In searching for a positive theme to this year, I've mostly come up with this: if the season ended today, the East would have three teams in the playoffs, and it would be the teams not in New York and Boston.

The Central's not so nice, as I've taken to watching the Twins on mute and favoring the NBA playoffs and various movies. Tuning out when the Twins are playing the Blue Jays is always a good idea to some extent, of course, but at least we've won one or two already (I wrote this before the Saturday game, as my schedule will rob me of seeing that one and this one.

The very American Ricky Romero will be facing the very Canadian Scott Diamond, so let's not screw this up with any stupid chants out there, eh, New Guy Target Field?