MVN - Most Valuable Network

First The Achievement, Then The Disappointment

Available on Jays Nest:

• “Player’s Draft”:  Kevin Denis-Fortier (1B in the Gulf Coast League, from Quebec city, drafted in the 38th round of the 2006 Amateur Draft) talks about life in the minors, the daily routine and more. 
• The new installment of ‘Turnin’ Back the Clock’ is ready.  Following McGowan’s gem Sunday, our writer Todd Devlin revisits another great afternoon of September 1998.
• ‘Jays Nest Noteboard’: You can visit past and new features that were published on Jays Nest in this noteboard on the right sidebar.  Make sure to go in the blogroll to see them all in one place.

Available Soon on Jays Nest:

• Friday: Toronto vs Seattle series preview 
• Friday : Trade Deadline Simulation: a ‘what if?’ simulation on Jays best trade chips SS Sergio Santos (NH) interview
• “Sunday Game in the Jays Dugout”: the weekly live chat in our chatroom comes back next Sunday and already two bloggers have expressed interest in participating.  Join us next Sunday during the game!

News -

• Frank Thomas is now officially the 21st baseball player to hit at least 500 home runs in his career.  He did it against the Minnesota Twins, a team that suffered 10 % of the blasts of the Big Hurt.   
• Ty Taubenheim has been sent down to AAA Syracuse to make room for A.J. Burnett who will pitch tonight against sinker-baller Carlos Silva in the series finale.
• Gustavo Chacin will be throwing his first bullpen session when they get to Oakland for their series that begins on July 2nd.
• Former Blue Jays idiot Shea Hillenbrand wants out of Anaheim and they couldn’t be happier to make his wish come true.  That guy is one the biggest a**hole to ever wear a baseball uniform.  He has that me, me, me mentality.

Media Watch -

• You can follow all the MLB coverage of Frank Thomas‘ achievement here. 
• I invite you to read this article on Jacques Doucet, a french-canadian who broadcasted the Montreal Expos games for 33 years.

Note to Readers -

I will be at the July 12-13 games at Fenway Park (my first visit there, I’m like a little boy right now waiting for his Christmas gift).  If any of you readers (and you are numerous now…thank you for that) will be there for those games and would like to talk baseball, please contact me at bjdugout@hotmail.com.  I will also attend the July 15-16 games in Syracuse and the July 17-18 games in New Hampshire.  I would really love to meet some of you.

Game Review -

Celebration and desolation are 2 words that can describe the high and lows this game offered.

First, we witnessed history in the first inning when the Big Hurt came to the plate with 2 men on and blasted his 500th home runs.  That blast came in his 18th season in the major league and I would bet that this event will remove a ton of pressure off the shoulders of the 6′5”, 275 lbs veteran and we’ll see him much more productive for the Toronto club in coming weeks.  Here’s a quote he offered in his press conference after the game: “Now that I’m healthy, I would love to get to 600″…we’ll see about that.

That gave the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead with our A.J. Burnett (4 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 6 Ks, 2 HRs, 48 of 75 pitches thrown for strikes and a 2/4 Go/Fo ratio) who had yet to throw a single pitch in that game.

Then we witnessed the meltdown.  Despite the 6 strikeouts by Burnett with that devastating curve, he wasn’t able to preserve the lead for his team and left the game in the 5th inning with 2 men on.  He handed the ball to mangaer John Gibbons, walked in the direction of the dugout, threw his glove in the stands and ripped his shirt going into the clubhouse…intense!

RH reliever Jason Frasor wasn’t able to strand the runners and 2 other runs were charged to Burnett’s record.  The Twins would take a 7-5 run lead and never look back, to finally win the game 8-5, splitting the series 2-2.

After a difficult first frame, Minnesota Carlos Silva (7 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BBs, 5 Ks, 48 of 75 pitches thrown for strikes and a 7/9 Go/Fo ratio for the sinkerballer) settled down nicely and let Juan Rincon and Joe Nathan close the deal.

Thomas finished the game with a double, a home run and 4 RBIs.  1B Matt Stairs hit 2 singles and Vernon Wells imitated Alex Rios: a single each.

Big Hurt was ejected by the home plate umpire for arguing his last called strikeout.  John Gibbons came out of the dugout to argue and got the same treatment.

Game Notes -

• It was a curvefest during A.J. Burnett’s outing and it was working in his favour most of the time, getting good bite on it and throwing it for strikes.  By the way, that curve he threw to Bartlett on a 1-1 count in the fifth inning was a strike, no doubt about it.  I liked the fluidity of his motion today, given his stint on the DL.  I thought we’d see him uncomfortable out there, but the velocity was there and that curve….**drooling**
• John McDonald was possessed by a bad spirit in the first inning when 2 of his throws got away and was charged with an error on the second play.  We’re not used to see him miss like that, felt weird.
• LF Adam Lind was the target of the Minnesota batters in the 4th inning when he first made a great sliding catch in foul territory and then retired the next two batters on fly balls hit his way.  He has really grown into the position. 
• Aaron Hill again proved why he’s one of the best MLB 2B when he made a great diving catch on a Justin Morneau grounder in right field.  He caught the ball and quickly made an accurate throw to first base from his knees.  A thing of beauty!
• Some sloppy work from Matt Stairs in the 6th inning at first base when he went for a slow roller to his right and made a very bad throw to Jordan De Jong coming to the bag to cover it.  He threw it behind him and the runner was able to advance to the second bag.
• Jason Phillips had 3 bases stolen against him.  He has been stolen against 43 times and caught only 4 runners.

Come back tomorrow for a Seattle series preview and a post on trade possibilities (just for fun!).  Thanks for taking the time to visit The Nest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.