The Silver Lining - Yankees 10, Jays 5

I'm assuming you want more than the unintentional comedy of Toronto automatically turning A-Rod into a cop groping, Brass Rail living sex fiend. Well okay then, let me dig deep into my well of self-delusion and see what I come up with.

It wasn't fun at the Rogers Centre last night. 2-5 in the Yankees order all reached base at least 3 times. Damaso Marte managed to hold us off the score sheet for an inning. Ricky Romero continued his late season decline. And Jason Frasor evidently wanted us to feel the pain a little longer.

But call me the innovator of ignorance, because I've got your rose colored glasses view right here. Raul Chavez had 2 doubles, 3 hits and 2 RBI's on the night. He's hitting .308 since August 1st. I was going to include the Great White Hope Travis Snider on here for his 2 for 3 night with a double, but considering he was feeling generous and handed the pinstripes 2 runs in the first he gets the cold shoulder.

What else?

Lyle Overbay - A lot of people are going to remember the 8th last night for a pair of nice ranging plays Aaron Hill made on grounders that had eyes for the hole. What they probably won't make mention of is the pair of nice scoops Lyle Overbay made on the throws that were in the dirt. May not be nearly as flashy, but it's better being Aaron Hill when you've got a great first baseman like Lyle.

Brandon League & Shawn Camp - Hey look, League pitched into a second inning and didn't get bombed! And Camp continues to be Mr Reliable!

DRAFT! - We're Number 8! We're Number 8! And just a game out of picking 5th! More draft picks not to sign!

Is it too early to start drinking?

The Silver Lining - Rangers 6, Jays 4

Dear Red Sox,

Suck it.

Sincerely,
The Toronto Blue Jays

Isn't that enough for you? Rangers win, Red Sox lose and their wildcard lead shrinks to a mere 2 games? Oh, you say you're not a petty, resentful, long-suffering Jays fan. I'll have to try harder then.

Just so we remember why we need this sunny side up bit of self-delusion, today was pretty depressing. The Jays give away another early lead, putting up a mere 1 run in the final 5 innings of the game. Scott Richmond struggled again, giving up 5 earned runs over 5 innings, 2 home runs and 4 walks. All 5 hits coming from 3 players. And at the end of the day, the Jays followed up a 3-6 homestand with a 1-6 road trip. Are you shaking in your boots, Yankees?

It wasn't all bad though. Adam Lind. Obviously. Eternally, Adam Lind. Lyle Overbay took a Tommy Hunter fast ball out of the park, going 2 for 4 on the night and finishing up the road trip with a .348 batting average. Randy Ruiz was appearing in only his 3rd game of the trip but he made an impact, taking Hunter deep in the 4th to cap off a 2 for 4 night. He now has 5 big flys in only 17 games.

On the mound, it wasn't all bad. Jesse Carlson, after having had his streak of 7 scoreless appearances ended on Monday, was able to pitch pretty well in relief of Scott Richmond. He came in with men on first and second with no out and got a grounder which could have been a double play but ended up being just a fielders choice off of Marco Scutaro's error and David Murphy was able to score. Carlson stayed calm, striking out Chris Davis and getting Julio Borbon to fly out to centre. Since August 16th Jesse Carlson has an ERA of 1.13 with 11 strikeouts and a BAA of 0.172.

And how about the GPMODOAT (Greatest Prime Minister of Defense of All-Time)? With runners at the corners, Chris Davis sliced a grounder which might have been through the whole... had Johnny Mac not been playing today. Prime Minister McDonald, not wanting the Jays faithful to dwell on the loss of the GBOAT, made an outstanding diving stop, then with quick wrist action got the ball over to Aaron Hill, who made an even quicker turn to get the ball to first and save Brian "Better than Accardo" Wolfe from a run. So the boys got it done with the bat, the glove and on the mound today. Just, y'know, not enough of the boys.

Tomorrow the Jays start an 8 game homestand with the Yankees and Twins coming to town. The Yankees will be here Thursday through Sunday, and then the Twins will be here Labour Day through Thursday. Get your tickets now, because we all know how busy those post-labour day games get.

The Silver Lining - Rangers 5, Jays 2 (twice!)

For the second straight day, Jays pitching gave up 10 runs. In fairness, unlike yesterday those runs came over two games, but it still resulted in twin losses. Twin 5-2 losses in fact, further cementing the fact that the Gods of Baseball hate Toronto's fucking guts. I watched the final two episodes of the third season of Dexter earlier this evening, and the bloodletting in that fine program paled in comparison to the Jays in August. September isn't starting out any different. Whether it be Josh Hamilton taking his face out of some drunk chick's tits long enough to hit TWO jacks, or the sudden philanthropic streak Jays pitchers took on in making Crash Davis look like less of a disaster this year, Monday's drunken ecstasy has made way for Tuesday's crippling hangover.

But there were a few little joy nuggets for those looking for an excuse to put the razor blade down. Adam Lind. Like I said yesterday, Adam Lind. Joe Inglett went 2 for 2 with a walk, a pace we can certainly expect him to keep up for the rest of the season. The patron saint of Garfooses everywhere, Dirk Hayhurst continues to be the little non-prospect that could. He pitched another inning of low-leverage relief, bringing his ERA down to 1.53. And, most importantly, the chops have returned!

Right, as you were with the razor. I personally recommend x's and o's. Who said self harm couldn't be fun for the whole family?

Hayhurst, Wolfe and Inglett Recalled From Las Vegas

Unfortunately, I guess this means Jeremy Accardo won't be on the playoff roster. Seriously though, what is up Magic Cito's ass about this guy? Maybe his attitude leaves something to be desired, but he's still way more effective than Bryan Wolfe.

Jays 18, Rangers 10

Right when I was in the middle of much opining and bitterness while writing about the clusterfuck that has been the 2009 Blue Jays today, it occurred to me that I have a habitual need to find the silver lining of every game. For instance, in digesting the shitkicking we took from PAUL FUCKING BYRD and the Red Sox yesterday, I found solace in the fact that Jesse Carlson had now gone 7 appearances without giving up a run and put up some pretty fucking awesome numbers over that span. I figured if I'm going to go through this habitual self-delusion after every game, why not spread the insanity?

One problem tonight - this game was kind of fucking awesome. Yeah, they almost gave it away and gave up 10 unanswered runs and the bats kind of went to sleep over that span, but c'mon. The boys put up 18 runs tonight. Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, Rod Barajas and Vern were pretty much all awesome. Vern saved the game with a leaping grab to rob Chris Davis of extra bases and preserve the lead. Barajas hit his 15th and 16th home runs, and appears to be playing his way to comfortable Type-B free agency. And Adam Lind. Seriously, Adam Lind. Scott Downs added 1.2 innings of shut-out ball to go to 4.2 IP of lights out relief since returning from the DL. And Jason Frasor came in and shut the door - albeit in quite possibly the lowest leverage situation of his career. So the first edition of "The Silver Lining" is pretty much irrelevant. But hey, wasn't that fantastic?

Why must I geeve a fawk?

Hi folks. Remember me? No? Understandable. I maintained this blog with unflinching enthusiasm for all of a month or so, then not so much. Comfort I managed with relative ease, fury was disappointingly infrequent. Part of that was my general indifference to the world beyond me, the rest was my reasonable assurances that no one actually reads this shit. And yet here I am, rambling on like a drunken Rex Murphy who just discovered four letter words.

Comfortable? Check. No work today, not even leaving the house until slo-pitch tonight (PLAYOFFS!) so I'm sitting here, house-bum casual at the kitchen table drinking tea and rocking some Jim Croce. It's a lazy Monday before classes start tomorrow and I actually have to do some fucking work for a change.

Furious? Nah, let's go with bitter. This is going to be a Jays post after all. Maybe add in a bit of resentment. And for good measure, top it off with some good old fashion envy (we are in the AL East, of course). The 2009 season has been a cocktail of conflicting emotions. In spring training the argument seemed to be whether a resurgent offence could push this team to another season of wins in the low to mid 80's, or whether the complete gutting of the team's starting pitching would have the boys playing like it's 2004. We weren't really encouraged to believe when Vernon Wells went down to injury in the first week of training camp, BJ couldn't throw a fastball above 85mph or Matt Bush's control suffered to the point that he couldn't bean a mere sorority girl at close range with a heater. Then of course there was the complete flaming out of Ken Takahashi, Matt Clement and Mike Maroth, and the apparent setback to Dustin McGowan. But whatever, we were all conditioned to the inevitability of a "retooling" Blue Jays in 2009. Just wait for 2010. Right?

Well it didn't start that way. After a 27-14 start, the Jays were leading the division. A quarter of the way through the season, this team was the best in the American league. Scott Richmond had won AL Rookie of the Month. The team was batting .289 and averaging 5.7 runs a game, while the pitching staff had a cumulative ERA of 3.85. Cito was a genius, JP Ricciardi was lucky. PLAYOFFS.

But it didn't turn out that way, did it? I mean we should have seen that coming, and most of us did. Kind of. As much as I kept my cool in April, that 4 game sweep of the White Sox took me from "enjoy it while it lasts" to "seriously, could this last?" I blissfully ignored Rod Barajas' 120 point above career-average OPS, or Kevin Millar slugging like he was still good. Because, honestly, it was fun. And it was. But then the Jays headed out on the road.

Since May 18th, the Jays have won 31 games against 56 losses. Only Kansas City has a worse record over that period. That's right, the Washington Nationals have had more to cheer about in the last 3 months than us. I almost wish the first month and a half hadn't happened, because we'd be in a dead heat right now for first dibs on high school phenom Bryce Harper. And of course, perhaps we'd have been better prepared for the shitstorm of the past few months.

There were no lack of things to talk about since the 0-9 road trip that signaled the beginning of the Jays' downward spiral. Since having a pretty solid first month, Vernon Wells has put up a line of .246/.296/.380. Not since Bryan McCabe have Toronto sports fans been so united in their disdain for one player. Well, Alex Rios almost got there. He had the audacity to refuse an autograph to a cute little kid (who routinely hangs out above the dugout begging for autographs to sell) and became persona non grata for this percieved slight. And then of course there was the end of the BJ Ryan era, costing the team 15 million so the Beej could sit at home pushing his fingers into his eyes (since it's the only thing that slowly stops the ache).

But none of these struggles in anyway compares to the epic clusterfuck that was the Roy Halladay Trade Saga. It began shortly before the All-Star game in July. Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi was asked by Ken Rosenthal if he was interested in trading Roy Halladay, to which he responded that if an offer made sense, they'd "have to listen". Not news for about any other player but with Halladay this was apparently the story of the century. An explosion of bullshit erupted not seen north of the 49th parallel since Vince Carter's momma decided Vince didn't want to play in Toronto anymore. Every start Halladay made became his "last start in Toronto". Alas, no one came close to Ricciardi's asking price, and the Doc maintains his office at 1 Blue Jay Way. But that didn't mean we didn't lose anyone.

News broke less than an hour before the deadline on July 31st, that Scott Rolen had been dealt to the Reds. Initially it was rumoured that slugging first base prospect Yonder Alonso was on his way to Toronto in the deal, but it ended up being Edwin Encarnacion as a salary dump with two good pitching prospects, Josh Roenicke (who we're currently using in middle relief) and Zach Stewart (who has been all kinds of fucking awesome in Vegas). It sucked to lose a guy who was one of only a few Jays really nailing it this year, but understandable. And at least we sold high.

With Alex Rios, we didn't even geeve enough of a fawk to sell at all. Claimed off waivers by Chicago, JP decided to let him go in order to get the 60 million dollars owed to him off the books. This is of course an indictment of management whichever way you look at it. Either his contract was so bad that he couldn't have been moved to get any kind of value for him, or his contract was moveable and they screwed up in letting him get away for nothing. But it was a salary dump, and between he and Rock and Rolen 20 million dollars came off the books for next season.

You'd think losing two regulars to trade would hinder a team's performance. You'd be right. 9-16 in the month of August, 5-13 since AlexIsMostCertainlyNotOnFire headed to the windy city. Swept twice in the span of two weeks by the Massholes. Dominated by PAUL BYRD. If this season is over, someone should tell... no wait, the players definitely know. And now begins the blame game.

So whose fault is this gigantic clusterfuck? The players? Rogers? Magic Cito? JP Ricciardi? Vern? That Guy Who Drums Outside The Games? All of the above (especially the drummer. If only he'd been more forceful in getting passers by to complete "Let's Go ____ ____!")? Or was this just a necessary retool year where all the things we expected to happen just happened? I tend to wonder if we'd all be this frustrated if the mirage that was the first 41 games hadn't fucked with our reasonable expectations.

Okay, my comfort level is falling. The fury is festering. Fuck all the bastards. Fuck the Yankees, the Red Sox, the unbalanced schedule, the salary disparity, tepid ownership, Magic Cito's wacky strategy, the under performing stars (although yes, I still believe in Vernon Wells), the two-faced general manager. And most of all, fuck me for fooling myself. This wasn't the year. Next year is.

Right?

Shit

Alright so before I go to work, a moment of shear panic. Shaun Marcum left Wednesday's 2-0 stinker loss to the Orioles in the second inning with an elbow injury. Today he flies to Alabama to see Dr. James Andrews. According to the Globe, the Jays expect Andrews to confirm the worst case scenario: Marcum needs Tommy John surgery. Such an injury would basically count Marcum out for not only the rest of this season but probably all of the next. With McGowan out until at least May (and who knows how he'll throw when he returns from a shoulder injury), this would leave a Burnettless Jays with a starting rotation of Halladay-Litsch and three players to be named later. The logical next step is for J.P. to fall on his sword and throw some of that fat-cash at A.J., but what does that mean for the offense next year? If we're throwing 20 million at Burnett, you can kiss getting a top DH goodbye without any further investment from uncle Ted. We're basically going to need Travis Snider to put up ROTY numbers in 2009 to make up for that. So in an ideal scenario, Travis hits 20 jacks while batting around .300, Burnett takes our DH money and manages to not spend half of 2009 on the DL and David Purcey can hold down the fort with some other acquisition (Pedro?) until McGowan can return to the team and to form. Fuck, the season is more than 5 months away and we're still betting on a bunch of ifs.

Scotty Goes Down, As Do the Jays

Well isn't that a kick in the face? Just days after Blue Jay-mania swept the nation to the point where TSN recorded 8 year ratings highs for a Jays game, it appears the dream is over. Having dropped 2 of the opening 3 games of this final trip to Fenway Park, the boys find themselves 7.5 out of the playoffs with only 13 games to play. The extreme rose coloured glass, glass half-full, drink all that Rogers Kool-Aid from the glass view of the current situation is that they take the remaining 4 games against the Bo-Sox, then somehow make up 3.5 games in the final 9. Possible? I guess. Likely? Even less than a Stephane Dion majority.

I'm not looking forward to Jays Talk.

It Could Happen...

Shut up. So maybe David Purcey didn't repeat his Sunday performance of making opposing hitters look like a co-ed beer league slo-pitch team. Maybe the Jays historical inability to hit knucklers didn't magically vanish with the appearance of a September hot-streak. And maybe we don't find hourselves 5.5 games back, ready to pounce and take over the Wild Card with a 7 game late-season sweep in the home and home. We're still alive, goddammit. And the evidence is in the Jays 8-1 shitkicking of Paul Byrd and his band of Merry Massholes. All is squared in the most important series of the year, now we need to take the next two.

How about St. Travis? As far as late season callups go, it is true that Adam Lind lit the Jays up in September of 2006 with a batting average of .367, only to find himself dwelling in Syracuse in 2007. It's also true that pushing this kid as the second coming of Delgado with all of 11 games under his belt is about as well-thought out a decision as 4 million a year to Jason Blake after his one good year. But Lind hit well against mainly middling-to-bad teams; Snider has lit up the Yankees, the Twins, the White Sox and now the Red Sox. He hasn't faced any sub-.500 competition yet. His home run was a no-doubter, the double was clutch and he's finding himself contributing in real ways to this late-season run.

So tonight, with the season remaining on the line, Jesse Litsch takes the mound against Bartolo "Used to be worth Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee" Colon. Jays have put up numbers against Colon similar to their numbers against Wakefield. Then again, Tim Wakefield hasn't been quite so much of a steaming pile of shit the last three years. Meanwhile Jesse Litsch has continued to dominate hitters since returning from Syracuse, posting a 1.26 ERA with a .209 BA in 5 starts. If we had to stake our playoff hopes on anyone's recent performances, I can't think of anyone better than our favourite batboy.

Mother Nature Is A Fucking Asshole

Holy fucking shit. It's bad enough that we had the rain delay in Boston two weeks ago, locking in a Jays road trip of 8 games in 7 days while the Red Sox had the Thursday off. It's bad enough that the opener in Chi-Town was similarly rained out, so we were looking at 8 in 6. But to take away my Friday baseball? Fuck off, weather patterns. Fuck off, Hurricane season. And most importantly fuck off Jays Talk callers for making me want to tear my hair out during the delay.

So where do we go from here? If we stick with Purcey on the hill tomorrow, we face the ominous possibility of either the notoriously inconsistent rookie on 3 days rest or turning to one of Scott Richmond or John Parrish. On the other hand, we could keep Burnett on Saturday, hold Purcey back to Monday and gamble on short-rest throwing Burnett three starts in a row. Either way, not ideal.

Update: And just as I post this, the rain delay has essentially ended. Purcey-Crisis Averted! Fuck 'em up, boys!

Meaningful Baseball!

So it's that time of year again, according to the Toronto sports media, where the Blue Jays make a completely inconsequential run after they've been logically eliminated and the pressure has been taken off. Never mind the fact that they've been hot since July, or that our recent win streak has come at the hands of some of baseball's best, because why evaluate a team based on their merits when you can boil everything down to historical comparison?

Believe me, I'm not trying to be a pusher for the hope bandwagon. I'd basically written this team out of the playoffs after the guys dropped 2 of 3 to the Angels on the road and were 14 games out of the division. They're now 6.5 games out of the playoffs, and the cynical prick inside me says that 6.5 games made up with 16 remaining in the season is a lot to hope for. And it is. But I can't help but think that on this particular occasion, there are reasons to hope.

Consider our opposition for the remainder of the year. 7 games come against the Boston Red Sox, the team we need to catch in order to make the playoffs. We find ourselves within reach of that team with a 7 game sweep. We've won 11 of our last 12 games, and since July 8th we're 37-20. This isn't just some inconsequential late season run, they've been hot since before the All-Star break. In addition to the Bo-Sox series, we've got 6 games against the Orioles and a 3 game set with the Yankees, teams we're 8-4 and 8-7 against respectively. The Rex Sox meanwhile have 7 games against the Blue Jays (4-7 against us), 3 against the Rays (7-8), 3 against the Yankees (8-7) and 4 against the Indians (2-0). What that record against the Indians doesn't indicate however is that the Tribe has a record against the AL East of 19-12. The Sox have it tough. We have our ducks lined up in a row. This is doable.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not out here trying to be that guy who screams PLAYOFFS! every time we manage to pull off a win (not without a sense of irony, at least). The chances of our being able to pull off 5 or 6 of these final games against the Red Sox and then make up the remaining games to earn ourselves a playoff spot are not great. But for all the people who've bitched about our lack of meaningful games in September, it's time to stop bitching. Meaningful baseball is here. This is the most important series of the season. Bandwagon jumpers: it's time to hop on.