Just a quick report today, as I'm approaching a perfect 10.0 on the busy scale. Enjoy the weekend!

Canada has shown themselves superior to the opposition to this point. Now they face one of the co-favourites for gold. Game time is 4:30 AM Eastern on TSN.

The Fisher Cats swept Binghamton, as the farm affiliates went 2-3 on Wednesday.

The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

What have you heard? What rumours would you like to start? Report here. Couple of former Jay aces in the current headlines

This was from Gammons yesterday, so file under "unlikely" but according to him, the Yankees were very close to a deal with the Padres, in which they would send Jon Lieber and Kenny Lofton west for Jay Payton and David Wells.

Sorry to break this news to Scott Lucas, resident Rangerphile, but Texas is apparently looking to "bolster" its starting rotation by re-acquiring one Esteban Loaiza in exchange for "a minor league pitcher." We can only hope it's Justin Thompson.

What else have you heard?

Yesterday we looked at the question "What Can We Expect From a 14th Overall Draft Pick?". Today we bring it down a notch and look at the 15th overall slot where Gabe Gross was drafted in 2001. The results are pretty ugly.

In this thread, something we all need: a place to air our frustrations. So I'm asking you everyone, what for you was the lowest lowlight of this season so far? If possible, give us the date and opponent, or as much detail as you can remember -- this thread can be a standing monument to individual awful moments in a season gone wrong.

4 wins. 2 losses. Dunedin split a doubleheader while Auburn had the night off.

A couple updates thanks to Gerry in yesterday's thread. Gustavo Chacin has been called up to AAA Syracuse to fill in for Jesus Sanchez. I suspect there's a good chance that he'll be sent back down come playoff time. Also Shawn Fagan has been suspended for 15 days for unspecified reasons.

Jim Turner of the fine website Toronto Baseball Guys is putting on a get-together at SkyDome along with the York Baseball Association. Take it away, Jim!

Greetings Bauxites,

When I'm not dissecting baseball online, I'm a coach and convenor with the York Baseball Association, a very fine youth league in the city's west end. Each year, we have Blue Jays ticket sale, and as a reward, our Rep teams get two hours of precious field time at the SkyDome. It's quite something to see an 11-year-old hit a gapper and then realize how far apart those bases are.

I do what I do best because I'm illing and able
Ain't no faking - your money I'm taking

There really isn't a whole lot to say. Once again the Jays offence stopped after the first half of the game. The Jays haven't been badly outplayed since the series in New York and yet have won just 1 game in the past 8.

Over the last 14 games, the Jays are 2-12 with 45 runs scored (just over 3 per game).

Well, we'vestarted experimenting with a brand new format in our ongoing quest to fill Baseball's "Hall of Names." A while back, it was the Ballpark franks," and more recently, the All-Steve team.

Now, maybe before we dive into some of the already-suggested ("All-Joe," "All-Bob," even "All-Bud" and of course I hope to assemble an overly impressive "All-Mick" team eventually) followups, how about we find out what members of Da Box's Rosterhave the best "baseball names"? Credibility Check forthcoming!

Now... you know him as "Coach," and he's the founding father of Da Box (Cue theme music to "The Boxfather" and make him an offer he can't refuse) but the birth certificate says "Kent Williams -- which, come to think of it, would have made him a perfectly reasonable candidate for the recent
all Two-first-names team.And there's the question ... could a team made up solely of Kents stay in the game with a team made up solely of Williamses?

Once again Canada built up an early lead and coasted to an easy victory. The Netherlands tossed a lefthander at the predominantly lefthanded batting lineup, but Pete Orr, Stubby Clapp and Pierre-Luc Laforest showed their disdain for that strategem by belting homeruns. Orr's drive to straight away centrefield with two men aboard put the Canadians in flight. The game story from Canadian Press paints a fuller picture.

The three front runners for the medals - Japan, Cuba and Canada - have all started with two wins. Canada took advantage of some erratic defence and scored 9 runs in the first two innings on route to a 9-3 victory over Italy. Check out the gory details from Canadian Press here.

In a recent thread a Batter's Box regular made the comment:

of course, we wouldn't even be having this discussion if Russ Adams hadn't turned out to be so terribly, terribly underwhelming, especially relative to his draft position.

Which lead a number of us to wonder how much we should expect from a mid 1st round draft pick. In "Has Russ Adams Been A Disappointment?" Craig Burley compared Adams to other players taken in the middle of the first round of 2002's draft. I thought I'd take a different approach.