10 Game Report #2 - For Crying Out Loud!!! REMAIN CALM

Last 10 games: 4 - 6
Overall: 8 - 12
Projected Finish: 65 - 97

After the first month of the season, the Blue Jays had a record of 10 wins and 20 losses and were 6.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the standings.   It got worse, as after the Jays were swept by the Minnesota Twins in a three game series, including a 13-1 loss in the final game of the series, the Jays had only 12 wins against 24 losses. Toronto had also lost 15 of their last 19 games before firing the Manager.............On September 30th, they clinched the American League East division title.

1989 was a great year.  That 12 and 24 start was a disaster, but in the end it still didn’t deter a very talented team from rising to the top of the division. 

This 8 and 12 start to the season pales in comparison, but you wouldn’t know it from the talk on the message boards, call-in shows and the yammering of local yahoos.  You would think it was mid-August and the Jays were 18 games out.  But it’s not, and they are not, so you need to simmer down.

 

I ask you these questions:

1.       Are you a baseball fall fan?  If YES proceed to question 2.  If NO your life must be empty.

2.       Do you think you can reasonably judge baseball talent at least to a level where you can pick good teams from bad teams? If YES proceed to question 3.  If NO you may think Pat Tabler is a good analyst.

3.       Before the season started, did you think the Jays had enough talent to challenge for the playoffs? If YES proceed to question 4.  If NO, you must have just been trying to be a smarmy contrarian.

4.       Besides the Reyes injury, is this team any less talented than the one that was fielded on Opening Day? If NO proceed to question 5. If YES you gave the wrong answer, try again.

5.       Would you ever confidently make a decision in life based on having only 10% the fuckin available data? If YES, you are a moron.  If NO, then congratulations!!  You can still be an educated Jays fan and this team still has more than a hope of the playoffs, believe it or not, it will likely still make a run at the playoffs.  I know it's hard to believe, but the season is a whopping 162 games long.

Yeah, maybe the starting staff hasn't looked great overall, the hitting has been underwhelming and the defence has sucked.... there are still some positives to get excited about:

• The bullpen looks stellar.  Every member has an ERA under 3.50, Jansenn is perfect, Cecil is reborn.
• Arencibia is blasting them out at a terrific pace (shhhh....don't mention the K's)
• Dickey looked phenomenal last Thursday against the White Sox. 
• Lawrie is back and is slowly rounding into form
• Kawasaki is was holding his own at short (although it is nearing midnight I fear)

Even with all the poor performances, this team is slowly improving and starting to look dangerous.  I remind you there are still 142 games to go!

Everyone needs to calm down!

So simmer everyone OK?  Put your hand on your tummy and just simmer.