Things Could Be Worse

It's easy in the middle of the season to get lost in the mire of your team's most recent events.

Talk to most of us (Jays fans, bloggers, tweeters, commenters, what-have-you) in over the Winter months, and we were all pretty sanguine about the prospects for the 2011 team, and the degree to which we would bear with some temporary pain for longer-term gain. It should have been obvious that such a stance would be much harder to maintain once we were looking at Corey Patterson in the two-hole everyday.

Oh sure, back in the months of offseason rosterbation and speculation, no one was picturing such an eventuality. But then again, we weren't figuring on a lot of the downside that has come to fruition in this first third of the year.

Because if you'd told us about the cavalcade of calamities that have befallen this team before the season started, there's no way that we could have pictured much more than a 100-loss season, and maybe worse. It's entirely possible we would have folded the blog and found another hobby...like javelin catching.

Seriously, look at the misery thus far...marvel at it! What would you have expected if we'd told you back then that as the Jays were about to play their 50th game:

That Brett Cecil and Travis Snider were justifiably demoted.

That Adam Lind came back, only to get hurt.

That Jo-Jo Reyes pitched worse than expected? (And really, not much was expected to begin with, aside from a few kind words from yours truly.)

That Aaron Hill has gone from turning into a pumpkin in 2010 to becoming a rotting carcass of dilapitated two-weeks-past-Halloween pumpkin in 2011.

That Mike McCoy will get 45 at bats, will be deservedly demoted several times, and still put up better numbers than Aaron Hill.

That Edwin Encarnacion, Aaron Hill and Rajai Davis combined to have as many home runs as Chris Woodward (or us, or you for that matter!)

That Corey Patterson and his .737 OPS would seem like an offensive asset when compared to Juan Rivera (.662), Rajai Davis (.649), Aaron Hill (.616), Edwin Encarnacion (.586) and Travis Snider (.540).

And then if we were to tell you that the Jays managed to stay within three and a half games of the AL East lead, and sat just a game below .500...Would you be relieved?

Thus far, the season has played out worse than we could ever have expected. Well, with the notable exceptions of the One Man Gang, José Bautista (4.5 fWAR!) and a very respectable rookie campaign from J.P. Arencibia. But still...you see what we're saying. For all that's gone wrong so far, there's an upside to this season, and our heroes aren't even all that far off the mark.

Unless, of course, things get really bad.

A little perspective, if you please

The nice thing about unplugging yourself and getting away for a breather is that it allows you a certain amount of time to reflect and reassess. With the benefit of some time to quietly reflect, you can strip away some of the axiomatic thinking that creeps in and takes over when you are locked into the day to day grind of it all.

We highly recommend it. In fact, we'd especially recommend it to those in the comments sections of this blog and others who have started to freak out at the seeming disparity between the Jays signings and those of other teams, notably the Yankees. Because it's patently ridiculous the way that some are even trying to make some sort of point by comparing the Sabathia-Burnett-Teixeira signings with the Jays' scouring of the fringes to sign a handful of minor league free agents.

"They get C.C.! We get Mike Maroth! Fire J.P.! Fourth place! Gargggrggrghrghr!"

The Yankees, you have to remember, are in full restocking mode. They've lost a number of aging players with big contracts, so they can make all of these signings and maybe more, and still be under last season's payroll number. That's what they are doing now, and they are setting the market for the rest of the league, because they always have. There shouldn't be any cause for alarm.

The Jays' are on minor-league and marginal signings at this point, likely because are waiting (like everyone else) for some more movement in the free agent market amongst the more austere teams. There are lots of big names still on the board, and our guess is that some of them will be left scrambling for dance partners by the time February rolls around.

Besides, the Mike Barrett signing is a greatish one, both for the Jays and for the player. He gets the chance to get out of PetCo Park, and the Jays get a guy who was a Silver Slugger winner as recently as 2005. The signing also provides insurance in the event that Rod Barajas turns into a tubby pumpkin again.

We could definitely see Barrett taking playing time away from Barajas, especially if the latter backslides as he did in the final six weeks of last year.

That's a wrap on 2008
As 2009 lingers alluringly on the horizon, we look forward to turning over the calendar page and taking on another year. Have a great New Year's celebration, and we'll see you on the other side.

MLB Trade Rumours gives the Jays the once-over

As part of their Needs and Luxuries series, MLB Trade Rumours today turns their gaze towards the Blue Birds.

Obviously, if you've been following the Jays day-in day-out, nothing here will come as too much of a surprise, although we find their notion about shopping Shaun Marcum interesting.

Also note that they do not have the innate love of the PM of Defense that clouds the judgment of we Jays fans.

Updating our eight point plan

Since the Art Martone of the Providence Journal's SoxBlog brought it up, we figured we'd take a second look at the progress that has been made on our eight point plan for salvaging the Jays season.

1. Fire Gibbons: Given that the Jays have pulled themselves out of their absolute freefall, it doesn't look like we'll see any progress on this item. And we'll give Gibby credit for pulling Litsch a few nights back, because it was the right decision, even if it was unpopular. Still, we're not backing down on this. Status: Incomplete.
   
2. Send Zambrano to Syracuse, or even Dunedin: Zambrano has been DLed, and will likely get the chance to properly ramp up through a reconditioning stint somewhere in the minors. Status: Check this one off as complete.
   
3. Designate Josh Towers: Towers is still on the roster, but hasn't pitched in a week. So, good for the Jays for keeping him off the mound, but he's still taking up a roster spot. Time to make a decision. Status: Incomplete.
4. Move Janssen and Marcum into the rotation: Marcum's in, and pitched well enough to win on Sunday. As for Janssen, we actually buy into the idea that he's of more use in the bullpen, so we're willing to admit that we were partially wrong on this one. Status: Complete, and an extra gold star for ignoring us when we were wrong.
   
5. Play Jason Smith, or return him: It looks as though they've done both. Smith got back to back starts, went 2 for 7 with 3 Ks, and was placed on waivers. (He was picked up by Arizona yesterday, so bully for him.) Status: Complete.
6. Stop screwing around constantly with the batting order: What can we say? While we are willing to allow for some reasonable movement, Gibby continues to overmanage the lineup. Status: Incomplete, with a big red frowny face.
7. Scour the wires: Nothing to report yet. Then again, when the best name out there is Jason Davis, maybe it is best to keep your hands in your pockets. Status: Incomplete, but with a legitimate excuse. Maybe.
   
8. Hire Ken Macha: In spite of our main man Martone's contention that we're not allowed to have Macha because he's done great work on NESN as an analyst, we still want him. We say, give us Macha, or give us Jerry Remy. The choice is yours, Red Sox Nation. Status: Incomplete.

So, here's where we net out: three items checked off the list, five to go. Not bad...we're hitting .375!

But to J.P., and all of our other fans in the Jays' front office, we say this:

Ok, ramblers. Let's get ramblin'.

Eight ways to salvage a sinking ship

In honour of the Jays eighth consecutive loss, we humbly offer eight suggestions to help salvage this wretched season, before it's too late

1. Fire Gibbons - I don't think this requires that much explanation.
   
2. Send Zambrano to Syracuse, or even Dunedin - As terrible as he's been, the Jays allowed him to pitch to big league hitters months before he was projected to be ready. He needs to go down and get himself stretched out and build up his arms strength gradually. (We're not even certain if they'd be able to do this without having him pass through waivers, but it's possible that he could go on a rehab assignment.)
3. Designate Josh Towers - His contract is the only thing keeping him in the Majors. He's a lousy starter and even worse coming out of the bullpen. It's time to cut bait.
4. Move Janssen and Marcum into the rotation - At the very least, they pitched better last year as starters than three-fifths of the rotation has this year.
5. Play Jason Smith, or return him - J.P. has a habit of grabbing guys in the Rule 5 draft and holding onto them for dear life, even if they never really pan out. (Corey Thurman? Aquilino Lopez?) Smith had a tremendous Spring, but has been relegated to the role of a pinch hitter as of late, while Matt Stairs is allowed to lumber around right field with impunity.
   
6. Stop screwing around constantly with the batting order - Is Aaron Hill hitting first? Seventh? Fifth? Second? Is Overbay second or sixth? What day is it? Gibby (or whoever replaces him) has got to stop jerking guys around the lineup and leave them as much as possible where they are comfortable.
   
7. Scour the wires - Yes, you'll be grabbing the scrubs who weren't good enough to play for other teams, but just about any living, breathing biped with major league experience would be an upgrade in the Jays bullpen over Towers or Zambrano.
8. Hire Ken Macha - He's available. He's won. He's turned Oakland teams that started slowly into playoff teams.

But hey, what the hell do we know?

UPDATE, 4:10 pm: In and amongst all of the sad, sad news of the demise of B.J. Ryan's ulnar collateral ligament, we see that J.P. has managed to check off item number 2 (Zambrano's on his way to the DL, and likely a rehab stint), and half of item 4 (Marcum will take Zambie's spot into the rotation.)

Hey J.P.! If you are reading this - and why wouldn't you? - then how about items number 1 and 8?

Easing back away from the ledge

Cheers to those who helped to put this weekend debacle in perspective.

Neate Sager - a prince of a guy, and the overlord over at Out of Left Field - points out a few other slow starts in Blue Jays past. Most notably, the 1989 Jays, who started off 12-24, only to finish off 89-73, good enough to win the division (only to get their keysters handed to them by the Bash Brothers era Oakland A's).

And what was the turning point that season? Firing Jimy Williams.

We're just sayin'.