Game #133: Jays at A's pregame
Toronto (67-65) at Oakland (65-69)
at 3:35 p.m. ET at McAfee Coliseum
Today’s lineups:
BLUE JAYS
Vernon Wells, CF
Reed Johnson, LF
Alex Rios, RF
Frank Thomas, DH
Troy Glaus, 3B
Aaron Hill, 2B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Gregg Zaun, C
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Roy Halladay (14-6, 3.86 ERA)
ATHLETICS
Mark Ellis, 2B
Nick Swisher, RF
Jack Cust, LF
Mike Piazza, DH
Dan Johnson, 1B
Marco Scutaro, SS
Jack Hannahan, 3B
Rob Bowen, C
Jeff DaVannon, CF
PITCHING: LHP Lenny DiNardo (8-7, 3.57 ERA)
NOTES: Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi confirmed that Wells has been playing with tightness in his shoulder. The injury dates back to last season and Ricciardi said the club will have it examined after this season is over. It hasn’t been considered serious enough to pull Wells out of the lineup. … LHP Gustavo Chacin was scheduled to undergo exploratory surgery on his throwing shoulder on Wednesday. … Zaun’s left knee was still sore, but the catcher appeared in the starting lineup.
AL WILD CARD RACE
entering Wednesday
1. Seattle 73-57 (–)
2. New York 73-59 (1)
3. Detroit 71-61 (3)
4. Minnesota 67-65 (7)
5. Toronto 67-65 (7)
REALITY CHECK…Since 1995, the runner-up in the AL Wild Card race has finished with an average of 89 victories. The Blue Jays would need to go 23-7 over their final 30 games to reach 90 wins.
Major League Bastian 
Talk about a clutch performance-top of the 9th, 2 out and Stairs cranks one to tie the game.
WOW
What the **** is gibby doing sending Halliday out-he’s already thrown 111 pitches.
This s how pitchers get injured.
This is how soft pitchers get hurt.
Halladay is anything but soft.
true Robert, but check the last few outings, he’s been used a lot lately
Where’s Waldo?
Oh, he’s on the mound.
Wow, didn’t know Gibbons knew he was still on the team.
Wonder if Wells really is hurt or if it’s a way for them to use it as an excuse for his poor season?
Ithink it’s an excuse he never started to roll his shoulder until last night Stairs is the man.
Gibbons has no say about Doc he decides if he goes out again because he is a man Gibbons is not.
well someone had better come with an injury excuse for Johnson as well. 0 for 6.
Why not sray with frazor downs is over worked to say the least.”GIBBONS IS AN IDIOT”
yes it was a tough loss for Frazor-he deserved better. The batter was a lefty though, so Downsy was likely the best choice
Actually, I was wrong. Hannahan hits .256 against righties and .300 against lefties, so Wolfe was probably a better choice
Or as you said Garry-stay with Frasor
maybe Gibbons is illiterate and Whitt wont tell him because he wants his job.
By the way who did this dork JP ever play for I never heard of him or Gibbons before they came here.
Well, personally I don’t call JP a dork-I think he’s done a good job. As far as Gibby I think he played sand lot as a kid. lol
I know where I saw them before it was in a us postal station their pitcure was on the wall lol.
It seems nobody wants to post anymore thats what poor playing will do.
Matt Stairs gets my vote for team MVP this year,Dollar value Stairs is the best player the jays have landed for a long time.
I agree with you on Stairs-hes been exceptional for us.
J.p. was with Oakland before I believe as an assistant.
Why don’t we get a petiton going to get Cito Gaston back as manager and if they have to get rid of JP to do so do it.
What if Frank Thomas comes out of the gate next year like he did this year but still gets 1000 at bats we have to pick up his option for 09/or if he gets 580 at bats in 08/we still have to pick up his option, bad-bad deal by JP,By the way we can’t trade him unless we pay half his salery,But JP likes doing that look at his track record.
I must be the only Jays fan out west or the rest of them don’t know about this blog.
I wonder how many read this blog and are afraid to post on it well don’t be the rest of us would be very happy to hear your input no matter what it is remember were just fans like you,Guys and Gals alike.
garry
I wonder about Cito. I think one of baseball’s misteries is why he hasn’t had another big league job after winning two in a row here.
I listen to some of the Jays who used to play for him, and consistently they say he was one of the best batting coaches n baseball. So why hasn’t he been working?
As I remember a big chunk of Thomas’s contract was in signing bonus and I thought it was for two years. Are you sure about the 2009 option and is it Frank’s option or the Jays?
Joe Kennedy in 06/stats.
4-1
ERA-231
35 INS in 39 games
34 hits
10 runs 9-ER
only 1 hr.
I don’t know what happend to him this year but as you can see he has talent he could be a big help to us.
Arnsberg seems to get the best out of these pitchers as you can see maybe he can help Joe lets hope so.
gsumner go to the TO STAR and read griffins mail bag thats were I got it from and the info on gaston.
THe jays system is loaded with pitchers all of whom can pitch decently. In the future (i guess 2-4 years) we are gonna be trading them away like flies for mediocre/decent offensive players. Other than travis and a couple others no one in the system seems like they will be able to land a starting job as a hitter in the majors.
Guys if snider doesn’t improve his feilding then we will probably make him a DH then what happens to lind seeing that Lind is a DH too. And you guys think that lind will start with the jays next season?
and i agree with garry if you guys/gals read this blog then just post even once. We don’t care if all you gotta say is hi. Atleast that shows support for the jays and jordan who is a good writer.
harry.
One thing about Jordan he tells it like it is thats how a good reporter works,so far everyone on this blog has nothing but good things to say about him even though he is not a Jays fan but his wife is and thats good enough for me.
I think you will see Lind slowly take over Johnsons job and his fielding will only get better.
Towers contract is up at the end of this season so he will be a free agent,I hope he gets a good job the offence did not do him any favors this year.
Another thing this offence cost the Doc and Marcum a shot at the Cy Young this year,And the team the wild card.
I don’t know why Brantly is still with this team,This man is not a hitting coach at the best of times.
One thing we know for sure the Jays cant lose today lol.
harry don’t worry about the guys in the minor leagues they will come along it takes time.
How much will Stairs cost next year I say 3,5 mil.Johnny Mac will cost 2 mil.Will JP pay the price.
Don’t expect Glaus to heal up this winter I’m not a doctor but if you read up on what he has it’s no joke,And that bone chip will never heal,Just look at the problems he has had this year,The only reason he is still here is because of JPs inflated EGO.
I’m a fan out west and I’m so cheesed off watching Toronto loss games they should have won with just a few’BUNTS”to move someone ahead and get away from their double plays.Fire Wells,Overbay, Johnson all the coaches for starters.
Looks like the cheeks are getting tight in Boston who got swept today by the Yanks. Manny’s out for 10 days or so, and panic is setting in. They could be going into a tail spin.
Garry
Giambi in NY was diagnised with the same ailment that Glaus has. He went on the DL for two months and has been fine ever sense-so I do think theres a reasonable chance he’ll heal-providing of course no one trys to convince him to change shoe sizes again like they did this time.
Harry
What I heard about Snider is, he kept trying to make plays/throws like he did in high school at the start of the season. He also has been caught trying to steal bases a number of times for the same reason.
As you see from his stats though, he’s a valuable commodity, so you can bet they’re working with him to improve. I think Lind was the same in the lower minors but changed-to the point this year he’s only had 1 error in total between here and Syracuse.
Having a group of young talented pitchers as we have in the lower minors is pure gold. Even if we don’t need them here-they do become invaluable trading chips, in a couple of years.
It’s going to be interesting to see what The Jays do with Lind. Clearly, Wells, Rios and Stairs are coming back. Johnson is having a really poor year-and it might be that we saw his very best last year-time will tell.
I do think Lind will stay here next time up, it appears he’s gotten out of the habit of striking out on that high outside fastball and his average in AAA is up to .304
With Diaz and Fasano on the DL, David Corrente was called up from Dunedin. David is from Wallaceburg, Ontario and is batting .348 with 3 hr’s, 6 rbi’s and a ops of 1.206 in 8 games with Syracuse.
Makes you think the kid is ancious to play at home.
Hector Luna is batting .377 with 2 Hr’s and 3 errors in 14 games.
Kennedy went .2 innings last night, gave up two hits and a walk before he was pulled.
Brandon League went two strong innings for Dunedin,gave up 1 hit and strick out 1.
Ricky Romero continues improving from his injury. Went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 1 run and struck out 7.
so there’s no misunderstanding Kennedy went 2/3 of an inning
Twofossils: The Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, and Angels have all grounded into more double plays than the Blue Jays have this year, so it’s silly to blame double plays for the Jays’ offensive struggles.
Check out James Dougher of the Gulf Coast Blue Jays, one of those great young pitchers we have in the lower minors.
He’s a 6’7″, 225 pound righty starter who’s leading the Gulf Coast league in era-1.56 and whip at .88.
He had only one bad outing this year when he allowed five runs in just 3 1/3 innings. Take that start away and his ERA would have been at 0.68.
Opponents batted just .189 and he finished up the year allowing just 1 run in his last 27.2 innings.
Although it’s late in the season for promotions, I’d expect he moves up quickly next year.
Also, check out Brian Letko, Dougher’s team mate. He’s a 6’5″ lefty with an era of 1.50. he had two tough starts in which he gave up 7 runs.
Other than those two outings, he went another 33.1 innings and only gave up 1 for a staggering era of .27.
gsumner
thanks for the updates, seems like ricky romero is doing pretty good too. And i’m not too familiar with the minor league to wat’s the gulf coast. i know that new hampshire is AA and syracue is AAA.
i don’t think johnson will be back too cause JP wants to bring lind up (i think) next year if JP makes no moves except get rid on johnson then i think this will be the lineup (also taking into consideration that thigpen will be starting catcher)
rios/wells
overbay/lind
rios/wells
thomas
glaus
overbay/lind
hill
thigpen
mcdonald
I think that we should go to the trade route to get a good shortstop someone who is consistent and has some speed so then they can lead off. I just don’t like wasting so much power at top of the line-up. if we can’t trade for them then go after mcdonald cause money-wise he will be the best we can get.
Harry
It goes like this:
Syracuse-AAA
New Hampshire-AA
Dunedin-A+
Lansing-A
Auburn-A-
Gulf Coast-Rookie
Most of this year’s draftees were sent to the Gulf Coast, and Auburn.
The point, is JP and his crew appear to have had an exceptional draft this year-particulary in pitchers.
As I had previously posted, we have 30 pitchers down there with era’s under 3.0.
I like how Romero is coming around after being on the DL as well. If both he and Purcey have a good Arizona fall campaign, they might both start in AAA next year, or be moved up throughout the year-and possibly called up next September.
I would like to point out that one of the big reasons johnson had such a great year last year was because he was platooning with Catalonatto. This means he was facing mainly lefties. But, I love the guy’s heart and he was injured all this year, so I think we should be willing to give him a chance at the beginning of next year. We gave Rios another chance after the same sort of thing last year.
Also, are there any catchers coming onto the free agent market this year??
Johnson was platooning until he won the starting job from Catalanotto by outperforming him against righties. This year he hasn’t been able to bunt his way on and pitchers aren’t pitching him inside, which limits his ability to get on base via HBP.