Will Carroll chimed in on Roy Halladay’s progress and while he doesn’t come out and say it, things appear to be progressing nicely. He says a return late next week is even a possibility and if he can do it without needing a rehab start, all the better.
In the meantime, the weekend series the Jays had against the Phillies didn’t go very well with two losses and only one win. The win was fun though, with Shawn Marcum having another nice start and both Lyle Overbay and Matt Stairs driving in four runs each. Stairs has been a solid pickup and in limited time, he’s posted a .972 OPS. Even if he regresses to around .800, he gives the Jays a quality left handed bat to use off the bench.
Vernon Wells has to heat up though. His OPS is hovering right around .800 and it has to be better for that fat paycheck. I’m optimistic that he’ll turn around but the question is, can he do it while it still matters because the Jays are 10 1/2 games back of the Red Sox.
Next up is a three game series against the Orioles. It’ll be A.J. Burnett going up against Danny Cabrera. Probably the oddest number I saw was the Burnett had more walks then Cabrera so it looks like he’s turned the corner after a tough 2006. Hopefully the Jays can derail that progress.
