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Santoki wrote:CrymeTime living up to his name by creating this series thread. And, what's with the poll?

CrymeTime wrote:

Santoki wrote:CrymeTime living up to his name by creating this series thread. And, what's with the poll?

My game-by-game prediction:
7-3, W
5-4, L (13 innings)
11-3, W
4-3, W (10 innings)

Looking ahead, the Blue Jays are facing a long, tough road trip. They'll play four in Baltimore before heading to the Bronx for three against the Yankees and conclude with three in Cincinnati. You know what I see, though? Opportunities galore for the offense to get going again.

First up, the Orioles are 11th in the AL in ERA and allow home runs at the second-highest rate in the AL. The Blue Jays also avoid the Orioles' best starter, Wei-Yin Chen, in the four-gamer.

Next, Toronto will head to the easiest park in the majors in which to homer this season while facing the only team in the majors to have allowed more homers than the Orioles, in the Yankees.

If we expand the search of home runs allowed amongst pitching staffs to include the entire MLB, guess who sits between the Orioles and Yankees? Yes, the Reds (fifth-worst in baseball), who play in the second-best homer park this season in Great American Ball Park.

As for the sentiment that the Blue Jays have been overachieving, lots of factors say otherwise. They have a plus-35 run differential, a relatively average strength of schedule, a FIP that isn't much different than their ERA and they haven't been overly lucky on batted balls in play.

The Blue Jays to this point may well have been a fluke, but I doubt it. The smart money is on them bouncing back offensively very soon and having a good enough road trip to come home still in first place in the AL East.

Graham's Cracker wrote:

Looking ahead, the Blue Jays are facing a long, tough road trip. They'll play four in Baltimore before heading to the Bronx for three against the Yankees and conclude with three in Cincinnati. You know what I see, though? Opportunities galore for the offense to get going again.

First up, the Orioles are 11th in the AL in ERA and allow home runs at the second-highest rate in the AL. The Blue Jays also avoid the Orioles' best starter, Wei-Yin Chen, in the four-gamer.

Next, Toronto will head to the easiest park in the majors in which to homer this season while facing the only team in the majors to have allowed more homers than the Orioles, in the Yankees.

If we expand the search of home runs allowed amongst pitching staffs to include the entire MLB, guess who sits between the Orioles and Yankees? Yes, the Reds (fifth-worst in baseball), who play in the second-best homer park this season in Great American Ball Park.

As for the sentiment that the Blue Jays have been overachieving, lots of factors say otherwise. They have a plus-35 run differential, a relatively average strength of schedule, a FIP that isn't much different than their ERA and they haven't been overly lucky on batted balls in play.

The Blue Jays to this point may well have been a fluke, but I doubt it. The smart money is on them bouncing back offensively very soon and having a good enough road trip to come home still in first place in the AL East.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24586071/the-week-in-overreactions-blue-jays-begin-their-descent