GT: Blue Jays @ Rays - Sept 22 - Sept 24

[LLJ]

As far as pitching, it concerns me that Kikuchi is starting to cool off. Our hitting may be "getting better" but if our pitching doesn't hold up, it'd be all for naught come playoff time

[s e n s i]

As far as pitching, it concerns me that Kikuchi is starting to cool off. Our hitting may be "getting better" but if our pitching doesn't hold up, it'd be all for naught come playoff time

i do agree overall but kikuchi is probably getting moved to the pen anyway. given his entire body of work this year, we should be confident in him getting outs in a 2-3 inning relief outing or a start in the DS, if we make it there.

[Ranger One]

As far as pitching, it concerns me that Kikuchi is starting to cool off. Our hitting may be "getting better" but if our pitching doesn't hold up, it'd be all for naught come playoff time

Other than Gausman I honestly don't trust anyone to pitch in the playoffs. Sure berrios, Kikuchi and bassitt had much improved years, but as we've seen quite often, they can be very easily hit around when they turn jeckyl and Hyde on us. At any time we can get 2022 Kikuchi or 2022 Berrios, and that's not a comforting thought going into the playoffs.

[Ranger One]

I agree with Rapcity. I have watched this entire season, like every season and sure it's been frustrating. Every baseball season is excriciantly long and has many ebbs and flows both individually and as a team. It's been crazy annoying watching a talented team floundering with RISP all year long. But reading this forum it's just constantly negative. Schneider all the time and pretty much everyone else maybe sans Jano, Bichette, Gausman and Mayza have had long stretches of constant whining and negativity.

It's been a frustrating year where we should be better then we are, definitely. But we're likely to make the playoffs and I'm jacked AF for it! Team seems like it's starting to come together and who knows, maybe we make some noise. It's far far far from the worst seasons we've seen like some make it out to be. This forum is absolutely a buzz kill, even after massive wins. No point being excited and posting here. I'm going on Tuesday tho! Bring on the playoffs, Let's go Gaus!

Stop. It was a complete and total disaster of a season until literally 10 days ago. The only thing that's really changed since then is they won a few series against teams playing out the string and/or an extremely injured Rays team and, most importantly, the Astros/Mariners completely collapsed out of nowhere.

Sure, anything could happen if/when they make the playoffs, but pretending like this season was somehow enjoyable to watch or comparable to even any of their previous teams in the Vlad/Bo era is looking at it through rose-coloured glasses.

Exactly! And what a coincidence that all these people who haven't posted all year suddenly come out of the woodwork to say how awesome the team is (because they are on their hottest stretch of the entire season) while crapping on everyone else for being negative lmao. The very definition of a fairweather bandwagon fan.

[Mak]

Was fun to be at the Tropicana and see Jays actually win games. Too bad Romano was so bad, could have been a sweep. We set between home plate and jays dugout about 8 rows back for $110 for 2 tickets with fees. Then $40 to sit in LF lower bowl.

Hope we get to play the Twins in the playoffs first and possibly Tampa later in ALCS. I don't think I can make it there again for wild card games.

[Randle McMurphy]

I agree with Rapcity. I have watched this entire season, like every season and sure it's been frustrating. Every baseball season is excriciantly long and has many ebbs and flows both individually and as a team. It's been crazy annoying watching a talented team floundering with RISP all year long. But reading this forum it's just constantly negative. Schneider all the time and pretty much everyone else maybe sans Jano, Bichette, Gausman and Mayza have had long stretches of constant whining and negativity.

It's been a frustrating year where we should be better then we are, definitely. But we're likely to make the playoffs and I'm jacked AF for it! Team seems like it's starting to come together and who knows, maybe we make some noise. It's far far far from the worst seasons we've seen like some make it out to be. This forum is absolutely a buzz kill, even after massive wins. No point being excited and posting here. I'm going on Tuesday tho! Bring on the playoffs, Let's go Gaus!

Stop. It was a complete and total disaster of a season until literally 10 days ago. The only thing that's really changed since then is they won a few series against teams playing out the string and/or an extremely injured Rays team and, most importantly, the Astros/Mariners completely collapsed out of nowhere.

Sure, anything could happen if/when they make the playoffs, but pretending like this season was somehow enjoyable to watch or comparable to even any of their previous teams in the Vlad/Bo era is looking at it through rose-coloured glasses.

Exactly! And what a coincidence that all these people who haven't posted all year suddenly come out of the woodwork to say how awesome the team is (because they are on their hottest stretch of the entire season) while crapping on everyone else for being negative lmao. The very definition of a fairweather bandwagon fan.

It's a clear tell that someone didn't watch too many 2023 Jays games if they they're coming here saying this season was anything but torture for the fanbase.

[Randle McMurphy]

As far as pitching, it concerns me that Kikuchi is starting to cool off. Our hitting may be "getting better" but if our pitching doesn't hold up, it'd be all for naught come playoff time

i do agree overall but kikuchi is probably getting moved to the pen anyway. given his entire body of work this year, we should be confident in him getting outs in a 2-3 inning relief outing or a start in the DS, if we make it there.

If the Rays do end up being a playoff opponent, their lineup is so RH-oriented at this point with all the injuries that it would also be Gausman/Berrios/Bassitt almost by default for that (even without Kikuchi falling off in September).

[JTT]

This team has won 7 of its last 8 series and has a sixteen/nine record in the last 25 games which I do believe count as much as the 25 games before. They have arguably the best pitching in the league. What a complete disaster. Could it be that you just don’t like the way they win? Personally, I like watching them pitch and I like watching them defend. Watching Teoscar trot after missed fly balls and fling at out of the zone sliders was much more frustrating (for me) than anything this team does. And for the record, I and others also watch BlueJay games.

[spykelee]

This wasn't as fun a season as last season I've already said as much. Last year we hit home runs, we had comebacks, you had faith that when down 1-0 we could and would make things interesting. But all anyone remembers from last year is our last three games. This team is at that Leafs point. All that matters is what this team may do in the post season. I would love if we won it all, imagine what an awful season that would be.

To say I don't watch cuz I don't post here is laughable. Do you guys read? I already explained why I don't post here much. It's just perpetual negativity all game every game. You'd think we're last place in the division. I actually work on the games so watching them is literally my job. But I don't post much on realgm!? Fairweather fan!! Keep on keeping on.

Great pitching, solid defense and maybe the offense is coming around. Maybe not. Maybe we'll continue to be what we've been all year and make baserunning mistakes, not come up with timely hitting, not hit homeruns. But maybe not. All I know is I'm looking forward to seeing the opportunity, god forbid around here.

[Hottie McShotty]

To those who say most of us here are negative, I say we are passionate fans and we want this team to succeed. If you don't like what you see or read you are welcome to go elsewhere.

[COY0607]

As far as pitching, it concerns me that Kikuchi is starting to cool off. Our hitting may be "getting better" but if our pitching doesn't hold up, it'd be all for naught come playoff time

At this point, I’m more concerned with what Kikuchi looks like next season as opposed to what he does the rest of this season

[JTT]

To those who say most of us here are negative, I say we are passionate fans and we want this team to succeed. If you don't like what you see or read you are welcome to go elsewhere.

Of course, agreed. And the opposite is also true.

[LLJ]

Speaking strictly as a viewer and not looking at the record, the Jays have been a tough team to watch this season and certainly not as pleasing to watch as even some (by record) "worse" Jays seasons. The offense has been MIA for huge chunks of the season, and there's nothing more frustrating than to watch this team's offense sputter with RISP, our top hyped guy Vladdy having a "down" season and Manoah's mysterious loss of ability have been downers to watch.

I think how we ultimately view this season depends a lot on the playoff run (if they get in that is). If they go down quickly like in the past few seasons I don't think anyone can look at this season with any sort of fondness.

[jaymeister15]

Stop. It was a complete and total disaster of a season until literally 10 days ago. The only thing that's really changed since then is they won a few series against teams playing out the string and/or an extremely injured Rays team and, most importantly, the Astros/Mariners completely collapsed out of nowhere.

Sure, anything could happen if/when they make the playoffs, but pretending like this season was somehow enjoyable to watch or comparable to even any of their previous teams in the Vlad/Bo era is looking at it through rose-coloured glasses.

Exactly! And what a coincidence that all these people who haven't posted all year suddenly come out of the woodwork to say how awesome the team is (because they are on their hottest stretch of the entire season) while crapping on everyone else for being negative lmao. The very definition of a fairweather bandwagon fan.

It's a clear tell that someone didn't watch too many 2023 Jays games if they they're coming here saying this season was anything but torture for the fanbase.

I watched 90% of the games, and went to about 20 of them, and enjoyed this season. To say it was “torture” or a “compete and total disaster” is a bit laughable. The Yankees and Padres seasons were disasters. The Jays are going to make the playoffs, meet or pass most pre-season win predictions, and finish with a top 7 or 8 record in the league with a mix of young players and veterans that are likeable and easy to root for. They had great pitching and great defence all season with an average offence that went through some really bad cold streaks (particularly after losing Bichette, Belt, and Jansen for large parts of the last few months), but also had some really hot stretches.

Were they as fun to watch as the 2015/2016 teams? Obviously subjective, but I would say no. I wouldn’t put them far behind last years team though from an enjoyment perspective personally. The offense has been very frustrating at times to watch this year, but the defence and pitching were not much fun to watch a lot of the time the last couple years.

Regardless, considering how many years of meaningless August and September baseball we’ve watched, I’m never going to consider watching an 87-69 team as torture.

[C Court]

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[Randle McMurphy]

I watched 90% of the games, and went to about 20 of them

I'm so sorry for you. I watched somewhere between 90-95% of them and went to two and it was the most awful experience following a professional sports team I've ever had.

To say it was “torture” or a “compete and total disaster” is a bit laughable. The Yankees and Padres seasons were disasters. The Jays are going to make the playoffs, meet or pass most pre-season win predictions, and finish with a top 7 or 8 record in the league with a mix of young players and veterans that are likeable and easy to root for. They had great pitching and great defence all season with an average offence that went through some really bad cold streaks (particularly after losing Bichette, Belt, and Jansen for large parts of the last few months), but also had some really hot stretches.

I'd describe it as a bit of hyperbole. Not laughable though. Very far from it for anybody who paid attention.

Were they as fun to watch as the 2015/2016 teams? Obviously subjective, but I would say no. I wouldn’t put them far behind last years team though from an enjoyment perspective personally. The offense has been very frustrating at times to watch this year, but the defence and pitching were not much fun to watch a lot of the time the last couple years.

The 2016 team wasn't particularly enjoyable to watch either, but they were nothing compared to the nonsense this team has put its fans through this year. 2020-2022 are easily above this year and so were honestly some of the non-playoff Ricciardi years (due mostly to getting to watch one of the greatest pitchers of all time every 5 days).

Regardless, considering how many years of meaningless August and September baseball we’ve watched, I’m never going to consider watching an 87-69 team as torture.

Who cares about meaningless baseball? Bad teams who play meaningless baseball don't inspire any feeling at all. You either tune in or don't and you're not gonna care one way or the other about what you're watching. For example, I honestly couldn't tell you a damn thing about the 2018/2019 seasons and I watched at least 3/4 of those teams' games. I didn't care about the outcome of those games.

But decent, underachieving teams who could be great but play way below their talent level and make stupid mistakes regularly on the field and off? You can't get more aggravating than that.

[duppyy]

I’d say last years raptors was a more difficult team to watch last season than this jays team. Yeah this jays team is difficult to watch offensively but at least they are entertaining defensively and pitching (at times).

[Randle McMurphy]

I’d say last years raptors was a more difficult team to watch last season than this jays team. Yeah this jays team is difficult to watch offensively but at least they are entertaining defensively and pitching (at times).

Last year's Raptors team lacked talent and had no chance of doing anything at all outside of losing in the 1st round of the playoffs at best. The Jays have talent and had/have championship aspirations. Expectations matter.

[Aimless Outlook]

Words to live by for a stress free Blue Jays fan's life.