Game #147: O's at Jays pregame
Baltimore (62-83) at Toronto (73-73)
at 7:07 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
Today’s lineups:
ORIOLES
Brian Roberts, 2B
Tike Redman, CF
Nick Markakis, RF
Miguel Tejada, SS
Kevin Millar, 1B
Aubrey Huff, DH
Ramon Hernandez, C
Scott Moore, 3B
Jay Payton, LF
PITCHING: LHP Brian Burres (5-5, 5.85 ERA)
BLUE JAYS
Vernon Wells, CF
Reed Johnson, LF
Alex Rios, RF
Frank Thomas, DH
Aaron Hill, 2B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Hector Luna, 3B
Curtis Thigpen, C
John McDonald, SS
PITCHING: RHP Jesse Litsch (5-8, 4.11 ERA)
NOTES: Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said that the representatives’ for Matt Stairs have indicated that they want to wait until after the season to discuss a new contract for the 39-year-old. … Ricciardi also said that manager John Gibbons’ job is safe going into next season. Toronto’s GM wouldn’t say as much about the coaching staff, though. He said that an announcement about the staff will come "very soon" after the season ends. … Gibbons said that Russ Adams and Hector Luna will likely platoon at third base with Troy Glaus out for the rest of the year. … A team source confirmed a report on SI.com that indicated that Blue Jays director of player personnel Tony Lacava has interviewed for the Pirates’ open GM job. Ricciardi declined comment.
AL WILD CARD RACE
entering Friday
1. New York 83-63 (–)
2. Detroit 80-67 (3.5)
3. Seattle 77-68 (5.5)
4. Toronto 73-73 (10)
BREAKING EVEN…Toronto needs to post a 9-7 record over its final 16 games to finish the season above .500.
Major League Bastian 
Anyone think Banks should get a spot start in the rotation ? place Jesse into the ‘pen and see what happens. Wells should be shut down for the rest of the year, and Zaunie should be playing a little less with Thigpen up here.
gsumner & garryguy,
Love the Blue Jays ( last night anyway )
Burnett pitched great, imagine if the guy could stay healthy. He would win 20 and would have a chance at the Cy Young. IF he is healthy. Not many pitches have better stuff than he does.
Thigpen should be playing almost everyday-not once a week. Lets see what the kid’s got. I also agree Wells should go under the knife immediately to be really ready for next year.
Banks, I’m not crazy on-he didn’t do well at AAA and frankly I’m not sure why they brought him up. I’d like to see a 6 man rotation through the end of the year with Banks being one of them. That way all starters get a bit of a break
bosox
So who would you rather have for 100 mill-Dice-k or Halliday & Burnett?
I see Stairs has decided not to sign a new contract until the seasons’s over. He probably found out Abner’s coming back and he doesn’t want to play for a manager next year that can’t fill our a lineup card.
Lol
I’ll take 2 for 1 anyday of the week.
well that’s about what the salaries add up to. Looks like Dice K dodged a bullet in the 1st.
Obviously you added the 51.1 million posting fee.
Dice K. will be a rock for the Red Sox pitching staff for years to come. That is what it is all about. Pitching important games for the next several years.
bosox I see you dream like we do dice-k found out our rise cakes are bigger to chew here lol.
gsumner thanks I was lost,I forgot Jordans working this wk.
Garry-I won’t comment on the lost statement. lol
I think he’ll be a reasonable 3rd or 4th starter, but it’s a lot of money to pay for that.
well if we ever want to try to win this game Da kid should be yanked. Doesn’t have it tonight.
It all about the money just ask Stairs.
This offence and Abner next year c-rap.
Garry
Well let’s hope the kennedy experment is over
Hey Brandon has got most of his velocity back-thats good news
97 to 99 with 7 to 9 inches of break, yep, I’d say Brandon is back
Finaly a bright spot.
again same spot
Look at the bright side at least we didn’t play a double header.lol
Gibbons will be back what does everyone have to say about that.
Interesting day-we pick up another has been retreat, lose a game and win a championship.
The Jays picked up Joe Inglett from Cleveland on waivers today-I guess the question is why?
The good news of the day is the Auburn Doubledays won the championship in the short season New York Penn league tonight with a 4-1 win over the Brooklyn Cyclones. Auburn has been divisional winnners for 6 years in a row, but this is the first league championship since 1998.
Cecil Brett (remember that name) a 21 year old, 6’3″ 220 pound lefty went 7 innings,gave up 4 hits, 1 run and struck out 8. Cecil was the 38th pick overall in the 2007 draft and was the closer at Maryland where he set an all time saves record. His era at Auburn this year was 1.27.
Cecil’s arsenal includes a 95-97 mph heater and a real nasty slider. We must like Maryland, because one of Cecil’s school mates, Seth Overbey was drafted from the same school in 2006 and has now risen to New Hampshire in AA.
As I have previously posted we have some great young pitching talent that came into our system at both Auburn and The Gulf Coast Jays this year, with 10-15 of them with era’s under 2.00.
We had two pitchers being number 1 and number two in era in the Gulf Coast league-James Dougher and Brian Letko with eras of 1.56 and 1.50. We had two others in the top 10. Auburn’s pitching sort of stands on it’s own.
As these kids develop and move on up in the system, we will have tremendous depth in pitching as good or better than anyone in baseball.
So although I really dislike the decision made to keep Abner, I do like who ever it is selecting these kids, cause man we have some good ones.