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If it be links you're after, you've come to the right place. Morning reading to get you through the last day of a depressing April.
JAYS LINKS
Trying to return, Romero excels in Class A start | bluejays.com: News
Good to see Romero find the strike zone in single A but there's a long way to go.
Struggling Blue Jays have time to reverse poor start | bluejays.com: News
"A poor April record is not how anyone envisioned this season starting out after the Blue Jays essentially went all-in this offseason with a series of blockbuster trades and free-agent signings. GM Alex Anthopoulos has to be concerned but at the same time, he is asking for patience."
Bad Luck Blue Jays - Jays Journal - A Toronto Blue Jays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More
More evidence that the baseball gods are conspiring against the Jays, perhaps for the blasphemous act of trading away John McDonald.
"Alex Anthopoulos said he is confident the Toronto Blue Jays will contend because the team is too good to keep playing this poorly." It is basically impossible for the Jays to be this bad.
Hayhurst on Jays: Gibbons not to blame - Sportsnet.ca
"What we all feared would happen with the Blue Jays is unfolding before our eyes but the only way out is through the fire, not through a firing of manager John Gibbons." Hayhurst with a strangely sane and non-alarmist piece on Gibby.
AL EAST LINKS
Orioles GIFs of the Week - Camden Chat
The inaugural Camden Chat GIFs roundup. My love for GIFs helps overcome my hatred for the Orioles in this case.
The Rays Tank: Starts with a T, Rhymes with Pom - DRaysBay
"Rays players take to Twitter to voice their opinion on Umpire Tom Hallion."
May: The Red Sox' nest egg month - Over the Monster
"After doing a great job in a difficult April, the Red Sox have a chance to really build up a nest egg in May to get them through harder times to come."
Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2: Hughes solid in comeback win - Pinstriped Bible
A Yankee take on the game that sealed the sweep.
THE REST OF THE BASEBALL UNIVERSE LINKS
Bryce Harper, Mike Trout one year later
One of the millions of Trout-Harper comparisons you will read over the next decade
Joe Blogs: Harper, Trout and the Future
Posnanski looks at position players who excel early in their careers compared to their pitching counterparts.
Top Players To Start A Franchise : Position Players 10-6 - Minor League Ball
"What players would you start a franchise with? Here are my answers to the perennial question." I'm quite surprised to see D'Arnaud this high on a list like this.
Top Players To Start A Franchise : Position Players 5-1 - Minor League Ball
Guess who the top two are!
Adam Wainwright is Fire | FanGraphs Baseball
It would be nice to have a pitcher truly on his game.
Pitcher Henry Rodriguez nearly hits himself with own pitch - SBNation.com
"Henry Rodriguez's control was so off on Sunday that he nearly hit himself with an errant pitch."
NON-BASEBALL LINK OF THE DAY
"Some of the finest examples of facial hair to be found anywhere in the world have been gathering in southern Germany." Mind-blowing pictures included.
EDITOR'S LINKS
Here are some additions by Minor Leaguer:
The Blue Jays Are In Trouble - FanGraphs Baseball
Dave Cameron looked at some doom and gloom numbers surrounding the Blue Jays' record so far this season. He looked at records for a bunch of teams in the last decade that a) have a sub-.400 winning percentage, and b) were 7+ games behind in the division to see how they ended up at the end of the season. Of course, you shouldn't expect too many teams that could scratch back into contention starting that far into the hole. In fact, only 1 out of the 32 teams in the collection made it to the playoffs eventually. The Jays have buried themselves in a huge hole... they'll need a historic turnaround the rest of the way to make it into the playoffs, but that doesn't mean they'll continue to play so poorly! I hope!
History suggests Blue Jays face long odds to overcome slow start - SI.com
Jay Jaffe either didn't coordinate with Cameron or did. He also tell us that not many teams with such a bad start has made it to the postseason. What I'd like to see is a study of teams that have gone through a 9-17 stretch at any point in the season, not just the start.
Of "Precedents" And "Excuses" - Drunk Jays Fans
Oh look! More number crunching, this time from Stoeten, who finds some problems with blindly looking at past precedents, especially those that are based on arbitrary endpoints. Great to see all these writers pulling overtime over the weekend.
Toronto Blue Jays sinking while they watch Yankees soar - NY Daily News
New York Daily News' Bill Madden went to visit the Blue Jays' dugout on Sunday and caught some good quotes from Mark DeRosa, R.A. Dickey, and John Gibbons.
Reviewed: Jeff Blair’s "Full Count" - Drunk Jays Fans
Dave Burrows had a chance to read through Full Count: Four Decades of Blue Jays Baseball, Jeff Blair's new book on Blue Jays history. It will go on the long list of baseball books I need to read. Unfortunately for Blair, the book might not have launched at the best time...