"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around"

Word has it that former Yankees standout Chien-Ming Wang has opted out of a minor league deal to take on a major league contract with your Toronto Blue Jays. The sinkerballer is slated to start Tuesday instead of Esmil Rogers.

Earlier this year I presented a top 10 list of minor league pitchers according to Age-Adjusted Dominance Ratio - a stat that I developed last year as a quick method of assessing a pitcher's dominance by weighing strikeouts against walks, HBP. HR and Hits.

"Well crying about it isn't going to make the Blue Jays a better team, unless your tears smell like pine tar. So you can go drink can after can of pine tar until your tears smell enough like pine tar that the Blue Jays start playing better, or you can go out there and find your dog!"

Or something.

I believe the 4:30 start time is a new experiment for the Blue Jays.  Day games are usually 7pm unless it is a getaway day when the game is 12:35.

Mark Buehrle takes the hill for the Jays.  Buehrle has pitched better over the last few starts, can he sustain that today?

"And so, the Blue Jays must go forwards, not backwards! Upwards, not forwards! And always twirling, twirling towards freedom!"

Game 2.  Can Ramon Ortiz continue to pitch like the ace of the staff?  When will the bubble burst?  The Jays trot out the usual lineup as of late.  No Izturis, Bonifacio is at second base.

There has been a lot of talk about the Dickey effect, meaning the pitcher who pitches the day after Dickey has a benefit.  I could possibly see a benefit if the following pitcher was Brandon Morrow or Josh Johnson, both of whom are very different pitchers to Dickey.  I am not confident that Ortiz will have a Dickey effect.

Will the Jays reverse course? Tampa are 8-2 over their last ten games. Will home cooking work for the Jays? Can Dickey do it?

The answers to these, and many other questions, will be revealed over the next 3 hours.

"Well Rodney hadn't done it"

"The Blue Jays had won it"

"With Arencibia swinging all the while"

"Bonifacio's stolen bases made us smile"

"And Kawasaki dancing on the dugout tile"

Been a while since I produced a Data Table, but the subject of working starting pitchers on three days rest came up the other day.

Something's wrong in this house today, while the master was riding, the servants decided to play.

Tonight was a night to forget for the pitchers giving up a combined 25 runs over 4 games.  Daniel Norris had another terrible outing for Lansing, raising his ERA into the double digits.

"Are they booing the Blue Jays, Smithers?'"

"Uh, no! They're saying Boo-urns. Boo-urns!"

I rolled on as the sky grew dark, I put the pedal down to make some time.

This year, I've made some adjustments to my Dominance Ratio (DR) lists. I've tried to put all the pitchers on an equal footing, analytically speaking, instead of trying to subjectively adjust for age, level, experience and performance. It's not perfect, but my motto as regards sabermetrics is: let the numbers take us as far as they can... but no farther. An explanation of the method can be found at the conclusion of this article, for those inclined to read it.