I'll be massive conquistador.


Blue Jays 7, White Sox 3. Wins 7, Losses 3.

I'm still giddy. I missed Wednesday's game. I don't know what it's like to watch the 2010 Blue Jays get pounded. Without such knowledge, I have no choice but to remain excited about how the team's played so far. The reality that wins and losses probably don't matter hasn't set in yet. As far as I'm concerned, that's not reality.

Hands up, everybody who had Dana Eveland sitting on a 1.35 ERA after 13.1 innings, with a 56.4% groundball rate. He's dealing. The Sox lean right - for a lefty, six strong innings against Chicago are no small feat. The only offense Chicago managed against Eveland was an insignificant solo homer by backup catcher Donny Lucy, after the Jays were up 7-0 and Eveland was pitching to the score, like a real Hall of Famer.

I didn't pay much attention to how Eveland attacked hitters. I think this start was more representative of the real Dana Eveland than the last one was. Eveland bulldozed 28 Orioles on 92 pitches; he threw 23 White Sox 90 pitches. The groundballs could be here to stay, and the tolerable K/BB ratio for a lefty may stick around too. But I suspect Eveland will start pitching away from contact more as the season wears on, resulting in fewer innings per start. 

It was wonderful to have the roof open for two or three innings. I've never been so cold inside the Dome, but 10-degree weather beats the hell out of indoor baseball. The Dome just feels less barren and mausoleum-like when the roof is open. I don't notice the empty seats as much. I also figure that the cold weather turns the Dome into a nasty pitchers' park. If true, that has to hurt this year's Jays, with their legion of all-or-nothing hitters and their questionable outfield defense. (It did knock a couple of balls into the outer reaches of Jeremy Reed's range in right field, though, and Reed capitalized both times with difficult running catches. His routes looked perfect from the upper deck.)

It's not impossible to hit one out with the roof open, of course. In the second, Snider opened the scoring with a no-doubter into the second deck off Freddy Garcia. The solo homer nearly doubled his slugging percentage. He was due.

Here's an angle I haven't seen much of about the interminable Snider/lineup discussion. Snider, as the 8 hitter, bats right before McWhoever. This results in Snider getting less than nothing to hit. 17 of his 38 plate appearances have ended in a strikeout or a walk. Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but it looks to me like Snider has been pressing, and you can't make a big impression by drawing walks. If I'm right, you'd think it might make more sense to put him in the Maximum Protection slot in the lineup. That's the one right before Adam Lind, where the current occupant is tattooing everything thrown his way. Gonzalez should stay right where he is, obviously. But if he gets an off day sometime this weekend, I nominate Snider to fill the 2-hole in his absence.

Here's one stab at the eventual lineup: Lewis/Bautista, Gonzalez, Lind, Wells, Snider, Hill, Overbay, Buck, Encarnacion? Maybe swap Overbay into the 1-hole? Or Hill and Gonzalez? It's going to be a puzzler.

Gonzalez has been impressive. He's getting on top of a lot of baseballs. The small 2010 sample reflects it: Gonzo's popup rate (IFFB%, infield flies as a percentage of flyballs) sits at 5.9%, well below his extremely high career mark of 17.2%. The Jays are still easily filling their popup quota, though. For that, they can thank their human fungo bat: Wells' rate sits at a lofty 31.3%. He has literally hit as many homers as popups, though, and his walk rate is through the roof.

Jose Bautista's ability to draw walks while doing absolutely nothing else is remarkable. He is walking 24.5% of the time. Certainly, he has an excellent batting eye. But that walk rate raises a serious question: What the hell are all these pitchers afraid of? Bautista's career isolated power is .161, which is certainly higher than I would have guessed. But he's a career .237 hitter. Still, Freddy Garcia went 3-2 on Bautista to open the first. Splitter, ball four. Why? Then he went 3-2 again with a base open in the fourth. Slider, ball four. Then Randy Williams, who at least has the excuse of being lefthanded, went 3-2 on Bautista in the fifth. Slider, ball four. Don't these people have advance scouts? Garcia and Williams were throwing to Lucy, who's a rookie and might not know about Bautista's hitting style. But pitchers are allowed to shake catchers off. Bautista now has a wicked-awesome .194/.388/.333 line. He has 12 walks, 8 strikeouts and 7 hits. Until the book gets out, I'm perfectly happy with him batting leadoff in front of murderer's row.

Congratulations are in order for Natinals closer Matt Capps, who recorded his 71st career save against the dreaded Phillies. This was a very special occasion for Capps. For the first time in his career, he went more than one inning to record a save. 

The first-place Jays are home this weekend for a three-game set contra los Angeles de Los Angeles. The Angels are 3-7, dead last in the West, 3.5 behind Oakland, 2.5 behind Texas, and 1 behind Seattle. They've dropped series to the Twins, A's and Yankees, and been outscored by 24 runs. As always, they are outperforming their Pythagorean. But Mike Scioscia does not think they are playing particularly well.

Tonight, Anaheim ace Jered Weaver does battle with Shaun Marcum. Weaver is an enormous flyball pitcher (career 32.4% GB) who hides the ball well and throws nasty breaking balls. He has slightly larger than normal splits. Fred Lewis should play tonight. Weaver has thrown 6 innings in each of his two starts, both Anaheim wins: a solid win over the Twins and a dominant no-decision against the A's. The Angels are 1-7 whenever anyone else takes the mound. It is time to crush their spirit.

It's a pick'em at 7:05 tonight.