Just some thoughts ahead of today's rubber match...

J.P. RICCIARDI'S ONE GREAT MOVE OF THE SEASON- CALLING UP RANDY RUIZ

Come on, it took this long to call up Randy Ruiz? And look at that, in his second at-bat he hits a fucking homerun. Are you retarded J.P. Ricciardi? Even after we've exhausted the position with Jose Bautista (.132 with RISP), Kevin Millar (too old and slow to make a significant impact), Joe Inglett (we already have a leadoff hitter in Marco Scutaro), and David Dellucci (I'm the quietest guy in the clubhouse).....

Yes, Travis Snider's demotion left J.P. Ricciardi with options, great options in the minor leagues. At the time Randy Ruiz was a guy they could have easily called up. And Ruiz went on to waste his offensive talents in Las Vegas all the way until now, while hitting .320 with 25 HR and 106 RBIs. Are you fucking kidding me? You waited this long to call him up?

I don't think there's been a more pervasive time to fire J.P. Ricciardi. Ricciardi said something along the lines that Ruiz was 31, too old to really be given a chance, but come on, when you hit .320 in back-to-back seasons in the minor leagues both in Rochester and Las Vegas, you certainly deserve a chance. After all, Randy Ruiz has to be better than a combination of Kevin Millar, Jose Bautista, Lyle Overbay, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, Rod Barajas, Joe Inglett, and John McDonald, even if all those players don't play the outfield.

Imagine Ruiz hits .290 with the Blue Jays the entire season this year, and belts 18 homeruns versus his 26 minor league homeruns. WHAT A FUCKING IMPROVEMENT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN? J.P.- you've never known how to manage a big league club. You've known how to draft and pick up sick minor league players, but you don't know when to throw them in the fire. You just love the Mench/Wilkerson/Delucci/Bautista/Millar creampile throwing into the outfield. For that, fuck you, until now, of course, as Randy Ruiz is now in the mix.

Oh, and Travis Snider's belted 13 homeruns in 165 at-bats in Triple-A- when is he coming back again?

THE RUBBER MATCH

Now this is a game I'm real interested in watching. It's pretty much A.J. Burnett's replacement in Toronto in Ricky Romero, who has bettered Burnett by just 0.01 ERA points, a 10-5, 3.66 ERA to Burnett's 10-5, 3.67 ERA.

In hindsight, the Blue Jays did the right thing in losing A.J. Burnett to free agency, because Ricky Romero came along and soldified himself as the number two, posting identical numbers to A.J. Burnett at a fraction of the cost! Everyone wrote off the Blue Jays because they lost the latter perennial number two to free agency. I remember the doomsayers of the Toronto sports media.

Toronto managed to win a rubber match against Baltimore on Sunday due to Roy Halladay's great eight inning mastery, but Ricky Romero must do the same today, if the Blue Jays want to save face at all....