The body is not yet cold.

Now what do I do?

A week ago I wrote “The Toronto Blue Jays are fatally flawed. I think it may be time to run up the white flag.” Toronto was 14 games out and was finishing up what would be a miserable 2-4 west coast trip. Since then, the Jays swept the Orioles and took two of three from the Yankees while the Rays have lost seven straight.

Now the Blue Jays are 8.5 back at the break.

A.J. Burnett was masterful today on three days rest: 8.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER 1 BB 8 K on less than 100 pitches–it was the sort of completely unexpected effort that gives fans hope that better days are ahead; all the more so since Roy Halladay was even better on Friday (9 IP, 2 H, 0 ER 0 BB 8 K ).

Yes, despite taking two of three from the Yankees the Jays did all their scoring in the first two innings over the weekend with four runs in the first inning on Saturday and four in the second frame today before reverting to their usual getting men into scoring position and leaving them there the rest of the way.

Still, it’s a better outcome than I thought would happen this weekend. I figured after Halladay, since Gaston’s initial plan of having Jesse Litsch go Saturday and lefty reliever Brian Tallet on Sunday (in what would be a Charlie Wholestaff game) would mean two losses. After all, Litsch hasn’t been pitching well of late and the Bronx Bombers always hit him hard and the Wholestaff game versus Andy Pettitte looked to be a foregone conclusion.

I had guessed that Cito figured with Litsch starting, Saturday would be the game where the bullpen would be needed for a lot of innings and opted to see what Burnett could do on three days rest. Well, Litsch delivered as expected and couldn’t hold a three-run cushion for 30 pitches (although he did throw the inning ending pitch that was booted by Marcos Scutaro) and A.J. did the unexpected and probably made his best start of 2008.

The Jays are 12-9 under Gaston and are so despite the struggles of Litsch (1-5, 5.56 ERA over his last eight starts), Dustin McGowan (1-3, 5.81 ERA over his final five starts before being shelved) and Burnett (4-3, 6.91 ERA over his previous seven starts prior to today), not having Shaun Marcum available, Vernon Wells getting hurt recently, Alex Rios away for the series (to be with his wife during delivery), Scott Rolen batting .111/.238/.139 in July (before today), Gregg Zaun hitting .087/.250/.087 over the previous nine games, Rod Barajas doing no better (.167/.167/.333) over his last nine, Matt Stairs batting .205/.333/.325 since mid May and of course not having Aaron Hill.

Still, the Jays have gotten it done.

Amazing.

It’s still a longshot to think the Jays will be in it come September but Adam Lind is hitting well since his recall (.350/.369/.633), Alex Rios is .338/.370/.506 since Cito took over the Jays, Joe Inglett .339/.383/.482 likewise, have hit into just nine double plays over their last 15 games and there’s a player on the market (or soon to be) who hit .260/.363/.512 on the road and kills lefties .344/.423/.623 this year. He's hitting .350/.435/.500 in Toronto this year and is a career .316/.397/.565 hitter at the Dome and he‘d cost the pro-rated minimum.

I speak of course of Richie Sexson.

He’s not the saviour to be sure but he’d be a very useful bat and a source of pop–especially against lefties of whom the Jays are batting just .244/.323/.335 this year.

Considering he costs chump change and a roster spot (such as Kevin Mench or Brad Wilkerson’s cadaverric .182/.325/.212 the last month) it strikes me as a no-brainer–he’d be the team leader in home runs right from the get-go.

At the very least, the post All Star break will quickly settle whether the Jays will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline–they cannot ask for a better schedule to get back into things: they have four against the Orioles, three against the Mariners and six against the Rays. If they go 9-4 with at least four wins against the Rays (preferably five) and I think they have a half-decent shot. In the “dare to dream” department–two sweeps could conceivably have them within three games of the Rays with the Red Sox in their sights as well.

I said it was a dream.

One week ago I was ready to officially run up the white flag–well, the Jays have been given an extension until the end of July before I start looking to 2009 in earnest.

Best Regards

John

P.S.

Free Wayne McMahon!!

Follow the links and read up to the saga of a Rogers Centre institution. Thanks to the good folks at Drunk Jays Fans word is getting out about the firing of a legendary suds-salesman. If you’re at the Dome raise a cheer and show your support in getting Wayne his job back.

All you have to yell is: ICE. COLD. BEEEEEEEERRR!!!

On Saturday, he blew a five run lead in the ninth inning which cost Rich Harden his first win as a Cub.  Today, Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol is an All-Star.  National League manager Clint Hurdle named Marmol as the replacement for Kerry Wood who had to be removed from the All-Star roster due to a blister.

Hurdlesaid Marmol was selected because he received more votes than any other reliever not selected from the Player's Ballot.  Now, Marmol will not get the rest Cubs manager Lou Piniella was expecting him to get during the All-Star break to help get him back on track.

In 49 games in 2008, Marmol is 2-3 with three saves and a 4.13 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings pitched.

Tigers shortstop prospect Cale Iorg has not played for High-A Lakeland since injuring his shoulder on Thursday. Detroit is awaiting test results on the right shoulder of its second-ranked prospect according to Baseball America.  

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Rays prospects right-hander Wade Davis and catcher John Jaso will be promoted on Monday to Triple-A Durham from Double-A Montgomery. The promotion of Tampa Bay's fourth and 13th-ranked prospects by Baseball America will follow the Southern League All-Star Game on Monday.

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Diamondbacks right-hander prospect Max Scherzer will throw two or three bullpen sessions following the Pacific Coast League All-Star break before returning from the disabled list. Arizona's fourth-ranked prospect by Baseball America hasn't pitched for Triple-A Tucson since June 15.

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Ranger right-hander prospect Michael Main was promoted to Low-A Clinton from the Arizona League. Texas' sixth-ranked prospect by Baseball America evokes comparisons to Bret Saberhagen for his slight-build, plus-plus arm strength, intelligences, and determination.

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The Astros' first-round draft pick catcher Jason Castro signed a contract with a $2 million bonus and was assigned to short season Low-A Tri-Cities. The tenth overall pick in June's First-Year Player Draft starred at Stanford and in the Cape Cod League before going pro.

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The Tiger's first-round draft pick right-hander Ryan Perry signed a contract with a $1.48 million bonus and was assigned to the Gulf Coast League. The 21st pick in June’s First-Year Player Draft threw a 95 to 96 mile per hour fastball while at the University of Arizona.

Here are your starting lineups for today's Futures Game at Yankee Stadium. You can watch the game live on ESPN2 starting at 12:30 PM. I'll be in attendance at the event and will have news, notes, quotes, and photos later this afternoon.

U.S. All-Stars
LF Andrew McCutchen (PIT)
2B Cliff Pennington (OAK)
3B Mat Gamel (MIL)
DH Jamie D'Antona (ARI)
RF Nate Schierholtz (SF)
1B Matt LaPorta (CLE)
CF Dexter Fowler (COL)
C Lou Marson (PHI)
SS Jason Donald (PHI)

P Clayton Richard (CWS)

World All-Stars
2B Ivan DeJesus (LAD)
SS Elvis Andrus (TEX)
LF Wilkin Ramirez (DET)
1B Pablo Sandoval (SF)
3B Luke Hughes (MIN)
DH Scott Campbell (TOR)
CF Fernando Martinez (NYM)
C Welington Castillo (CHC)
RF Gorkys Hernandez (ATL)

P Carlos Carrasco (PHI)

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

As we approach the All-Star break, I want to announce some upgrades and changes we'll be making over the next few days.

Starting Monday, we will begin the transition to the more powerful WordPress blog software. The majority of the work should be finished in one day, but we'll know for sure once we get into the details. However, in order to capture our entire archive of entries, we need to halt all blog posts as of Sunday at 11:00 PM Eastern Time. Until WordPress is functioning properly, the blog will remain dormant. Once we're up and running again, I will let everyone know. You can count on that!

During this time, we will still be publishing Featured Articles and sending out newsletters. So continue to check the site for new articles and stats. And if you're not signed up for the newsletter, what are you waiting for??? Just enter your email address in the box on the top of the right sidebar and click subscribe!

We have recruited a few new writers to join us, and I'm in the process of forging additional alliances. We're also testing out a gadget that will bring BDD news, audio, and video right to your desktop! So stay tuned for some great new possibilities.

Since I will personally be involved in development the next several days, my more public contributions to the site (blog entries, news, notes, and articles) will be limited. There will be no Short Stops entries tonight or tomorrow, but they'll return after the All-Star break.

For those of you interested, here's the tentative schedule for the week ahead…

- Friday - Last Short Stops Around the Majors entry before the All-Star break
- Sunday - BDD covers the Futures Game at Yankee Stadium
- Sunday at 11:00 PM ET - Last blog post before transition to WordPress
- Monday - Begin the transition to WordPress
- Monday - Tuesday - Discussion and Development of BDD Multimedia Application
- Tuesday - WordPress update
- Wednesday - Scheduled return of the BDD blog on the new WordPress platform
- Saturday - BDD Live radio show

I'd like to thank you all for your kind words and constant support. I know you've inspired me to keep this site going over the years even when things seemed bleak and burdensome. We've built a great community here at Baseball Digest Daily, and we're more recognized than ever because of it!

All the best,
Joe