he is "frustrated" that he hasn't pitched in so long and that "who knows how you feel after 10 days?"

I'm certain he's having unhappy flashbacks to 2004, when he broke camp as the fifth starter, sat around getting rusty, made finally two mediocre April starts and was promptly designated for assignment.

At least Towers is facing the Royals lineup.  That should increase the likelihood that he'll be successfull and help with his confidence.  I'm actually expecting Towers to be a decent 5th starter with an ERA a little over 4.50.  I don't think he'll ever pitch as well as he did in 2005, or as badly as he did in 2006, but a return to the mean wouldn't surprise me.  My real concerns, whether justified or not, are with Chacin and Ohka.  Call it a gut feeling, but I don't want to watch when Ohka faces the Yankee's but I've got a good feeling about Towers this year.  Time will tell.

It's very early but the offence is looking as good as advertised.

So good, in fact, I think we should ship Reed Johnson or Alex Rios away for a solid starter. 

This team is one good starter away from being a serious contender in the American League.  Chacin/Okha/Towers does not inspire confidence although Jannsen is starting to be an intriguing prospect for a spot in the rotation.

Adam Lind would be ready to slide into the vacated outfield spot.

I'm really not sure you'd get a quality starting pitcher for Rios or Johnson. The Phils were apparently hot on Rios, and all they were offering was John Lieber.

 Pitching is at a huge, huge premium. Unless someone like the Angels gets really desperate, I can't see it happening; what's the point of trading Rios, while he's still cheap, for a 3rd-4th starter?

  If Johnson has another strong season, I'd consider trading him to open up a spot for Lind. Right now, though, I'm not sure he's completely shed the "4th outfielder" label in the eyes of MLB.

It's been a while that the Jays have won a home opener so comfortably.  I felt the game was over after the 2nd inning.  The game could've turned out differently because Burnett just couldn't throw strikes in the early going, especially in the 2nd.  That inning ending double play ball A.J. induced to Overbay was perfect because it looked like it was going to be a line out before it short hopped in front of him.  That froze the runners just long enough for them to complete the difficult 3-6-3 twin killing.  It also helped that it was the catcher rapping into the DP.

Those who complain that baseball is a boring sport could pull out the first 3 innings as exhibit A.  Nobody knew how to pitch.  A.J. just couldn't locate with any of his pitches and relied exclusively on the heater though it was on a curve that he got Buck on to end the 2nd.

Another positive was the Jays weren't really giving away any at-bats.  They just kept trying to pour it on and that was encouraging.

The only negative was the Jays inability to reach double digits.  Vernon gets thrown out by a mile at the plate in the 1st and I don't remember seeing Rios near the plate to tell him to slide.  And Hill gets stranded after a leadoff double in the 7th.  If that's the only complaints I can muster, this should be a hell of a season!  :)

Random observations surrounding the game......

The pre-game ceremonies were pretty decent.  For those who weren't there, there were flourescent base lines laid down and just like a stick of dynamite about to go off, the lines lit up like someone rounding the bases.  It was a cool effect.  They also had a montage of play-by-play calls from Tom and Jerry.  Very well done.

The line-up introductions seemed to take forever.  When you're trying to rile up the crowd, I don't think it's a good idea to introduce the trainers first.  It seemed like everyone from the tax accountants and the ushers were introduced before the players.  The jumbotron graphics seemed to come right out of the movie "Tron" for the player introductions.

The Jays had trouble scrounging up a couple of catchers for the pre-game ceremonial first pitches by Ernie Whitt and Alan Ashby.  Tim Langdon had to call out for a couple of volunteers to do it.  Usually, it's the backups who handle these chores but I guess the likes of Jason Smith were too big league for that :).  Lyle Overbay and Aaron Hill did the honours and they went on to have pretty good nights with the stick.  Maybe more of the regulars should catch behind the plate for ceremonial first pitch.

An Ontario Power Authority ad featuring Paul Godfrey and the provincial Energy minister talking about the changes made around the RC to save energy was one of the most painful commercials I have ever seen.  I hope we don't get to see this ad too often.  The script reading was so mechanical, that's the only way I can describe.  I wonder how many takes that took.  I bet the producers at the end of it all probably just said to hell with it, we're done, it won't get any better!  I don't mean to make fun of Paul Godfrey.  He helped clear up a long standing problem I had when it came to ordering Toronto Star Season Passes but that commercial was bad.

In a rip off of the sausage race in Milwaukee, they had a Chili race but it was too short and lame.  It was opening night, hopefully they can iron out the kinks and make it longer and funnier.

Even Ryan Greer had a blooper as well as he forgot the name of the other car in the GM giveaway when he asked the winner which car she wanted. 

As far the scoreboard goes, it appeared the linescore graphics were made bigger but the auxiliary stats scoreboard graphics were made smaller. 

The one thing I wish they'd bring back was the bio information on each player on the jumbotron during their first at bat (birthplace, bats, throws, etc.).  Instead, they just threw out some random facts about each player before running down their plate appearances in the later AB's.  I also wish the Jays would take a page out of the Phillies scorebook and list a scoring play after each at-bat, such as 4-3, 3-6-3 DP, F9, etc.  It'd be a way to encourage people to score the game and maybe buy more programs as a result.  

Anyways, it's good to have baseball back in town and I hope we have more games like this one all season long! 

The Jays are having a bit of fun with the with the whole "Frank Thomas shouldn't beat children on television" silliness:

Not only have the Jays appealed that ruling but they’ve taken the whole matter a step further by declaring their game against the Seattle Mariners at Rogers Centre on Sept. 2 Frank Thomas “Pillow Giveway” day for kids.

The first 5,000 kids aged 14-and-under – watch out, the Jays will probably be checking for ID – into the Rogers Centre for that game will be given a free pillow. One side of the pillow will have a picture of Thomas and the other side will carry his name.

Okha has had past success against the Yankees.

Hmm. While he does have a 0-1, 1.50 record against them, that's in two career starts (12 IP), none of them in the last three years.

NO! What is this obsession with trading away Rios? I remember last offseason when some people here were begging JP to trade Rios for Brad freaking Wilkerson.

That's lunacy. But is trading Rios for another solid starting pitcher lunacy? Especially with Adam Lind waiting in the wings? i don't think we should trade him now but wait a couple months and if he starts putting together a season like the first half of last season his trade value will skyrocket.

I don't think this team can seriously contend with the rotation we have. Especially with the Yanks adding Clemens and the Sox adding Jon Lester later on in the year.

I'm really not sure you'd get a quality starting pitcher for Rios or Johnson. The Phils were apparently hot on Rios, and all they were offering was John Lieber.

Did the Dodgers offer Brad Penny? That would have to be seriously looked at.

Just to be clear; I do believe the best case scenario for the Jays is we keep Rios and Janssen and/or McGowan becomes that solid #3.

Towers has spent his entire major league career in the AL East and his ERA is 4.89.  That's including his horrible 2006 season.  (From www.thebaseballcube.com)

Maybe an ERA around 4.50 is hoping for the best, but I'd take a 4.89 ERA out of the 5th spot too, especially in this league and this division.

My two bits worth...

AJ...last night he showed great stuff, with very little command. I can see why when he can command he can dominate. He improved as the game went on. Is he the co-20 game winner we need with Doc? Yea, I think so. I still don't like the way he falls off to his left after a pitch.

"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" or the 21st century version..."Rios for an Ace starter!" Ain't gonna happen. Might get a Lilly...maybe a Meche...but ONLY after they've crashed and burned and their team wants to get rid of them. Rios is going nowhere...until the trading deadline (if at all...) when we pick up someones bad contract.

Starters...If Ohka bobbles next time...Janssen. If Chacin bobbles...Zambrano. If Towers bobbles... Marcum. We have the technology, we can rebuild from within, only when our in house techy's can't do it do we consider trading Rios.

Remember...last year Towers got 10 flights of steps down the staircase to hell. This year we've got the backup to save ourselves before he (or any of the other three Tower's we have) gets even 10 steps down that staircase. That is a huge, massive, gie-hu-moung-ous, (...er you get the idea) difference.

Opening day at home, Good.

Winning by 246 runs, Great!

51,000 Jay's fans, screaming our feathered friend's every play, Priceless! 

Woo-hoo, first post.  As well, last night was the first home opener I went to.  Pre-game was cool, but as #2JBrumfield said, player introductions were a bit too long. 

It was nice when everybody gave the Big Hurt a nice welcoming ovation.  And some fans in right field were giving Matt Stairs a "Bleacher Creatures" type of roll call.  Us Blue Jays fans. *chuckles and shakes head*

That was a crazy game.  AJ, for those two innings, decided it just wasn't a Blue Jay game unless someone pitched like Ted Lilly.  He had a 3 hit shut out going and it felt like any minute he was going to just lose it. The strike zone was elusive and he was walking guys with two outs.  Working from behind.  Crossing up his catcher.  The boy has dynamite stuff though and if he can get his head going and his feelings out of it, he is going to be a lot of fun.

Aaron Hill had a beautiful game.  And Vdub swore when he popped up, a true indicator that the baseball season has begun.

And re. Josh Towers.  That guy had a crappy year.  A nightmare year for any pitcher.  But he never blamed anyone else, he took responsibility for his own performance.  He also never got snotty with the media.  His team also seems to love him and were very supportive of him.  He worked very hard in the winter and spring to earn his job back, so I'm going to support him now.

Didn't even need the give away clue to recognize this influential 1968 album.

But let the record show it wouldn't be until around 1975 or 76 till I fell in love with it.

Richard Griffin has an excellent column on AJ Burnett in todays's Star online. Here is an  excerpt from the top.

"There are reasons why A.J. Burnett has never fulfilled his awesome potential. One of those downside risks counteracting his talent is a focus that isn't as simple to describe as day-to-day. It can be inning-to-inning, even pitch-to-pitch."

What was the message to Towers tonight, was is like we trust you and here is your test Grasshopper.

Or we could give a damn for your success, your crap anyhow so we might as well rest our A team while your on the hill.

I would actually like to hear Gibbons or Ricciardi express their line-up decision tonight. To me that was just bailing on a teamate that could use just a little extra support in his first start of the season after a woeful 06. And I'm not blaming his teamates per say. I think Rios was tight tonight, knowing there was no margin for error. That was just about his worst night ever on defense and he has had a few clangers in the past.

Stairs in left tonight, I mean what the hell is the thinking tonight of all nights.

Yeah, I 'd say management should take a few lumps for this loss.

I have nothing original to add, either.  I thought Towers pitched quite competently tonight, and was given absolutely no support either by his teammates or his manager, who hung him out to dry as soon as the lineup cards were exchanged.

The Jays should be required to post a parental advisory notice before every Stairs start in the outfield.  No child should be exposed to that type of obscene performance.   

• For someone with Frank Thomas' track record I am suprised at the number of pitches he swings for and misses.  I am not sure this is a sign of anything...
• I had the sense Alex Rios hasn't played well, but saw he was hitting around .300.  Then I noticed his on base percentage and batting average are identical (.296).  Is he impatient or is this just a small sample size?
  
• Troy Glaus looks like he is hurting quite badly, in spite of this he is much more athletic than his press would suggest.

Actually, I drew the opposite conclusion from the 3 B-list replacements...I saw Gibby telling Towers we're a team, do your best it's one game, no big deal. Towers KNOWS he deserved a better response...if the A-team had been there and things unfolded like they did tonight his confidence would be damaged...tonight I bet Josh is saying get me the big team and I'll kick butt. He did a lot of good things tonight...no walks, a strikeout per inning...a few too many hits (even if real players could have caught some of the bloops).

We are not going to the playoffs unless Janssen, for sure, and probably Marcum and McGowan are in the starting rotation by mid to late May... OR some of Chacin, Zambrano, Towers and Ohka play SO WELL the youngsters can't force their way in. I can't see all of Curly, Moe, Larry and Shemp keeping the cream from rising.

I like Smith, the guy has a cannon. Rios is scaring me... he swung at some pitches tonight that he should be past swinging at. HOWEVER, the ump was blind, not sure if he was deaf but I heard him so I know he wasn't dumb, at least not in the verbalizing meaning of the word. For the ump's sake I'll have this translated into braille.

     It's completely ridiculous to suggest that Gibbons had given up on this game in advance, or had written it off as a "lost cause" because Towers was pitching.  I've rarely heard such an absurd idea.  The Jays are playing one of the weakest teams in the league and they're going to see it as a "lost cause" just because their 5th starter is pitching?  You seriously believe this?

      In fact, Gibbons had a perfectly reasonable explanation after the game when he was asked about his decision to play Smith, Stairs and Phillips.   He knows that he will need all of those guys this year, and they need some ABs against major-league pitching if they're going to keep their timing sharp.   You can't keep them benched all year and then expect them to hit when you need them.   All of his key starters -- including Johnson, Zaun and Clayton -- will need some days off if they're going to avoid fatigue over the course of a long season.   And, offensively at least, his three back-ups were completely adequate against the Royals, going 3-for-10 with a double.   If you're determined to blame someone, what about the heart of the order, the regulars who went 1-for-16 with two errors?   Actually I wouldn't really blame them either, since this was their first bad game of the season, but some fans seem keen to find scapegoats.

      Don't forget that Gibbons had been planning to start Stairs and Smith on the 3rd game of the season, and had actually written their names into the lineup card, but the game was cancelled.  Does that mean that Gibbons had given up on the 3rd game (Chacin's start) as a lost cause too?   Do we think that the back-ups are only allowed to play when Halladay is pitching?

    Personally, I think the Jays bench seems reasonably good so far, and I like the idea of giving them some ABs to keep everyone fresh.  

Actually, I drew the opposite conclusion from the 3 B-list replacements...I saw Gibby telling Towers we're a team, do your best it's one game, no big deal. Towers KNOWS he deserved a better response...if the A-team had been there and things unfolded like they did tonight his confidence would be damaged...tonight I bet Josh is saying get me the big team and I'll kick butt.

Maybe I'm misreading this comment, but if the idea of starting Stairs, Smith and Phillips in the same game was to give Josh a silver lining in the event of struggles, then I think that's a mistake. 

I'm all for keeping the bench sharp, but I don't see why all three had to start in the same game.  Maybe there's something behind the scenes that I'm missing, like this move makes the clubhouse happy because everybody feels like they belong or something, I don't know.  I found it frustrating though.

I respect most of your opinions, and my assessments were by no means based solely on this one game.  Towers at his best is a rare thing, and the stars have to seemingly be aligned perfectly for this to happen.  When this doesn't happen, his chances against the rest of the AL are slim to none.  This affords him a certain amount of leeway, as people do not fault him for something that is inbuilt and essentially out of his control, but this is inconsequential to the effect this has on his chances of succeeding.
 
In a way he survived a fortunate fate with this start, instead of people focusing on the crippling HR conceded to Gordon or the fact he got swatted around the park, they focus on his outstanding yet irrelevant play (to his pitching) on 3rd and a few misplays in the field which costly as they were, will prove that they were a separate problem altogether (on another note, I could be wrong as I didn't catch the replay but felt Stairs made the right decision to go for that ball considering where he was positioned; the ball was hit so hard that the CF would make it to the ball at virtually the same time he would have).
 
When I said smoke and mirrors, it touched a nerve, but my intention with that phrase was not that one cannot be successful without a 95+ fastball but simply that Towers isn't the guy that can do it.

Fair enough, it was a play that deserved full marks. 

What I meant, but didn't convey that well, was that it obviously cannot be used to forecast anything to do with his pitching. It was relevant in the sense that he is a gamer who will come to play everytime he is out there, but I never disputed that.

But I digress, the guy has had only one start and he lost, big deal.  I'll reserve any further judgement until he has a few more cracks at it.

actionjackson's right.  You don't need to make your plate fuller than it already is, especially with your second child (congratulations, by the way!).  Just post your pictures whenever you're sure you have time, or if you feel you haven't done one in a while.  Anyway, thanks a lot.  POTW or POTD makes Da Box even better than it already is.