Toronto Baseball Guys
Do you know who I miss?
I miss Reed Johnson. Good Old Johnny Bat in the Crotch. I miss his .390 OBP, I miss his defence, his baserunning, his ability to light up a game and turn the momentum. I miss Alex Rios hitting with men on base who don't bat 8th and 9th.
Johnson
Hill
Rios
Wells
Glaus
Thomas
Overbay
Zaun
Clayton
Other than the Clayton bit, that looks just fine to me.
Oh, and big up Marcum and McGowan (as well as the young pen). This injury filled season has sure given a few guys an extended look...and the future looks ok...
The REAL Comeback
Mother of Pearl, when Uncle
Jivo posts multiple times in a week you know something special is happening. That's the 'math' I use to figure out the flow of the season. When Jim posts, it's a day of the week that ends with the suffix 'day', when I post it's when I am angry, when
Jivo posts something special is happening -- really special -- like the mother of all come back or a sale on porn, and when Doyle posts...well, when Doyle posts I'll add him to the equation...
Anyhow -- great game last night -- I am not writing the Jays off just yet. Tommy John for Papelbon, a torn everyhting for Schilling and Clemens, and, well, if a plane crashes into Cleveland and Detroit we are back in this thing!
Comeback a metaphor?
Ok, so last night's game was awesome. I may have been the only one watching the 9th inning, so I'll tell you that this was something special. (I don't really know why I was even watching it at all; I guess
Mindfreak was on a commercial break.) Of course, like any sane person who's watched hundreds upon hundreds of 9th innings, I kept waiting for the bubble to burst. And then it didn't.
While one game does not a season make, maybe the Jays are serving notice that they're never really out of anything. Including the season.
V-Dub is awesome
Though Vernon Wells may be having an off season at the plate - probably a product of his new monstrous contract - he's still got his sense of humour. Found this the other day, forgot to post.
V-Dub is funny:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070514&content_id=1964433&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle
Math 106
Well isn't this exciting. Your Toronto Jays are in second place in the division. And while the seemingly unfathomable has happened again, and yet another regular goes down to injury, there is a weird sense of optimism surrounding the ball club.
The clubhouse chemistry seems great, with off-field antics at an all-time high. Rookies and youngsters are proving their worth. And the veterans surely can’t hit like fifth graders forever. (Can they?)
Reality check.
These Jays are 27-29.
It will take, at minimum, 95 wins to make the playoffs, to grab the wild card. And that was the goal this season, wasn’t it? Some quick math… the Jays need 68 more wins this season to reach 95. For the remaining 106 games, that translates to a .641 winning percentage. In all of the Major Leagues this season, that winning percentage has only been matched by the Red Sox, the best team in the bigs.
And the Jays are not the Red Sox.
Since May 10, the Jays are 14-8. Their best run of the year over an arbitrary timeframe. What’s that? A .636 winning percentage. Which won't cut it.
Don’t’ get me wrong. I’ll be excited as the Jays keep it close for the rest of the year. Once Big Hurt wakes up. Once Vernon stops pressing. Once Johnson and Zaun and Overbay come back. I’ll be up and down watching the wild-card chase. I’ll be rooting for the bad guys. I’ll be cursing the Yankees.
I’ll just stop doing the math.