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Tuesday, August 30, 7:05 PM ET
Brett Cecil vs. Jeremy Guthrie


Wednesday, August 31, 7:05 PM ET
Henderson Alvarez vs. Jo-Jo Reyes


Thursday, September 1, 12:35 PM ET
Luis Perez vs. Tommy Hunter

Anything less then a sweep would be disappointing, IMO.

Tonight's lineup;

Yunel Escobar SS
Eric Thames LF
Jose Bautista RF
Adam Lind 1B
Edwin Encarnacion DH
Kelly Johnson 2B
Brett Lawrie 3B
J.P. Arencibia C
Mike McCoy CF

The second game could go two ways. One, JoJo goes into super JoJo mode and has a good start. Two Jojo pitches like Jojo. I'm hoping for the latter, it would be nice to be on the other side of a JoJo start for once.

Can't miss the start vs JoJo Jose is going to destroy his pitching. I'm counting on a Burnett-esque start and I doubt he will make it past the 3rd inning.

RaptorsInsider1 wrote:Anything less then a sweep would be disappointing, IMO.

Didn't you say this in the Oakland and Kansas City threads as well?

LLJ wrote:

RaptorsInsider1 wrote:Anything less then a sweep would be disappointing, IMO.

Didn't you say this in the Oakland and Kansas City threads as well?

I think i said that in those threads

From now on, no one can mention a sweep until the series is over.

Sweep.

Wowowowowow

Yeah, I know 80+ AB's is a small sample size, but Lawrie strikes me as a prototypical #3 hitter. He figures to hit for average and power. I wouldn't be at all against moving Bautista to the cleanup spot (we desperately need to get Lind out of that spot). I could foresee a lineup like this next season:

Escobar
Rasmus
Lawrie
Bautista
Lind
Encarnacion/Cooper
Johnson
Arencibia
Thames

Bench
Cooper/Encarnacion
Snider or Davis
Molina or d'Arnaud or Jeroloman or another veteran
McCoy or Diaz or other infield defensive guy

That's not too bad, and the beautiful thing is all those guys except Johnson are already in the fold for next season. If AA can turn Lind + prospects into something really good, that should be good enough offense to compete into September and beyond.

<End of semi-regular roster brainstorm>

You think Snider will waste his time on the bench next year ? I think only one of Thames or Snider will be on this team next year.

Real stupid throw by Cecil.

JoeyBats wrote:You think Snider will waste his time on the bench next year ? I think only one of Thames or Snider will be on this team next year.

That's quite possible, but it's unlikely AA will sell low on Snider, and Thames has shown enough in his brief stint to be optimistic about his future.

LOL fail..

This team really is just playing out the string. I think the younger guys expected to compete this year, and now that they're clearly out of it, they're having trouble staying motivated. Unacceptable, but quite possible. Surely we can't lose to the Orioles

Lateral Quicks wrote:This team really is just playing out the string. I think the younger guys expected to compete this year, and now that they're clearly out of it, they're having trouble staying motivated. Unacceptable, but quite possible. Surely we can't lose to the Orioles

Or this is just a simple slump that all teams go through and you're attributing something like "playing out the string" to a sample size of about six games.

And the Jays lose to the Orioles all the time (as do many other teams, see the Orioles last series vs. NYY). If they do tonight, it's not indicative of much of anything.

Damn just missed a home run.

Jim Johnson is not an easy reliever to hit.