Not much for Jay news again this morning, there is this hockey game, you might not have heard but Canada plays the US for the Olympic gold medal this afternoon. Unfortunately my son has a hockey game this afternoon too so I won't get to watch too too much of it. Please don't play Pronger against Zach Praise's line.
I'm hoping, with us leading the gold medal count and sitting 3rd in total medals with 25 that we won't have to hear journalists complaining that our athletes aren't good enough. I mean, even ones that didn't make the podium, they made it to the Olympics. Isn't that an amazing enough fete by itself?
The cool news of the day: Jordan Bastian twiterfied that he finished his marathon in 3:43, 21 minutes better than his previous personal best. That's a great time, congratulations Jordan.
In the Toronto Sun Ken Fidlin writes about Shaun Marcum's come back. Shaun says his elbow feels great:
"It feels like a brand new elbow," said Marcum, who last pitched for the Jays on Sept. 16, 2008.
"It almost feels like I’m 10 years old, again. It takes me three throws to get loose and other than that I just go out there and throw and my arm feels great."
That's nice to hear, I guess we'll find out how good things are in a few days, the Jays first spring game is Wednesday. He also says:
Had the Jays been in the playoff hunt last fall, Marcum probably could have returned at the end of the season. With that being unnecessary, he got the benefit of full recovery before coming back to pitch in earnest. "I thought I could have (come back) but that was probably just the competitor in me trying to rush back and pitch," he said. "When I look back at it now, it was probably a smart move that I didn’t." I'm glad the Jays took it slow with him, I hope they do the same with Jesse Litsch.
Both the Sun and the Star have roughly the same story on Randy Ruiz. He has given his number 3 from last year to Alex Gonzalez and will be wearing 21 this year, Roberto Clemente's number. Cito says this about him:
"Randy is a guy that I believe, given the chance to play and get 300 at-bats, could hit you 20 home runs," said manager Cito Gaston, who is a big Ruiz fan. "He has hit everywhere he has gone but he’s been unfortunate to be on teams where he just never got a chance."
Cito? if you thought he could do that, why didn't you give him the at bats last year. Surely you didn't think that Kevin Millar could come anywhere close to those numbers. Cito also says:
"He wants to play and I want to see him play," Gaston says. "But I don't know how much he's going to play."
Hey Cito, you are the manager, you decide how much he plays. Let's not act like you have no control over the situation.
At MLB Trade Rumors they have a discussion on the worst move of the off-season. It is kind of nice not seeing a Jay move mentioned. Our worst move of the off-season? I guess for me it is the Kevin Gregg signing. It isn't a horrible, ruin the season type move. It is more a head-scratcher, don't-we-have-7-to-15-better-arms-already type move.
Other at the Southpaw, Will muses on signing Adeiny Hechevarria (who would have the upside of giving Scrabble a run for his money on hardest name to spell) and a few other spring happenings. I mostly mention it because I was going to comment on his post but the first commenter said everything I was going to say. You'll have to look but don't click on the link.
Have a great Sunday. GO CANADA.