There is painfully little Jay news out there today, and I think we've talked about Cito and Kevin Millar to the point that even I'm tired of it. So lets see what else is going on in baseball.
Interested in a free agent third baseman? MLB Trade Rumors has the list of who is available. Chone Figgins seems to be at the top of everyone's list. Adrian Beltre is another interesting name, if we are looking for amazing defense again. Beltre's agent is Scott Boras though.
Last night I was switching back and forth between the Bears/Packers NFL game (and wasn't that a great game) and the Phillies/Mets game. Phillies late season pick up Pedro Martinez threw 130 pitches to get the win. And he was terrific right to the last pitch, though he was helped out by Daniel Murphy getting thrown out at third, trying to pick up the base on a pitch in the dirt. But 130 pitches, for the guy that famously got Grady Little fired when little left him out beyond 100 pitches in game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, allowing the Yankees to come back and beat the Red Sox that game.
The Red Sox found that Pedro didn't pitch well after 100 pitches so they wanted Grady to take him out by that number every game. 6 years later and he is throwing 130 pitches for Charlie Manuel. Charlie is old school though. It will be interesting to see if this effects Pedro's arm going into the playoffs. The way the bullpen has been for the Phillies, I can understand why Charlie didn't want to go to anyone there.
ARod and Joe Girardi both got tossed out of yesterday's Yankee/Orioles game. I can't understand why would be so worked up when they won the game by 10 runs and are 7 games up in the AL East with less than 20 to play but I guess they come to expect to get all the close calls.
Ichiro Suzuki has been playing for Seattle for 9 seasons, since coming over from Japan and has had 200 hits in each of those seasons, after getting his 200th yesterday. He is the first major leaguer to get 200 hits in 9 consecutive seasons. The Jay's leader in hits, Marco Scutaro has an outside shot at 200 if he steps it up a bit. And if Cito continues to play him every day.
And the Rays have now lost 11 in a row, ending their playoff hopes. Sorry to see that, would have liked to see them knock one of the Yankees or Red Sox out of the playoffs again.
Anyway, use the comments to talk about anything Jays or baseball related. Or, of course, there is always the fanposts and fanshots if there is something you'd like to talk about. See you in the game thread tonight.