Hi Alex. It's been a while since we talked last. At least, it's been a while since I sat near third base and shouted stuff at you.

Thought experiment:

You are the GM of the All-Time All-Star team and get to pick your own personal five-man rotation for the Eternal Season. Consider mitigating factors -- type of pitcher, righty/lefty -- but don't worry about "salary" or "contract status." Important tie-breaker: all else being equal, pick your favorites. Only Major League pitchers are eligible for this team, so if you want Satchel, you get the wily vet, not the fireballing youngster. Oh, your bullpen consists of a variety of league-average clones, so get the guys who can go deep into games!

As they say in the TV commercial, who's in your five?

The affiliates went 0-4 last night.  However, a successful Litsch debut makes it a good night.

After not getting to Alliance Bank Stadium in our baseball travels last season, my girlfriend and I made sure we got there this season as we spent our week-end in sunny Syracuse, New York to catch a pair of Chiefs games against the Yankees new Triple-A affliate, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  The trip was also an attempt  to take our minds off the struggling and all of a sudden, less than truthful, big club.  However, Saturday's game at the Bank didn't help matters.  Here's a rundown of what went on during the week-end along with some pictures too.

Update:  I had some earlier problems with the photos link but it appears to be fine now!!

Yesterday, former Batter's Box author and University of Waterloo math student Rob Pettapiece inexplicably found himself at Opening Day for the Intercounty Baseball League's Kitchener Panthers. Was he bored with the Jays? Really hard-core about baseball? Just happened to be in the area? I guess you'll have to read on to find out. Take it away, Rob!

Photographs courtesy of Brock McNichols.

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Apparently the press box at Jack Couch Park is "usually unbearably hot and humid" but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn't shivering up there yesterday. During the third inning, the smell of fried onions from the concession stand below drifted up, leading one reporter to remark not that he was hungry, but that those onions could be used for warmth.

Outside yesterday in the 14-degree sun, the Kitchener Panthers of the Intercounty Baseball League played their home opener against the Guelph Royals. Kitchener lost the first game of the home-and-home in Guelph on Saturday by a score of 10-0, so they were looking to at least push one across and keep the other team in single digits. Or win, I suppose.

Ok, enough with the Indians.

Bring on the Rangers!

One month doesn't mean a lot - a single very hot or very cold week can skew everything - but there are some interesting developments.

I got home last night at 9 pm expecting to see a good hour of baseball. Well, Halladay apparently had plans last night after the game and was in a hurry to get there. He finished off the Rangers in just over 2 hours.

April ends with a 13-12 record and the Jays are off to Cleveland.

Chacin hit the DL and McGowan will get the start on Thursday.

I suppose I should have written this piece when the whole brouhaha about the Frank Thomas commercial was going on. Unfortunately I didn't think of it until just now.

Today was a day wherein Brian Tallet pitched in an extremely high-leverage situation.

Today was a day wherein a pitcher with a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio was pulled from the rotation and replaced with one with a career 1.3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Today was a day wherein Matt Stairs pinch-ran, and Jason Smith pinch-hit.

My Jays fanship is ready for the picket line. This thread is my sandwich board. I'm on strike!

The CP reports that Towers is out of the rotation to be replaced by Victor Zambrano.

Glaus is also set to come off of the DL today.

I suppose if the Yankees decided they weren't going to score a run off of Burnett it makes sense to save Pettitte for the Red Sox.

The Northeast US is never seeing the sun again.

The most over-used and misunderstood phrase of any early baseball season is easily "on pace for." In fact, announcers around the majors are on pace to use that phrase forty-seven billion times this week (roughly, that is).

So let's over-use it in a misunderstood sort of way ourselves. For instance, did you realize that just one or two (or in one case three) games into the MLB season ...

The minors swing into action tomorrow.