All-Time Jays: Playoffs!

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads.com Historical League (SHL). So how about those Blue Jays?

Said it before, say it again: All the Blue Jays need is to get out of the American League East and the time-space continuum.

The All-Time Jays have captured the division flag, holding off the Arizona-Colorado D-Rocks to win by four games, with an underwhelming 79-75 record.

It's the most which could have been hoped for, especially after they began September by losing eight games in a row to fall three games back. However, from that point forward, they won 15 of their last 25 games, clinching on the penultimate day of the regular season when Roger Clemens hurled a three-hit shutout to beat Seattle. That sets up a first-round playoff matchup vs. the Cleveland Poz Buttons, the Midwest division champions (94-60 record). It will be best-of-5, with Clemens, Roy Halladay and Jimmy Key set to start, since they're about the only viable options.

It was tense (well, not really, it is imaginary baseball). One of the tendencies of the Out of The Park baseball-sim franchise is that players will go in the tank just randomly. The pitching staff more or less fell apart and whatever shuffling and shuttling of players that would have worked is, frankly, beyond my ken. Jonah Keri coaxed the Montreal Expos to an 83-71 record (the 'Spos went 46-32 from July 1 on, nearly .600 ball), but he's a lot smarter than this general mangler.

It looked doomed on the night of Sept. 9 after an 8-2 shellacking in Kansas City, where David Cone (who could have helped the Jays based on his two partial seasons in Toronto) threw a complete game and George Brett went 4-for-5. The next night, was the breakout game of all-time. It was 1-1 in the second when David Wells, validating the LaRussian strategy of having the pitcher bat eighth, smacked a two-out single, which snowballed into a nine-run rally, bookended by Wells (lifetime average: .129) getting his second hit of the inning to bring in the ninth run.

Ernie Whitt, who finished the season hitting a superb .293/.365./.488 while making 117 starts behind the plate, had the big blow with a three-run homer. (Amusingly, that prompted the Royals to bring in the Mad Hungarian, Al Hrabosky, who immediately plunked Joe Carter.) The eventual 17-3 win, followed by a 10-5 blowout the next night, got everything turned around. The story of the stretch drive, in brief vignettes.

• Halladay and A.J. Burnett came through Sept. 17-18 in a two-game sweep of the Orioles, 6-2 and 5-2, trimming the lead to one game entering a four-game set at the 'Dome vs.the D-Rocks. Devon White hit a game-winning home run off Jim Palmer in the second game.
• The All-Time Jays then took the first three games of that series, 10-3, 8-1 and 4-2, with Halladay throwing four-hit ball over eight innings in the tense third game. Doc has had a rough season, but is going into the playoffs having won three of his last four decisions.
  
  Arizona won the last game of the series, 12-3, leaving town only a game off the lead after coming in up one, but the damage had been done.
  
  
• From April to August, Joe Carter accumulated more Air Miles and splinters than RBI, shuffling between Triple-A Las Vegas and a seat on the bench. He came to life over the final five weeks, slugging .500 in 126 times at bat with nine homers and 22 runs scored, including a go-ahead grand slam homer in the win that clinched a tie for the division.
  
  Earlier, Carter raked during a six-game stretch following the D-Rocks series. The Jays only had to face the Yankees and Whitey Ford, the Red Sox and Cy Young, and the Twins and Walter Johnson, but they managed to go 3-3, all one-run wins.
  
  Carter homered, doubled and drew a leadoff walk off Ford to set up the winning run in a 5-4 win, on Sept. 24.
  
  B.J. Ryan, a late-season saviour of out of the bullpen, was a deserving winner after facing the minimum six hitters over the final two innings, getting Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle in order. (Ryan walked Gehrig to start the nervous ninth, but got Mantle on a liner and then picked the Iron Horse off first base.)
  
  The next night, Carter doubled in the bottom of the ninth and came in via a passed ball and a ground ball, clinching a 4-3 victory for Jimmy Key. The left-hander's valiant effort seemed to have gone for naught when he gave up a Ruthian home run that put the Yankees ahead in the eighth inning.
  
  However, in the home half, Robbie Alomar beat out an infield hit on a grounder between third and short (although one can only imagine Jeter showed outstanding intangibles on the play). The Yankees couldn't turn off a double play off a Tony Fernandez two-hopper (again, despite the Captain's outstanding intangibles). That kept the inning alive for Troy Glaus to smack a game-tying double.
  
  
• Glaus also started the club back when it beat the Big Train, 7-6 on Sept. 29. Johnson, who was going for his 25th win, had a 5-3 lead, but Glaus touched him up for a leadoff double in the seventh. Pinch-hitter Fred McGriff won an eight-pitch battle with a RBI single that cut the margin to 5-4, and Devon White, Lloyd Moseby and Carlos Delgado followed with run-scoring hits off one the imaginary-baseball incarnation of one of the game's greatest all-time pitchers. Johnson ended up finishing 25-8.
• Another great piece of two-out lightning came in a 9-2 win over the Dodgers on Oct. 3 (a day that lives in Blue Jays infamy). It was a one-run game through six. Hershiser got the first two outs in the seventh, before being bled drier than a kosher chicken by six straight singles, including a two-run single by Halladay on an 0-2 pitch, no less.
  
  
• Nevertheless, the lead was still a very shaky two games heading into a season-ending four-game set vs. Seattle. For one game and 5½ innings of the second, it seemed like a choking situation.
  
  A.J. Burnett failed on two fronts; his Toronto self couldn't stop the spoiler-minded Mariners, who won 8-5. while his Florida self took his 20th loss of the season at the hands of the D-Rocks in an 8-0 curbstomping.
  
  Seattle built a three-run lead vs. Jimmy Key the next night, on early homers by Raúl Ibáñez and Alex Rodriguez.
  
  It was white-knuckle time heading into the bottom of the sixth. Robbie Alomar, though, waited out a leadoff walk off Erik Hanson, who suddenly reverted to form. With the bases loaded and two out, Carter crushed a full-count fastball off Windows restaurant to stake the Jays to the lead. Key, who went the distance in the 5-3 win, and Clemens, with his shutout, took it from there.

Now the hard part: Plotting playoff strategy

Playing the Clevelands will not be easy. Poz's pounders scored 885 runs, most in the league and were second in on-base-plus-slugging (.806).

Albert Belle had a massive year, 36 homers and 125 RBI, while four players on-based in the .400 range: Jim Thome (.409), Tris Speaker (.407), Joe Sewell (.406) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (.396). Their catching tandem, Johnny Romano and Sandy Alomar Jr., combined for 21 homers and 103 RBI.

They had three players with at least 100 runs scored and 200 hits: Jackson, Speaker and leadoff man Napoleon Lajoie. This merely proves that they played their regulars way too much and will be tired, far as this Eastern Ontario country boy is concerned.

Most impressive of all, GM Posnanski managed to get Duane Kuiper his one at-bat. He swung at the first pitch and grounded out, but the fact he got to do that was victory enough.

"This is very important, I’ve got to get Duane Kuiper at least one at-bat. There is absolutely no point in even being in this league if I’m not going to get Duane ... his at-bat." -- March 11, 2009

If this wasn't totally for fun, one would treat that as an act of arrogance. You didn't see the far less famous GM of the All-Time Jays putting Rob Butler on his 40-man roster and trying to sneak him into a September game.

Cleveland isn't so formidable on the mound. Their top three starters are Addie Joss (3.50 ERA, 1.32 WHIP), left-hander Sudden Sam McDowell (4.57, 1.50) and ol' Rapid Robert himself, Bob Feller (4.83. 1.64). It seems wise to bank on those three getting the call over Hall of Fame fourth and fifth starters, Gaylord Perry (4.22) and Stan Coveleski (4.25). Cleveland is so stacked that Bert Blyleven and CC Sabathia are middle relievers, for crying out loud.

The Jays can counter with Clemens (3.35, 1.31 WHIP 248 strikeouts, fourth in the league), Key (5.17, 1.38) and Halladay (4.47, 1.37).

Offensively, it seems best to dance with what got you here:

• White (.336/.384/.578) stays in the leadoff spot despite the temptation to move him into the middle of the lineup to take advantage of his power. Don't mess up a good thing.
• Alomar (.298/.348/.417, 100 runs, 38 steals) probably hits in the 2-hole. Tony Fernandez (.289/.340/.373) has been in a funk for a while.
• It's a tough question to figure who should hit third. Delgado led the league in slugging at .618, on-based .408 and led the team in the Triple Crown stats (.316 average, 40 homers, 114 RBI). Putting him third, with either the red-hot Carter (four homers in his last five games) in the cleanup spot) or lefty-masher Glaus (11 of his 17 homers) batting cleanup keeps the two lefty power threats apart.
• Speaking of which, Ernie Whitt may have to stay in the lineup because his bat is so valuable. Platoon partner Pat Borders hasn't been much with the stick, but he saves the team a lot of runs.
  
  Whitt, as noted, had a great year. He was second on the team in homers (17) and on-base percentage (.365), slugging percentage (.488) and OPS (.853). There was some reluctance to hit him in the 5-hole, but it worked out well.
• Lloyd Moseby cooled off in the second half of the season (he OPSed about .600 after Sept. 1). He started every game, playing at all three outfield spots, and scored a team-high 110 runs. Still, he might have to be dropped down to balance out the lineup.
  
• Neither Orlando Hudson (.290 on-base, .348 slugging) or Rance Mulliniks (.338/.333) has offered much as a platoon third baseman. Mulliniks will probably get a chance in the playoffs after delivering some key pinch hits late in the season.
• Tom Henke had a couple blown saves down the stretch. B.J. Ryan is the club's hottest reliever, but do you change the closer this deep into the season? The mind reels.
  

Zen Dayley: Schilling was one Hall of a pitcher

History will probably be kind to Curt Schilling, who was often kind to history.

No doubt some of the hagiography for Schilling, who announced his retirement this morning on 38 Pitches, will note he was always grateful to those who came before him. He had the good sense to at least position himself as someone who still evoked what it was like to be a fan (use Alex Rodriguez as a straw man right here).

He named one of his children after Lou Gehrig. he once proudly owned a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey of his pitching coach, Johnny Podres. He also tried to bridge the jocks vs. nerd divide through his involvement in the Seamheads Historical League. There was also his stand, which might have been a bit preachy, that Roger Clemens should have had to prove his innocence when he said he didn't use steroids. He also campaigned for George W. Bush (win some, lose some), but a lot of people would like to take that one back.

The question becomes if a pitcher with just 216 career wins, who received Cy Young Award votes in only four seasons, will find favour with Baseball Hall of Fame voters. There might be a halo effect if he's perceived as someone who pitched during the Steroids Era and came out clean as a bean. Having played in Boston and having been on playoff teams in six of his last eight seasons won't hurt, either. Give us a hour, and we'll run a Keltner test.

Was he ever regarded as the best player in baseball? Did anybody, while he was active, ever suggest that he was the best player in baseball?

No.

Was he the best player on his team?

He was probably the best player on the 1997 Phillies, because someone had to be (they finished 68-94). He was on the same staff as Randy Johnson in Arizona, which answers that question.

Was he the best player in baseball at his position? Was he the best player in the league at his position?

No. Schilling was runner-up for the Cy Young Award three times, in '01-02 behind Johnson and in 2004 to Johan Santana in the American League. He only received five first-place votes in his career. He won his only ERA title in 1992 with the Phillies.

Did he have an impact on a number of pennant races?

He was on seven playoff teams ('93 Phillies, 2000-02 D-Backs and '04-'05-'07 Red Sox). He was exceptional during the stretch drive in '93. Schilling went 7-1 with 3.71 ERA after August 1, and the Phillies won 12 of his last 15 starts as they hung on to finish three games ahead of Montreal.

Schilling was only so-so in 2000 after going to Arizona in a deadline deal. In '01, when Arizona won the NL West by two games, from Aug. 1 on he won seven of his last eight decisions, posting a 2.74 ERA with 101 strikeouts (and just 11 walks) in 82 innings.

In '02, the Diamondbacks won the division by 2½ games over the Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants. Schilling won six starts in a row during a stretch in June and July. He also beat San Fran three times out of four that season, including a game in early September which gave Arizona an 8½-game lead with just 23 remaining.

Was he a good enough player that he could continue to play regularly after passing his prime?

Yes. He pitched effectively (15-7, 3.97 ERA, 1.216 WHIP) as a 39-year-old for the Red Sox in 2006, working more than 200 innings. At age 40, he was half-decent in 2007 (9-8, 3.87, 1.245) and helped win an elimination game in the league playoffs against Cleveland.

Is he the very best player in baseball history who is not in the Hall of Fame?

No. Among eligible players, Tim Raines is ahead of him.

Are most players who have comparable career statistics in the Hall of Fame?

Yes, with a but. Only three of his 10 comparables are in the Hall of Fame, and it took some intense lobbying to get two of them, Don Drysdale and Catfish Hunter, inducted. The most comparable player to Schilling is actually Kevin Brown, who's probably not electable.

Schilling pitched 3,261 innings and ERA-plused 127 (i.e., his earned-run average was 27% above league average over his entire career). Brown pitched 3,256 1/3 innings with the same ERA-plus, and he won't get within a hundred miles of being elected when he goes on the ballot in 2011. He wasn't exactly Mr. Congeniality.

However, first-ballot Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver each ERA-plused 127, the same as Schilling did in a higher-scoring era. Schilling outperformed the league average by more than his contemporaries Mike Mussina (123) and Tom Glavine (118), whom he'll be measured against when he appears on the Hall of Fame ballot. He's tied with John Smoltz, whose ERA probably benefited from the four seasons he spent as a one-inning reliever.

It is odd how Schilling and Mussina's career arcs dovetail. Schilling had 216 career wins but had three 20-win seasons. Mussina, who got an earlier start and avoided injuries, had 270 wins, but won 20 only once.

Do the player's numbers meet Hall of Fame standards?

Yes, but it's complicated. Schilling toes the line on three of the four Jamesian tests, but kills it on the HOF Monitor, scoring 171 (100 means the player is a worthy candidate and 130 says he's a lock).

Voters will also be asked to consider that Schilling is one of only two pitchers to amass more than 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 bases on balls, the other being Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins. Schilling's strikeout-to-walk ratio, 4.38, is the highest for anyone who pitched after 1900. Wins are a

Is there any evidence to suggest that the player was significantly better or worse than is suggested by his statistics?

This is a chance to swing the question around to his post-season performance, though we need not mention the Bloody Sock. Schilling deserved the reputation Jack Morris had a post-season performer more than Jack Morris. He was 10-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 19 post-season starts, striking out 120 and walking just 25 in 133 1/3 innings. He was MVP of the National League playoffs in 1993 (Mitch Williams blew the save in both of his starts, but the Phillies won both games) and co-World Series MVP with Johnson in 2001.

As Baseball Digest Daily noted, Schilling's teams never lost when he started in a game where faced elimination. He pitched 39 1/3 innings when his team had to win to keep its season going and posted a 1.37 ERA, just four bases on balls and 33 strikeouts.

BDD's Craig Brown, did the initial number-crunching but omitted Oct. 21, 1993, when Schilling shut out the Blue Jays 2-0 in Game 5 of the World Series, buying Philly another 48 hours' life before "touch 'em all, Joe." Schilling scattered five singles and three walks over nine innings. This came against a team which hit .335/.405/.568 in the series' other five games, and he shut them out.

Is he the best player at his position who is eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in?

The temptation is to go with Blyleven.

How many MVP-type seasons did he have? Did he ever win an MVP award? If not, how many times was he close?

Not, he didn't; he's a pitcher. He was 14th in the NL balloting in 1997, 10th in both 2001 and 2002 and 12th in the American League voting in 2004. Please keep in mind that since the wild-card era began in 1994, only one starting pitcher (Pedro Martinez in '99) has had a top-three finish in MVP voting.

How many All-Star-type seasons did he have? How many All-Star games did he play in? Did most of the other players who played in this many go to the Hall of Fame?

He had seven such seasons — 1992, when he won the NL ERA title but was overlooked despite a 2.75 ERA at mid-seasoned. He was picked from from 1997-99 and again in 2001-02 and '04.

A gut instinct says that's a bit low. It Is About The Money, Stupid noted Mike Mussina was selected to only five all-star teams. John Smoltz is looked at a legit HOF candidate and has been selected for eight All-Star Games. Pedro Martínez has been selected for eight.

If this man were the best player on his team, would it be likely that the team could win the pennant?

Not likely, although he and The Big Unit were the best the 2001 Diamondbacks had when they won the World Series.

What impact did the player have on baseball history? Was he responsible for any rule changes? Did he introduce any new equipment? Did he change the game in any way?

Well, he was an early adaptor when it came to interacting with fans.

Did the player uphold the standards of sportsmanship and character that the Hall of Fame, in its written guidelines, instructs us to consider?

By all accounts, yes. Major League Baseball has three awards for, loosely paraphrasing, players who combine on-field performance with strong work in the community: The Hutch Award, the Roberto Clemente Award and and Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. Schilling has received all three. That probably will work in his favour.

The ATJs: Heading into the stretch drive

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads.com Historical League (SHL). So how about those Blue Jays? At this writing, they are 64-57, clinging to a two-game division lead over the combined Arizona-Colorado D-Rocks.

There is always the option of focusing on other projects and letting the chips fall where they may, eh.

It has worked wonders for Joe Posnanski's first-place Cleveland Naps in the SHL. All the tinkering and tweaking can't seem to budge the All-Time Jays out of their even-Steven routine; bearing in mind that this is just data representing flesh-and-blood baseball men, the club went just .500 in August (12-12). It's going into September with the same two-game lead it had on Aug. 1.

There are some success stories with the Las Vegas-to-Toronto shuttle. A.J. Burnett (4-1, 4.08, 1.17 WHIP) has been nails, though, with the club winning in his last five starts. Juan Guzmán, shades of Doug Linton during the 1992 pennant race, matched up well in a spot start against Randy Johnson, allowing the ATJs to pull out an eventual extra-inning win on a Freddie McGriff homer in the 10th. That victory, in the middle of a series win over D-Rocks (three out of four), is keeping the team in first place.

Inserting Willie Upshaw in left field on a hunch hasn't worked out. He went 2-for-4 with a triple in his debut, but after that promising start, has pulled a Nortel lately and is hitting .260/.296/.360. Orlando Hudson has had his moments, hitting .391 (9-for-23) as an occasionally fill-in third baseman (he even had to go behind the plate for one inning in a game after both catchers had been used).

The hitting, outside of Carlos Delgado and his league-leading 1.055 OPS and Devon White tearing it up in August (.318/.368/.471 for the month), has been garden variety. The upshot here is that the Jays have a chance to go on a run after their Sept. 1 game vs. Poz's stacked Clevelanders, since their next five series are all against sub-.500 clubs. Their eight games left vs. their pursuers, the D-Rock and the Seattle Mariners (three games back), are all at home, where the club has played .600 ball this season. Here's the remaining schedule.

Sept. 2-5: Home to Fla./Tampa Bay (38-83)
Sept. 6, 8: at Chicago White Sox (59-62)
Sept. 9-11: at Kansas City (49-72)
Sept. 13, 15-16: vs. Milwaukee (52-69)
Sept. 17-18: at Baltimore (54-67)
Sept. 19-20, 22-23: vs. Ariz./Col. (62-59)
Sept. 24-25: vs. N.Y. Yankees (62-59)
Sept. 26-27: at Boston (76-45)
Sept. 29-30: at Minnesota (69-52)
Oct. 1-2: at Pittsburgh (73-48)
Oct. 3-4: at L.A. Dodgers (60-61)
Oct. 5-8: vs. Seattle (61-60)

No one said it would be easy. The hard is what makes it great, kids. A couple notes from the last fortnight of imaginary baseball.

King Carlos: First baseman Carlos Delgado leads the SHL in OPS (1.055) and slugging (.634), ahead of a couple guys named Lou Gehrig and Reggie Jackson. He also has team-leading Triple Crown stats (.324, 31 homers and 87 RBI). The leaderboard only gives the top five players in each category, but presumably his .421 on-base percentage is sixth-best in the league. Present-day Jays coach Gene Tenace, who plays for San Diego, is fifth at .422.

How nice would it be to have a DH? Don't ask. Fred McGriff sits on the All-Time Jays bench since he's blocked by Delgado. Meantime, his Atlanta self is on-basing .400 and slugging .607 with a team-leading 24 homers. His 1.007 OPS is fourth in the league.

The Toronto iteration of Troy Glaus has not been totally bad (.246/.323/.436, 15 HR, 53 RBI in 289 at-bats). His Arizona self, meantime, is leading the league with 37 homers, two ahead of Seattle Mariners DH Ken Phelps.

Bullpen bolstered: Sidearmer Mark Eichhorn and lefty B.J. Ryan, between them, allowed only two earned runs in 20 1/3 innings in August. Ike has a 0.77 ERA in 31 appearances, shades of 1986, when he almost won an ERA title as a rubber-armed reliever for the Jays.

The ATJs: A case of the 'Spos daze

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads Historical League.

It figures the ATJs' first series loss would come courtesy of Jonah Keri's Montreal Expos.

Dropping the first two games of a three-game set at the Big O (a 17-1 curbstomping in the opener, followed by a 6-4 setback at the hands of Triple-A callup Charlie Lea hurts, man. The Expos have been just a memory for nearly five years, but it has not been forgotten that 'Spos fans never liked to admit anything about the Blue Jays is very good or useful. Toronto, after all, could never hold a candle to Montreal when it came to the finer things in life, no matter how many World Series titles or Canadian head offices of Fortune 500 companies it boasted. It sucks to see them gain imaginary bragging rights. These outrages will not be forgotten.

The Expos won the first all-Canadian interleague game. On June 30, 1997, the eve of Canada Day, Pedro Martínez, on his way to his first Cy Young, Award, beat Pat Hentgen, the Jays' first Cy Young winner, 2-1 in a tidy one hour and 57 minutes. (This is burned in memory since I was umping a ball game that night and had counted on getting home in time for the last couple of innings.) The Expos also won the final interleague game against the Jays, on the Fourth of July in a minor-league park in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fact that Canadian Shawn Hill earned his first major-league W (to go with the one he now sports as a member of the Washington Nationals) provided the lone grace note.

Saying that it is just two games out of 154 is cold comfort. The ATJs are rolling otherwise, leading their division with a 23-12 record, good for a six-game lead over the D-Rox and the best record among the 12 expansion franchises.

Losing to the Expos sucked. The Jays have won 4-of-7 since the last update, scoring 48 runs in that stretch.

That day, he was Tom Terrible: Some of you might not know that the great Tom Seaver pitched for the Cincinnati Reds for a few seasons.

Cincinnati Tom could only get through three innings against the ATJs in a 15-3 shellacking on May 14. The starting corner infielders, Carlos Delgado and Troy Glaus, apparently begged out of starting against Seaver. In their stead, backup infielders Fred McGriff (3-for-5, three runs) and Rance Mulliniks (4-for-5, three runs) each got on base to start big rallies, a four-run second and a four-run fifth inning.

Grab some Bench: Right-hander Roy Halladay shaved his ERA down to 1.23 after pitching eight solid innings in a 4-1 win over the Reds on May 13. He struck out Johnny Bench, whom some consider the greatest catcher of all time, twice.

Clutchiness: Toronto's 9-2 record in one-run games does not include late-game breakthroughs they had in consecutive wins over the D-Rox on May 10-11, winning 15-8 (in 13 innings) and 7-3.

The lineup shuffle: The rule of thumb is you're supposed to stick with what works. Tony Fernandez, batting of the No. 9 spot, is on-basing .431 and is second on the team with 8.46 runs created per 27 outs. (Delgado leads at 9.31.) Fernandez has been more productive than leadoff man Lloyd Moseby (6.64 RC/27) and 2-hole hitter Robbie Alomar (5.22). Fernandez might rate some time in the 2-hole, much the same away that Cito Gaston flip-flopped Alomar and Paul Molitor in the lineup in 1993 depending whether the other team was starting a right- or left-handed pitcher.

Regardless, some changes might be coming. Cleanup man George Bell is racking up RBI (team-high 32 in 35 games), but his .245/.262/.396 rate stats are barely replacement-player level. Bell has come alive in the last week, so he stays put, for now. None of the other righty-hitting corner outfielders seem to offer much pop, so he's the best option.

Regrets, there a few: Not taking Dave Winfield based on his one season in Toronto in 1992 might have been a mistake, keeping in mind that the 40-year-old would have had to play the outfield every day. There's no need to double-check that Winfield only played the outfield 26 times during the regular season.

The not-as-cold corner: Third baseman Troy Glaus has hit safely in six consecutive games (big woop), including his first two homers. He's still hitting a tepider than tepid .196/.304/.278, which isn't cutting the mustard for a No. 6 hitter. He's lost at-bats to Mulliniks, who gets on base but offers no power.

The tall tactician: Jonah Keri has pulled out all the stops to keep his Expos around the .500 mark, going with a "seven-man rotation and a shuttle bus between Montreal and Ottawa," to cobble together a pitching staff.

How nuts is fretting over this? Well, not this nuts. (Tip of the cap to Baseball Over Here.)

The ATJs: Hey, nineteen (wins, against only nine losses)

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads.com Historical League (SHL). So how about those Blue Jays? At this writing, they are 19-9, having opened a four-game lead in the SHL's Expansion 3 division.

Fair play to Pittsburgh Pirates owner Curt Schilling for reaching deep into the recesses of time and coming up with a stopper in Jesse Tannehill, who denied the All-Time Jays a chance to tie for the best record in imaginary baseball.

Jesse Tannehill? Nope, never heard of him, until yesterday. He was a lefty control artist who pitched for the Pirates, New York Highlanders and Boston Americans at the turn of the 20th century. Score one for Schilling. The old-timey moundsman flung a three-hit shutout to top Roy Halladay and Co. 5-0 in a matchup of the top pitchers on the celestial circuit. Doc's ERA took a beating, shooting all the way from 0.90 to 1.25, which still leads the league (thank you very much).

That was just a temporary setback; at 19-9, the ATJs are rolling, with the rest of the offence starting to pick up the slack behind the Mad Men of Moseby, Alomar and Delgado. Sun Media's veteran baseball writer (and fellow Kingstonian) Bob Elliott, captured the spirit of the thing yesterday with a post on the SHL for his indispensable Canadian Baseball Network. Missing a chance to sweep one of the established franchises, especially Schilling's, should not sting too much.

That 19-9 record is the best among the 12 franchises which began play in 1961. The ATJs are holding their own with 9-7 record vs. the charter franchises. Far from letting down against lesser teams as their real-life counterparts have been known to do (perception is reality, friends), they're 10-2 vs. the franchises who began play in 1961. Here's some highlights:

Clutchitude: It's a word, look it up. The ATJs are 9-2 in one-run games, which, reasonably speaking, means they are overdue for an evenout soon. In the here and now, utilityman Kelly Gruber picked a perfect time for his first home run, a walk-off job off Big Bob Veale in a 5-4 win over the Schilling's stacked Pirates on May 7. They won't being calling him Kelly Buber.



Gruber's big blast made a winner of Dave Stieb, who hung in vs. a Pirates lineup with seven Hall of Famers in the starting lineup (every position except catcher and pitcher).

Express this: A player can appear on more than one team, so the ATJs got to lay a lickin' on one Lynn Nolan Ryan twice in one week. On April 29, Texas Nolan didn't get past the third inning in a 10-2 romp, going to an early shower after the good guys put a 7-spot up on the board. Four days later, Houston Nolan did better, but couldn't match, Harry Leroy Halladay scattered seven hits across eight innings in a tense 3-1 game.

The two-Martinez lunch: Since players can appear on more than one team, the Boston version of Pedro Martinez and his Montreal incarnation are each tied for second in the SHL in strikeouts, with Toronto Roger Clemens.

Mad Men: Hughsy will probably hate seeing his all-time favourite show co-opted by an extreme nerd, but the all lefty-swinging top of the order of leadoff man Lloyd Moseby, No. 2 hitter Robbie Alomar and Carlos Delgado in the 3-spot deserve a nickname. They are carrying the offence:

Moseby: .333/.387/.447, 21 runs scored
Alomar: .325/.366/.439, 24 runs, 15-of-19 on steals
Delgado: .284/.373/.642, team-high eight homers

Mushy middle: Third sacker Troy Glaus is batting a brilliant .147 with zero home runs (at this rate, he'll be hitting behind the pitcher). Gruber and Rance Mullliniks might yet re-create their job-sharing role at third base.

Injury report: None. It's a miracle. The Cardinals have already had Stan Musial and Dennis Eckersley each go down; the Eck apparently "was hurt while cutting a brownie out of a pan and sustained an undisclosed injury."

Looking ahead to May: Thirteen of the next 19 games after against those expansion teams, including a three-game set vs. Johan Keri's Montreal Expos next week.

Thanks again to Seamheads' Mike Lynch for organizing the league, and to Bob Elliott for writing a nice article. You know what would have been even nicer? Winning both games vs. Schilling's team, but bloggers can't be choosers.

The ATJs report: Determined to win this dork-o-rama

One of us is owner of the the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads.com Historical Sim League (SHL). Other owners include HDNet's Roy Firestone (Orioles), ESPN.com's Jonah Keri (Expos), Kansas City Star writer and blogging god Joe Posnanski (Indians), godfather of Sabermetrics, Bill James (Red Sox) and Curt Schilling (Pirates), who has struck out 3,116 more major-league batters than any of us will. So how about those Blue Jays?

The secret handshake with Jays fans is realizing the 1980s generation of players were the team, not the 1992-93 back-to-back World Series teams.

The Jays in those days, Jesse and Lloyd and Rance and Garth and Er-nie, Er-nie! toiled down at the Mistake by the Lake, with its rock-hard artificial turf, cramped clubhouses and the aluminum bleachers which did not face home plate. They wore funny blue-and-white hats and powder blue pyjamas with all the dignity, as was the style at the time, with all the dignity one could muster. It is a good nostalgia wallow to see some of the 1980s players fuelling the ATJs' early-season rise to first place in its division, with a 12-6 record after 18 games. That is only one game off the best record in all sim baseball, held by Schilling's Pirates.

The ATJs manager, to quote Casey Stengel, wants it known he couldna done it without the players. The formula which only gets the real-life Jays so far in the current AL East, pitching, solid fielding and sporadic run production, is working in the Expansion 3 group. They actually have a different leader in each of the six Triple Crown categories, which speaks to their balance.

The division consists of Arizona/Colorado D-Rox, the Marlin/Rays (an amalgam of the two Florida teams) and Toronto's 1977 expansion cousins, the Seattle Mariners (dead last at 5-13). The D-Rox are 10-8, good for second.

Jimmy Key (3-1, 3.19, 1.16 WHIP) has emerged as a solid No. 3 starter after Dumb and Doctor, the 1-2 punch of Roger Clemens and Roy Halladay, . In his most recent start, Key went the route on a seven-hitter, striking out 10, to beat Florida/Tampa Bay and, wait for it, Marlins/Rays starter A.J. Burnett. (The big blow in that one was a three-run homer by leadoff man Lloyd Moseby.)

Fourth starter Dave Stieb, has been slower to come around, but did win his last start. Tom Henke is tied with the league lead with six saves.

Hitting-wise, Moseby is leading the club with a .917 on-base-plus-slugging and team-high 14 runs scored. Tony Fernandez, batting .288/.377/.407 out of the No. 9 spot, has also proven to be a good table-setter.

The seven spots in between them are, uh, problematic. Roberto Alomar has cooled off, which might be the effect of being one of the only players on four different SHL teams (he's also on Firestone's Orioles, Poz's Indians and the Padres, owned by Geoff Young of Ducksnorts.) The ballcubs is is 20th or worse in the SHL in almost every offensive stat, except stolen bases (with 35 base swipes, they're third).

Carlos Delgado has been a big bat out of the 3-hole, slugging .554, while George Bell is cleaning up with 18 RBI after 18 games despite some execrable rate stats (.225/.230/.422.) At least this group is opportunistic. A good case-in-point came April 19 in Chicago, when Delgado ended in an eight-pitch battle with Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown by hitting a two-out, two-strike, walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 win over the all-time Chicago Cubs.

That isn't going to happen every day, so the skipper has find some winning combination in right field and third base, which make up the 5-6 spots in the order. An Alex Rios/Joe Carter quasi-platoon has been installed in right while Jesse Barfield gets some swings in down at Triple-A Las Vegas. Over at third, the original professional hitter, Rance Mulliniks, might yet push Troy Glaus into a platoon role.

It has been a lot of fun following this. All of this is couched in the acknowledgement that it is a dork-o-rama, but for a Jays diehard, this been a joy. Thanks for listening.

Schilling's masterstroke

Curt Schilling gets a slow clap for choosing to be owner of the Pirates, even though he never played for the franchise.

It's a downtrodden franchise on account of those 16 consecutive losing seasons, but it dates back to the 19th century and it has employed some all-time great players. Their regular lineup has six Hall of Famers, seven if you count Bill Mazeroski, who's in there somewhat dubiously:

1. Honus Wagner, shortstop
2. Paul Waner, rightfield
3. Barry Bonds, centrefield
   
4. Willie Stargell, first base
5. Ralph Kiner, right field
6. Jason Kendall, catcher
7. Pie Traynor, third base
8. Bill Mazeroski, second base
   

Some would say that it was disloyal on Schilling's part. The word "shrewd" seems fairer.

Seamheadedness: Even in a sim league, Poz has more talent

Nerd alert: You might remember that this proprietor of this site is the owner of the all-time Toronto Blue Jays team — the ATJs — in the Seamheads.com Historical Baseball Sim League. If no one objects, there will be some periodic updates.

Competing in the AL East is a cakewalk compared to facing teams that can draw from a history that goes back decades.

It was back to reality for the ATJs in their home opener, as they slipped to 2-2 after an 8-3 thumping in their home opener against Joe Posnanski's loaded Cleveland Indians. The 50,437 on hand at Rogers Centre expressed their displeasure through public intoxication and property damage and the Toronto sportwriters are already writing this team off.

For heaven's sake, it's four games in. In the words of Paul Maurice, "Go home. Drink some tea." Poz's Tribe has a top of the order of Napoleon Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Shoeless Joe Jackson. The ATJs have a third-base platoon which includes Rance Mulliniks. Let's have some perspective, shall we? Lajoie, the Grey Eagle and Shoeless Joe went 10-for-14, helping give ATJs starter Dave Stieb got an even rougher ride than he did from Cy Young Award voters in the mid-1980s, giving up six runs over an inning and a third.

The opening series in Seattle went a little better. Not unlike the real-life Jays, they took the first two of a series but couldn't get the sweep, as the all-time Mariners (ATMs) touched up Jimmy Key and Duane Ward in an 8-4 romp.

However, Roger Clemens — hey, a team which has only been around 32 seasons doesn't have the luxury of being selective — and Harry Leroy Halladay, were a more dangerous combination than Jack Daniels and I.W. Harper. Dumb and Doctor, as some wags have dubbed them, each held Seattle to a single, solitary run.

Doc pitched a complete-game, 8-1 win and even contributed a RBI single to open the floodgates (there's no DH in this league). George Bell, thanks to some fine table-setting by Roberto Alomar (.500 OBP with six steals in the first four games) and others, had five RBI with a double and a home run.

Clemens went eight strong, striking out 12, in the 3-1 win on Opening Day. He finished off striking out his last three hitters, Jay Buhner, Ichiro Suzuki and Edgar Martinez in home half of the eighth. The bluebirds responded with two in the ninth, working a double steal for the go-ahead run after Ernie Whitt worked a leadoff walk off shaky reliever Mike Schooler and Alex Rios went to third on Mulliniks' pinch-hit single. Rance's younger self took off for second and Rios scored when the throw sailed into centrefield, since Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez had failed to cover the bag after becoming transfixed by his own picture on the Safeco Field video screen.

The D-Rox (the Diamondbacks and Rockies) are off to a 4-0 start to take the early lead in the Expansion Three division, which includes the ATJs, Seattle and Florida/Tampa Bay Marlins/Rays.

Alomar has been on base 10 of his first 20 times up to pace the offence. The media has also questioned the choice to go with Lloyd Moseby as the Opening Day centrefielder and the Shaker, installed in the leadoff spot, is off to a 3-for-18 start. He seemed like a good compromise between no offence, all defence Devon White and some offence, some defence Vernon Wells. Moseby just needs a month to prove himself, gosh darnit.

Zen Dayley: A Toronto Top 40 you won't hear on Q107

They could have had Geddy Lee -- he's a Jays fan. They could have had The Tao of Stieb. They could have had Drunk Jays Fans. They could have got Mike Wilner, Mike Hogan, Mike Toth (gee, that's a lot of Mike manning the mics in the Toronto sports media). What about Jerry Howarth?

Long story short, a while ago Mike Lynch of Seamheads.com put out the word that they were looking for owners for Historical Simulation Baseball League. You pick a 40-man roster from everyone who has ever played for the franchise, using only their stats compiled for that franchise, and start the insanity. The pitcher Curt Schilling committed to run the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bill James lined up to be owner of the Boston Red Sox. Roy Firestone from ESPN, a Baltimore guy, got the Orioles (apparently he's not even going to take any old St. Louis Browns). Joe Posnanski said he'd only do it if he could have his hometown Cleveland Indians and he got his hometown Cleveland Indians.

Jonah Keri of ESPN.com snapped up the Montreal Expos. New York Post lead sports columnist Mike Vaccaro has the Chicago White Sox. J.C. Bradbury of Sabernomics has the Braves. The Kansas City Star's Sam Mellinger has the Royals.

That is a regular Murderer's Row of media personalities and the hardest of the hardcore hardball enthusiasts. By now, you're probably wondering -- who h'own da Jays? Thanks for asking, Denis Lemieux from the 1977 film Slap Shot.

The owner of the Jays is ... me. (Can we get a shot of me? No, it would violate any number of public decency statutes. And it's owns. Owns.)

It turns out all those hundreds of hours from 1989-96 spent playing Earl Weaver Baseball on a Tandy computer might have had a practical purpose. (Looks like Mom and Dad were wrong.)

As noted, it's a 28-team league (the Rockies/Diamondbacks and Marlins/Rays have each been merged into single franchises). Please don't ask how it came to be me that balding fatass whose apparent claim to fame is being involved in a particularly lame lawsuit got the Jays.

What matters is that a 40-man roster has to selected. Players' performances derive only from the numbers they put up for the team. That means no sneaking Rickey Henderson or Phil Niekro on to the Jays roster based on a half-season or less with the team. Even Paul Molitor would be kind of dodgy, plus there's no DH in this league. Players' stats are also put in a historically neutral context. Suffice to say, Tony Batista's 41-homer season in 2000 doesn't look so good.

Suggestions are welcome, but here's a rough guesstimate of what the 40-man roster might look like:

Starting lineup

1. Lloyd Moseby, centre field
2. Robbie Alomar, second base
3. Carlos Delgado or Fred McGriff, first base
4. George Bell, left field
5. Jesse Barfield, right field
6. Kelly Gruber, third base
7. Ernie Whitt/Pat Borders, catcher
8. Pitcher's spot in the order
9. Tony Fernandez, shortstop

• Bench: Aaron Hill, Rance Mulliniks, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells
• Starting pitchers: Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay, Jimmy Key, Dave Stieb, Pat Hentgen, Doyle Alexander
• Bullpen: Tom Henke, Duane Ward, Paul Quantrill, B.J. Ryan, Scott Downs

The second XV

• Position players: Joe Carter, corner outfield; Darrin Fletcher, catcher; Damaso Garcia, second base; Alfredo Griffin, shortstop; Orlando Hudson, second base; Willie Upshaw, first base; Devon White, centrefield
• Starting pitchers: A.J. Burnett, John Cerutti, Jim Clancy, Juan Guzman, David Wells
• Relievers: Mark Eichhorn, Billy Koch, Mike Timlin,

It is a given that the Jays will be up against it when the face the Yankees, Red Sox or any of the charter American League franchises (A's, Orioles, White Sox, Indians, Tigers and Twins) who date back to 1901. At this moment, Joe Posnanski is taking suggestions from readers on whether he should have Tris Speaker or Larry Doby, two of the all-time greats, as his centrefielder, to say nothing of the young version of Kenny Lofton. He's got so many corner outfielders to pick from -- Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Rocky Colavito, et al. -- that he didn't even include Shoeless Joe Jackson among the possibilities.

(Yes, Shoeless Joe played in Clevetown. He played 674 games in Cleveland flannels -- and back then, the uniforms were flannel -- and 648 with the Chisox. He hit .408, .395 and .373 his first three full seasons and, get this, finished second in the batting race each of those three seasons.)

Outplaying the post-1961 franchises -- Angels, Rangers, Mariners, Royals -- seems to be a reasonable goal. The floor is open to suggestions for roster moves. I apologize for the navel-gazing, self-obsessed post, but this should be a lot of fun.