Shortly before the All-Star Break, numerous Rosterites assembled electronically for a week-long online Roundtable on the state of the Blue Jays franchise, short-term and long-term. The mood was upbeat and positive, right up until Kevin Mench's line drive fractured Roy Halladay's tibia. Things got a little more sombre after that.

Accordingly, we've broken down this extensive Roundtable into two sections -- pre-HLH-injury and post-HLH-injury. Read what the Roster had to say about the Jays, and add your own two cents' worth at the end.

4 teams had the night off. Dunedin got the win while Pulaski lost. Most importantly though, Guillermo Quiroz made his return as the D'Jays DH and was hit by two pitches. Did you wince when you read that? I sure did.

Hey Look! An Actual Book Review!

We've had quite a lovefest for author/historian and baseball journalist Alan Schwarz here on Batter's Box Interactive Magazine recently, publishing no less than six distinct threads related to his recent appearance at Toronto's Learning Annex.

These included, among others, three different iterations of the initial announcement, one collecting questions for what would become the first Batter's Box "group interview" chat (read the transcript) and a review of the actual Annex presentation, covered by our own Thomas and NFH, pen and camera in hand, respectively.

That seems like quite enough, wouldn't you think? Oh no, certainly not. In fact, quite recently another member of the Roster, who shall go nameless here, dropped me an e-mail, the essence of which read "Yo, nimrod." (I am paraphrasing here.) "All this, and don't you think it'd be smooth if we included an actual review of Schwarz's book?"

Oh yeah! So here we go ...

Aaron is doubtless teaching young Theo the fine art of recognizing a slider ("you look for that red dot the seams make while it's spinning"), so today's Picture comes from Liam McIlroy, who wishes to express his apprehension regarding the next few weeks.

This is no ordinary Instant Replay. This is also a look back at what every Toronto Blue Jay All-Star ever did in the Big Game.

The D-Jays finished the first half in second place behind the Lakeland Tigers, and started the second half well.

Always look on the bright side, right? Well, the title is the bright side. The whole bright side. Otherwise, it was an altogether rotten night for the Blue Jay farm as they dropped 4 of 5 matches.

Why does the baseball have the best all-star game?

The Alomar Division race has two horses, and one horse is a walrus.
Pythagoras wags finger disapprovingly at Barfield’s Pistol Nine as Junior Felix smiles.
Dr. Z’s Magic Papaya Baseball separates from Carter pack.

Now I'm sitting here,
Sipping at my ice cold beer,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the first NFH challenge is now final, leaving two more on the go...

And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

A distinct feeling of Deja Vu.

Some good pitching last night on the farm (2-3 record, though), with one starter striking out 11, another pitching seven shutout innings and one more sort of went the distance. Actually, he didn't pitch a complete game at all. Read on for more.

So there's a little ballgame in Detroit tomorrow, an exhibition, if you will, although This Time (Again) It Counts.

Over the last few weeks, Batter's Box Interactive Magazine authors and readers cast their own ballots regarding who should start the game for the AL and NL squads, and although as of this writing the starting pitchers had not been named, the Box vote agreed with the popular vote in a convincing majority of cases. Let's see ...