Ted's been terrific over the past three weeks. Wheres the love?

Just curious why Speier was brought in for the ninth. Couldn't Frasor have picked up a "cheap" save for pitching the 8th when the score was only 3-0. Not that it's that big of a deal, but just wondering.

I think Macha will get fined $450 for ordering his team to take the early afternoon off. Get some rest, score zero runs.

I still think it's a defensible idea. It just didn't work out very well tonight. Which means that'll be the end of it.

Frasor was used for I think four outs last night, so I think it would have been asking a lot of his arm to go more than one full inning tonight. Good call to have Speier come out in the ninth.

Nice to see Vernon hit a three-run bomb, even it was a tack-on, Joe Carter number. (I know, I'm becoming exactly the kind of unnecessarily negative, pessimistic poster I railed at earlier in the year. I'm disappointed in myself.) Way to go Vernon: You're getting your stroke back with men on base, and there's nothing but good in that. Can't complain about coming back and spanking the A's after the hard loss last night.

And Ted? Nicely done. It must have been good for you, after all the talk about your not getting along with the coaches, to hear your general manager say you were a big part of the team and he refused to trade you. Way to put the exclamation mark on that.

Wilner asked JP if they thought about using Adams or Hill at 2b, and he says that Adams is the shortstop, and is going to be the shortstop for a long time, and that Hill doens't have enough experience turning the pivot to play second.

That pitcher was barely recognizable as Ted Lilly. I'm used to watching Ted's starts with the remote in hand; once a runner gets on base he takes the equivalent of a commercial break between each pitch. Not tonight! He was purposeful and aggressive - a marvelous performance in every way, and a terrific showing by the offense who shared the load (everyone got either a hit or an RBI).

So can we start considering a nickname change now.

Ted Terrific?

That makes sense, about keeping Hill away from second base; the last thing you'd want to see is his knee torn up on an awkward double-play attempt. I'd also been thinking that Hill has done extremely well to learn one new position on the job in the majors; asking it of him twice in two months would be too much.

The Jays have now scored 51 runs in their last 6 games. By comparison, they scored 53 runs in their previous 12 games combined. In those last 6 games, Russ Adams is 10-for-23 with 3 doubles, a homer, 9 runs scored and 12 RBI.

My new cap's record is 6-3. Now there are some numbers you can take to the bank!

Is Russ heating up or what ;) :)
Tantanlizing Ted. It seems like clockwork. A bad month or 3 and then lights out. Maybe we can keep him under wraps till July and use a quick starter for the first 3 months. A stater rotation by month or daylight hours or whatever works. :)

Fair enough.

AL Run Diff

1) CHX: +86

2) LAA: +85

3) BOS: +53

4) CLE: +51

5) TOR: +49

6) TEX: +42

7) MIN: +41

8) NYY: +37

9) BAL: +14

10) OAK: +4

Hell of a finish coming in the NFH/Dudek Shea Hey OBP Death Match. It stands at .358 (advantage NFH), but a mild cold spell could change things. If we give him 20 more PAs, he'd need to reach base 5 times to stay above the jersey line.

I missed Wed with JP. My girlfriend and I went to a friends house, and I figured it would have been pathological behavior to stay in my car an listen to it. Were there any highlights beside his comments about Hill not playing second.

I think the comments about Hill not playing second have been misrepresented. As I heard it, JP did not think it would be fair to move Hill to 2nd at mid-season. Considering what he said about Adams staying at short for a long time, it seems likely that Hill could be converted to 2nd during the instructional league and in spring training 06.