The Blue Jay Way

The Toronto Blue Jays have just won three in a row and four of their last five games. They also just extended their winning streak over the worst team in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles (31-70), with their 12th consecutive ‘W’ over the hapless O’s.

The Jays lead the league in home runs with 155, 20 more than the 2nd best team; the Boston Red Sox.

Jose Bautista leads the league with 30 dingers, 4 clear of the next best challenger.

On the flip side, they rank 26th in team batting average and 3rd last in the AL, only ahead of Seattle and Cleveland. Subsequently, they rank 27th in on-base percentage.

So either the Jays are touching every base or not touching any of them at all.

They sit with an adequate record of 53-49, 12.5 games back of the division leading Yankees and 10.5 games back of the wildcard leading Rays with roughly 60 games remaining.

Playoffs are a goner, right? Not so fast.

At this time last year, the Jays were 4 games under .500 and 13.5 games back of the division lead. Even if the improvement is slight, it still is an improvement and the team is showing promise.

The Jays upcoming 2 weeks will tell the story one way or another. They face the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays in back-to-back-to back three game sets, after playing a weekend series with the mediocre Indians. The Rays and Sox are home games for the Jays.

These are the games that are must wins for Toronto. If they ever expect to make the playoffs they will have to learn how to beat these three teams.

The division will not be re-aligned so stop the complaining about Toronto being in the toughest division in baseball. It’s like Darryl Sutter complaining that if the Flames were Eastern Conference they would have made the playoffs. Divisions and conferences will not be changed due to notes in a complaint box saying “Well they have more money than us.”
So, outwork them.

The Rays showed that it was possible through good drafting and savvy managing and they hold the 21st highest payroll in the league; Toronto is 22nd. The AL West leading Rangers are 26th in payroll, yet another example that IT can be done.

In talking about the division, the Jays are playing there key opponents reasonably well this year sporting a 20-16 record inside the East. They have a 26-20 record at the Rogers Centre. They are also 9 games over .500 against right handed pitchers. All of the probable pitchers are right-handers this weekend against the ‘Tribe.’

So if a roll was to begin, it has to start NOW!

I say this all now because, much like death, the Jays selling off their team midway through the season is inevitable. It’s the Blue Jay way; fans have just come to expect it. With the trade deadline approaching quickly, the Jays will probably trade their best hitter Jose Bautista. Ironically, he will probably be in a Red Sox or Yankees uniform if he does get shipped.
I realize that with a team like the Jays it never hurts to have some young talent coming into the system and with Bautista playing ‘out of his mind’ right now it would probably make sense to sell on a high.

I was simply hoping that the Jays brass would potentially look at the glass as half-full and not half empty and try and keep a core group of players in town for a while, allowing them to gel and form a team that could do some damage.

Former GM J.P. Riccardi made so many wrong moves (signing Alex Rios and then giving him away for extra balls is one example), it is hard I am sure for Jays current GM Alex Anthopoulos to find his way out of this never-ending mess of mediocrity.

Hopefully AA can do the job that JP never could, and Blue Jays fans won’t have to suffer much longer than they already have.

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