Some Monday Morning Bits

With a couple of hours till the Jays/Orioles game, there isn't a lot of Jay's news out there. I guess we didn't link to a rather unfortunately timed post on mlb.com titled Confidence in Ryan continues to rise. Sad part was that it came out the same day Ryan gave up a home run in Atlanta. He is throwing much better than he was before his trip to the DL, but I'm sure the confidence he was building disappeared when that ball went over the fence.

I didn't have any luck in getting a 'View From the Other Side' for this series against the Orioles. Likely it will be a hit and miss feature because the people running the other blogs are busy too and, in this case, it is the Memorial Day long weekend.

Taking a quick look at Baltimore, one of the positives for the team is that their outfielders are clubbing the ball. Adam Jones in particular is hitting well (.359/.414/.654), but Nick Markakis and Luke Scott (whoops, shows what I know about the Orioles, Luke Scott is on the DL) are also doing great. Their infield is doing less well with free agent signing shortstop Cesar Iztruris leading the way hitting a John McDonald like .230/.271/.311. Former Jay catcher Gregg Zaun isn't exactly bringing his Z game to the team either (or maybe he is, if A game is good, wouldn't Z game be awful, hmmmm), hitting a big .210 with 1 homer. I'm sure O's fans are hoping that catcher uber prospect Matt Wieters is called up soon.

Orioles have their Ace Jeremy Guthrie (3-4, 5.37) starting today (yeah I know, a definition of the term Ace that we aren't familiar with). Tomorrow's starter is still up in the air as they have released Adam Eaton (even the O's release starters with ERA's of 8.56) and will likely call someone up. Wednesday, in another afternoon game Rich Hill starts. The Baltimore bullpen shouldn't strike fear in the hearts of any opposition, but closer George Sherrill is pitching better of late.

Jays have Tallet, Romero and Halladay starting the 3 games so we should see some good pitching from our side. If only the bats could get going. I was never a believer in the theory that teams go into hitting slumps after facing a knuckleball pitcher but I may start to believe. Everything went south after facing Wakefield. I am sure someone has done a study on the theory.

In other news around baseball, from the 'sometimes the jokes just write themselves file', Jose Canseco is fighting in a MMA match in Japan Tuesday. I'm not a big MMA fan but I'd pay money to watch someone beat on Canseco.

In less fun news Jim Leyritz is crying poverty because of legal fees fighting a DUI manslaughter charge. I liked Leyritz as a player, in spite of him playing for the Yankees, but driving drunk is incredibly stupid and he did it often. This time, apparently, he was in a crash that cost a woman her life. I have zero sympathy for the man. 

Anyway game time is 1:30 Eastern. We'll have the game thread and we'll play 'try to spot Hugo in the stands'. He'll be the guy holding the "I 'heart' Jamie Campbell, in a purely manly way" sign. Hey, as long as he doesn't wear a watermelon shell on his head or sit behind the plate in umpire gear, I'm fine with it.