Tonight the Blue Jays face the Tigers again, hopefully with a Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion back in there so Munenori Kawasaki doesn't have to DH. Also, Todd Redmond has re-joined the team to give the Jays a much-needed nine-man bullpen. Redmond is only here as an emergency reliever, but if he doesn't pitch he will remain the tentative starter for Sunday, but it's against the Twins so it'll be alright, right?
Speaking about Kawasaki as the designated hitter on Tuesday night, it was actually just the 59th time in Blue Jays franchise history that a starting DH was slotted into the ninth spot in the batting order. The Jays never batted a DH ninth between their founding in 1977 and 1986 when Kelly Gruber did it, then had another huge gap between September callup Shawn Green in 1993 and Dave Berg (remember him?) in 2002. Rick Leach and Glenallen Hill both did it six times, while Travis Snider and Eric Crozier did it five times each.
On to the links!
Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos offers injury update on Brett Lawrie, others - National Post
John Lott summarizes the injury and signing update given by Alex Anthopoulos Tuesday evening. Sergio Santos was noticeably missing from the list of updates. Anthopoulos on hot-hitting Kevin Pillar: "reports are that he's ready to come if we have a need." It is still early into the AAA portion of his career (55 PA) but the 24 year old has not batted below .313 in any season or partial season in professional ball.
Morrow In The Doghouse And Other Intrigues - Drunk Jays Fans
Yesterday, Andrew Stoeten wrote about Richard Griffin's Bullpen piece (linked therein), specifically the part where Griff wrote that Brandon Morrow was in John Gibbons' "dog house". And later on Baseball Central, Dirk Hayhurst, Jon Morosi, and Jeff Blair talked about how Morrow is someone who couldn't pitch through pain. Certainly I think that Morrow has disappointed both the club and the fans, but I'd wait for a couple more beat reporters to make their observation of the Gibbons-Morrow relationship known before taking Griff's comments too seriously.
GM Anthopoulos mulling upgrades to starting rotation - Toronto Star
Brendan Kennedy on rotation options. Right now, Anthopoulos is "not engaged" in any trade talks at all, but is collecting information (like always). And he answers the question about Romero the right way: "He’s not there yet, but he’s certainly getting better." I hope they get Romero on a solid streak in AAA before even thinking about a schedule to call him back up.
Miguel Cabrera Gives Credit to R.A. Dickey - The Blue Jay Hunter
A classy Miguel Cabrera tips his cap to R.A. Dickey.
Gomez, Negrych named IL All-Stars - Buffalo Bisons News
Bisons sluggers Mauro Gomez and Jim Negrych are now International League All-Stars and they get to take a free trip to Reno! Negrych has cooled down but is still batting .327/.391/.466 with 3 homers and 33 RBI while Gomez is hitting .244/.318/.563 with a league-leading 24 homers and 54 RBI. A notable "snub" is Luis Jimenez who has a .307/.381/.545 line with 16 homers and 61 RBI, but there's only so much room for no-defense first basemen.
Stroman Ties a Record: July 2 Minor League Report - Jays Journal
Jays Journal recaps Tuesday's games down on the farm: Marcus Stroman loss in New Hampshire, but tied a Fisher Cats record with his 13 strikeouts.
Minor Leaguer Hits Walk-Off Single, His Team Loses Game - Deadspin
Lansing Lugnuts' Chris Hawkins (reading the title, I thought I was the one who hit it) hits a walk-off single, but Santiago Nessy forgot to advance from first to second, so was forced out by a heads-up play by the Great Lakes Loon.
Another late addition: Zeke from Bleed Cubbie Blue, who happens to be the Lugnuts' official scorer, gives us this recount of the play.
Blue Jays Plus Podcast - Episode 15.1 - Blue Jays Plus
And to finish it off the guys from Blue Jays Plus did a podcast, mostly about prospects. I haven't had the time to listen to the whole thing yet unfortunately.
One more thing: April Whitzman, the Canadian Ambassador to the MLB Fan Cave, wants you to tweet her pictures/videos of you and your friends "Edwinging." So take your Super 8 camera or whatever kids use to make movies these days and go film!
Late Addition
Best deadline deal ever: Blue Jays - SweetSpot Blog
Matthias Koster of Mop-Up Duty thinks that the deadline deal sending Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric to the Mariners for Jose Cruz, Jr. was the best deadline deal ever for the Blue Jays, beating David Cone for Jeff Kent. I tend to agree that the Cruz trade was more lopsided in favour of the Blue Jays, but Cone led to a World Series, which is the ultimate goal of every season. What say you?