Good bench management by Gibby in the ninth. As for the bottom, my oh my, Scott Schoeneweiss is worth every penny.

If the Jays want to contend for the division/wild card than the next 3 weeks is going to tell us where they really stand.

Between the 4 teams in the AL East race, the Jays have the easist schedule up to the all-star break

Jays: 3 vs. A's (H), 3 vs. Rangers (R)
O's: 2 vs. Yanks (R), 4 vs. Red Sox (H)
Red Sox: 4 vs. Rangers (R), 4 vs. O's (R)
Yanks: 2 vs. O's (H), 4 vs. Indians (R)

The schedule Gods are even nicer to the Jays after the all-star break.

Jays: 4 vs. D-Rays (H), 3 vs. Mariners (H), 3 vs. Royals (R)
O's: 4 vs. Mariners (R), 3 vs. Twins (R), 3 vs. D-Rays (R)
Red Sox: 4 vs. Yanks (H), 3 vs. D-Rays (H), 4 vs. White Sox (R)
Yanks: 4 vs. Red Sox (R), 3 vs. Rangers (R), 4 vs. Angels (R)

So to sum it up after the all-star break:

Jays have 7 Home Games/3 Road Games
O's have 0 Home Games/10 Road Games
Red Sox have 7 Home Games/4 Road Games
Yanks have 0 Home Games/11 Road Games

It would be interesting to see Batista's splits in save situations vs. non-save situations. He always seems to save his bad outings for when the team has a big lead or is down a bunch. Just a feeling I get anyways...

SS got credited with a save right? Imagine your left arm making you a millionaire. What a life.

Gabe Gross should be starting everyday in the OF over Cat. Cat can take some DH days. Russ Adams is going to be a poor man's Jeter IMO.

And the Indians just piled 5 runs on Ponson in the top of the 1rst. 5-0 Cleveland.

Interesting stat..... Team Run Differential, AL East:

1) BOS: +47

2) TOR: +44

3) BAL: +33

4) NYY: +23

5) TMB: -35

Adams and Jeter have different defensive abilities. Jeter has a great arm but no range up the middle (cue NFH joke). Adams is the other way around, though I don't think his arm is as bad as Jeter's is good.

Someone made the Nomar-Hill comparison, based on AA/AAA stats. Is there a similar comp for Thrillhouse?

Ouch. Ponson's line: 1.1 IP, 6H, 6ER, 2W, 1K, 1HR.

How much are they paying for Sidney's almost 6 ERA?

What a great win. Back to back series wins always feels great, especially against the division on the road.

I'm concerned about Towers's start on Tuesday night at the cable box however. So many times Towers has been lit up like a christmas tree in these types of games especially at home. Oakland is the hottest team in the league right now so forgive me for being a bit concerned.

Kirk Gibson is the new hitting coach of the Detroit Tigers.

Cool to hear Gibson is back in the majors (as a coach) with Detroit. He was always great to watch, although he was a major pain the butt to the Jays among others. You always could respect him with that work ethic.

I was very glad to see Batista pulled with one out to go though. Showed guts on Gibbons part to pull his closer when the easy thing to do is leave him out there. Second guessing would've been sky high if SS gave up a hit or HR vs 'well, it was his closer' if Batista did the same, thus imo a brave move by the manager.

Interesting thought of the day... the Jays are now 22-13 vs the AL East vs sub-500 vs the Central & West divisions and sub-500 vs the NL. Having the Yanks and Sox and Orioles in the division hasn't killed the Jays yet. Btw, both the Yanks and Red Sox are sub-500 vs the AL East.

The Jays escaped a lot of trouble today, even before the ninth. Going from memory:

First inning - after the first run scored it was 1st and third with no outs, and no runs scored.

Fifth inning - an error and a 4 pitch walk made it first and second with no outs and again no runs scored.

Sixth inning - Bases loaded no outs, and a 8-2 double play helped to end another inning without giving up a run. Zaun's so great blocking the plae.

Cool to hear Gibson is back in the majors (as a coach) with Detroit.

Well, he already was -- in fact, he was Trammell's bench coach and as I understand it is not thrilled withg a move to hitting coach, which many would rightfully see as a demotion. But Tram want to shake things up and with the return of Magglio Ordonez to the lineup thinks this is the time, and Gibby has always been a team player, so he's doing what is asked of him.

Well, with the 15-2 vs BOS and recent 12-3 over TB, that's 22 runs right there.

Let me be the first to offer my congratulations to Doc Halladay and Shea Hillenbrand for being named all-stars.

Frankly I'm stunned Hillenbrand made the team!

Towers: 4.23 ERA, 93.2 IP
-----------------------------
Ponson: 5.80 ERA, 102.1 IP
RLopez: 4.33 ERA, 105.2 IP
Cabrera: 5.07 ERA, 92.1 IP

This caught me off guard. I didn't know Towers has been this good.

For a guy nobody wants to hang on to, Hillenbrand is a back-to-back All-Star. I'd still trade him for a good young catcher though :)

Well the Jays lost 11-2 to the Yanks and 13-5 to the O's in a 3 day span in mid April, so the blowouts tend to even themselves out, but being +44 and only 2 games over is a bit of a head scratcher. Especially when the Nats are right around even with run differential and WAY over .500. On Saturday they were -1 and 18 games over .500 as I was watching the Cubs game, so they're probably +2 and 20 now. L-U-C-K-Y

Here's my list of all-star snubs (I'm sure some of these guys will go the fan vote):

- Morgan Ensberg
- Adam Dunn
- Cliff Floyd
- Jose Guillen
- Pat Burrell
- Carlos Delgado
- Matt Morris
- Jeremy Bonderman
- Hideki Matsui
- Jeremy Bonderman
- Matt Morris
- Matt Clement
- Adam Eaton
- Freddy Garcia
- Josh Beckett
- Jesse Crain
- Chris Young
- Andy Sisco

Wow, Bonderman got screwed twice!

So if they're snubbed, who's off the team?

Damm typos:)

I'm not really sure who I would knock off the team, but each year there's always players having good seasons that get caught in a numbers game.

An All Star thread is up for discussion.

Gibby's decision to pull Batista in favour of Schoeneweis to face Damon worked, but I still wouldn't have done it. Batista is your ace, and had just retired Bellhorn on a pop-up. It's bad for the confidence of your best reliever for him to be pulled in a high leverage situation in the ninth unless he really doesn't have it. If Gibby was of the view that Batista didn't have it today, he should have been pulled before Bellhorn.

Batista hasn't had large platoon differentials over his career, and you want him to know that you have confidence that he can get left-handers out. I've felt that Gibby has done a pretty good job handling the bullpen this season, but I didn't agree with this decision even though it worked out in the short term.

I can't find it specifically, but Batista being pulled against Damon I believe was because of Damon's history against Batista. It was something like a .500 average with power. (where can you find individual histories?)

I didn't have a problem with the move, and like that Gibbons doesn't feel the need to go with established managerial moves (like sticking with a closer regardless). If this kills Batista's confidence then I'm not sure he's closer material.

Damon's numbers vs. Batista can be found here.

He was 11-for-22 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, and 4 walks.

You know, something really interesting has happened to the Blue Jays this year: they're not afraid of the Yankees and Red Sox.

It's not just that they're 8-2 against Boston and 2-3 in limited action versus New York. It's that the intimidation factor is gone; the Jays treat those teams just like anyone else, and believe they can win a series with the AL East giants as easily as against anyone else. The Jays still aren't that great a team, but they no longer believe they're automatically outclassed by any other squad. This will make a big difference in the seasons to come.

Fun fact: the Jays were 8-10 in interleague play, the Red Sox 12-6. Reverse those records and the Jays lead the division by 2 games.

You're right, Pistol. Damon has killed Batista during his career in (small sample size alert!) 22 at bats. His line is 500/577/864 with 2 HR, 2 2B, 4 BB, and 0 K's. Yikes! Interestingly though, he has decent numbers against SS LOOGY as well (albiet with no power) in 20 at bats (before today): 350/458/400 with 0 HR, 1 2B, 4 BB, and 1 K. Interesting move. If you're going to yank your closer for another pitcher, you would expect a slam dunk matchup to induce such an unusual tactic, not a matchup in which the batter has reached base almost half the time during his career.

For future reference, you can get batter v. pitcher splits on Yahoo just by clicking on a player's name.

It's intresting to note that it's now half way through the season, and Doc has made only three fewer starts than all of last season, and has pitched about the same number of innings.

Differences between all of 2004 and half of 2005? Even though last year was still an average season for most pitchers, how does this year look: 4 more wins and 4 fewer losses, 6 more innings, 4 more complete games, 1 more shutout, 28 fewer hits, 30 fewer runs, 4 fewer homeruns, 21 fewer walks, 9 more strikeouts and almost a 2-run difference in ERA. Right now, he's currently on pace to meet or shatter all of his Cy-Young 2003 stats. Someone, please buy a beer for who ever suggested Doc to take it easy in the winter.

Gibby's decision to pull Batista in favour of Schoeneweis to face Damon worked, but I still wouldn't have done it. Batista is your ace, and had just retired Bellhorn on a pop-up. It's bad for the confidence of your best reliever for him to be pulled in a high leverage situation in the ninth unless he really doesn't have it.

It's a tough call, as it's even worse for the confidence of your best reliever to get dinged with the game-losing run. That's why I'm glad I'm not a manager.

My guess is that Batista will be OK provided Gibbons continues to go to him in save situations.

It seems pretty much the entire Red Sox lineup had tremendous numbers against Batista. He does not match up against that team well. If I recall correctly they're responsible for his one blown save.