Go Time: Curse You, Vernon

Mark Buehrle will take the mound for the Jays tonight.  That's alarming enough on its' own merit, given the way he's performed so far this year, but to boot, Vernon Wells is playing for the Yankees.  Given Vernon Wells' performance this year, which may or may not be fueled by his holier-than-changeup attitude, that's nervous-making enough, but Wells has handled Mark Buehrle startlingly well over the years.

Through 55 plate appearances, most of which occurring while he has been one of those more terrible players in the league, Wells has hit .480/.509/.780 against Buehrle.  That's some success.

Of course, Buehrle pitched fairly well in his last appearance, holding the Red Sox to 1 run and 5 hits over 7 innings.  He gave up 7 runs to the Rays over 6 innings in the start before that, ultimately putting forth 5 good innings.  We're certainly not going to forget about the bad one, of course, but silver lining, I suppose, if we ever feel like getting rid of this contract.

Stuff

John Lott examines Casey Janssen's approach to pitching.  Of course, I already did that, without talking to the guy.

Dustin McGowan will continue his rehab assignment in AAA Buffalo, writes BNS of Sportsnet.  McGowan will be used as a reliever, and may very well see some time in the bigs soon.

The Astros are expected to explore an extension for a personal favorite of mine, Jose Altuve.  I mention this only because of how much I'd love for AA to try and acquire him from the Astros, if they're willing.  I don't expect the Astros to contend for another couple of years, so they might get the use of one good year out of Altuve, so trading him might be a fruitful endeavor, especially since he's still got three years of control left.  There's an awful lot of value in a 23 year old 2B with a career .294/.336/.397 batting line, especially when you consider how weak the middle infield market has been over the last few years.

Lineups

Jays

Cabrera

Bautista

Encarnacion

Arencibia

Lind

Lawrie

Rasmus

Bonifacio

Muni

Buehrle

Yankees

Gardner

Nix

Cano

Wells

Francisco

Overbay

Adams

Ichiro

Romine

HiroK