After an emotional and gutsy showing this weekend, the Jays have to adjust to a non-electric atmosphere and a non-contending opponent. The Mariners, who pay an anomalous mid-September four-game visit to Toronto, faced the same problem themselves this past weekend -- and struggled against Texas after playing inspired spoiler-ball against the Angels.

My advice for those of you in the GTA: Head down to the Rogers Centre on Wednesday night, and splurge on a 100- or 200-level ticket. You'll want to be up close and personal to see 19-year-old Felix Hernandez taking aim at the Blue Jay bats.

Felix isn't the only player you likely haven't seen before as you prepare for the series. You want to learn about Greg Dobbs? George Sherrill? Jeff Harris? The wonderfully-named Yuniesky Betancourt? Well, there's an awfully convenient way to do it -- and it's to read on here at Batter's Box.

On to the Advance Scout!

Here's a bunch of guys in the Jays dugout:

A close victory against one of the seasons toughest oppenents.

Well, as good as possible.

But one of the concerns expressed in recent days, by myself and by others, has been more or less as follows: if Vernon Wells is your best hitter, just how good an offense can you have?

Towards the end of today's game, this exchange happened in the Chat:

CaramonLS: Can you do a comparative analaysis of other teams #3 hitters combined?
Magpie31: When I get home!
CaramonLS: I'd like to see where the Jays rank, because I was going over the teams in the AL Central/AL East... Out of those 10, Jays would rank last.

Magpie delivers! A Data Table, what else!

Let's see, now. We could go with Santiago, Stargell, Sandberg, Ozzie Smith and Schmidt around the infield, Strawberry, Singleton and Reggie Smith in the outfield, Staub the DH, Seaver to start and Sutter to close. Yup, we could pretty much have an All-Star reunion from the late 1970s and early- to mid-1980s and come up with a pretty fair All-S lineup and call it a day.

Of course, if we did that, we'd miss out on more than a dozen Hall-of-Fame quality players, and that'd be ... well, bad if we want to keep up with the Joneses (and all the other J's) not to mention the Robinsons (and all the other R's).

So we probably don't need a team nickname, given the built-in cool logo (see image, left), but let's build the team up anyway in the hopes of assembling a roster that the other all-letter teams won't be able to look at and say "oh, yeah, we'll kick their ... S." So, then, it's not the Baltimore Baseball team (the Orioles, or birds) or the New York football team (the Jets, or planes), it's ...

The Jays send Teasing Ted to the mound to take on Jaret Wright and the Yankees at Yankee Stadium North the Rogers Centre.

Wright has an excellent 3.39 ERA since returning from the DL on August 15th, his K:BB ratio though is just 18:16 in 37 Innings.

The Jays come out on the right side of a one-run game.

I'm not writing a Game Report today.

On Friday night, someone made a monumentally idiotic decision: after the Jays loss to the Yankees, the song "New York, New York" was played over the Rogers Centre sound system.

Yeah, yeah, no one likes to see guys strike out. But there are worse things a hitter can do. Much, much worse.

When the Yankees scored in the first inning, on a Rodriguez walk and a Giambi double, one was able to absorb the blow. The Yankees lineup these days is extremely scary through the first five spots in the order: Jeter, Rodriguez, Giambi, Sheffield, and Matsui. I was thinking that if Bush could hold that crew to a single run each time through the order, he'd have a good chance to stay in the game.

Ooh, this is a good team. How good? Well, the greatest pitcher who ever lived is in the bullpen. Fearsome Dave "The Cobra" Parker is fifth among the squad's starting lineup in career home runs (and sixth overall on the team). That's good.

In the interest of not wasting time, queue up "Let's Get it Started" and meet -- I live in Texas, there's really no other name for them -- "The Black-Eyed P's."

Have you noticed that just about anything can be EXTREME these days? As a younger person, I am certainly motivated to purchase a specific brand of soap because it is extreme. In that spirit, here's our first ever EXTREME CAPTION CONTEST:

I should have known right then it was too good to last
God, it's such a drag when you're livin' in the past

Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes
Even the losers keep a little bit of pride

The Doubledays fell last night to the Staten Island Yankees by a 3-2 score. The Yankees won the NYPL title, sweeping the best-of-three series. Nonetheless, Auburn had a fine season.