Rios rips into fan after charity event

If you haven't already seen it, you absolutely must go to the following link on you tube. Alex Rios cusses out a fan after a charity event!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVJbhmwRCmM

After a pathetic 0 for 5 game Thursday against the Angels, Rios attended a charity event that evening and refused to grant a kid an autograph. Then Rios started getting heckled from a fan saying "you should be happy someone wants your autograph" Rios eventually snapped, and several f-bombs were said.

This is great stuff. I like that Rios stood up for himself instead of brushing the nasty comments aside. The passion was incredible and extremely raw. I just wish Rios brought that much intensity to the baseball diamond every day.

Rios apologized for the altercation today, and responded by going 1 for 4 in the series opener against the Royals, including an RBI double.

Note: A previous posting included the link to Rios arguing with a fan. The video has since been taken down by YouTube.

Overbay fails when it matters most

Just looking at a box score of a baseball game without watching the actual contest can be entirely misleading. Case in point, Lyle Overbay's outing against the Angels on Thursday.

The Jays first basemen had a pair of hits, and drove in 3 runs. Without question, he had a pretty good game. In fact, he has a 10 game hitting streak, in which he's batted over .400. However, when the club needed him to come up big in a critical 9th inning, he floundered.

With the score tied at 5 in the ninth, and runners on 1st and 3rd with nobody out, Overbay fell asleep. The Jays turned a double play ball, but Overbay did not react quickly enough when Howie Kendrick broke for home on that play, tossing the ball too late to Rod Barajas. Kendrick scored, and the Angels went on to win the game 6-5. Then in the bottom of the 9th, with Adam Lind on 2nd, Overbay struck out, choking in the clutch.

Is Overbay good, or crappy? I really can't decide. Of all the Blue Jays, I go back and forth on whether he is a viable performer for the club. This much I know; he failed when the team needed him to come up large Thursday against the Angels.

I guess that answers my question.

Lind rules; Rios sucks

The difference between how great Adam Lind is and how pathetic Alex Rios plays is absolutely astounding. One guy is a complete clutch hitter, and the other is a lazy bum. It was never more apparent then Thursday afternoon against the Angels.

Lind had an astounding game that will be unfortunately forgotten because the Jays lost. He went 5 for 5, his first career five hit performance, where he had 3 doubles and a pair of singles. Rios, on the other hand, had 5 strikeouts. FIVE FREAKING STRIKEOUTS! Dating back to his previous game. Rios has 7 straight whiffs. Are you kidding me?

I don't ever want to hear a positive story about the clown. He's had a couple of home runs the past few games. So what? They came in a blowout loss to Boston and early in a ball game against the Angels. Do you think Rios would blast a big homer when it mattered? Of course not. There is no way anyone can legitimately say Rios is a solid 5 tool ball player. How about the 5 tool piece of crap?

Adam Lind is sensational. Alex Rios sucks. End of story.

Power outage for Bautista

Where did Jose Bautista's power stroke go? When the Jays traded for the versatile veteran midway through last season, he was supposed to bring a little pop in his bat. Bautista has just one home run this year, and he hit it in a blow out game against Chicago. What happened with him? Is there any hope he'll start getting it going at the dish?

Bautista was awful today in the series finale against the Angels. He struck out three times, including the 9th inning, when his whiff ended what would have been a phenomenal Blue Jays comeback. Yhe last three seasons he has 16, 15, and 15 long balls, so a home run really would have gone a long way in securing the comeback.

Bautista has played in 35 of the first 56 contests for the Jays this year. He is a very good depth player, and a quality guy to start a game here or there. However, if the Toronto Blue Jays are hoping to unseat the Red Sox and Yankees, they can not have Bautista starting as many games as he has.

Jays axe Wolfe; call up Hayhurst

The Blue Jays finally put reliever Brian Wolfe out of his misery, sending him down to AAA Las Vegas following a pair of horrific outings. In 7 games, he gave up 13 hits, 7 runs in just 8.1 innings of work, allowing three long balls. The numbers are somewhat skewed the pitiful final two appearances, where he gave up 3 runs in each contest, including a blown save in Baltimore

One man's loss is another man's gain. The Jays have brought 28 year righty Dirk Hayhurst into the fold, presumably for mop up duty and potentially as a long reliever. The Jays claimed Hayhurst off waivers from the Padres in October, and he will attempt to show the clubs brass they didn't make a mistake. His numbers with San Diego in '08 and with AAA Las Vegas this year are not something to write home about. With the Padres, he had a disgusting 9.72 ERA, and in Las Vegas this season his ERA was 5.11.

There could be a glimmer of hope, however. Manager Cito Gaston was extremely impressed with Hayhurst in Spring Training, where he displayed great control. In 8 solid innings, Hayhurst allowed just 1 run, issuing no walks. Gaston wanted to bring him north with the big club, but an issue with his contract prohibited him from making the jump to Toronto until May 15th.

Now that he's here, the question is, will he be another Brian Wolfe? Or the guy he was in spring training? My money is on the former.

Janssen struggles against Halos; will bounce back

Casey Janssen struggled mightily against the Angels Wednesday, getting tagged for 5 runs in just four innings. The development wasn't a complete surprise, because in his two previous starts in Atlanta and against Boston, he laboured also, getting away with potential disaster outings in both starts. In the three starts combined, Janssen has allowed 11 runs, 26 hits in just 17 innings for an ugly 5.82 ERA.

I don't believe Janssen is on a short leash with the team. He will be given every opportunity to work through his early funk, and I finally expect him to do so. Let's put everything in perspective. He missed the entire 2008 campaign with a torn labrum, then had shoulder troubles that caused him to miss the first month and a half of '09. He hasn't started a game since 2006, so there will be a transition for him to adapt to his role.

We know this; Janssen can flat out pitch. In 70 games as the reliever in 2007, the former 4th round pick went 2-3 with an ERA of 2.35 and had 24 holds. And in his first 9 starts as a rookie in 2006, he was extremely effective, notching a 5-3 record with a stout 3.07 ERA.

Bottom line, he's an important pitcher on this staff, and we can expect him to get it straightened out.

It's just Halladay being Halladay

What a phenomenal performance by Roy Halladay against the Angels on Tuesday! The best pitcher in baseball displayed why he's such an incredible workhorse, willing his team to victory on the strength of a new career milestone.

It's just Halladay being Halladay.

For a guy who is supposed to be a "ground ball" pitcher, he sure isn't producing like one, entering the game 5th in the American League in strikeouts. He wound up with a new career high of 14 punch outs in this contest, doing so in a whopping 133 pitches, notching a complete game victory! He is such an incredible specimen that he can gear back and dominate like he did tonight. Despite the fact he was working on a high pitch count late in the game, there was absolutely no way he was being taken out of this contest.

Doc cruised through the first 6 innings, after being handed a comfy 6-0 lead. Game over right? Wrong. Halladay uncharacteristically scuffled, loaded the bases after 2 singles and a walk, then proceeded to allow a run to score on another base rap and a wild pitch. The Angels followed with two sacrifice flies to trim the lead to just 2. Could the Jays lose after huge leads in consecutive starts by Halladay? Not on his watch. 6 of the final 7 outs came via the strike out, including all three outs in the 9th inning, as Halladay lifted his win total to a Major League Baseball best total of 9 games.

It's just Halladay being Halladay.