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http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/10/ ... um=twitter

I was watching the last few games and thinking pretty much the same. This Jays team likely can't be patched over based on what we know of their recent capabilities and available assets.

But it is impossible to imagine the Toronto Blue Jays playing baseball at this level, on this stage. It is so far from here to there. 60 feet, six inches, over and over again.

Just like the Red Sox could not be patched together.

Pitching is remarkably variable from year to year, in part because pitchers are so prone to injury. I don't have high hopes for next season, but it shouldn't be difficult to imagine the formula: slightly above-average performance from the lineup (which should be achievable), above-average performance from the rotation (the major question mark), and very good performance from the bullpen (which was the case this year, though that too is prone to variance).

Same articles were written about the Red Sox last year. Look at them now.

Oh, how I hate them.

I could picture our offense from this year competing in these games. Obviously the pitching is a different story, but if our pitchers are healthy and pitch like they have before, plus one or two other decent arms and there is no reason they couldn't compete.

jaymeister15 wrote:I could picture our offense from this year competing in these games. Obviously the pitching is a different story, but if our pitchers are healthy and pitch like they have before, plus one or two other decent arms and there is no reason they couldn't compete.

These games where nobody is scoring any runs?

It's not the offense with the Jays in 2014 that I worry about (as long as both Bautista and Encarnacion remain). It's what exactly they're going to do about that rotation.

All of the remaining teams have very, very good pitching at least 1-3. The Jays have Mark Buehrle and RA Dickey.

Schadenfreude wrote:Just like the Red Sox could not be patched together.

Pitching is remarkably variable from year to year, in part because pitchers are so prone to injury. I don't have high hopes for next season, but it shouldn't be difficult to imagine the formula: slightly above-average performance from the lineup (which should be achievable), above-average performance from the rotation (the major question mark), and very good performance from the bullpen (which was the case this year, though that too is prone to variance).

This.

Just about everyone had the Red Sox pencilled in for last place in the AL East this season. Here they are now in the WS after posting the best record in the majors. Baseball is a crapshoot sport. Anything can happen, and fortunes can turn around overnight.

Yeah, except Boston was elite at offense for years before last year's blip with the worst manager in baseball and some awfully timed injuries.

The Red Sox also have excellent defense and an elite bullpen (well, three elite relievers to be exact).

The only similarities for the Jays and Sox are the bullpen and the injuries. All Boston's starters did was correct a little bit more to their career norms--that they had already shown for years previous(all except for a small sample size from another injury prone youngster_--. Whose career norms on the pitching side are we expecting to make up the lost games? Brandon half a season Morrow?

Boston wins with elite hitting and a couple of elite relievers that are probably going to blow out their arms next season from overuse this year. The Jays are not nearly elite enough offensively (although they are not nearly the major problem on the team) to compensate for their average pitching.

There is a reason they are trying to bring in Seitzer to teach working the count. I said it before the season even started--this team was made to be an offensive juggernaut--not a pitching and defense one. The problem is, not enough players work the count or get on enough except for a few stars at the top end.

AA can work around the edges here but the problem is the pitching will never be elite enough to be Detroit, nor offensively as gifted as Boston.

Detroit lost because Cabrera is like 80% and their pitching staff couldn't pitch the whole game.

I just don't see what kind of bounce back will matter unless AA is able to pull off a major coup offensively or on the pitching side. And, from all accounts, he's not going to do that/

Sadly, our only hope lies in Brandon and a re-signed 10 million one year deal to Johnson--they have to become elite starters who can pitch for most of the season. Sure, it could happen--but I wouldn't hold your breath,