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After the second inning of Sunday’s 6-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Blue Jays starting pitcher Brandon Morrow shared a joke with catcher Jose Molina: He would continue walking batters as long as Molina promised to keep gunning them down when they tried to steal second.

By then Molina was already halfway to setting a Blue Jays record by catching four runners stealing, one in each of the first four innings. The four times caught stealing also set a record for the Rays, and Molina became the first catcher to snuff out four baserunners since Florida’s Charles Johnson did it in 2002.

“He’s been doing it for a long time,” said the Rays’ B.J. Upton, Molina’s victim in the second inning. “We (thrive) off stealing bases and he put a stop to that today.”

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Jays manager Cito Gaston isn’t panicking over his bullpen yet but he realizes that the absence of Roy Halladay, who routinely shouldered more than his share of the workload, will increase the stress on all of his pitchers.

“I’ve already told these guys since the start of the season I’m going to have to leave them out there a little bit longer than I want to,” Gaston said. “But I’m not going to hurt anybody.”

“I've always believed that when a young pitcher can throw a complete game shutout it does do something for their confidence,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “And to do it in a minimal number of pitches like that, 108, that's really good also. I just think it's a carry-over kind of thing.”

Price (3-1) struck out nine and walked one in his first complete game. He improved to 9-1 in his career against the AL East.

“He probably pitched the best against us (this season),” Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. “He threw strikes. He kept the guys off balance. He just had good stuff.”

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Molina was “very sore” after being hit by a foul ball near his left shoulder late in the game. ... Tampa Bay has outscored its opponents 24-9 in the eighth this season....Cuban SS prospect Adeiny Hechavarria worked out with Blue Jays before the game. The 21-year-old is playing with Toronto's extended spring training team.

“Know how I work re-alignment?” Beeston asked during an interview at his Rogers Centre office. “I start with the Blue Jays and New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox together. I've got one here: Boston, both New York teams, Philadelphia and us. Put all the big boys together and let them spend money. I have another one here with relegation. Like soccer.”

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After their first 10 home games, the Blue Jays had attracted the second-smallest average attendance in the Majors.

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“Rogers is prepared to give us payrolls of $130-million to $140-million, which we’ll need to contend,” Beeston said. “But we need to generate the revenue to sustain that payroll. We’re trying to put some integrity back into our ticket pricing.”

Official attendance increased under Godfrey’s watch, from 1.83 million in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2008. But there was a catch. A former Blue Jays employee said the team actually generated more revenue from ticket sales last season – Beeston’s first back in charge – from 1,876,129 fans than it did from ticket sales in 2008.

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According to industry figures cited by the team’s vice-president of marketing and merchandising Anthony Partipilo, the Blue Jays’ average ticket price is $23.84, compared to $52.56 for the Chicago Cubs, $51.83 for the Yankees and $29.66 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Blue Jays have more seats in low-priced areas of a large stadium, which drives the average ticket price lower, but the message is clear: If ownership is to approve a big-market payroll, fans should be prepared to pay big-market prices.

Through the first three weeks of the season, Gregg has been stellar, Casey Janssen (with the exception of last night) has been far better than anyone could have imagined he’d be, Shawn Camp has been terrific, Scott Downs has been OK and Jason Frasor has been awful.

So awful, in fact, that I’m thinking there has got to be something wrong with him physically. I’m not saying he’s hiding an injury or anything like that - he may not even recognize what it is that’s got him 2-3 miles an hour slower than usual - but there’s got to be something wrong.

Frasor usually sits at 93-94 miles an hour with his fastball, and he can touch 96. This year, he has sat at 91 for the most part, only very occasionally touching 93. As Alan Ashby put it during that ugly eighth inning this afternoon, that turns Frasor from an above-average reliever to just an average one. And he’s getting his average tail kicked all around the yard right now.

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Randy Ruiz got a very rare start today, and swung from the heels as you’d expect from a guy who thinks every chance he gets could very well be his last. He went 0-for-3, including a strikeout on three pitches in the 5th, but in his final at-bat stung a line drive to shortstop that was hit so hard that it literally knocked Reid Brignac right off his feet after he caught it (or rather, after it caught him).

Plato has Socrates say that the beginning of wisdom is knowing that you don't know anything. It was the Yogi (who else?) who gave this insight its baseball formulation: "In baseball, you don't know nothing." And knowing, as I do, that I know nothing about basketball, I went to the fan sites for insight, support, understanding. Now 2009-10 was, I realize, a very disappointing season. What looked so promising just a couple of months ago went swirling down the drain, leaving a nasty smell in its wake. There is some unhappiness out there in Raptor Land. I understand that. Nevertheless, when I read the denunciations of the character and competence of the coach and general manager, the thought that went through my head was "Do we sound like that?"

That arrogant? That presumptuous? That full of ourselves?

Sometimes.

Those of you who weren't around in 1992 and 1993 have probably been startled at the way some of us respond to criticism of Cito Gaston as a manager. A tad defensive, from time to time. No doubt about it. But Cito Gaston makes people go crazy. Stark raving nuts. He always has.

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It's the glancing, almost unconscious insult to the manager's intelligence, the insinuation that when confronted with something as mind-bogglingly complex as platoon splits, this poor fool from Texas with his high school education is out of his depth.

Well, give me a god damn break. Does anybody seriously think Cito Gaston does not understand platoon splits? That he's not aware that Randy Ruiz is a better hitter than John McDonald? And that given, does it not follow that he's basing his decisions on some other factor? How difficult is that? Really - if you do not understand that, just who is it that's having trouble grasping basic concepts around here anyway?

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Valid criticisms of Gaston are almost always based on some specific tactical decision he has made. Which may be indeed valid on that one level, but it's not the only level Gaston (or any major league manager for that matter) is required to operate on. All managers place a higher priority on some things than they do on others. Gaston manages as if he believes that maintaining his player' personal comfort zones is more important than specific tactical issues. I don't know if that's a strength or a weakness because I don't know if it's true or false. And neither do you. It's probably true for some players, not true for others. But we certainly don't know. And therefore it's utterly impossible to measure the consequences. We don't, and we never will, have any way to do that properly - we can only measure a part - and only a part - of the tactical import. And while the tactical import may be the only part of the job that we can reasonably assess, it does not exist in splendid theoretical isolation. Tactical decisions do not take place in a vacuum.

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Many people honestly think Gaston should have chosen to make whatever tactical decision can best be measured in terms of being a positive percentage move.

No manager in the history of the game has ever done that, of course - but it's the only thing we can speak about with any kind of knowledge at all. It's all we got. No wonder it often sounds as if we think it's the only thing that matters, even as we grudgingly recognize that it's not the only thing that actually... you know, exists.

The long-time minor league manager Rocky Bridges once quipped that there are three things every man thinks "he can do better than any other man: build a fire, run a hotel, and manage a baseball team." And by manage a baseball team, no one is thinking of coping with the daily media horde trying to squeeze something damaging but newsworthy out of you every day. No one's thinking about arguing with your GM about the useless reliever taking up space in your bullpen. They're thinking about making moves - changing pitchers, calling for the hit and run, juggling the lineup. The cool stuff. The stuff Tony LaRussa does. They're certainly not imagining just sitting in the dugout watching, while a bunch of guys who are half your age and make ten times the money hold your professional future in their hands. Which must be pretty well unbearable, when you think about it.

LittleOzzy wrote:Sorry about the little Raptors forum trick

LittleOzzy wrote:Sorry about the little Raptors forum trick

LittleOzzy wrote:Sorry about the little Raptors forum trick