Official Series Thread: YANKEES @ BLUEJAYS (DOC vs AJ)

[osh kosh bosh]

@
Rogers Centre
7:07PM EDT

Burnett (2-0) Halladay (6-1)

AJ's Return to Toronto against the mother *$*@*+% DOCTOR.

This is basically the gut check for the Jays, we play the Red Soxs, Yankees, and Rays all this month and if we come out of it still leading the division or close to the Sox we are the real deal. We still don't have our rotation healthy but once, Romero, Janssen, and Marcum are pitching staff will be filthy again.

AL EAST better stop sleeping.

 

[true 3 blue]

Watch Jeter prove you wrong.

Should be a good series.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Originally Posted by true 3 blue

Watch Jeter prove you wrong.

Should be a good series.

About what, he can't play defense?

He can't and he won't. AJ Burrent and CC Sabbthia's mediocre wackness has to fall somewhat on your terrible infield defense...

!+!% your outfield defense is wack as hell too.

 

[true 3 blue]

I just said that to aggravate you

.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Yankees-Jays could be game of the year

Stay tuned, baseball fans, tonight's showdown with Burnett, Halladay could produce game of the year

May 12, 2009 04:30 AM

Be the first to comment on this article...
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94649Richard Griffin http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/94649

Label tonight's Jays game against the Yankees at the Rogers Centre Opening Day II. For those fans that don't believe you can be the best until you play the best - or the richest - this pitching matchup featuring Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett is the moment of truth. Old friends, old rivals, or both? Including tonight's tilt, the Jays have 54 games out of 128 remaining (42 per cent) against their three top division rivals. This is it.

There's no doubt the Jays have shocked the baseball world this spring with top-notch offensive production and a cobbled together rotation. Under the nurturing hand of manager Cito Gaston and his coaches, the Jays have compiled the best record in the AL at 22-12, almost a half-dozen games ahead of the disappointing Yanks, who went out and signed the two best free-agent starters and the top hitter in the off-season.

But critics and doubters have pointed to the fact that the Jays have played 20 of 34 games vs. the AL Central against which teams in 2008 they posted a .667 win percentage and that they have yet to play the Yanks, Bosox or Rays. And, oh yeah, A-Rod is back for the Bombers, who believe, like A-Rod, they are now ready to rock 'n' roll all night.

If you are in that group of horsehide skeptics that has been waiting, then welcome to Opening Day II. For those into tradition, there will be no bunting. For the Jays, a fresh start, but with a head start.

Tonight, not only do the Jays play the Yankees for the first time, but as a piece of solid sporting entertainment, the match up between Halladay and Burnett ranks as one the most intriguing, locally, in recent years.

For the past three seasons, the Halladay-Burnett partnership, as it now turns out, was also a rivalry. There were many nuanced layers in those adjoining lockers. Even though they are virtually the same age, Halladay was always considered the solid mentor while Burnett was the goofy protegé. Who had more talent?

And while Burnett claimed in February in one of his first days in pinstripes that for the first year and a half of his three-year tenure in Toronto he was "an idiot" before he finally understood what it took to succeed, Halladay, very out of character, responded claiming that for his part, it took him a while to adjust in '06 to having a teammate more talented than him who might possibly make him expendable to the Jays.

From Day 1 when Burnett first arrived in town as the hired gun, paving the way for B.J. Ryan and others to take the Jays seriously, the two men tried to be friends, but it was a struggle. It's not just Burnett who has something to prove tonight.

Halladay has been Mr. Reliable for years, recognized by his peers, loyal to his organization, even deferring money in '08 on the promise of having a contender. Doc has little to show for his loyalty except a quick start this year with a shaky rotation and one more year on his contract to be with a winner in Toronto. Time to get selfish?

Hard not to begin thinking that way. Halladay's goofy protegé, with the flighty work ethic, comes back to town earning $82.5 million (U.S.) for the next five years, while Halladay's own contract winds down after 2010. It would be nice to show the baseball world who is the better pitcher. Doc's got one more big contract in him and the floor of the negotiations should be the platform created by the Burnett deal. So beat him.

Burnett will no doubt be emotional. He faces his mentor and returns to the Rogers Centre for the first since being cheered off the field, Sept. 24, 2008, vs. the Yankees by 28,000 adoring fans trying to convince him to re-sign as a free agent. It didn't work.

All that man-love will be forgotten tonight. Jays' fans will not be showing that same affection, or likely waving the same finger.

With Alex Rodriguez in his fourth game back and the Yanks needing to make a move, tonight could be the game of the year.

 

[fede dpt]

Originally Posted by Osh Kosh Bosh

Originally Posted by true 3 blue

Watch Jeter prove you wrong.

Should be a good series.

About what, he can't play defense?

He can't and he won't. AJ Burrent and CC Sabbthia's mediocre wackness has to fall somewhat on your terrible infield defense...

!+!% your outfield defense is wack as hell too.

At the Jays smelling anything above 4th place in like a decade and a month into the season these dudes want to talk?

 

[dunkaroos]

Master v Apprentice

Someone's getting shutout.