Series Thread: Jays @ Red Sox | May 19-21

[s e n s i]

Jason Frasor is full of friggin' awesome.

[tsherkin]

How disappointing (our offense, I mean).

[oomalay]

I think all the Jays need to run a mission on that ump . What Blue Jay didn't argue with him today?

[v1n5anity]

glad this is over. time to start winning again.

[Indiana Jones]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

[s e n s i]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

That sounds pretty fairweather. You can go back to whatever "reality" is, I'm fine here, thanks.

[oomalay]

Yeah, there are still 162 games in a season, and we've played competitively for ~40 of the, while only looking bad in these 3, and maybe a few of the KC games. So I still have faith we could at least be in the race for the playoffs. Hell, we were still in it last year until the wild card running in August despite an abysmal offense and bad start.

[Kosta]

Lets forget about this one and get some payback next week at home...Thankfully we'll have Roy going tomorrow to stop the bleeding and start the winning again tomorrow...

[Geddy]

They just have to put this series behind them and just keep rolling.

Atlanta and Baltimore look like 2 teams that are good to start a winning streak on.

[J-Roc]

The last two games were excruciatingly boring. The Sox aren't thinking of the Jays in the back of their heads after this series. It's back to being all about the Yanks and Sox.

Jays need to somehow suck it up and move on. Frustrating thing is it's the offense letting them down. And the offense isn't battling injuries.

[tsherkin]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

That sounds pretty fairweather. You can go back to whatever "reality" is, I'm fine here, thanks.

He does raise an interesting point, though; we're folding against the competition we need to rise up against most strongly and that's not a good sign. Obviously, it's but a single series and less than a handful of games, hardly something to get worked up over. But it is something worthy of noting and it is cause for some concern. It's also problematic when your highest-paid player has been just about useless for 13 games (that's the length of his no-RBI streak at the moment, and he's hitting about .230 in that stretch, too). Wells is a spectacular waste of money, though this is a slump that he'll eventually pull out of and is not indicative of his value.

Of course, I'm still wondering who the fourth consummate underachiever is, since Indiana only listed 3, but that's another story.

The Jays should be OK, I mean we got pounded pretty hard but pitchers are going to have bad nights and whether our offense is lively or not, we can't always expect to spot a team 5 runs, give up three more and try to pull it out of the bag. As much as the offense failed, you can't give up that kind of run production and expect to win, so we can't really put that on the offense entirely.

Meh, we'll see. The next 10 to 20 games will be more illuminating than the past 3, IMO.

[J-Roc]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

Of course, I'm still wondering who the fourth consummate underachiever is, since Indiana only listed 3, but that's another story.

He's talking about 4 unproven starting pitchers (anyone but Halladay) and then he goes on to talk about guys who suck like Rios, Wells and Overbay.

And I go back to saying, anyone who said this series doesn't matter, said it because they expected the Jays to lose and don't think the Jays are contenders. It did matter to the Yankees that they lost all those games to the Red Sox earlier. It's important because it puts fear in the team you're competing with in the standings. This series made the Jays look bad. Like last year's team.

[s e n s i]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

That sounds pretty fairweather. You can go back to whatever "reality" is, I'm fine here, thanks.

He does raise an interesting point, though; we're folding against the competition we need to rise up against most strongly and that's not a good sign. Obviously, it's but a single series and less than a handful of games, hardly something to get worked up over. But it is something worthy of noting and it is cause for some concern.

Well, yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, we're still atop the AL East, with 15 games each still to play against both the Yanks and Red Sox. We're not going to go 0-18 against both. To use a 3-game set against probably a better team in the BoSox, in their park, with our 3, 4, and 5 starters pitching, as a measuring stick differentiating fantasy and reality, is something only fairweather fans would do.

Good teams get swept by other good teams all the time. Because we lose 3 in Boston, we suddenly don't have a 'realistic shot' at making the playoffs? So does that mean we had a shot going into the series, which has been completely erased by a sweep at the hands of a division rival? A pretty good one at that?

I'm just as upset and disappointed as any other die hard Jays fan, and I really wish we could have won a game this series, if not win 2 of 3. These games are double the importance of any other. But you know what? We got the Sox at home at the end of the month, and there is no doubt we will make up loss ground from this series.

But to say whatever shot we had is now gone after this series, is premature and holds traits of a fairweather fan. I mean, that's not exactly what he said, but the context in which it was said, implied that had we won this series, we would have had a realistic shot at a postseason birth. Or at least that's what I got from it.

I probably won't believe our chances are favourable until a few months from now, granted we're still in contention, but we have a shot.

[seanied]

As much as this series has sucked, it's probably a good dose of reality for us Jays fans.

With four unproven starters and consumate underachievers in Wells, Overbay and Rios, we don't have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Not when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees.

That sounds pretty fairweather. You can go back to whatever "reality" is, I'm fine here, thanks.

Relax, buddy. ...I don't see anyone here throwing a fit because we can't win against a division rival. I mean, who the hell said to break up the team? You're overreacting about nothing.

Sorry. Had to be done.

[seanied]

Of course, I'm still wondering who the fourth consummate underachiever is, since Indiana only listed 3, but that's another story.

It's four unproven starters (the rotation minus Halladay) AND consumate underachievers (Rios, Wells, Overbay, Snider ... I'm just guessing at the names).

In any case, it's a handful of games in a season where no one expected the Jays to contend. It's still gravy time. Not quite the time to become hysterical and start shipping players out yet.

[seanied]

Well, yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, we're still atop the AL East, with 15 games each still to play against both the Yanks and Red Sox. We're not going to go 0-18 against both. To use a 3-game set against probably a better team in the BoSox, in their park, with our 3, 4, and 5 starters pitching, as a measuring stick differentiating fantasy and reality, is something only fairweather fans would do.

Good teams get swept by other good teams all the time. Because we lose 3 in Boston, we suddenly don't have a 'realistic shot' at making the playoffs? So does that mean we had a shot going into the series, which has been completely erased by a sweep at the hands of a division rival? A pretty good one at that?

I'm just as upset and disappointed as any other die hard Jays fan, and I really wish we could have won a game this series, if not win 2 of 3. These games are double the importance of any other. But you know what? We got the Sox at home at the end of the month, and there is no doubt we will make up loss ground from this series.

But to say whatever shot we had is now gone after this series, is premature and holds traits of a fairweather fan. I mean, that's not exactly what he said, but the context in which it was said, implied that had we won this series, we would have had a realistic shot at a postseason birth. Or at least that's what I got from it.

I probably won't believe our chances are favourable until a few months from now, granted we're still in contention, but we have a shot.

Yeah, I was going to say all that, but since you did, we're good. I don't even call them fairweather fans. They're acting more like the characters on Hannah Montana or something when they don't get asked to the prom.

[Geddy]

At this point in time there is nothing to gain by looking at the 'reality' or thinking logically about this team. We're still on top of the AL east this far into the season so we should just enjoy it while it lasts. I mean I think most of us figured we would be basement dwellers this season so even 0.5 games up in the division after this many games is an accomplishment so far. It could be better, but it could also have been a lot worse.

[Hoopstarr]

Seriously, why does this even need to be said?

I know right? Why are people fretting about standings in MAY?! And they don't need to "turn it around again", Jesus Christ. They haven't lost 3 in a row since last JUNE! They also have the best record in baseball since last June. The Jays went 37-35 against the AL East in 2008, 36-36 in 2007, 43-31 in 2006, and 38-36 in 2005. They have among the best, if not the best, pitching and fielding in the majors for the last several years and now the hitting is finally doing its job. They've lost two games in a row to a good team that they have 16 more games to play against (OMG, break up the team!). Calm the %$#@ down or just go watch hockey.

Relax, buddy. Who here is fretting? It's like you've been waiting to say that paragraph for the whole season, and you finally got your chance after people show a little disappointment towards this series. The disappointment is justified, yet I don't see anyone here throwing a fit because we can't win against a division rival. I mean, who the hell said to break up the team? You're overreacting about nothing.

You're the only one who needs to calm down here.

Jays blog comments, fan Tweets (or whatever they're called), FAN 590 talk are filled with doom and gloom "they can't beat the good teams" type of BS. I already linked this http://www.sportsandthecity.com/2009/05 ... lling.html. There's also the Drunk Jays Fans game threads, the Bluebird Banter game threads, etc. And these are supposed to the be good, intelligent fans. Imagine all the idiotic things the average Jays fan said or thought after this series.

[J-Roc]

Hey, the Jays may not be good enough to beat the Yanks or especially the Sox straight up. But that's okay, if the Jays can continue feasting on the rest of the league. Jays have the head start, and they just need to get into the playoffs.

All we need is for Halladay to win and get the team back on track.