Whoa. Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed.

True enough, but the Mets and Yankees, although not even in the same league, are still significant rivals. Would the Mets be willing to help out the Yankees? And if so, you still have to ask the question if the Yankees have anything to offer. Or would the Mets simply be happy enough to get rid of Cameron's salary?

Mets' fans have got to be happy as pigs in filth right now concerning the Beltran signing.

To add to their woes, TSN's Vic Rauter reports that they may put Randy Johnson on the DL as soon as tomorrow with a groin injury. God is wearing our rose coloured glasses.

Which is one of those theories - where did it come from anyway? - that seems intuitively true, but when you look at the evidence, kind of withers up and dies.

Josh Towers career numbers (coming into 2005):

vs Tampa Bay 3-4, 5.81, 48.0 IP
vs New York  1-4, 3.78, 33.2 IP
vs Oakland   4-2, 4.69, 40.1 IP
vs Baltimore 3-2, 4.75, 30.1 IP
vs Boston    3-2, 7.56, 33.1 IP
vs Seattle   2-1, 4.44, 26.1 IP

In a word... no. As in no, no, nyah-nyah nyah-nyah.

Everybody connected with the Mets is trembling with glee at the prospect of the Yankees in trouble. There's going to be a lot of "We have Carlos Beltran, and You Don't" going on.

And while the Mets don't exactly need Cameron with Beltran and Diaz on hand, what do the Yankees have that the Mets could use? The Mets could use bullpen help, but the Yankees have problems there as well.

The Yankees have rotation issues too, of course. Kevin Brown's line so far tonight:

K Brown 1.0  8  6  6  0  0  0  37-28  9.00

And Halama leaves with a 5-2 lead in Detroit thanks to a MIrabelli grand slam.

Do you bunt with Rios?

Because tomorrow is a 300 start.

That's a Quality Start for Towers I would say. Only 92 pitches and the 8-9 hitters coming up. But it's Batista time, I think.

It does look like Tampa is going to snap that nasty losing streak. All they needed was a little Kevin Brown.

So now we can think about the sweep, right?

And after four starts, Kevin Brown in 0-4, 8.18. The Yankees are paying him more money than the Jays are paying their entire rotation, which is pretty neat.

Halladay managed nine strike outs (seven swinging) with the Yankees swinging and missing only eight times. There is certainly no luck there, it has the residue of design to it.

And frustrated Yankee fans can look forward to saying Relax, It's Only September. One can always hope, anyway.

Well, at least he can throw.

Jays are juggling the rotation a bit with all the off-days ahead over the next couple of weeks. It should look something like this:

Wed  4 May at Blt - Halladay
Thu  5 May - OFF
Fri  6 May vs Chi - Bush
Sat  7 May vs Chi - Lilly
Sun  8 May vs Chi - Chacin
Mon  9 May vs KC  - Halladay (4 days off)
Tue 10 May vs KC  - Towers (6 days off)
Wed 11 May vs KC  - Bush (4 days off)
Thu 12 May - OFF
Fri 13 May at Cle - Lilly (5 days off)
Sat 14 May at Cle - Halladay (4 days off)
Sun 15 May at Cle - Chacin (6 days off)
Mon 16 May - OFF
Tue 17 May at Min - Towers (6 days off)
Wed 18 May at Min - Bush (6 days off)
Thu 19 May at Min - Halladay (4 days off)
Fri 20 May vs Wsh - Lilly (6 days off)
Sat 21 May vs Wsh - Chacin (5 days off)

That figures because the only real thing they're doing is sending Doc out there every fifth day and everybody slides back to let it happen. What's really unlikely is that Lilly and Chacin both pitch against Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington - they both miss Kansas City and Minnesota. We never get one of them finishing a series and the other guy starting the next one.

Ah, not that big a deal.

Note the lack of complaints :p

This was a treasure to watch (esp. because we won)....

On a POSITIVE note, has anyone noted our pitching? Is this Arnsberg's due? Or is this happenstance? Our pitching has been superlative; no one factor has dominated more. Let's hope we keep this pace...

I doubt it - I think Gibbons and Arnsberg just want to ride the Big Horse.

As for the other guys getting a little extra rest... well, Lilly is the only one who has ever spent a complete season in a major league rotation, and he's the guy who basically missed spring training. But mainly, I think they want to keep the Big Fella on track.

What's the protocol for switching up your pitching rotation anyway? Is there one? It looks like they could separate Lilly and Chacin adequately (and not have them constantly facing the same team) just by giving Chacin's next start to Towers and then flipping all the rest of their starts. At first glance it doesnt look like anyone would be working on short rest or more than 6 days rest. Would something like that be considered insulting or anything? Whatever the case Im sure the Jays know alot more about this than I do and have their reasons so Im just askin'.

Nah. I suspect they don't really think Chacin and Lilly going back-to-back all the time is that big a deal. They're both LH but they're not really similar pitchers. One of them works up in the zone and throws a big curve; the other works down in the zone and throws a lot of cutters.

However, those of us old enough to remember when the Jays had Mike Flanagan, Jimmy Key, John Cerutti, and Jeff Musselman in the rotation at the same time - none of them could break 90 regularly, they all needed to keep the ball down - know how it can turn into a problem.

I think there's a somewhat obvious reason for that which gets overlooked (or at least, got overlooked at the time). If you had to pick the kind of pitcher that hitters hate to face, it's slow-throwing lefties with real good junk. Hitters like fastballs, and hate facing slop-throwing lefties because it messes up their timing. If you're going to put guys back-to-back, I'd rather do it with guys like Flanagan, Key and Cerutti rather than a bunch of hard-throwing righties who throw a vanilla fastball/slider/change combo.

OK, April 1988 they begin with a five man rotation of Key, Flanagan, Clancy, Stieb, and (surprise!) a rookie named Todd Stottlemyre. Key makes three starts, goes on the DL, Cerutti takes his rotation spot (23 April). Stottlemyre struggles a bit and Jose Nunez takes a couple of starts. But for the most part, it's three RH and two LH through the first few months.

Key returns on 29 June and Cerutti goes back to the bullpen. Cerutti will make just one more start over the rest of the year (he appears to be filling in when Stieb misses a turn in late July.)

In early July, a struggling Jim Clancy goes to the bullpen for a few weeks. Jeff Musselman goes straight into the rotation on July 18 - now it's two RH and three LH. When Clancy returns to the rotation, he replaces Stottlemyre. And for the final two months, it's Stieb, Clancy, Key, Flanagan, Musselman.

The Division champs. Only one starting pitcher was better than .500...

I agree with this, but would like to keep Bush and Towers apart because they are fairly similar. I mean it's not the biggest deal, but it couldn't hurt.

Yup, his outing in the '89 ALCS was (unfortunately) pretty hard to forget...