You want A. J. Burnett? Well, he wants to come here:One day after beating the Cubs in Toronto, Blue Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett liked the idea of a trade to the Cubs so much he might as well have said, "Please."
"As of right now I'm a Blue Jay, and I'm going to pitch to the best of my ability as long as I'm part of this club," he said. "But if something were to happen and I'd have the opportunity to go to a place where baseball is breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would be awesome.
"Right now my focus is with this club, but if something like that were to happen, I'd accept it with open arms."
What's most surprising about that is that most players won't say stuff like that, at least not publicly. That "breakfast, lunch and dinner" comment is a pretty big backhanded slam to Toronto, I think.
Lou Piniella agrees with me on the scoring change yesterday on Ronny Cedeno's grounder up the middle, which took four earned runs off Roy Halladay's record:
Eckstein had to go far to his left and dive just to get his glove on the ball, which glanced off it.
Official scorer Doug Hobbs originally called it a hit but changed the decision after Reed Johnson's three-run home run off Roy Halladay. With the error, all four runs off Halladay became unearned, helping keep his earned-run average at 3.09.
"I know that scorekeepers try to be a little influential on their own players, but that's a base hit," Piniella said. "The guy is fully extended. I thought [Eckstein] made a nice play just getting to it."
Exactly. The standard is supposed to be: if the play can be made with "ordinary effort", and not made, an error should be charged. In that case Eckstein had to make MORE than ordinary effort. It should have been a hit.
And Happy Father's Day to all dads out there -- particularly mine. Dad, I know you read this site. Thanks for everything. I'll call you later this afternoon.
SITE NOTE: As I will be leaving right after the game to drive to Cooperstown for the HoF Game tomorrow, today's game recap will be delayed till late this evening.
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Jesse Litsch has never faced the Cubs. I confess I know little about him; he's only 23 and has a good record this year; his numbers imply that he's not a hard thrower, with only 42 K in 76 IP, and a lot of hits allowed, but few walks. If the Cubs can wait him out, they should be able to hit him.
Ted Lilly has been better lately, but has yet to put together a consistent streak of good outings. He has faced the Blue Jays a couple of times, from his Oakland days, but not in five years. He handles the current Toronto lineup pretty well, particularly the pesty David Eckstein (.147/.194/.176, 5-for-34).
Today's game is available nationally in both the USA and Canada, on WGN and the CBC, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Today's overflow comment threads will post at 1:15 pm and 2:15 pm CT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.