This morning, when I turned on the computer, on the msn home page, there was a link to a story on msn fox sports The All-Disappointing Squad. I thought, oh good I'll see some Blue Jay players on this. Unlike looking at the starters for the All-Star game. But, there was not one Jay on the list, which surprised me. Here's the link so you can see for yourself:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8306074/Fallen-Stars:-The-all-disappointing-squad

Anyway I thought a good poll would be 'Who's the Jay's most disappointing player'. There are a number of candidates, so I won't discuss them here, but vote for your choice and we can use the comments to debate.

Now I thought about listing JP but decided to stick to players....but you can make your case for him in the comments.

I thought with a off day we take a look at the players on our prospects list...we have some good players coming up. But a couple of the players on our top 11 list are no longer prospects and maybe it is time to revise the list. But others we should have high hopes for.

Robinzon Diaz, C

 He has is playing for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays rehabbing an ankle injury. His defense is good; he's a contact hitter with good speed for a catcher, how long that will last as a catcher is anyone's guess. Not likely to be a star but could be a good starting catcher till Arencibia passes him.

Travis Snider,OF

Is hitting pretty well in AA ball and has been named to the ‘North Division All-Star team'. Just 20 years old and in his second year of pro-ball, we might get to see him next season. A strong arm and decent range, Rios better find his stroke.

Brett Cecil,LHP

21 and in AA, throws hard, gets strike outs. It is nice to see a Jay's prospect that can miss bats. If he keeps developing we could see in Toronto in late ‘09 or ‘10

Kevin Ahrens, 3B

Ahrens is a 19 year old in A ball, for a player that young he's doing very well.  He's a long ways away from the big leagues.

Johermyn Chavez, LF

Another 19 year old in A ball. Young for the league so can ignore the less than thrilling stats.  He's got a ways to go.

Justin Jackson,SS

Yes another 19 year old in A ball.  A good fielder has a good eye, some pop that should become more pop as he fills out and good speed. With luck we should have a really good SS in 3 years.

Ricky Romero, LHP

23 Year old in AA and not having an easy time of it. Hitters have a .320 BA against him and over 4 walks/9innings isn't great. I think his future is the bullpen if he wants a major league career. I think he's about ready to be removed from our prospects list,

JP Arencibia, C

22 year old catcher moved up to AA this year and is still raking....Diaz better watch out...JP will pass him if he's not careful. He is a much better hitting prospect than Diaz. Reputed to have a strong arm. A pull hitter, it would be nice to have a power hitter on the team.

David Purcey, LHP

Pitching great in AAA, but he is 26 now and is getting a little old to be a prospect. If he was going to be a start he'd be in the majors by now. Maybe trade bait for someone in need of a starter now.

John Tolisano, 2b

Another 19 year old, he is hitting great in A ball. Have to like his numbers across the boards....nice power, decent eye, some speed. Not a big guy 5'11'', 175, he's got some time to develop.

Scott Campbell, 2B

What's not to like....23 year old at AA, .341 average, great eye, some power.  Is kind of too bad that we have so many middle infielders at the major league level, it would be nice to see while Hill is on the DL. From New Zealand, he's playing in the futures game for the ‘World' team.

Oh well, another loss....we can't beat good teams and we can't beat bad teams....can we find someone else to play?

The good.....hmmmmm give me a while, I'll think of something. Well, Lind's two run, home run was good. He continues to impress. Sending he down earlier in the year is starting to look like reason #446 to fried JP. And League pitched! Honest, he did. I was starting to think there would have to be a plague to get him on the mound. Two innings of shutout ball. Yeah, I'm not going to mention the 2 walks, 2 hits (one a hard hit ground rule double) and the amazing double play that Rolen pulled off that saved his bacon.

The bad....everything else. They managed to make Washburn look like a very good pitcher. They also made 4 relief pitchers look amazing. Three innings of no hit relief pitching. Rios looked lost at the plate. Stairs and Barajas looked just as bad. Zaun had as poor a pinch hit appearance as you are likely to see. McGowan again looked bad on the road. He did make one of the defensive plays of the year, Sexson hit a hard one at him that knocked his glove off, but he chased the ball and glove down and threw out Sexson. And....well let's just say if they wore a Jays jersey they didn't look good out there....expect for Lind's home run.

The unders won in the RISP pool as we had zero. 0 for 7. Jay of the Day? Would have to be Lind and Lind alone.

We had a very lively and fun Game Thread...414 comments....we were visited by some very friendly M's fans...misery love company. And had a lurker unlurk....come back often domefan.

Tomorrow's an off day for our boys to lick their wounds after losing a series to the worst team in the AL. Friday they are in California to face the Angels, AJ vs Jered Weaver. Be sure to join in in the Game Thread.  Four games under .500 and the hope of getting back there before the All-Star break slipping away. With nine games, they'd have to go 7 and 2 to get there. We can hope.

Hugo always has great song titles for the game threads but all I can think of is how the Jays are making me want to drink....so the song title is an old Merle Haggard song.

We have McGowan going up against Washburn, Washburn's been hit hard this year but McGowan's had troubles on the road so we might see some runs.

Over/under for Jay's hits with RISP? I'm optimistic, lets make it 3.

We got hits with RISP, we got a big lead.....we lost.

The good: Lind went 3 for 4 and drove in 3. He looked locked in at the plate. I love Cito for bringing him back and putting him in the lineup. Wells went 3 for 5, Zaun 2 for 4 and 2 driven in and got robbed of a hit because Wells had a brain cramp at second base. He thought Zaun's liner would be caught at SS and ran back to the bag.....by the time he realized it was a hit it was too late to get to third and was forced. Zaun hit into the terribly common 7-5 force out.

The bad: Litsch gives up 10 hits in 5.2 and worse he throws a makes an error that cost us 2 runs and in the long run the game. Cy Carlson comes in and gives up a two run home run to Beltre on a pitch I swear was over Beltre's head. I can't remember seeing a home run on a pitch so high and off the plate before. But he tomahawked it for an opposite field homerun.

But all wasn't lost, we still had a one run lead and Downs came in. Had to feel confident Downs hadn't given up a run since April. Then came Richie Sexton, he of the .226 average and 9 homers....but showing God plays with loaded dice, Sexton hits one out to tie the game.

Top of the 9th we go down without a fight.....well a two out walk to Overbay, but nothing else. Bottom of the 9th Downs starts out by walking Ibanez, Vidro bunts, we intentionally walk Beltre...worried that he'll reach out and smoke one of the four balls...all of which I'm almost sure were closer to the strike zone than the one he hit off Cy.

Camp comes in to pitch to Bloomquist. Now it's worth noting that Camp's ERA was 7.10 last year. 7.10! Which should end your baseball career, but JP feels the inability to pitch shouldn't disqualify a person from a spot on a major league staff. Of course, Bloomquist rips  the first pitch into left and we are 3 games before .500. Insert curse words here.

 Tomorrow McGowan vs Washburn.

I don't know where all these Hold Steady references keep coming from?  Something about summer, I guess. 

Doc Halladay once again proved why he is one of my favourite all-time players.  He just threw and threw and threw, carving up Seattle to the tune of a masterful 4-hit shutout.  The Jays provided just enough offense, with the 4 infielders (Scoot, Eckstein, Scott Rolen, and Lyle Overbay) contributing while the rest of the lineup mostly taking the night off. 

Tonight, the Jays continue to try to scratch back to .500, with Jesse Litsch taking the mound against Ryan Rowland-Smith, who sounds like he should be captaining Yale University's Crew Team rather than pitching baseball.  Litsch was great the last time out and is still sporting a nice record and ERA - not many Ks, but up from last season, and he is keeping his walks much lower which has helped him. 

Let's go Jays!

The Jays, victorious in two straight NL series (though once again one of the only AL teams that doesn't clean up in interleague), take their show on the road to Seattle. the team that beat them a few weeks back in a series by scoring only 6 runs. 

Tonight, Doc Halladay pitches for the Jays against knuckler R.A. Dickey.  I know Doc didn't pitch against the M's in the last series, but the Nirvana reference was too perfect and who knows if I'll remember to use it later, considering that tomorrow is the first day of my monthlong trial.  Being a lawyer - not so fun right now. 

Well, I'm hoping to watch the game today, a bit of calm before the storm, but we'll see how that works out.  Let's go Jays!

Hey all, sorry I missed the game thread yesterday afternoon. My trial starts in 1 day and things are just ridiculous. Enjoy your sunday, and let's go Jays! I look forward to many more Jays games when things quiet down. Also, SB Nation is looking for someone to take over for me for the forseeable future. Let me know if anyone is interested or has someone else in mind, and I will pass it along.

The Jays won a series!