Should be an interesting upcoming season, and I have to think Double A has a couple more moves in mind.

As for the Cabrera thing, i look at it as a low risk high reward move. If he happens to test positive again, it's 100 games with no pay. So pretty much a whole season. If he plays great, he'll be well worth the 8million. If he plays like shit, or because a huge distraction, they could try and move him which wouldn't be tough at those numbers, or just release him.

and they made a manager announcement today!

































for Buffalo...

Jays have apparently narrowed it down to Jim Tracy and Jim Riggleman.

I've heard rumors that Mike Hargrove is heavily in the mix.

Hey Jays fans, did ya see this one coming? John Gibbons returns.

A friend of mine really likes this move because JG runs a no-nonsense type of clubhouse. Me, I'm not so sure, why go back to a guy who didn't have much success here in the first place? Not to mention having a blowout with the pitching staff.

I can't say I know enough about MLB managers to have a valid opinion one way or the other. I've only been really following baseball with more than a passing interest over the last three or so years. It's the first time I've followed since the strike after the Blue Jays went back to back in the World Series.

All I know is that I'm actually optimistic about this season. It's hard to think that they'll actually be as good as it sounds like they will be, but part of me is excited at the fact that I may be talking about getting playoff tickets this year with a friend of mine who rolls with me to whatever Jays games I go to over the course of a season.

I'm really glad these moves are happening. It gives me something to think about while the NHL continues to shoot itself in the foot. I tried watching basketball the other night. That's how bad my hockey withdrawals have gotten.

I love the Gibbons hiring.

He is definitely a no-bullshit kinda guy. I loved it when he stood up to the douche players like that twerp Ted Lilly after pulling him from a game and then getting in a fight with him right there in the tunnel.

DIckhead players deserve that shit. I love it. And now they are great friends.

Gibbons is no-nonsense, passionate manager, and i felt bad when he was fired the first time. He likes and wants to be in Toronto. What more can you ask for?

I can't complain about Gibbons. He wasn't bad when the Jays did have him... he didn't have the greatest team under him, so we'll see how he does now. Can't be any worse than Farrell anyways.

So the lineup is probably pretty solidified as it stands. I like it, I like it a lot. All this Blue Jays talk is nice, since as Derek says, Basketball just won't cut it.

Jose Reyes - SS
Melky Cabrera - LF
Jose Bautista - RF
Edwin Encarnacion - DH(He'll likely take 1st for interleague)
Adam Lind - 1B
Brett Lawrie - 3B
Colby Rasmus - CF
J.P. Arrencibia - C
Bonifacio/Izturis - 2B

Pitching rotation projected to be

Josh Johnson
Mark Buerhle
Brandon Morrow
Ricky Romero
J.A. Happ

I wonder if they'll let Janssen keep the closer's role. I would, as he did a great job last year. If Santos comes back healthy, he can be the set up man until he proves he can be a closer again.

Nice to see Romero get bumped down the lineup so much. He's an asshole for not coming out and saying there was something wrong last year, when their clearly fucking was... in any case, my only wish this coming year is that the team isn't plagued by injuries again.

Ricciardi was losing his mind at the time... Firing Gibbons to bring in Cito was just a desperate attempt to boost a little revenue and keep his job a while longer.

I commend Romero for doing what he did. After the entire staff went down, he probably felt like he'd be letting them down if he shut it down when he was clearly still able to pitch, despite his struggles. He only had a very minor surgery to clean up his elbow a bit.

Also, i think Burleigh will be the 4th starter with Romero the 3rd, and Morrow the 2nd.

Buehrle. I thought i had it down.

uh, no. they're not going to righty,righty,lefty,lefty,lefty.

I'd say It'll be Johnson,Buerhle,Morrow, RR, Happ as things stand now. Maybe flop Morrow and Johnson to give Morrow the opening day start.

as for Gibbons, my initial reaction was are you fucking kidding me? there goes a lot of the excitement that had been built up. after doing some reading and reflecting, I'm still not overly thrilled with it. at least it's not Guillen or Cito again.

You could be right. I guess we'll see. Rotations get fucked up during the year anyways. They are really not that important until it comes to playoff time. And even then they get all shifted around.

I guess i'm mostly saying when it comes to who their supposed top 5 pitchers are, i put them in that order. I'm not looking at what arm they throw with, and i'm not sure it makes that much of a difference, unless you're worried about an opposing team seeing 3 left handed pitchers in a row and having an advantage because of that.

I think all pitchers should have to be able to pitch with both hands evenly.

Except Jim, of course.

the throwing hand is only a part of it. All three of the lefties are similar type pitchers, so yeah you'd want to break them up. and I think just having Buerhle around could be great for Romero, he's
never had a veteran lefty around to learn from.

I saw Abbot pitch once at the Skydome with the California Angels. It was a pretty cool game to be at

Did you take charisma lessons from Required Fields?

Should i take that as a compliment?

People seem to like him well enough around here, so i guess i'll take it as a compliment

That Asian news agency that does the cartoons that reflect actual, current events, have made one that examines the trade between the Marlins and Jays, and slams Loria and Selig at the same time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UXRrXtpZtTk

Zach Greinke gets six years, $147 million from the Dodgers.

He'll be on anxiety leave in June.

The Royals are a bunch of stupids.

Yeah there was a lot of crazy in MLB this weekend.

Indians signed Mark Reynolds. See ball go far. Feel cool breeze in July.