that sort of treatment wouldn't be suggested if the tendon were already inflamed at the insertion point (but I don't know what the standard treatment is, I'm not a doctor or a chiro). That point is where the really bad Achilles injuries, like Nomar had, occur. When the tendon pulls away from the bone there (this is tendonitis), it takes a very long time to heal properly.

If Vernon Wells has achilles tendonitis in that heel, his days as the the Blue Jays centrefielder could be over and he could be moved over to right field. I had a similar injury about 3 years ago and it still is a slight problem. At his level of competition, it could be a problem.

This coming friday shouldn't the Blue Jays Cheer Club change it's name to the Blue Jays Queer Club?

Blue Jays Queer Club

I thought that was the name. I wouldn't have signed up for a "Cheer" club . . .

classic..."bursting with fruit".....

well we finally passed the O's, but now the D-Rays are infront of us.... never thought I'd be saying that.

What will the Star writers do now? They can elicit panic and hatred for the last-place-Blue-Jays anymore.

What will the Star writers do now? They can elicit panic and hatred for the last-place-Blue-Jays anymore.
(I'm sure you meant to say "can't")

The Star writers (well, Baker) will just go from the "last-place-Jays" to the "Devil-Ray-trailing-Jays", to the "sub-.500-Jays", and when the Jays finally break .500, "the third-place-once-again-Jays."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?sort=avg
This might be fixed by the time you try it, but something is very wrong with the entry at the top of

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?sort=avg (COMN).

I think ESPN's database is having a fit.

But I think Brad Halsey is the greatest hitter of our generation Andrew K!

Cheerio and happy weekends to all.