Five reasons to keep watching the Blue Jays

Who's kidding who? This season has been a series of humiliating kicks to the groin for the Blue Jays faithful. At times, it's been enough to make even your humble scribe turn our head walk away until this wretched wreck of a year is over and done with.

In the midst of our emo moment yesterday, where we pulled our hair into pouty bangs over our face and carved "FTW" into our desk, we started to wonder: What would we miss if we took the rest of the year off? Here's the top five reasons that we could come up with to keep the faith and stay plugged into the Jays for the remainer of the season.

1) Roy Halladay's Cy Young Chase: Toronto's been spoiled with Cy Young winners over the past dozen years, with Pat Hentgen, a Texan who shan't be named and Halladay all bringing home the honour. But having the opportunity to watch the best pitcher in the game have a Cy-worthy season doesn't really happen all that often. Even if Halladay has looked a touch lifeless in his last few starts, it's going to be worth it to tune in to watch him make a push for his second trophy. Not that anything is ever certain, but a second Cy would definitely put Halladay in line for Hall of Fame consideration.

2) Aaron Hill and Adam Lind's Monster Years: The Jays haven't had a 30 homer, 100 RBI season from any player since 2006, and they appear on the cusp of having two such performances from Hill and Lind this year. Before the season, we figured that these two players would provide secondary offensive contributions, but both have stepped up their game to a whole new level.

3) Ricky Romero's Push for the Rookie of the Year: Once held up as the prime example of J.P. Ricciardi's ineptitude, RR Cool Jay has put together a stellar rookie campaign. He should be able to stick in the rotation for the rest of the year, and it would be pretty sweet to see him chalk up another four or five wins and keep his ERA under 4.00. He'll be in tough against the Rays Jeff Niemann, so it will be compelling to watch his final ten starts.

4) September Call-Ups: Travis Snider should be back soon, and J.P. Arencibia should get a handful of starts down the stretch. Fabio Castro may get a look, and David Purcey might get another shot to bring his walk rate down. Some good performances now by the Jays of the future might be enough to keep us sane over the long winter ahead. Speaking of which...

5) The Long Winter Ahead: Give it three months, and when your TV screens are filled with endless panels filled with fatuous hockey gasbags, you're going to be pining for baseball. Enjoy the moments while they're still here.