So does the designation Hitter's or Pitcher's park really carry any weight if a park can be one thing one year and not another year?

Granted, I haven't done the research or know the figures, but isn't it entirely possible that the vast majority of parks are neither? Some intuitive definites come to mind such as Colorado and Detroit. How many parks have always been one or the other?

No.  Toronto              Baltimore 
1    Reed Johnson,        LF Brian Roberts, 2B 
2    Orlando Hudson, 2B   Melvin Mora, 3B 
3    Vernon Wells,CF      Miguel Tejada, SS 
4    Corey Koskie, 3B     Sammy Sosa, RF 
5    Shea Hillenbrand, DH Rafael Palmeiro, DH 
6    Alex Rios, RF        Javy Lopez, C 
7    Eric Hinske, 1B      Jay Gibbons, 1B 
8    Ken Huckaby, C       Luis Matos, CF 
9    John McDonald, SS    Larry Bigbie, LF 

Aha! A challenge! I loves the headline-writing, I does!

How about ...

Jays Look to Hoist the Bedard

Or in the less punny world, maybe ...

Give That Doctor a Broom!

You know there must really be something wrong with you when you go into the doctor's office and he pulls out a broom!

Bedard is an outstanding young hurler, I'd love to see him in a Jay's uniform someday.

As far as I remember, since the late 70s, players who didn't wear the gloves were the exceptions. I don't know if they have anything in common - today Moises Alou is certainly an older player, but Vlad Guerrero is in his prime (of course they're from the same country.)

George Brett and Rance Mulliniks were both LH third basemen...

No, that is always the shortstop's play - he's moving towards first base, he has a much much easier throw than the second baseman. If he can cut in front of the second baseman and play the ball, he's supposed to.

Same thing as when a third baseman cuts in front of the shortstop on balls hit in the 5-6 hole.

I find batting gloves are essential if you're going to do a lot of hitting. If you're playing in a game, and batting once every half hour or so, no big deal. But if you're going to spend half an hour hitting grounders to your son and his friends - you need gloves. Unless blisters are your friends!

You must mean the clock. Unless you've forgotten Juan Guzman... hell, Steve Trachsel!! Trachsel I swear averaged 45 seconds. I always thought he was waiting for the batter to lose interest...

Good point.

Oh, it's not quite that bad. But almost. Now they're at 55% (11 of 20), which is pretty awful. Second worst percentage in the majors (better than Oakland's 3 SB and 4 CS!).

Small ball.

Surely they had the hit and run on, and Chan Ho threw a 55 foot curveball that bounced off the shin guard. Otherwise, the laws that regulated all life as we know it stand in jeopardy.

Holy cow. That is one of my life's mysteries cleared up. I just thought it means "wicked". We used to make that sign when I was about 7, and it meant "I am wicked" in the 1980s.

Why because Bedard can mow down Toronto and Tampa Bay?

He did alright against oakland too.

I see the point, but Halladay doesn't look like he's working too hard, nor did Towers yesterday. When it's going well for a pitcher, it's surely less exhausting. Having to work out of jams is harder, at least according to the font of all wisdom which is Curt Schilling.

That was OK. It was very soft double, and McDonald's single was a routine grondball out if the infield is at normal depth. I guess Mazzilli doesn't use his LH closer in a tie game, and if you bring in the RH Reed, Gibbons brings out his LH pinch-hitters. So I'd go with Bedard vs Huckaby and McDonald too.

But now the inning has gone too long. Get him out of there.

McDonald was only one step off the base. I think Bedard was simply showing signs of fatigue, buying himself some breathing time with pointless throws to first base. He showed too much composure today to fairly use the word rattled.

Dunny, leave the insults somewhere else. You can make your point another way.

Roy has struggled all day

What words are left to describe an outing where he's actually allowed some runs? A shutout and 88 pitches through 7 IP.

This is a team that can't hit

So how do you describe the offenses playing for the 25 major league teams that have scored fewer runs than this one?

Anyone notice that Hillenbrand is now 0-10 and hitless in threee straight. (He went hitless in three games in all of April.) The Orioles, it turns out, can pitch a little too.

I'm not sure pulling ROY was so clear cut.On the keep Halladay in side of the ledger, Halladay is generally death to right-handed hitters,(.612 OPS 3 year split), he also has historically shown tremendous ability to get out of trouble. I think Gibbons manages with his gut... and usually he's right, today it didn't work out but calling him stupid is way over the line. I assume emotion not logic , was speaking.

A shutout where he was giving up better than a hit per inning and was striking out no-one. That's not the Roy Halladay we know when he's on his game. That's not the guy who struck out 8 or 9 Yankees his last time out. This game was a struggle for him and full credit to him for making it as far as he did without allowing a run. Sooner or later the DIPS gods will catch up to you. The reason Halladay had such a long at bat against Mora was because he barely had anything left. Bedard threw more pitches but he was absolutely toying with the Toronto lineup while Roy was just simply getting by. I seem to recall a similar game last year when Batista also pitching a shutout was also left in for the 8th or 9th inning against the Twins despite not really pitching as well as his 0 runs suggested. The Jays lost that game as well. Two out of three against Baltimore is not bad. But I want to lose the games on merit. Not wonder whether the Jays would have held on if they made a pitching change at what seemed like the right time (after Mora's long at bat, or after either of the two batters thereafter). I mean in the occasional game you WILL have to pull Halladay for a reliever. You can't leave him out there until the breaking point every time.

We are dealing with it, it's called post game analysis, and its the nature of baseball( and sport in general for that matter). Nobody is expecting this team to win every game.

I've got to say my measurement of success for this team is how many games are they competetive in, according to my standards, they've been in all but two outings. I'm a very happy man.

No, because Halladay needed exactly five pitches to get through the 7th.

Yes, because the Orioles hit two fly ball outs. They had hit one fly ball out through the first 6 innings.

Batista was definitely not going to pitch today, and I think Gibbons wanted to avoid using Frasor if at all possible. I agree that the turning point was the Mora at bat, but I wouldn't have brought in Chulk for Sosa. And the Sosa double after that was the ball game.

C'est la vie. Good road trip.

Such as?

This wasn't exactly Grady Little and Pedro in Game 7. It's always easy to take the test after you know the answer. I know I wasn't saying "I want Vinnie Chulk NOW" when Sosa came up. And that was the choice today.

I'll bet Dunny could get outspelled by a lot of managers.

As Gitz said get over it. The Jays scored two runs in two games, and we are concerned that we didn't go 2-0 against the best hitting team in the division. On Tuesday we won the game on a 20 foot swinging bunt, we take full credit for that win, but then navel gaze a game that other than one pitch we were losing 2-1. Half of the posters think Halladay should have been pulled, half say leave your stud in the game. If opinion is close to 50-50 then, other than hindsight, you can second guess but you have to give Gibby the benefit of the doubt.

While calling Gibbons an idiot may seem rude to you, it happens every day, to countless managers, coaches etc on pretty much any other board I visit, be it for hockey or baseball.

But this isn't a public board per say [sic] so I will do my best to follow the rules I agreed to when signing up here.

Second, this is not a board at all. It's an 'interactive magazine,' as we've branded it. The idea is not to talk, but to discuss: to ensure every post adds value. (Yeah, this meta-comment isn't really adding value — so sue me.) You need look no further than my rants about forums (and internet culture itself) to see why we're not a board or forum. We're better than forums, and I say that without putting on false airs — Batter's Box is better than every forum out there, and we fight to keep it that way. (Incidentally, fellow roster member Jonny German shares a similar opinion.)

I, and I'm sure everyone else reading, appreciate your willingness to follow our rules. It really does make this place better.

Regardless of what happens elsewhere, this is Batter's Box. They have fistfights in the Taiwanese Parliament, but that doesn't mean we have to have them here. (We just have the fistfights because we want to.)

There's a world of difference between criticizing a decision or action, which is encouraged, and criticizing a person, which doesn't go anywhere. That's what we're trying to illustrate. They're different things, and you can do the first very easily without doing the second.