J.P. Ricciardi, the general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, recently said that he will set a deadline for other teams to piece together a trade for star pitcher Roy Halladay. The date? July 28th — or a day prior to Halladay’s start on July 29th.
As of late, Halladay has been the hottest name in the trade rumor mill. Arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Halladay started for the American League in this year’s All-Star game.
On the season, Halladay has an 11-3 record to go along with a 2.73 ERA. The 6-foot-6 22-year-old is coming off of a season in …read more

After clearing waivers, Frank Thomas signed a one-year contract with the Oakland Athletics. We reported soon after Thomas was released by the Toronto Blue Jays that the Athletics had interest in the Big Hurt and the pairing became official on Thursday.
Thomas and the A’s wasted no time, as Thomas was in the lineup for the A’s on Thursday. Oakland responded positively, beating the Minnesota Twins 11-2. Thomas batted cleanup and had two walks and a run scored.
While Thomas is batting just .159 on the season, the A’s are confident that the 39-year-old will be able …read more

Frank Thomas wasn’t pleased with a decrease in at bats and the Toronto Blue Jays were tired of waiting for his bat to come around. The two sides seemingly got what they wanted when the Blue Jays cut Thomas.
On the season, Thomas was batting .167 with three homers and 11 RBI for Toronto. The 39-year-old Thomas had started slowly the last few years before turning it up as the season went along. Toronto didn’t want to see if history would repeat itself and instead let him go.
The Blue Jays will likely rotate a number of players at …read more

So, what are we watching today? I’ll be out at the Padres/Astros game this afternoon, but here are Thursday’s top matchups:

Royals at Tigers, 10:05 a.m. PT — First off, Kansas City has taken the first two games of this series, which I’m sure nobody expect. Second, two talented yet enigmatic pitchers square off in this one. Zack Greinke appeared to get his career back on track in 2007 and looks to continue progressing this year, while Jeremy Bonderman tries to solve his first-inning woes and become the front-line pitcher folks have been anticipating.
Blue Jays at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT — …read more

Fourteen games are on tap for Opening Day 2008. Sure, the Red Sox and A’s played some games in Japan, but nobody on this side of the pond watched, and the Nationals opened their new ballpark in the made-for-ESPN Sunday night game, but today is when the season really begins.
Ordinarily in this space I would tell you which games are most worth watching, but on Opening Day, they’re all worth watching. The first games (Blue Jays at Yankees, Royals at Tigers) start at 10:05 a.m. PT, while the last (Astros at Padres; of course, I’ll be there!) gets going at …read more