Cecil injures knee diving for ball

Brett Cecil has battled through a nagging knee injury dating back to spring training but he kept pitching through it until it got progressively worse Saturday against Baltimore. The 23 year old rookie kept battling through it, but he couldn't bare the pain after diving for a bunted ball in the 5th inning.

Attempting to retire Robert Andino by tossing the ball from his glove to Lyle Overbay, Cecil crashed to the turf, immediately fearing that the pain was too excruciating to continue. Cito Gaston came out quickly, and promptly removed the 5 game winner as a precautionary measure.

Cecil has surpassed his career high in innings pitched between AAA Las Vegas and Toronto with just under 120, and he was expected to be limited toward the end of the season. His knee, which will be evaluated Sunday, could land him on the disabled list where he'd join starters Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Litsch, Robert Ray and Brad Mills.

Prior to Saturday's tilt, Cecil had won 3 of his past 4 starts, giving up just 5 runs in 27 innings while striking out 24 batters.

Jays need to wear old uni's all the time!

Seeing the Blue Jays on Friday wearing their old school vintage white jerseys, easily the best uni's in franchise history makes you wonder, just why don't they wear them more often?

They finally introduced the powder blue jerseys as part of the flashback Friday promotion of a couple of years ago, and they are a good look, but come on, those phenomenal white jerseys conjure up such unbelievable memories. Those duds must become a fixture EVERY Friday! Or better yet, change the logo and colours of the ball club back to the ones from the glory years. Why the heck do the BLUE Jays have black in their jerseys anyways?

It's pretty obvious why the Jays haven't made the playoffs since 1993. All those logo changes and switching of jerseys have been ridiculous. They should've stuck with the sweet white look. Why did they mess with perfection?

Mystery team makes waiver claim for Rios!

Unbelievably, some team has put in a waiver claim to acquire the rights of underachieving Alex Rios. Reports indicate an unknown team has attempted to claim the 2 time all-star, which would rid the Jays of the hefty 6 year, $64 million dollar extension signed last season.

The Jays have 72 hours to exorcise one of three options; they can attempt to work out a trade with the team that claimed him, keep the enigmatic right fielder or simply let him walk to whichever team is dumb enough to want his services.

Though no specific teams have been linked to Rios just yet, the San Francisco Giants were interested in Rios a couple of seasons ago (when Tim Lincecum was part of trade rumours), the White Sox have long been intrigued by the 28 year old, and the New York Mets are in desperate need of offensive help.

While it would be incredible to rid ourselves of this perpetually frustrating loafer and his fat contract, the Jays do not have much quality outfield depth that is major league ready should he leave. Travis Snider is the only obvious long term solution, though he should be left down in AAA Las Vegas to hone his craft and while 27 year old Buck Coats has put together a solid season in Vegas, he hardly represents a prospect for the long run with this franchise.

Having said that, this team needs to rebuild, and shipping Rios out with his apathetic attitude and long term deal would represent a solid step in the right direction for an organization that needs to cut ties with dead weight.

So basically, knowing J.P. Ricciardi, expect Rios to remain a Blue Jay.

Could the '92 & '93 teams still play better than the Jays now?

Watching the Back2Back reunion of the 1992 and 1993 Blue Jays World Series winning ball clubs tonight was phenomenal. Without a doubt, it certainly sent chills down my spine. To go back to a place, a time, seemingly now a fantasy land, where the Jays were great. Seeing past greats like Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Devon White and John Olerud under the same room at the Rogers Centre was sensational. Most of those guys didn't look they aged a year since they last played.

This Back2Back reunion organized by Joe Carter, among others, was an amazing idea. It's really quite incredible that it took the players from those World Series winning teams this long to put this together. It got me thinking, though, just how good could those players be now. With the '09 version of the Blue Birds now 15.5 games out of first place in the A.L. East, could they be much worse off if Jack Morris was our ace, Tom Henke closing out games, Kelly Gruber playing the hot corner and Candy Maldonado patrolling the outfield? Is there a chance, any chance, that those teams would be better than the current group of schmucks now?

Regardless of whether it's a stupid question (it is), It'd be much more fun and entertaining watching these legends of our franchise grind out a 162 game schedule rather than the pylons (Rios), bums (Wells), and tools (Carlson) that we going now. Would Juan Guzman still bring the heat? Could Devon White still make the catch against the wall like he did in the '92 World Series? And of course Joe Carter still has the ability to turn on an inside fastball and send it over the left field fence for a heroic victory.

To see this play out would be living in a fantasy land. Oh how '92 and '93 seems so far ago.

Brandon Beleaguered

Oh Brandon League, you are killing me! I have spent so much of this season risking my reputation by backing you up, proclaiming that you are a damn good pitcher despite the bouts of crapiness. And even against better judgment, I have displayed unquestioned loyalty even though you've blown countless games. Tonight was no exception.

League allowed a paltry three earned runs in just 0.2 innings of work. To be fair, without a couple of bad breaks there wouldn't have been a problem. With a runner on first, League uncorked a wild pitch, then League tried to get a glove on a Nolan Reimold chopper. He got a piece of it, but the ball deflecting away from Aaron Hill who would have had an easy play. Had there been no wild pitch, and League not knocked the ball away from Hill, it most certainly would have been an inning ending double play.

How ironic that on the night I was about to write about League's recent success (only 2 runs allowed in his past 14 outings, covering 15.1 innings), he puts up a stinker.

It's Brandon Beleaguered.

Will Hill or Lind hit more home runs?

Throughout the 2009 season, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind have provided a glimmer of hope that the Blue Jays will shed the label of being a moribund franchise following their two World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. They have both gone back and forth hitting balls out of parks across Major League Baseball, challenging each other for home run supremacy. Lind's long fly Wednesday against the Yankees gave him 23 on the year, while Hill, batting one slot ahead of him in the batting order, leads the club with 26 home runs.

Who will hit more home runs this year? Lind, the 2004 3rd round pick with the sweet stroke, or Hill, the 2003 1st rounder with the compact swing? The Jays 2nd baseman has been on a tear with 6 bombs in his past 13 contests while Lind has regained his home run stroke, blasting 3 in 6 games after just 1 in the previous 14 games.

Over the course of their careers, Hill has racked up 54 homers in 5 seasons, while the Jays designated hitter has 45 round trippers in 4 campaigns.

Roenicke rocked ruining Rzepczynski

That alliteration is really ridiculously rank (oops, there I go again), but Marc Rzepczynski deserved a much better fate tonight against the Yankees. The young rookie was in line for the win after 6 innings, but he was left in too long and the Yankees made him pay, handing "Zep" his 3rd loss.

The newest member of the bullpen, Josh Roenicke came into a tie ball game in the 7th with a runner on 2nd the normally reliable Rzepczynski's responsibility (i can't stop!) and promptly got rocked, surrendering 3 runs after issuing 3 singles and 2 walks. The hapless Jays were unable to recover from there, getting swept in 2 games to the American League leading New York Yankees.

It's easy to say "Cito left him in the game too long" after Rzepczynski looked great through 6, but gave up a home run and a double to lead off the 7th, but it was a tough decision on Gaston's part. Rzepczynski was well under 100 pitches heading into the 7th.

Regardless, Rzepczynski respectfully revealed remorse.