As for who was watching Brandon League, the Denver Post reported today that the Jays are still scouting Ryan Shealy.  There have been rumblings for a while that the Jays were interested in Shealy, and the Rockies want bullpen help.

The Los Angelos Times have reported that the Jays might trade Hillenbrand to the Angels in a trade for rookie LHP Joe Saunders.  He was a 1st round pick in 2002, 12th overall, and has been impressive in AAA this year.  Minorleagueball.com had him rated as a C+ prospect at the start of the year, which I think is a little low.

I'd love it if the Jays could pull off those trades.  They'd get a DH who would likely be an improvement over Hillenbrand and who'd be locked up for 6 years.  They'd also get a pitcher locked up for 6 years who could be a #3 or #4 starter.  All they'd lose would be Hillenbrand and his salary for 2.5 months and a relief pitcher or two.  Hillenbrand would be replaced by Shealy and there are arms in AAA that could step into the Jays bullpen and fill in nicely.

Has some Jays gossip from "a source"

I don't think any of that is credible, especially in light of the Zaun and Gibbons comments.

I watch the games on Extra Innings and last night the Rangers color guy was incensed over Johnson's first HBP on the elbow (leading to a rant about 'armor' and 'courage').  This of course happened with two outs and was followed by Cat's weak infield single and then Wells' grand slam.

If the color guy was upset it's pretty likely the Rangers were in the same boat, especially since Johnson gets hit a lot against the Rangers (he had 2 bases loaded HBP last year in the same game against the Rangers).  So it's pretty clear that the Rangers made sure that Johnson 'earned' his next HBP.

Lilly's retaliation was a bit of a surprise, moreso when it happened (2nd batter after a couple pitches).  Teixeira had a great expression on his face after the ball behind him - it looked like a combination of fear and shock. 

The funny thing about the pitch was that everyone (including the home ump) treated it like a dead ball when it was most certainly alive.  For some reason Molina stopped going after it and Hinske didn't seem to go after it either.

Gibbons's support of George W. Bush and his team's perceived lack of intensity are issues.

The "trade rumours" article was funny enough up to this point, but this was hilarious. Yes, that well-known Daily Kos reader JP Ricciardi is upset with Gibbons' politics. Sounds like Marty York was having some fun with this guy.

The one deal I could see happening is Hinske leaving in exchange for a pitcher who could help them this year and next. His value will never be higher than it is right now, so if the Jays get a decent offer from a contender needing a corner infield bat, I'm sure they'll bite. Beyond that, I don't see anything more than minor moves.

They'd get a DH who would likely be an improvement over Hillenbrand and who'd be locked up for 6 years

Shealy is 27 next month and has a .918 OPS in the PCL.  I'm not convinced that he's likely to be better than Hillenbrand.  However, Sickels had him at a B+ prior to this season (acknowledging that it's higher than others have rated him).

No one is going to give the Jays a top tier starter for Shea Hillenbrand. 

I know that it never pays to respond to lunacy on the level of a scribbler like Steve Simmons.  However, since the Fan 590 keeps running those ads where he describes himself as the most honest sportswriter in town, it may be worth pointing out some of the glaring errors in his column, since the sports "editors" at the Toronto Sun apparently can't be bothered to fact check for him.

This is McDonald's eighth season in the big leagues. He has ridden the bench in Cleveland, in Detroit, and in Toronto twice. Give or take an outing, he has started 80-some major-league games at shortstop in that time.   "For now, he's the guy," Ricciardi said. The emphasis is on the words "for now."  The guy used to be Felipe Lopez and after that Chris Woodward and after that Chris Gomez and after that Mike Bordick.

Never mind that Bordick came before Gomez, and that Woodward became the starter again in between them.  Gomez and Bordick were never more than one-season stopgaps here in Toronto, and were never intended to be long-term starters.  Bordick retired and Gomez moved on to seek more at-bats elsewhere.  He maligns both of them to suggest that they failed when given the opportunity to seize a full-time job.

Once upon a time in this town, Bob Bailor morphed into Alfredo Griffin who morphed into Tony Fernandez, who morphed briefly and unnaturally into Manny Lee, who passed the torch to Alex Gonzalez.

Notwithstanding Griffin's rookie of the year season in 1979 or his all-star appearance, which came about because he was the guest of Damaso Garcia and an injury replacement was needed at the last minute, and with apologies to Sesame Street, four of these things are not like the other.  The illustrious line of Toronto shortstops starts and ends with Tony Fernandez. 

But this is also ahistorical - Bob Bailor may have been the opening day shortstop in 1977, but Hector Torres actually saw more playing time there that season.  And here is a partial list of the men who patrolled shortstop for the Blue Jays between 1977 and 2000:  Torres, Bailor, Tim Nordbrook, Jim Mason, Dave McKay, Luis Gomez, Tim Johnson, Griffin, Domingo Ramos, Garth Iorg, Fred Manrique, Danny Ainge, Rance Mulliniks, Fernandez, Kelly Gruber, Manny Lee, Alexis Infante, Luis Sojo, Rene Gonzales, Eddie Zosky, Dick Schofield, Domingo Cedeno, Gonzalez, Tomas Perez, Tilson Brito, Carlos Garcia, Tony Batista, Homer Bush, Woodward, Craig Grebeck, and Norberto Martin. 

Many of these players were late inning replacements and injury fill-ins, sure, but so were Frank Menechino, Dave Berg and Luis Figueroa, whom Simmons includes in his list of shortstops Ricciardi has used over the last five years, a list which also includes Troy Glaus, inserted at short for strategic reasons in interleague play. 

The Jays cleary have issues to resolve at shortstop (issues which, frankly, are less problematic than their shortcomings at the bottom end of the rotation and in the bullpen at the moment), but at least there's hope that they can be resolved.  Simmons' problems, however, are of the more enduring kind.

I know it's talked about a bit on this site, and as a first time poster, yet long time fan...I have got to say that it's bloody pathetic that we go from drawing 32,000 fans when Seattle is in town, to 16,000 against Texas.  No wonder our biggest players don't want to stick around!  To the credit of this site, I'm fairly certain that the regular writers aren't the ones that need to hear this, but there has to be a way to get this into the public.  Via mass media or something, the city of Toronto has a great product here and I must say they're producing in ways that the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Rock cannot...because they're winning, and they're doing it with style and in the face of adversity.  Let's get this message out to the public and go watch the Blue Jays!!

On the Vernon front...anyone predicting a big performance from him this weekend??  With all the rumour mills going wild about Vern's longing to be reunited with roomie Michael Young...last night's performance must have made scouts smile!  I truely hope he's bluffing, cause I'd hate to see a guy like that leave Toronto.  Toronto loves ya Vern...please don't leave us!!  haha!

Give or take an outing, [McDonald] has started 80-some major-league games at shortstop in that time. 

Give or take an outing... or 15, or 35. Johnny Mack had started 95 major-league games at short coming into 2006, and is now up to 115. Fact-checking doesn't get much more straightforward than this, fielding games started is a stat available on several popular web sites.

As per S  Simmons artricle.First of all what is a self proclaimed hockey scribe doing with a baseball story?

More cutbacks by Quebecor over at Sun Media?

Simmons entire persona as a writer,and I use that as loosely as I possibly can here,goes far past being objectively critical in his posts,to undeniably negative,pessimistic and ultimately destructive and couter-productive towards any team he reports on.On almost every article this man writes.

When he did cover the Jays years and years ago he was a constant,ad nauseum,Cito basher.At that point,for myself,I could no longer find him the least bit credible,objective and impartial,like any good reporter must be.

Please take nothing he writes too seriously for most is only in print ,for Sun Media,to hopefully roil the waters,attract some attention and ultimately sell more papers,at any cost.

The article today is proof of that.His research as stated by an earlier poster is misleading,inaccurate and downright lazy.

Even worse though is he tells us/fans absolutely nothing we don't already know about the ss position.We know Johnny Mac. isn't our long term solution just as we are certain that JP is looking for a player to fill that role if not by the deadline than surely by next season.

For myself I will stick to getting my 'hard core' baseball acumen from some of the best sources: this site,The HBT site,and writers like Jeff Blair and Larry Millson.

With all due respect to Steve Simmons,thanks but no thanks.

Interesting indeed...

In fact, going back to '94 and '95 when the mighty Jays had all their high profile contracts come up...everyone jumped ship for one reason or another dispite the Jays best efforts to keep them.  Devo went to FLA (for less money), Alomar jumped, Carter retired, even the Candy man (Maldonado) didn't want to stick around.  Hentgen jumped eventually, Stottlemrye left (good thing??)...you see my point.  There is a significant history of players wanting to leave the Jays after any measure of success.  Whether it's Canadian taxes, weather, or lack of fan support (although there was a ton of that in the early 90's) why is it that players want to go somewhere else?

The dome is no tougher to get to than the frdige in your own kitchen.  Weather...please...not to be difficult...but the entire East coast gets this weather and Boston, Washington, NY, NYM, hell even Baltimore gets better crowds...having said that, I agree that if the team is still close in another month the joint will be packed, but why should they have to be in contention to earn the "love" of the Toronto public??  Decades can go by and MLG/ACC will still be packed with fans hoping that a misguided hockey team will win a championship...meanwhile it's gonna be darn easy to grab a decent pair of Jays tix and see a winner

Let's get our facts straight.  Carter and Hentgen were traded to the Orioles and Cardinals respectively.  The Jays signed a few FA's in the 90's including some guy named Clemens.  Of course, some guys named Burnett and Ryan didn't sign with the Jays in this past off-season and Glaus wouldn't waive his no trade clause to come here because of the team's recent lack of success, right?

Carter actually left as a free agent, but he was pretty much finished by that time.  It seemed that most people knew late in the year that the Jays weren’t very interested in re-signing him.

Regarding Maldonado, he left after the first World Series to join the Cubs, who were coming off another typical Cubs year.  The Jays had Derek Bell waiting in the wings at the time, and I think that was one of the primary reasons why Maldonado wasn’t brought back.  When Maldonado returned as a free agent in 1995, he was traded late in the year to the Texas Rangers.

As for Stottlemyre, as I recall he was part of the Homestead spring training camp in 1995 (a.k.a. The Land of the Misfit Free Agents) waiting to get signed.  I’m not sure if the Jays were all that keen on bringing him back, either.

Damage control time here...getting back to my original point...lets get some more butts in the seats.
I firmly believe (and of course my basis for this can be disputed...and likely will) that if crowds increase, and the Jays come even remotely close to the playoffs...we keep Vernon for a few more years. 

Maybe I'm wrong though!

Well, both my cabbie and I were agreed at the time that SS was the right choice after the Young hit.  Now in hindsight I'm not so sure but it's hard to criticize on that basis.  What really incensed us was Chulk facing Wilkerson.  If you're going to play reliever roulette, for cryin' out loud, you don't stop when you're only down a run.  With four lefties in the pen, you have to use 'em or lose 'em - I'd have had Downs or Ryan (probably Downs) get up when Chulk did, and used him against Wilkerson.

In the end, I don't think the decisions hurt the Jays, just the pitching.  None of Chulk, SS, or Speier were all that effective, so you were going to give up runs anyway.