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!

Blow Jay Ryan showing rookie how to suck

Maybe this is why rookie Brett Cecil has been awful. Perhaps he's being schooled a bit too much on how to suck from Blow Jay Ryan.

After Cecil's disastrous outing, where he allowed 5 walks and 7 runs in less than 4 innings, B.J. Ryan came in to hold the fort on a 1 run lead for the Jays. Naturally, he coughed up the lead. Ryan allowed 2 walks, and gave up a huge go ahead 2 run dinger to Derek Jeter. He allowed 3 runs in the contest after the 2nd batter he walked came around to score. On the season, Ryan has issued 4 more walks than strike outs. Absolutely pathetic.

Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Cecil. After all, he's learning from the likes of Blow Jay Ryan.

Cecil a total disaster

Brett Cecil is really cheesing me off. REALLY....REALLY getting under my skin. I know he's a rookie. I know he's inexperienced, and I know he shouldn't be in the big leagues yet. Still, it doesn't excuse the fact that he was garbage today in New York.

Cecil can't find the strike zone today, issuing 5 free passes and allowing 7 runs in 3.2 innings against the Yankees. The main culprit was his horrible control. 5 freaking walks! After going down 4-0 after the 2nd inning, the Jays offense picked him up, plating 8 runs to give him a solid 4 run lead. In the following inning, he surrendered a walk to Mark Teixiera, which of course came back to bite him as he gave up a single and then a 3 run home run to Hideki Matsui.

There is no excuse for putting that many guys on board via the base on ball. It'll kill you every time.

Chavez a pleasant surprise

Raul Chavez deserves a lot of credit for the way he's performed this year for the Jays. Given his rather underwhelming stats in his 11 year career, I, and I'm sure many others, expected him to flop much like Jason Phillips and Sal Fasano did previously as the backup catcher for Toronto.

Chavez has provided exceptional defense behind the plate, throwing out 50% of would be base stealer's, but most impressively, has swung a good stick. In his first two at bats Sunday, Chavez has doubled, driving in a run and scoring twice. Midway through the contest, he has 2 HR, 8 RBI, with a .282 average in 26 games this season.

After narrowly missing out on making the Jays opening day roster, Chavez could've pursued work elsewhere, but instead reported to AAA Las Vegas. It's ended up being a smart decision, because veteran backstop Michael Barrett went down in April, allowing Chavez to head north of the border.

He has played more of late in the wake of Rod Barajas' nagging hamstring injury, and has continued his strong play. He deserves his due. Just as I'm tying this he threw out another runner. That's 12 runners caught stealing in 23 attempts.