Injuries, Ultimatums and Short Benches - And Its Only Tuesday

It's not even Wednesday and this week is already proving to be a hand wringer for Blue Jays fans.  To recap:

- Brandon Morrow throws 9 pitches in Monday's game against the Nationals and pulls himself out of the game with an injury.  Turns out to be a side strain and he may or may not go on the DL.  So much for getting lucky when he avoided an injury from the come backer to the leg.

- Vlad Guerrero issues an ultimatum to the Jays - either call him up to the Show or release him.  Since when is baseball an exercise in hostage negotiations?  And since when it is professional to walk away from a club that was willing to take a risk on an aging player only to place your own timeline on your comeback.  Prior success does not automatically dictate that the Blue Jays had to move Vlad into the Show and Vlad certainly didn't give the Jays any strong reasons to elevate him based on his play in AAA.  Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained and in this case, no big loss for the Jays.

- The Blue Jays have optioned Jan "The Brazilian Bomber" Gomes back to AAA and have called up two more arms for the bullpen.  For those counting, that makes 8 arms in the pen and 3 bodies on the bench (McCoy, Vizquel, Mathis).  More than likely, this is a move designed to get more time before making a final decision on whether or not Morrow has to go on the DL.

What does all of this mean in terms of on-field product?  The answer is yet to be seen.  But here's hoping that the Jays get through the Nationals in one piece and when Philly comes to town this weekend, let's play strong but quietly and avoid waking a sleeping giant.

Here's to Bucking the Trend

Since June 1997, when interleague play was introduced, the Blue Jays have played 270 interleague games.  The team's record over those 270 games is not pretty.  In fact, one could say that the team's record has fallen out of the proverbial ugly tree.  The Jays have lost 145 games and won only 125 games.  That is far from.500 ball and leads one to question: If the Jays were better in interleague play, would the team have made the playoffs in prior seasons?

This year, more so than in recent memory, that question may prove to haunt the Blue Jays if the interleague woes continue.  With 18 interleague games scheduled for AL teams (the Jays have already played 5 games with a 2-3 record thus far) and an abnormally tight AL East, going less than .500 in interleague play this year could have a true detrimental impact.  All of this is hypothetical at this point and the Blue Jays could tear through the rest of interleague play, but history says that is unlikely. [Though, if history is always looked to as a predictor for the future, that would ignore progress in a vast array of societal areas - for example, if historical trends, as a predictor, were correct in the last U.S. Presidential election, Obama would not be in office - and we all know that the U.S. people bucked that historical trend.]

I don't proclaim to have an answer here and I'm really not saying anything new.  Jays fans have been fretting over our interleague woes for nearly 15 years.  I suppose I should remain proud that when interleague play truely counted for the Jays, we came out on top, twice.  But in today's day and age, interleague play is not limited to the World Series or the All-Star game.  It is a key component of the schedule, making up more than 10% of the season, and the Jays have to figure something out and quickly.

I'll be at the Rogers Centre for at least one interleague game this week, maybe two, and hopefully I can witness the Jays starting to buck the historical trend.  Here's hoping anyways.