FanHouse BrianBurres

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

There's no team in baseball in a worse spot than the Blue Jays. They've had to contend with the megapowers in New York and Boston for years, watching their competitive payroll and over-.500 seasons amount to nothing more than third-place finish after-third place finish. No matter how much they have spent and how much they have won, it has never been enough to catch the Red Sox or the Yankees.

The Orioles continued their winter quest to upgrade what was a woeful rotation in 2008 by acquiring Rich Hill from the Cubs for a player to be named later.

Hill is only one year removed from an 11-win season in which he pitched 195 innings, posted an ERA of 3.92 and whiffed 183 batters, but the left-hander had since fallen out of favor with Chicago manager Lou Piniella. Once you're in Piniella's doghouse, it's awfully hard to climb out of it, and since Hill is out of options a trade became necessary.

From Bobby Ojeda trimming off the tip of his middle finger with hedge clippers to Glenallen Hill falling down a staircase because of a nightmare, there's a long history of odd off-field injuries in baseball. During games, though, the injuries are more run of the mill which made what happened to B.J. Upton this afternoon all the stranger.

Upton swung at a 1-1 offering from Brian Burres in the fifth inning and fouled it off, a routine occurrence. His reaction, flinging his bat away and clutching his left shoulder, was anything but normal. Trainers came out and Upton was removed from the game and replaced by Nathan Haynes. Jim Palmer, calling the game for the Orioles, was baffled saying that wrist injuries on swings were somewhat common but could only think of one other instance, involving Bob Bailor, with a shoulder injury from a swing.

He doesn't follow the Rays, obviously, because Upton's been down this road before.

"I feel good. It's happened five of the six seasons I have played, and once in high school. It's not a big deal. This is the best it's ever felt afterward. Should only be a day or two."

The only lasting damage, in fact, may have been to his batting average. Haynes looked at a called third strike and, based on the rules governing such a situation, it goes down as a strikeout for Upton.

As tough as Boston's early stretch this season was, the Yankees have had it nearly as bad. They're in the midst of a stretch where they play two games in 20 at home, they've lost their top two catchers to injury, and while their young pitching struggles, they've had to play the last week without dominant setup man Joba Chamberlain as he tends to his ailing father in Nebraska.

That's forced manager Joe Girardi to tinker constantly with the bullpen and the lineup (see below). The good news is that Chamberlain has returned. His father was taken off the ventilator last night and he flew back today to rejoin the team. He received a warm welcome from the horde of Yankee fans assembled here at Camden Yards.

The bad news is that Girardi might be down another reliever soon. He was incensed by Major League Baseball's three-game suspension of reliever Kyle Farnsworth, who threw -- intentionally or not -- behind Manny Ramirez's head Thursday night. Girardi told me and the other reporters assembled during the Yankees' pre-grame stretch that he was "shocked" by the decision to discipline Farnsworth, adding "I just don't understand why he was suspended to begin with."

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Texas Rangers (3-3) vs. Baltimore Orioles (5-1) - 2:05PM Est.

So maybe nobody showed up to Camden Yards to see them do it, but the Baltimore Orioles have opened their season 5-1 and have the best record in the American League at the moment. To say this is a bit of a surprise would be a large understatement. I heard people this off-season who thought the Orioles might struggle to win 50 games, and they're already 10% of the way there after the first week. Today they'll be hoping to carry the momentum from Baltimore to Arlington as they try to win their 6th straight. The Rangers, on the other hand, would like to stop Baltimore cold as they open the home schedule this afternoon. Jason Jennings will get the start for Texas, and he's still looking for his first win of the season after giving up 4 runs in 5 innings in his first start, a 4-1 loss, against Seattle last Wednesday. Baltimore goes with Brian Burres, who's making his first start of the season. Burres has never started against Texas, but you may remember Brian allowing 8 runs and 8 hits in two-thirds of an inning against them last year in a game the Rangers won 30-3. I'm going to predict that neither team gets to thirty this afternoon.

Let me see if I have this right: we stink, we don't spend money, we make terrible player personnel decisions, and we're stuck in a division with two perennial World Series contenders. Oh yeah, and we've lost eight in a row, darn. What should we do about this? I know, let's fire the manager!

Maybe the situation in Baltimore didn't strike you as such, but that's how it came across to me. How can you fire Sam Perlozzo and blame him for the team's failures? Baseball is a game of ups-and-downs. The same club that went 2-13 in June also had separate four-game and six-game winning streaks in May.

Even with the hideous recent play by the O's, Baltimore was still only 29-40 at the time of Perlozzo's firing, not 26-43 like Texas or something. I'm not saying that losing is acceptable, but what did Baltimore's management group really have in mind for this year's team? A playoff berth? A division title? A World Series run? Honestly, look yourself in the mirror for a second before you run your manager out of town.