Saturday, April 11, 2009

Better get used to it

I was going to title this post "Midnight Confessions" (or something equally (h)acktastic), given the approximate seven hour timeframe start to finish of the opener in Cleveland, but I thought that sounded a little too Penthouse letter-y. Actually, given the way the 8th inning unfolded, maybe that would be an appropriate title. Er... nevermind, let's stick with the rollercoaster theme.

No friends, I'm not suggesting the home nine will be rolling up crooked numbers all season on the way to a 161-1 finish. I'm not suggesting Adam Lind will continue his 97 HR-356 RBI pace. I'm not even suggesting the lineup we see today will be the same as the lineup we see on June 1st.

What I am suggesting, is that with the makeup of the roster, this is bound to be a season of highs and lows. At the moment, we are experiencing the highest of highs - at least as euphoric as one can be 5 games into a season. The starting pitching has been good enough to win. The offence has come through with timely hits in all the right situations. The bullpen has closed the door when the team really needed a shutdown inning.

The young building blocks are "playing to their potential", and with a few exceptions (I'm looking in your general direction, Vern Wells), the veterans are coming through. And can I tell you something? I'm enjoying the shit out of this.

Oh, there will be lows. Adam Lind and Travis Snider will slump, trying to swing their way out of 0'fers by chasing soft stuff down and away. Lyle Overbay will look foolish against tough lefties. Vernon will slam many bats in disgust after infield pop-ups on just-missed fastballs. One or two of the kids in the rotation will blow the fuck up and make the journey to Vegas. The bullpen might even give up a lead or two along the way (seems unlikely, though).

They'll all go through it. Except for Roy Halladay and Scott Rolen, of course, because Doc doesn't bleed, and because I believe in Scott Rolen. But you see, I'm not going to sit around and wait for that other shoe to drop. Fuck that. They say the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have to keep the highs and lows in check - but I'm pretty sure "they" were referring to the guys on the field and not their fans.

The Blue Jays have started the season by winning 4 out of 5. That makes me happy. Pennant.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I seriously hope the Jays make a move to bring in another rotation pitcher. I would feel so much better about this team if we had at least two veterans in the rotation.

BS said...

Adam Lind? Slump? I think not.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

Anon, wait until June. It's going to happen.

Ack, you're a fuckin rudey. Lind is a deity in my books. Yes, already.

Pennant.

Christopher Jones said...

Why shit on Wells? He's batting 316 with an OBP of 409.

The Ack said...

yeah, you're right about Wells. My bad. I was blinded by the lack of taters. But they'll come.

DAN THE MAN said...

The Jays have a glorious opportunity to build a lead in the AL east with this soft schedule, and it'll just be a question of whether or not they can hang on.

BS said...

Richmond scares the shit out of me. I think the guy that threw to Josh Hamilton in the home run derby last year has a better chance of getting a lefty out. Casey Janssen, Brad Mills, and Cecil can not get here fast enough

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

BS: Richmond did his job yesterday. He likes to live dangerously but, hey, let's give him props.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

B.J. Ryan is officially freaking me the fuck out. But we won. And I'm all about the dubyas in April...