Now that's interesting! The obvious worst-case scenario is, of course, is injury from a double-play pivot - if that happens, Gibbons will probably be shown the door.

Unfortunately, we won't get to see it, as our local sports stations assume that, because we are Canadian, we all want to watch as much hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey as possible.

My first reaction was also what is Gibby thinking?  But, it makes some sense.  Freddy Garcia has been outstanding this year (7-1, 3.92 ERA).  Gibby is putting in the best offence, with Glaus at short, Shea at third, Hinske DH'ing and Rios and Catalanatto in the outfield. 

And it's not like Glaus has been dreadful in the field.  He has just 3 errors this season.  And if he is dreadful, Gibby has options, he can move Glaus to third and bring in Figueroa or MacDonald, or he could even move Hill over to short and bring in Mac or Figueroa.

Glaus has played short in 10 games in the majors.   I won't post his stats there, though, because they're incredibly ugly.

I hope they do this 5 times, so he'll become a SS for BBFL purposes. :)

Gibbons did run the idea past Ricciardi. He also notes that he'd never try this if Halladay was pitching, but only with a flyball pitcher on the mound.

And unlike Hillenbrand and Hinske, Glaus actually has played shortstop in this lifetime. 10 appearances there in the major leagues, even.

Glaus just has to pretend David Ortiz is batting. Then playing shortstop is nothing new.

I won't post his stats there, though, because they're incredibly ugly.

Not really. He handled 8 chances without an error. As Glaus says, these were all late inning emergency moves, after pinch-hits and substitutions. He didn't play 10 full games there.

Post 'em Moffatt!  I want to see the ugly stats.

Okay, here we go. Troy Glaus at SS, career:

May 9, 2000: Plays the last two innings, team down by four when he switched. Got an assist on a 6-4 force.
May 12, 2000: Last inning, Angels behind by 3. No balls hit near him.
July 3, 2000: Last inning, down by 2. Uneventful.
Sep. 9, 2000: Last inning, down by 4. One putout, one assist on a 6-3 double play.
Sep. 25, 2000: Seventh and eighth on the road, down by 4. Threw out Tejada in the seventh.
Sep. 27, 2000: Played the 6th and 7th and moved back to third after that. It was just 7-6 Oakland at the time. No errors made.
Apr. 21, 2001: Last two innings, down by 4 again. Ichiro! was out on a 6-3.
June 10, 2001: Bottom of the ninth of a tie game (also played the tenth). Might have missed Lo Duca's single to left.
May 22, 2002: Top of the ninth, up by 2. Pass.
June 6, 2002: Top of the ninth, down by 3. Was the pivot man in a 4-6-3.

The total is 15 innings over 10 games. He's never started and has never made an error. Most of these switches happened when Benji Gil of the career .641 OPS was removed for a pinch-hitter.

Finally, some home run power out of the shortstop position tonight....

Sportsnet has an article, Glaus makes first start at shortstop, in which Gibbons is quoted: "Don't get used to it," Gibbons said. "And if something goes wrong don't get used to me." So far, his strategy is working brilliantly; Glaus is 2 for 3 with a HR and SB to start the seventh inning, with no errors in the field.

To the best of my knowledge Glaus' injury trouble was mostly in his elbow, and fielding doesn't really take a toll on that. He seems to be in good enough shape to play shortstop, and it's really not that unusual to have a big shortstop: Cal Ripken Jr. and A-Rod come to mind, as does Sergio Santos waiting at AAA. I expect Glaus to be a big defensive upgrade over Adams, and to maybe potentially become a long-term solution there so we can keep Hillenbrand -- I like the Hillenbrand/Kennedy trade idea when looking at contracts and roster holes, but Hillenbrand is still the better hitter. This would really solidify the lineup all the way through if Glaus could play short.

Andrew, to the best of my knowledge, you're insane :)

1. Have you noticed that Glaus wears a leg brace?  I have, and I've also noticed how much he labors when he's running around the bases.  One solid crash into his knee while he's trying to turn a DP could put him on the DL for a long time.

2. There's no way Glaus has the same lateral range as Adams.  Best case, he's a slower version of Jeter, who himself is not known for having terrific range.  Yes, Glaus can throw accurately.  Be he won't get many chances to throw unless he can get to the ball first.

With a flyball pitcher like Lilly on the mound, I can see the logic of taking a chance with putting Glaus at SS.  However, with someone like Halladay out there, forget it.  The chances of injury and/or major embarassment are far too high.

Still, one game into the experiment, it looks like Glaus can more or less handle himself there.

While Glaus looked fine tonight, the Jays were crazy to play him at SS while 3 other players on the roster were capable of playing the position.

He wears a leg/knee brace for a reason. Let's hope we don't see Glaus at SS ever again.

Jacko, both Gibbons and Ricciardi have said there's no way Glaus would be out there at shortstop with a groundballer on the mound.  In fact, it's like the second thing Gibbons says in the linked article.

When was the last time the Shortstop for the Jays was their cleanup hitter?  Has it ever happened?  When was the lasttime any shortstop was also the cleanup hitter?

Miguel Tejada maybe or maybe A-Rod with the Rangers, but I think he batted third in front of Juan Gonzalez or Palmeiro. 

Excellent question!

I assume you mean starting the game in the fourth spot. 

Tony Fernandez batted fourth in 1985, during the game in which Phil Niekro became the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout.  However, he did not start the game; he pinch hit for Fielder in the ninth.  So I guess that doesn't count.  He also batted cleanup 7 times in 1999, but by then had moved to 3B.  Dang!

Kelly Gruber played SS a little with the Jays, and batted cleanup a couple times, but he never did both at the same time. Crap.

This is going to take some work.

My jaw dropped when I saw Glaus at short, but he looked very solid at short tonight. He only looked bad on his range on one play, it was Podsednik's single up the middle in the 7th I believe. A ball that he should have gotten a glove on where he missed taking a step to the middle and dove rather feebly.

As expected, his arm looked great but that range on a bouncing grounder up the middle was a bit telling that he doesn't have a future there unless direly needed.

I really don't see it as ridiculous as some think and I imagine that if Lilly didn't have it, there would have been a very quick change. 27 outs per game with a pitcher who induces pop-ups and the shortstop might have what, 5 balls hit to him? Of those 5, at least 3 should be in the range that Glaus can get it, making two base hits extra on balls where a better shortstop would have gotten to.

Looking at the pitcher on the other side, I'm glad they went with this offense-only strategy and I think that only this could only work with Ted Lilly on the mound. I highly doubt that this ever happens again.

What's next, Ozzie Guillen coaching third base?

For anyone who watched the game, did you notice in the 2nd inning ... with Dye on first, Pierzynski hit a roller to Hill, who instead of flipping to Glaus to turn the regular 4-6-3, went to apply the tag on Dye himself before throwing onto first?  I wonder if Hill had the thought of Glaus getting run into or tripping up turning the DP... I'd say 9 times out of 10 you see the second baseman simply turn and fire to the shortstop to finish that play off.  Just my 2 cents.

That thought crossed my mind too, but it isn't that unusal for a 2B to make a tag on a runner on a ball that they have to come in a bit for and the runner is right in their sight.  I think Hill thought his only chance at a DP was to tag and throw.

What's interesting is that Hill had the ball in his hand and tagged the runner with his glove and the ump still called him out (although there was something odd after the play so perhaps the ump didn't miss it and the Sox broadcast did).

Pistol, after the play at first Hill was waving his glove at Overbay trying to signal to him to throw the ball down to second. Dye had either not noticed that Hill tagged with with the glove but not the ball (as was my impression) or was trying to pretend he hadn't noticed. Dye got to his feet after a moment or two (not as soon as Hill threw to first) and tried to scamper into second, but by this time Overbay threw to Glaus, who tagged Dye just before he got on the base. I'm unsure if the umpire called Dye out the first or the second time, but he seemed out on the second time, just in case. Apparently this part wasn't show on TV.

Just watched the Hill play again and that seems to be exactly what happened. 

From the tv coverage you can see Overbay walking towards 2nd with the ball and just as the camera cuts away he is throwing it to 2nd. The camera then shows Dye walking away from 2nd as the umpire gives him out. Looks like he was given out after the ball had arrived the 2nd time and not from the original tag.

The play was missed completely by the commentators, but hell, if thats something Hill did on the spur of the moment its a genius move.