End of an era; Russ Adams bolts Blue Jays

Mercilessly, the Russ Adams experiment is over in Toronto. Forever linked with Jays General Manager J.P. Ricciardi's first draft pick with the club in 2002, Adams has been the perfect metaphor for Ricciardi's tenure with the team; disappointing.

Adams was tabbed to be the Blue Birds shortstop of the future after being selected with the 14th pick in the '02 draft, and he quickly rose up the ranks to the big league level. By 2005, he was the incumbent at short, but persistent fielding problems (26 errors in '05) that continued into 2006 saw him lose his job midway through the campaign. He toiled in the organization, bouncing back from AAA with brief stints in the major leagues in '07 and then again this year.

After giving Adams one more opportunity to prove he could at least be a utility man with the team Adams languished. In 8 games, Adams hit just .200 (for 4 for 20), and was designated for assignment to AAA Las Vegas to make room for David Dellucci. Adams had the option of reporting back to AAA or to declare free agency, and he chose the latter.

In 286 career games, Adams hit .247 with 17 HR and 113 RBI racking up 46 errors.

League shuts the door on two of A.L's best

I heard all the Brandon League haters chirping when he coughed up a 2 run single to Nick Swisher after inheriting the bases loaded from Ricky Romero in the 7th inning. The boo birds were out in full force, with several proclamations that Brandon "Minor League" would screw up another contest.

League is damn good. And he proved just that, shaking off his misfortune by whiffing Mark Teixiera and Alex Rodriguez, 2 vaunted hitters in the American League back to back. Boom, end of threat!

That sure shut up the peanut gallery.

Boom!

Rolen extends hitting streak to 23 games

Scott Rolen continues to RAKE at the plate extending his career best hitting streak to an extremely impressive 23 games. Should the 14 year veteran rack up hits in 5 more consecutive games, he'll tie Shawn Green's franchise record with 28 straight contests with at least one hit.

Rolen's double in the 7th inning drove in a pair Monday, with those runs marking the difference in the ball game. In his remarkable 23 game span, most of which has spanned the big 3rd basemen hitting in the cleanup spot, Rolen has gone 37 for 95 for a scintillating .389 average, including 3 HR and 14 RBI.

He didn't quite have the home run and RBI totals to make the all-star team despite having the 3rd highest average in the American League, but Rolen has shown he most definitely still has the ability to play at a high level.

Johnny Mac hits first homer in nearly a year!

What a spectacular sight to see, John McDonald blasting a home run! The long fly was his first since July 27th of last year. Johnny Mac, making only his 4th start of the season, hit a solo shot off Andy Pettitte in the 7th inning.

There isn't much more to say, but McDonald deserves as much credit and discussion on this blog as possible, because he's amazing. In only 30 at bats on the campaign, he has a respectable .267 batting average. Yet he still hasn't complained about his lack of playing time.

As I've mentioned before, if the Jays fall out of the hunt and I'm Theo Epstein in Boston with two poor defensive shortstops, I'm calling J.P. Ricciardi to see if I can't take the seldom used McDonald off Toronto's hands. Imagine him in Boston. That team would be even more scary!