I had a nice weekend away from ball, spent all my time at the Calgary Folk Festival. There really is something great about watching music being created in front of you. I learned lots of things: I like having pretty girls in short skirts, with beautiful voices, sing to me in French in the morning. If you ever get a chance to hear Reverend Payton and his Big Band play, do it. The cello is the right instrument to back almost any kind of music, blues, country, rock, folk all sound better with a cello behind it. kd lang had the line of the weekend, telling us that "a banjo is a chick magnet". She did a version of Hallelujah that would have brought down the house, if we hadn't been outside. I really enjoyed Joel Plaskett, but if you are sing a song called F*** You, don't do it at a morning workshop with young children in the audience. In fact, maybe the folk fest isn't the spot for that song. And, as a son of a Geordie, I loved listening to Jez Lowe, a folk singer from around Newcastle.
Anyway, baseball thoughts:
- Sure, I go away for a couple of days and we release Jo-Jo. I'm afraid the line between success and failure is just too narrow for him. He can only be good if he is hitting the very bottom of the strike zone and even then he has to be getting that borderline call. He's been just awful for the past month, with a 9.00 ERA in his last 5 starts. But I was surprised he'd be DFAed just before the deadline.
- I'd imagine Jesse Litsch should be the one to take his spot but the team isn't telling us yet. I wouldn't be against bringing Mills up and giving him the 12 or so starts left and seeing what he can do with a decent look at the majors, but I'd be surprised if they went that way.
- If your job is outfield defensive replacement and you've shown us all that you can't hit at the level we'd need from a corner outfield, if you job is hanging by a thread: How do you not go all out to make a catch in the 9th inning with the game on the line???? Yeah, I see he says it wasn't catchable, but in that spot wouldn't it be best to give it a try. Even if you forget about winning and losing, wouldn't it buy you at least a couple more weeks of drawing a major league salary? Would that make it worth trying?
- Wasn't that prefect timing for Brett Cecil's first shutout? Brett's last starts have been 8 inning complete game, 6 inning win, 7 innings in a team win and a 9 inning shutout. Couldn't be happier for the guy.
- Great to see JP Arencibia get 3 home runs. With John Buck and Rod Barajas in our rear view mirror, we should be used to streaky catchers by now. I think it goes with the job.
- I'm sorry I missed Roberto Alomar's induction speech. Good to see a Jay's cap in the Hall, even if it looks like they are using the Rod Carew cast for his plaque.
- Brett Lawrie is looking good, 9 hits in his last 4 games, lets call him up. He even took 2 walks, to go with his triple, last night. Let's not wait until he gets hurt again.
- Very sorry to hear about Dave Cameron. We all wish him the best.