Land of the Leaf

After taking a double dose of DL-deliciousness, the Blue Jays were looking at a Kevin Millwood that has been fairly successful early-on this season.  Millwood was good, but Scott Richmond was better.  OK, I’ll have a sip of the Richmond Kool-Aid now.

That’s five straight series victories for our birds.  Of course, now we face a pair of injuries from polar opposites, at least performance-wise, left-handers.  Ricky Romero’s “sex-strain” will be fine, he’ll pitch in a couple of weeks.  B.J. Ryan will get his head checked and come back like a big sweaty bull.  If this scrappy season is to have a stretch where the Blue Jays can ‘afford’ injuries to key players, it’s right now.  The Jays, yet to have faced an AL East opponent are due to face a slew of mediocre clubs in the White Sox, Royals, Baltimore, Cleveland and the injury depleted pitching staff of Anaheim over the next 14 days.

If the bats keep maaashing, and that they did tonight, and Halladay and the bullpen keep inducing groundballs and strikeouts (a tall order, I know) then we’ll be fine.  Alex Rios finally slammed something prior to 2:45AM, and we all know it only takes one to get your mojo going.  I’m still believer in Rios.

These guys can play, and as coach Lou Brown once said: “There’s two or three potential All-Stars here”.

Just as I was planning my alcoholic pathway to getting over the news of Ricky Romero hitting the 15-Day DL, word hits the wire (Bastian Tweeted this good news this afternoon) that B.J. Ryan will be following him with “trap tightness”.  I don’t want to jump to any extremist conclusions, but I’m pretty sure Ryan could use some time to get it together.

One would assume that Scott Downs will step in an handle the closing duties, that’s good.  As for the thinning rotation, we’ll have to wait and see what Brett Cecil can bring, if he is to get the call on Saturday as predicted.  Keep the faith my fellow optimists, for now.

Blue Jays News and Notes
Jumping Jesus Murphy, the Blue Jays’ pitching rotation is starting to take shape.  Bastian reported earlier today that Ricky Romero has made the team by claiming the 4th spot in the rotation, slotting in after Jesse Litsch.  That leaves Canada’s first son Scott Richmond and another lefty in Brad Mills to battle for the 5th spot in the rotation.

Mopupduty hosted and posted an informative and rather excellent round table discussion of the upcoming Blue Jays season featuring a slew of Jays’ bloggers. They’re mostly optimistic, I’m optimistic, and maybe you’ll be too after checking it out.

Stoeten remains realistic about Dustin McGowan and the likelihood (there is none) that he’ll pitch for the Jays at some point this season.  Although, Shaun Marcum is actually ahead of schedule on his own rehab!

This is from yesterday, but it’s still got some awesomeness to it today: Bluebird Banter took a look at the Jays defensively heading into the season.  Also, if you need an awful reminder of just how convoluted things were in left field for Toronto last year, then they’ve got you covered.

Quickly On The Leafs
The annual ridiculously helpless and saddeningly hopeless shot at the playoffs: “11 points out of eighth with six games to go, the Leafs aren’t eliminated from the playoffs yet, weirdly enough. If Montreal, Buffalo and Florida lose out the season, and Ottawa loses a couple games (while beating Montreal in regulation in their head to head) Toronto only needs to go 6-0-0 against… Philly (2x), New Jersey, Buffalo, Montreal and Ottawa.” - [Pension Plan Puppets]

Burgundy from StayClassy is lobbing around names of teams that may be potential suitors for Ray Emery next season.  He drops Toronto as a possibility, I have to admit: I like it.

Jays’ Rotation No More Clear After Clement Throws Stinker
By most accounts, Matt Clement appears to be finished competing for the last spot in the Jays’ rotation.  Before you say “give the job to Scott Richmond because he is Canadian”, it’s time to see what Ricky Romero has got.  Romero will start today against the Reds and the drunks are right: Spring Training is finally interesting for Jays’ fans.

Kick ‘Em When They’re Down!
Why play hard in November when it matters when you can play spoiler to the Montreal Canadiens? Eyebleaf takes some consolation in that, I guess we all can… it’s not much, but it’s the best we got.

You Knew It Was Coming
Don Cherry had to chime in on Ovechkin’s scoring celebrations, specifically his rad 50th goal celebration. Most literate hockey fans, for the most part, continue to not give a rat’s ass.

Argos Make Difficult Decisions
Not really, some “celebrity” judges chose the 2009 Toronto Argo Cheerleaders. Now we just need some people to put a team on the field to cheer.

Raps Could Muscle-Up Next Season
Dinoblogger is impressed with Nathan Jawai’s stint in the NBDL, and he could bring more of the aggressive physical play that we see from Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

It’s Shawn Bradley’s Birthday!
Celebrate with the Top 10 Dunks on Shawn Bradley. (With a nod to Deadspin)