This week's previews come to y'all from an Advance Scout Icon who appreciates Rays beat writer Bill Chastain almost as much as I do. Take it away, Rob Pettapiece:


Alex probably figured his week of finals was bad enough without bringing the Devil Rays into it. So here I am, and here we are at yet another Toronto-Tampa Bay series. And no, I'm not sick of scouting the Rays. Why do you ask? The MLB.com copyeditor is getting tired of this team, one would infer, since Saturday's headline read "Rays, Jackson lose in multiple ways." Read on anyway to learn more about Jonny Gomes' new career, Shawn Riggans' absurdly long scouting reports, Joe Maddon's man-love for his shortstop, and Akinori Iwamura's friend named Nuts.

On to the Advance Scout!

"Dayton", with or without an "a" , were too much for the two Jays affiliates last night.  The "always exciting" sacrifice fly turned out to be difference in each case.   A rainout and a scheduled day off at the upper levels of the farm system prevented last night from being a total disaster.  

It's still tough at the top. Billie's Bashers, Schroedinger's Cat and the London Tigers lead their respective divisions but the biggest lead any of them have is just 2.5 games as the contenders mass below.

It was a little more than three weeks ago when the Jays hit rock bottom, losing their ninth game in a row as Roy Halladay was shelled for the second time in a week. The very next day Doc was having his appendix removed. Things looked... grim?

Steady Lyle Overbay was injured when he was hit by a pitch from Chicago rookie LHSP John Danks in the yesterday's game.  Overbay is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after breaking a bone in his right hand.

Hello, Matt Stairs, starting first baseman? What does this portend for the '07 Jays?

The Syracuse win streak continues and now stands at nine games.  When things are going well you find ways to win.  On Saturday the Chiefs scored in the bottom of the ninth when John-Ford Griffin beat out an infield single.  Sunday the Chiefs tied the game in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the tenth on a triple by Griffin.  Dunedin scored twenty runs and led 15-0 in the fourth inning, Lansing also won but the Fisher Cats lost ugly, twice, as Jesse Litsch returned to AA.

John Sickels held his 3rd annual 5 round mock draft on Sunday. I was the mock Blue Jay scouting director.

Chip Cannon was slow to get going last season, and again this year, but yesterday he scored three runs and drove in three.  Syracuse ran their win streak to eight games with a run in the bottom of the ninth.  Lansing won behind a home run from Yuber Rodriguez.  Dunedin suffered the lone loss.

Never accuse a major league ballplayer of "jakin' it." Well, maybe San Diego baseball fans would actually be thrilled if their entire starting rotation started "Jake-ing it" in the manner of young Mr. Peavy. Could we build a representative (read: decent) Hall of Names roster built entirely of choices from the 56 men in big league history who bore the first name "Jake"?

Actually, to clarify, given our usual "no nickname" rule, of those 56 MLB Jakes, only two have actually been named "Jake" (Mooty and Westbrook) and just 27 of the 56 -- that's less than half -- were even named "Jacob," so we will go with the full BaseballReference.com search on the name, including nicknames, to amass our 56 candidates, finding just one Hall of Famer and three All-Stars (two active, both pitchers, both already named here!). But as they say in Cleveland these days, let's get started -- it's a beautiful day for baseball at ...

Greetings from the Rogers Centre, where Vernon Wells and Troy Glaus are sitting this one out and Howie Clark is the leadoff hitter.

It appears Rob Cosby is a June groom. The April showers have come and gone, bringing May flowers, which didn’t suit him either. At long last, June has come along and Cosby’s so enamoured with the change of month that he’s willing to outproduce everything he did in the previous two in one night. So, here’s to putting a calendar containing entirely June 1st inside his locker.

Two hits, two runs.  Game time:  One hour & 50 minutes. 

Gotta love the Buerhle / Halladay matchup.

We look at the hitting prospects this week.  The farm affiliates went 3-2 last night

The .500 White Sox come to town. There will be aces tonight, strikeouts tomorrow, McGowan-Contreras Saturday and kids Sunday. Should be a fun series.

So, let's move on from our all-time rotation to picking the greatest double play combination of all-time. Let's be clear -- we're looking for an actual combo of teammates, so Trammell/Whitaker and Concepcion/Morgan are eligible (heck, so is Biancalana/White!) but Trammell/Morgan is NOT an option, nor is Smith/Sandberg or Rizzuto/Gehringer or anything like that.

So, who's your favourite-slash-choice-for-best-ever 6-4 combination? You may vote for as many as three, but please rank them in order of preference. Consider defense, offense, intangibles, whatever you want ... and feel free to campaign for and/or defend your choice(s).

P.S. ....