I'd like to say "Happy Independence Day" to all our American friends who read the Box.

A starter goes seven, then Chulk and Frasor close it out.
I could get used to that.

I hope Church-goers won't be late for today's afternoon game. I was trucking by the standings and I noticed that the injury-ridden Jays have a better record since April than the Red Sox.

I noticed that the injury-ridden Jays have a better record since April than the Red Sox.

Really!?!?
Who else?

Don't look now, but the Indians do indeed have the look of a contenda in the AL Central. Grady Sizemore is just about ready to take over from Coco Crisp, and Chad Durbin should do better in his next shot at the rotation which should also come shortly.

The weakest link of the Tribe is their bullpen. Can they fix it for a run at the division title?

Maybe the Indians would take a run at Ligtenburg or Adams? I'm sure at this point it JP would just be happy for the salary relief and open 40 man spot.

Bob Elliott just makes my blood boil. J.P. should just give him a scouting job so he can hang out with his heroes and stop writing the nonsense masquerading as the Toronto Sun's baseball column.

Has he ever been seen in the same room with Richard Griffin? Any chance they might be the same guy?

Bob Elliot has had this vendetta ever since his scouting pals got fired; but today is just another heap of his hypocritical garbage. He rips the Jays for their bad record and that the Money Ball teams can't play defense and they point out "guys like Cat" in the outfield turning singles into triples. One could just as easily make a hasty generalization and say the defense is awesome because of Hudson or Wells; but instead we get the idea of naming one player with good OBP and perceived horrible fielding being an indicator of the entire team.

What really frosts me is that then he talks about Brenly's firing and how injuries aren't his fault and the firing is unjust. Right after he points out how the Jays are below .500 and that the team will never contend under J.P. because this season is going so badly. I think Bob has passed Rich Griffin in the zombie like cult of Jays haters.

I know I shouldn't waste my time on either, but then there only are a couple of decent writers on the Jays beat. I should just be glad Steve Simmons doesn't write regularly on the Jays; I wish they'd make him go back to writing his housekeeping article or whatever it was they had him doing for that year they had mercy on readers of their sports page.

I for one don't take offence withe the Elliot article, drafting the "unsexy" can be rewarding but will it field a championship team? Pointing out that Wells and Halliday would not be considered by the current regime is not trashing JP but rather it shows that each draft under him we have ignored a very valuable talent pool. Dave Berg's playing time has everything to do with injuries and nothing to do with scouting strategy, but the range factor is a very good arguement.

The odd thing is that the A's success last year had everything to do with defensive prowess, while they were only average at getting on base.

Fawaz wins a Drive-By Truckers gimme cap. Well, a picture of one.