Server problems seem to be over, so here's a game thread in progress. Hendrickson has just turned a timely 1-6-3 double play, and the Jays lead 2-1 as they come to bat in the bottom of the third.

Win or lose this afternoon, the Blue Jays complete a magnificent May. A record-setting 21st victory would be a nice touch, and make the standings even more interesting, but no matter what happens today, the big boys of the AL East know they have company.

There's no such thing as "June Fool's Day", but I thought there might be when I saw this announcement from the Blue Jays that they would employ a four-man rotation for the month of June. Doug Davis is slated to hit the pen.

Jose Contreras is on a torrid streak... he continued his recent dominance over AAA hitters in the Yankees' 6-0 win over the Tigers. I'm not going to pronounce him arrived yet, but he should be ready to take on big league hitters in his next start.

The Arizona Diamondbacks made a desperation trade yesterday. Despite a rash of injuries to the pitching staff, the 'Backs traded their best young pitcher for an average third baseman. Hillenbrand is a slight upgrade over Matt Williams playing everyday, but not nearly enough to offset the quality innings B-H Kim would have likely provided the rest of the season. Waiting in the wings is one of the top infield prospects around - thirdbaseman Chad Tracy. Look for various clubs to make overtures as the trading deadline approaches: Joe Jr has a history of trading young for old and it could well happen again. Could the Jays be among the teams looking to pry away the AAA third sacker?

Showdown time again for the Blue Jays, as they welcome the division-leading Red Sox to Skydome. It's fully recyclable righty John Burkett up against found object Doug Davis, in a matchup that should fatten a few OPS marks before the night is out. Good news for Toronto: Josh Phelps is back in the lineup at DH! Mike Bordick gets the start at third, and Reed Johnson leads off and plays right field, with Frank Catalanotto switching to left in place of Shannon Stewart, who's in danger of going on the DL with his bad hamstrings.

In a press conference on right now, it's expected that David Cone is finally, officially retiring. His struggles the last few years will probably dim in retrospect what was a terrific career from an intelligent ballplayer who from all accounts grew from destructive, self-centred jerk to the closest thing baseball had to a statesman. Me, I'll always remember Toronto acquiring him for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson (a steal, even today) in '92, and that wonderful strike-three backdoor slider to Rickey Henderson in the ALCS.

Batter's Box denizens aren't the only ones wondering what would happen if the Blue Jays, who entered this season fully expecting to rebuild all year and collect prospects at the trade deadline, find themselves in contention. Dave Perkins asked JP Ricciardi the same thing. Here's what he said:

Best-case scenario, if we can keep the same team and not have to deal anybody, we'll do it. [If the Jays can stay in the wild-card playoff picture], I go sleep on Ted Rogers' doorstep and try to beg, borrow or steal whatever we can get. I hope we're in that situation, to find out. If we've done everything on our end to win, we could hope so.

Is it possible that Roy Halladay's turnaround could be attributed to the fact he's gotten over being separated from his personal catcher? His worst starts were the two immediately after Huckaby was designated for assignment; he then followed up with three middling starts, and has turned it on since, with four gems.

Quick hits only today:

- Don't look now, but Mike Smith is turning it around at Syracuse: 8 shutout innings last night (5 H, 1 BB, 3 K). On May 1, Smith had an 8.15 ERA and had allowed almost 2 baserunners an inning. Since then: 36 IP, 32 H, 12 BB, 23 K, and his ERA is now 4.10. Still not dominant, but he continues to progress towards usefulness.

- New Haven got blasted 10-1. Not much to tell here, except Rich Thompson had two more hits and now has 13 steals.

- David Bush threw a terrific game against the Tampa Yankees (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K) and left with a three-run lead, but his bullpen let him down: Andy Torres and then Jordan DeJong blew the win, the latter allowing 3 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks in just a third of an inning.

- Brandon League threw the game of the night in Charleston: 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 11 K in a 4-1 win. On the season: 2-3, 2.08, 60 IP, 49 H, 18 BB, 52 K, 24% KBF.

Having already posted one law-related baseball story without being run out of Blogtown on a rail, here's another one: the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Florida's Attorney General that baseball's antitrust exemption violates state antitrust laws. The judges did so reluctantly, however, finding that a good faith reading of the US Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Flood v. Kuhn required them to rule as they did. But Judge Gerald Tjoflat certainly made clear the panel's distaste for the exemption and their strong desire that somebody -- Congress or the Supremes -- get rid of it. MLB says this would mark the end of life as we know it in our galaxy, as well as the entire minor-league system. I almost believe them on the second part, but minor-league ball wouldn't die, it would just reorganize, probably for the better. It's a loss for the good guys, but a moral victory of sorts, I suppose.

If you had told me on April 2 that Esteban Loaiza and Cory Lidle would have 15 wins combined for the whole season, I'd have said that's about right, with Lidle probably having 14 of them. Alas, here we are on May 29, and Loaiza brings his 7-2 record to the Dome, where he'll match fastballs and splitters with eight-game winner Cory Lidle. The Jays are fresh off a shutout at the hands of Jon Garland. Me thinks that won't happen tonight, mainly because Garland's not pitching, but also because keeping Toronto's offence down isn't an easy task.

If Jerry Colangelo says yes, then this deal apparently will happen: sidewinding pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim straight-up for sabrmetric whipping boy Shea Hillenbrand. This is a win for Boston -- Arizona should be collecting young pitchers, not trading them away, and Shea is four years older than Kim and has just a .317 career OBP. But it's not an overwhelming win: Kim has had injury problems, and there's no indication he can pitch more than 100 innings a season, while Hillenbrand has decent power and can hit a useful .300. Advantage Red Sox, though, no question. Thanks to Shane for the tip.

Don't forget to join the Batter's Box crew, including Robert, Craig and (hopefully) Kent at the SkyDome tonight; we're offering free tickets - there are tickets still available and please e-mail Craig at tybalt4@yahoo.com to let him know you're coming.

We're meeting at Gate 9 near the Will Call window - that's where Craig will be standing in an Expos hat (should be the only one at the park, you can't miss him). We're meeting between 6:30 and 6:45 but Craig will be there a few extra minutes if necessary to pick up stragglers.

Just so there's no confusion, here's a picture:

Put New Haven's batters with Charleston's pitchers, and you'd have a pretty fine team. As it stands, though, a lot of losses last night for Toronto's farm clubs.

ESPN recently ran a fascinating conversation with Vernon Wells. In this interview, we learn, among other things, that Vernon doesn't like his name, doesn't swear, and never gets angry about his at-bats.