FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, ONTARIO

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

BLUE JAYS CLAIM RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN

The TORONTO BLUE JAYS have claimed RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN from the New York Mets on waivers. To make room on the 40 man roster the Blue Jays have designated RHP DANIEL FARQUHAR for assignment.

SCHWINDEN, 25, has appeared in three games for the Mets this season, making two starts and posting a 0-1 record with a 12.46 ERA. The 6-3, 190lb. right-hander will report to Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League (AAA). The Visalia, California native has made nine starts this season for the Buffalo Bisons of the International League (AAA) where he was 3-4 with a 2.59 ERA. Schwinden also pitched for the Mets in 2010 making four starts. He now has a career record of 0-3 in seven games, six starts with a 6.98 ERA.

FARQUHAR, 25, has made 20 appearances this season for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League (AA). The 5-9, 180lb. right-hander has a 0-1 record with one save and an ERA of 2.97. Farquhar, originally drafted by Toronto in 2008 (10^th round), made three appearances for Toronto last season posting a 0-0 record with a 13.50 ERA.

Red Sox 7 Blue Jays 2

That was just bad. Henderson Alvarez wasn't good, but kind of kept us in the game. It didn't really get out of hand until he left the game. He gave up a run in 3 of the first 6 innings. Then a double to lead off the 7th. After a strikeout John Farrell took him out of the game. Luiz Perez came in and allowed that runner on second to score and 3 more. He was lucky that David Ortiz went too far past first base, on a single, and was tagged out to, mercifully end the inning.

Henderson also took a ground ball off his shin. I figured he should have come out of the game right then, but he didn't pitch badly after. In all he went 6.1, 8 hits, 4 earned (one score after he left the game, 1 walk, 2k. 11 ground ball outs, 4 fly ball outs. Too many hard hit balls, too few strikeouts. Perez was worse, 0.2 innings, 4 hits, 3 earned. Robert Coello looked good, pitching the last two innings, he hit 97 on Sportsnet's radar gun. 3 hits, 3 k, 0 runs.

On offence, we didn't do much. Our runs scored on solo homers (this is a recording) by Yunel Escobar and David Cooper. Cooper was impressive at the plate, opposite field homer and double. Rajai Davis had a single and 2 walks. Other than that, we looked pretty awful. Kelly Johnson was 0 for 3, with 2 k, getting on in the first on catcher's interference. Jose Bautista was 1 for 4, with 3 k.

Jay of the Day? By the numbers, no one gets it, but I'm going to give one to Cooper for the double and homer. Suckage awards go to Perez (-.156 WPA) and Edwin (-.124, 1 for 4, with a double play to end the first, with 2 on).

On defense, Brett Lawrie made a nice play on a soft grounder, making a throw across his body. Kelly Johnson started a great double play with a flip to Yunel, in the 5th, right after Alvarez took the ball off the shin.

Henderson Alvarez also had the dumb defensive moment of the game. With bases loaded, he got a ground ball to Cooper, Cooper threw to second to get an out but Henderson didn't cover first, so no double play. But then, the next batter hit into a DP to end the inning, so it didn't cost anything.

Tomorrow is a 1:00 Eastern start. Felix Doubront (5-2, 3.86) goes against the Jays and Kyle Drabek (4-5, 4.55). Let's have a good game Kyle.

We are down by a 2 runs.

Everyone's favorite former Jay, Brad Wilkerson, turns 35 (funny it seemed like he was a lot older than that when he played with us).

Brad took a fair bit of punishment, around here, during his season with the Jays. He wasn't very good (understatement) and our managers John Gibbons and, after Gibby was fired, Cito Gaston, used him way too much, for our liking. Brad hit .216/.297/.332 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI. He and Kevin Mench were the punch line for a 2008 season that started with such high hopes and ended with us in 4th place. We weren't thrilled that the two headed Mencherson got a lot of at bats that we felt would have been better off given to a (then) prospect, named Adam Lind.

It was really too bad, Wilkerson was a player that I had fond memories of from his Expo days. He was a pretty good player with them, he hit .256/.365/.452 in 5 seasons as an Expo (well, 1 of them was as a National) with 83 home runs and 265 RBI. He had power, took walks, played good defense and had a bit of speed.

His best season was 2004, he hit 32 home runs, took 106 walks and had a .255/.374/.498 line. But the Wilkerson we had didn't resemble that one in the least. He seems to be old at 31 when he played for us.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Brad. Hope it is a good one.

We start a weekend series with the Red Sox tonight. The Sox are 26-25, which, amazingly enough, puts them in last in the AL East. But, last is only 3 games back of first and only 1 game behind us. They are still scoring runs, 5.30 a game, second in the AL to the Rangers (we are 3rd with 4.88 runs per game), but pitching and defens has been their problem, they are allowing 4.86 runs per game, second worst in the AL to the Twins.

I sent off some questions to Marc Normandin from Over the Monster and he was nice enough to send back some answers.

How is Dustin Pedroia's thumb? Is there a trip to the DL ahead? I won't be too sad if he has to miss this series.

Pedroia is likely to miss the series, as he can't swing a bat at the moment, but the team doesn't seem to think he'll need a disabled list stint. If he does end up requiring one, he hasn't played since Sunday anyway, so he can be placed retroactively. There is a tear in his abductor muscle, but it's not a large one, so they think a little time and a brace will do the trick.

Adrian Gonzalez is playing RF? How does he look out there? I guess with that bat he could play anywhere.

He looks like an outfielder. Not great, by any means, but certainly capable. He looks more like an outfielder than a few actual outfielders of the last few years (looking at you, Adam Dunn and Delmon Young). He isn't playing there constantly, but against lefties, when Ryan Sweeney is going to sit, there will most likely be Gonzalez playing in the outfield.

How is the Daniel Bard as starter thing going? Do you see him still starting in a couple of years?

He's learning slowly. You see him figuring out things one start at a time, but he's rarely put them all together. He just went back to his old arm slot for his previous start, and struck out four with two walks over 5-1/3. Not amazing, but an improvement. More of that sort of thing will make him more capable than he's been to this point. I think he has a future in starting, but it all comes down to his walks. If he can't curb the free passes, then it's just not going to work out for him as a starter.

Can we have a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers we are going to see?

Clay Buchholz has had a rough season, but his change-up -- his best pitch, absent from most of his early starts -- seems to have come back to life. He's thrown one terrible inning over his last four starts, but he's been pretty solid otherwise. Inconsistency has been his thing this year, though, so expect to have him shut the Jays down completely or get hammered. Not a lot of middle ground in 2012 to this point. Felix Doubront will likely last for six innings against the Jays, but he has swing-and-miss stuff, and plenty of velocity, especially for a lefty. Expect to see strikeouts. Bard, you just got a handle on. He pitched well against the Jays the first time around, until the bullpen failed to keep his ERA intact.

Alfredo Aceves is closing, how is he doing? Are Red Sox fan confortable with him in that spot?

Aceves is a very underrated pitcher, but the Red Sox weren't using him correctly to begin the year. About halfway through 2011, Terry Francona started to use Aceves for about ~20 innings of relief per month, and he was at his best. Bobby Valentine and Bob McClure admitted he needed that kind of workload again, and since April 23 (the first game after they admitted he needed to be used more often), he's thrown 22-2/3 innings with 24 strikeouts, seven walks, a 2.38 ERA, 517 opponent OPS. He's got real good stuff, and can throw strikes for multiple innings. Definitely a better fit for the bullpen, since he needs constant work to be at his best, but that's just fine for the Red Sox and their fans while Andrew Bailey is out.

Who has been the Red Sox biggest surprise this season? Biggest disappointment?

The biggest surprise has to be Daniel Nava, who is second on the Red Sox in OPS+ since coming up as an injury replacement. His defense is questionable out in left, but he is a very patient switch-hitter who can draw walks and hit for a bit of power. Boston needed someone to step up with all of the injuries, and it's been him. The biggest disappointment has been Buchholz, who was supposed to anchor the rotation as he wasn't able to last year due to his back injury, but instead has been a mix of good starts and terrible ones. Getting back on track will be huge for Boston's chances this year.

IT was a strange day for making choices, with only 3 games yesterday. Today we are back to a full slate of games. The deadline is 7:00 Eastern.

I was 24th, not so bad, one of those rare days where I didn't have anyone with a negative. My best pick was Carlos Gonzalez, who had 30 point all on his own.

The weekly leader is jay_tee_slash 220.7.

The Jays played 12 games in the past 2 weeks and went 6-6. There were series wins against the Mets and Orioles (a sweep) and series losses to the Rays and Rangers (a sweep the other direction).

Continue reading this post »

Alex Anthopoulos did a conference call to talk about today's moves. It was pretty short but he did make a few points:

• About Adam Lind, Alex said 'we needed a spot on the 40 and he was put on waivers "a few days ago".
• They figured Lind would clear waivers. They still hope he will be back with the team soon.
• The reports on Lind are "very good", they are "very encouraged".
• Alex talked to Adam today and Adam said that his timing is better and everything is as positive as it could be.
• When Adam is ready to come back they will create a roster spot for him.
• About Robert Coello, with the Red Sox here they wanted an extra arm in the pen. If all goes well, he won't pitch.
• Laffey went down because he hadn't pitched for a few days and they want to keep him ready to start if needed.
• After the next off-day they will reassess and, likely, will go back to a 7 man pen. He doesn't know who they might call up.
• On Adeiny Hechavarria he said he would rather Adeiny stay in Vegas for the full season, if possible. That he's maybe not quite ready. Hechavarria hasn't had success for a long enough period of time and that he still had things to work on.
• On Hammel's comments: Old news. Saw it and "turned the page".
• He says he likes that "our guys" answer questions and blame themselves for their failures.

Well....no one guessed this. Why we would need another arm in the bullpen, I have no idea. It just seems dumb to me, but here we are. Robert Coello come up from Las Vegas to take Aaron Laffey's roster spot. I don't get it at all. Coello is 27 and had a 3.22 ERA and 3-1 record in 17 games with the 51's.

He's a big guy, 6'5", so he can help out our pickup basketball team. Beyond that I have no idea.

And, here's the big news, to make room for Coello, Adam Lind was outrighted to Vegas. So, obviously the reports that he was on waivers were true. Adam will be in Vegas for a little while, I'd imagine. I figured with him hitting so well, we might see him sooner rather than later.

Still 8 guys in the bullpen. I don't know why. Still just 3 outfielders in Toronto, unless you count Mike McCoy or EE.

I don't understand.

I'm pretty sure no one in our thread guessed that Coello was the guy coming up in the Laffey thread.

I hated that Man in White story. For one, it was stupid, it read like someone that had never watched baseball wrote it. Actually, it read like someone was playing a game with the reporters, let's see how big a lie we can tell and see if the reports fall for it. Well, they did.

It makes no sense. How long do you think there is between when the catcher puts down a sign and the pitcher starts his wind up? Most times, it is almost instantaneous. Certainly there isn't enough time for someone to see the sign, radio it to someone else and then signal the batter. Add in that there are roughly 50 TV cameras at each game, and only a handful of people in the right field stands, you'd think one of those cameras would have found the man in white. Or the guy with the binoculars and the walkie talkie.

How is a lefty batter going to look to right field without anyone noticing? I watched Colby Rasmus' homer and his eyes never leave the pitcher, just like all batters. You can't change your focus from the pitcher to someone in the right field stands to the pitcher again in the time between the sign and the pitch. If they were getting signs, from the stands, you'd see their eyes move.

There are a few dozen other things wrong with the story, but let's face it, there was no logic involved.

That's not to say stealing signs hasn't been part of baseball for as long as there has been signs in baseball. Runners on second lean one way if the pitch is to be inside, the other if outside. Hands on the hips if it is fastball coming, hands on knees it is a curve. That's why teams use more complicated signs with a runner on second. Sometimes, in the history of baseball, a light on the scoreboard has been used. Light clicks on fastball. It is always something right in the view of the batter.

The real reason I hated the 'Man in White' story is that it gives sore loser pitchers a reason to whine after a game. Casual fans don't look at a story and say 'this doesn't make sense'. Most of the people that talk about the story have never read it. Fans of other teams talk about it without reading the story. .

Jason Hammel claims the Jays were hitting his off-speed stuff surprisingly well. What he doesn't mention is that all the hard hit balls were off fastballs. He doesn't mention that, even without runners on base, the Orioles were using a series of signs that would make it hard for the guy with binoculars to figure out the pitch quick enough to relay it to the man in white. But then all he wants to do is tell Oriole fans that it isn't his fault he got beat. All you have to do, if you figure the other team is stealing signs, is call a low and outside curve and throw an up and in fastball.

Jason, you really ought to take a loss like a man.

We have a late deadline for Pick 6 today, all the games today are evening games. And there are only 3 of them. SB Nation is suggesting that we pick one player from each team today. If you want to do it that way, that's great. I figure after the 4 weeks of contests are over we'll play with fun rules a couple of days a week, but, since I can't really police different rules, we won't worry about trying these things now.

Our top 5 in the weekly contest are:

taawr 174.0

Matt_CC 161.2

blazekng 158.0

Lincsub4 146.2

mathesond 140.7

Yesterday's leader board:

Me? Well, let's just say I shouldn't have picked Ryan Dempster, he beat up by the Padres. The Padres. Oh well, Carlos Ruiz and Giancarlo Stanton were better picks but it was tough to climb out of the -18.5 hole Dempster put me in.

Orioles 1 Blue Jays 4

The best news is that they are saying it is only a contusion on Brandon Morrow's shin. It really looked bad when John Farrell and a trainer were helping him off the field. With tomorrow and Monday off, if Brandon needs to miss a start, we should be ok. Just as long as it is only one start.

Before he took the ball off the shin, Brandon was doing great. 6.1 innings, 4 hits (including the one that took him out of the game), 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 1 earned. He looked as good as any start this year.

Carlos Villanueva came in, after the injury, with 1 out and the runner on first and got 2 quick outs. Francisco Cordero pitched a clean 8th. Casey Janssen walked Adam Jones to lead off the 9th but got a double play ball and a strikeout to earn his 5th save. Both Cordero and Janssen were pitching in their 3rd straight game (and 4 of the last 5 days). I really don't understand why, when we have 8 guys in the pen, we can't trust someone else with a 3 run lead. Casey threw 28 pitches yesterday. But he pitched much better than yesterday.

On offense, it was all home runs. Edwin Encarnacion, Rajai Davis (!), Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus each hit solo homers. We had 9 hits, 2 each for Edwin and Omar Vizquel. 0 fors for Yunel Escobar and Jose Bautista (with 2 walks).

Jay of the Day is Morrow (.232 WPA). Give honorable mention to each of the home run hitters, and Omar for the 2 hits and some nice defense, in particular a nice catch on a line drive in the 8th, getting Cordero his 1, 2, 3 inning.

Sweeps are nice.

Tomorrow is an off-day, then a weekend series with the Red Sox. Not that I want to hope an injury on anyone, but I'd really be ok with Dustin Pedroia missing the series.

Oh we can't have Brandon hurt.

With the MLB Draft coming up next week and since I'm just waiting for the Jays announcement of today's roster move (we've only got 8 guys in the bullpen, 8 is the loneliest number you know), I was playing around on Baseball Reference and I got to wondering who the best draft choices ever were in some of the slots the Jays have this year.

The Jays first pick is number 17 overall. The best player ever chosen with the 17th pick (since the draft started in 1965) is David Cooper. No no, kidding, though he was the 17 pick back in 2008. The real best draft pick, from that slot, was Roy Halladay. The Jays grabbed him back in 1995. 192 wins later, he's easy the best player ever drafted 17th. You all know enough about Doc, so I don't have to talk about him.

Other players you may have heard of, that went number 17 overall, are Gary Matthews (Sarge), picked by the Giants in 1968. He hit 234 home runs in a 16 year career. He was Rookie of the Year in 1973, an all-star in 1979. Also picked 17th were Cole Hamels, in 2002, he's 82-55 so far and has started this year 8-1. Charles Nagy, picked by the Indians, won 129 games in a 14 year career. Jeromy Burnitz, picked by the Mets, hit 315 home runs, in his 14 seasons in the majors.

We also have the 22nd pick. The best pickup in that slot? You could have a bit of a debate there. The Astros choose Craig Biggio in that slot in 1987. Biggio really should be a hall of famer, but he BBWAA undervalue leadoff hitters and have no idea about park factors. He played 20 seasons with the Astros (playing in the Astrodome), hitting .281/.363/.433. He scored 1844 runs, stole 414 bases, hit 291 home runs and drove in 1175. He started his career as a catcher, then was moved over to second base. I wonder how many players have come to the majors as a catcher and were moved to second? I'd bet there are less than a dozen in the last 50 years.

Also picked 22nd was Rafael Palmeiro, who likely would be in the Hall of Fame, if he hadn't decided to tell congress that he had never taken steroids and then, a few months later, tested positive. He retired with 569 home runs, 1835 RBI with a .288/.371/.515 line.

Others chosen 22nd include Chet Lemon (A's, 1972) an excellent CFer for 16 seasons, Bruce Hurst (Red Sox, 1976), who had a 145-113 record over 15 seasons and Jayson Werth, (Orioles, 1997), who became a Jay when the O's traded him to us in December of 2000.

Our next pick is number 50. Hall of Famer, Dennis Eckersley was picked by the Indians, back in 1972. Dennis started his career as a starting pitcher, winning 20 games in 1978. Tony LaRussa turned him into a closer in 1987 and over the next 10 years he saved 390 games (6th all-time).

Also taken 50th: former Jay Al Leiter by the Yankees in 1984 (162-132 in 19 seasons), Brian Roberts by the Orioles in 1999, Adam Dunn 1998 by the Reds and Bo Jackson in 1982 (but he didn't sign. preferring, at that time, to play football).

We have a couple more supplemental first round picks (numbers 58 and 60) but we'll save looking at those slots for another time.

You have less than an hour to get your Pick 6 choices in for today.

Last week's winners were TakeoutArtist, for the weekly high score, and jOEY_bATTS, for the best one day score of the week. SB will be emailing you to get the address to send you your shirts. Good work.

Yesterday's leader board:

This week's leader, after 2 days, is taawr with 118.4. dannyofbosnia is close behind at 116.

Orioles 6 Blue Jays 8

So a better start from Ricky Romero, not great but better than last time out. Just 1 walk, 6 hits and 7 strikeouts. The bad part was he gave up 2 home runs and 4 earned in 6 innings.

Jason Frasor pitched a scoreless 7th, even giving up a single, double and walk. Darren Oliver started the 8, giving up 2 singles to go with his strikeout. Francisco Cordero came in and got out of the inning without allowing a run. Casey Janssen pitched the 9th, thankfully not a save situation, giving up a single, homer, double and walk, before finishing the game.

Our offense was able to get 7 runs off Orioles starter Jake Arrieta, in 4.1 innings. The bottom of the lineup did most of the damage. Brett Lawrie, batting 7th, had 3 hits, including a double, scoring and driving in 3 runs. David Cooper, batting 8th, went 2 for 4 and reached on a Adam Jones error. And our 9th hitter, Rajai Davis went 3 for 4, including a nice bunt single, with 2 RBI.

Jays of the Day are Lawrie (.221 WPA), Davis (.210) and Cooper (.105). Ricky had a .115, but I can't give a JoD to a starter that gave up 4 runs in 6 innings. Kelly Johnson has the Suckage number (-.106) for an 0 for 5, with 4 strikeouts. He was the victim of some pretty iffy strike three calls.

Matt Wieters was ejected from the game in the 5th inning, after the Jays scored 3 runs. He, apparently, felt the plate umpire called a couple of strikes balls, costing the O's the 3 runs and suggested to the umpire that those runs should count against him. Adam Jones went 3 for 3, with 2 homers and 2 walks.

Tomorrow night the Jays go for the sweep with Brandon Morrow (5-3, 3.47) coming off the worst start of his career. Jason Hammel (6-1, 2.78) starts for the O's.

JAys up 5-1 after 4 and a half innings.

The Yankees have claimed Ryota Igarashi off waiver from us. We knew, when he was put on waivers, that it was likely someone would grab him. Not that he is a huge loss.

Another day, another roster move. This one, a bit of a surprise. We did need an extra middle infield and Eric Thames, well, he wasn't hitting, he wasn't fielding and there isn't that much more to the game.

Anyway, Mike McCoy is on his way to Toronto. More frequent flier miles. McCoy was hitting .238/.381/.294 in 44 games at Vegas. Not exactly numbers that scream promote me, but he's here for his ability to play many positions. I doubt he will be here long.

Eric Thames was hitting .243/.288/.365 with 3 home runs in 46 games with the Jays. And his "much improved defense" didn't really show itself. I did want Travis Snider to win the job, out of spring training, but I didn't expect Eric to do this badly. I figured him to have numbers much like last year's. He didn't. I hope he finds his batting stroke in Vegas.

A new week, a new contest. I haven't been sent the names of the winners of last week's yet, I'm hoping to find out today.

Me? 31st. I'm pretty happy with that since 3 of my picks didn't play. I figured Josh Hamilton was a good choice since they were playing against Seattle. Say with JP, the day after 2 home runs and getting to face Tommy Hunter. It didn't think they'd want to give him a day off. Oh well, new day, new game.

Reminder: there is an afternoon game today so the deadline for your picks is 2:20 Eastern. Be sure to get your picks in.

Orioles 2 Blue Jays 6

That was much more fun.

Drew Hutchison has been pretty good, but most games he has this one bad inning that ruins things. Tonight his bad inning was the 3rd, he gave up a single and 3 walks, but was helped out by Chris Davis, who got picked of 2nd and made it though without a run scoring. He went 7 innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, 9 (!) strikeouts and no runs.

I thought John Farrell should have pulled him out after the 6th. He had thrown 95 pitches and I thought he should come out while things were good, but he got through the 7th allowing just a hit batter and a single, finishing the inning by getting his 9th k. He ended up with 114 pitches, too many, to me, for a 21 year old who was in A-ball a year ago.

Luis Perez pitched a scoreless 8th. Francisco Cordero had some troubles in the 9th. 3 ground ball singles and a double hit hard off the center field wall. I really expected Colby Rasmus to make the catch. Maybe I just think he's going to catch everything hit to center, but he should have gotten to the wall, felt the wall, then jumped for the catch. Instead he stopped just short of the wall, jumped and missed the ball. tough play and the ball was hit hard. Cordero was lucky it wasn't a home run.

Casey Janssen came in with runners on 2nd and 3rd and us up by 4 and got a soft line out (nice catch Kelly) and a ground out to first. Save number 4 for Casey.

On the offensive side, we got 9 hits and 6 runs off Tommy Hunter in 3 innings. Kelly Johnson in his first game back after a couple off with a sore hamstring, had 3 hits, including 2 doubles, and 3 RBI. Colby Rasmus (looking good in the 2nd spot in the order) and David Cooper had 2 hits each. Edwin Encarnacion had a solo homer, number 16 on the year. Jose Bautista was the only one in the lineup without a hit.

Jays of the Day are Drew (.240 WPA) and Kelly (.113). No one gets the Suckage number. Cordero had the low mark at -.048.

After 5 brutal losses in a row, it was really nice to watch a win. Tomorrow Ricky Romero (5-1, 3.86) tries to make it 2 in a row. He almost has to be better than last time out. Jake Arrieta (2-5, 4.87) starts for the O's.

Fun game thread again. Thanks to all that joined in.

Jays leading after 5

I figured there was a move or two that was going to happen today. But this wasn't what I thought would happen. The Jays are sending Chad Beck back down, after his one day stay with the Jays, and have recalled Aaron Laffey.

Laffey has been a starter in Las Vegas, he is 2-5 with a 4.88 ERA in 9 starts. I'm not sure why they want him over Beck, I guess because he could be a long man and Chavez pitched a bunch of innings yesterday. He can't go down with out being exposed to waivers. Maybe being left handed helps, since Evan Crawford can't be called up yet, Laffey was the next best lefty choice.

It doesn't sound like Yunel Escobar or Kelly Johnson will have to be put on the DL, or they would be making a different move.

This is our Jays, everyday a new face in the bullpen.

We start a 3 game series with the Orioles tonight. We complain when MLB schedules us to play on the road on Canada Day, but here, on an American holiday, the Orioles miss out on the attendance bump they'd get from playing on a holiday Monday.

The Orioles at tied for the lead in the AL East with the Rays. It's hard not to feel jealous, it was supposed to be us. Everyone was picking us to make a move in the division and no one figured the Orioles improved at all. But, it is nice to look at the top of the standings and not see the Yankees and Red Sox, so I won't feel too bitter.

Anyway, I sent some questions off to Stacey at Camden Chat and she was nice enough to send some answers back.

Have Oriole fans become believers? What do you think, are they a playoff team?

I'm sure that there are some Orioles fans who are believers, but most of us are skeptical. Trying to enjoy the winning while it lasts, but not getting our hopes up. It varies by fan, of course, but a lot of us are afraid that the second we do start believing, the Orioles will punish us. It's happened before. I do think that there are a lot more positives about this team than most people believed going in, and that in itself is really nice.

What do you think about Adam Jones contract?

I love it. While Jones is probably not going to keep up the pace he's on so far this season, but he's a very good center fielder. There had been rumors that Jones didn't want to talk about an extension, rumors that it would take north of $100M to keep him here. So to get Jones locked up through 2018 and most of his prime years at $85M makes me very happy.

Who is your closer these days and how is he doing? I don't suppose you would consider using Kevin Gregg in the role for the next three games?

Jim Johnson is the Orioles closer this year, and he's awesome. He is 16 for 16 in save opportunities this year with a WHIP and ERA both under 1.00. He didn't get used much in the Kansas City, so he's well rested for you guys. I don't think Kevin Gregg will take his place over the next three days, but if you love him so much we could arrange to leave him behind in Toronto after the Orioles leave.

Can we have a quick scouting report on the starting pitchers we are likely to see?

Tommy Hunter -- There is a mantra over at Camden Chat. "Tommy Hunter sucks." When he's on the mound we mostly just hope that he'll keep the Orioles in the game and that the bats will show up. Hunter doesn't strike out very many or walk very many, but he gives up home runs. A lot of home runs.

Jake Arrieta -- When the season first started, Arrieta pitched well and some on CC were declaring him an "ace" as I rolled my eyes. Unlike Hunter, though, Arrieta is very capable of shutting down a team. In the month of May he shut down the Yankees with 8 shutout innings and 9 strikeouts, but he also lasted just 3 2/3 against the Rays. He has the talent to be very good, but he can't always keep it together.

Jason Hammel -- Hammel has been the Orioles best starting pitching this season. About three weeks ago Hammel was skipped in the rotation due to an inflammation in his knee, and upon his return he made two starts that began well but he couldn't last deep into the game and he fell apart. But in his last start he pitched six shutout innings with seven strikeouts, and he said that his knee felt a lot better than in previous starts, so hopefully he's back on track.

Who has been the the biggest surprise of the young season? Biggest disappointment?

It's hard to pick one biggest surprise, given that a team I expected to be floundering in the basement of the A.L. East is in first place on May 28th. But I'll go with Jason Hammel. When Jeremy Guthrie was traded for Hammel I wasn't expecting much. He'd had a few good years but was in the bullpen in Colorado. At best he seemed like he'd replace Guthrie, performance wise, only that we'd get one more year before he was a free agent. But he has been so much better than that. Those people that know these sorts of things say that it's not a mirage; his increased used of a sinking two-seam fastball appears to be the key to his success.

Biggest disappointment? It's totally foreign to me to have to reach for a disappointment. Usually the whole team is a disappointment. I was pretty excited about Jake Arrieta going into the season and his first few starts seemed to reinforce that. But he's been so up and down since then that it's been a letdown. Mark Reynolds (currently on the DL) has also been disappointing. Everyone knows he's no defensive marvel, but we at least thought we'd see a bunch of home runs. We have not.

Anything else we should know about the Orioles?

They're coming off of back-to-back losing series for the first time this season, so this set against the Blue Jays will be a test to see how they'll respond. When they're on, this team finds a way to win even when those of us watching are ready for a loss. Matt Wieters has really been slumping at the plate, so if the Blue Jays can keep him down they'll be in good shape. I believe he'll be fine, so when he gets out of his funk it's going to be really, really bad for other teams.

Oh, and if the last series against the Blue Jays is any indication, calling them the OrioLOLs seems to piss them off, so you might want to pass on to your constituents that it's a bad idea.

Thanks for this Stacey.

Just a quick reminder that it is Memorial Day on the other side of the border so there are early games, you'll need to get your picks in before the 1:00 Eastern deadline.

It is the start of a new week for the contest, I'll get the winners of last week's posted last today.

If you haven't played the game yet, give it a try. Our blog is one of the top sites on SB Nation for number of players of Pick 6 but we'd like to be number 1. Unlike normal fantasy baseball, there isn't a huge time commitment. It takes me just a few minutes to pick my 6 each day. Some days go well, some days less so.

I was 13th yesterday. Not too bad. My smart choice was Gio Gonzalez