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Game 1 Saturday, August 16, 7:10 PM EDT
Buehrle vs Danks

Game 2 Sunday, August 17, 2:10 PM EDT
Hutch vs Caroll

Welcome back, Colby Rasmus...

Time to get to work!

Welcome back BLC, welcome back.

As the neuroticism level on this board increases, I sadly realize that watching this is the only fun left I'll get from being a Jays fan for the rest of this season.

Why has Gibbons seemingly abandoned the platoon approach to this team? It's been a solid month now where we're questioning his lineups daily when he really hadn't made a wrong statistical move all season up to that point.

This team is torture this season. 4 game losing streak when everyone else got hot.

Our best pitcher of late blows up in the 1st inning and the White Sox look like the Athletics.

It'll be back to the Minor Leagues forum soon if this keeps up

dkmo wrote:As the neuroticism level on this board increases, I sadly realize that watching this is the only fun left I'll get from being a Jays fan for the rest of this season.

Playoffs isn't the be all and end all, enjoy the season for what it's worth and hey, you never know right?

I came to that realization during the Clemens and Delgado years; but I know a lot of fans never witnessed the winning years so I just want to let them know it's close again like the mid 80's.

Lucky26 wrote:

dkmo wrote:As the neuroticism level on this board increases, I sadly realize that watching this is the only fun left I'll get from being a Jays fan for the rest of this season.

Playoffs isn't the be all and end all, enjoy the season for what it's worth and hey, you never know right?

I came to that realization during the Clemens and Delgado years; but I know a lot of fans never witnessed the winning years so I just want to let them know it's close again like the mid 80's.

I'm glad you've accepted and can enjoy mediocrity. Some of us can't.

It's hopeless. Not even BLC can save this sinking ship.

Lucky26 wrote:

dkmo wrote:As the neuroticism level on this board increases, I sadly realize that watching this is the only fun left I'll get from being a Jays fan for the rest of this season.

Playoffs isn't the be all and end all, enjoy the season for what it's worth and hey, you never know right?

I came to that realization during the Clemens and Delgado years; but I know a lot of fans never witnessed the winning years so I just want to let them know it's close again like the mid 80's.

Ug...you're totally and utterly what's wrong with Toronto sports fans.

Duffman100 wrote:

Lucky26 wrote:

dkmo wrote:As the neuroticism level on this board increases, I sadly realize that watching this is the only fun left I'll get from being a Jays fan for the rest of this season.

Playoffs isn't the be all and end all, enjoy the season for what it's worth and hey, you never know right?

I came to that realization during the Clemens and Delgado years; but I know a lot of fans never witnessed the winning years so I just want to let them know it's close again like the mid 80's.

Ug...you're totally and utterly what's wrong with Toronto sports fans.

Because he enjoys watching sports? Yeah what a terrible human being.

Losing culture. It does exist, folks.

LLJ wrote:Losing culture. It does exist, folks.

We don't exactly have a 'losing culture', though. The Jays have been an above-average team more often than not in the past decade, but one saddled with the extreme challenge of overcoming the brutal AL East.

If losing cultures exist, they exist in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City, two teams that have been unbelievably bad for a very, very long time. The Pirates snapped a streak of 20 seasons below .500 last year, won a one-game playoff, and took the Cards to five games in the NLDS. The Royals, who last made a playoff appearance when I was two months old, have surged past the heavily-favoured Tigers on a 19-4 stretch.

i'm sad. the nba season can't come soon enough.

SS Jose Reyes (S)
LF Melky Cabrera (S)
1B Jose Bautista (R)
DH E. Encarnacion (R)
3B Danny Valencia (R)
C Dioner Navarro (S)
RF Nolan Reimold (R)
CF Colby Rasmus (L)
2B Steve Tolleson (R)

Tyrone Slothrop wrote:
Because he enjoys watching sports? Yeah what a terrible human being.

I didn't say he was a terrible human being, that's over the top.

I said a terrible sports fan. Big difference.

He's probably a lovely guy who I'd have beers with but I don't respect his acceptance of mediocrity.

Telling people that they watch sports wrong is pretty asinine, and it is not the reason that Toronto sports teams suck

Four games our of the second wild card with 39 to play and two teams to leapfrog. Not impossible, but it's not looking good. They need to start winning - now.

Tyrone Slothrop wrote:Telling people that they watch sports wrong is pretty asinine, and it is not the reason that Toronto sports teams suck

Wait... I don't have to put on my lucky Ernie Whitt jersey and sit in my lucky spot, exactly 1 hour and 8 minutes prior to the first pitch?

Schadenfreude wrote:

LLJ wrote:Losing culture. It does exist, folks.

We don't exactly have a 'losing culture', though. The Jays have been an above-average team more often than not in the past decade, but one saddled with the extreme challenge of overcoming the brutal AL East.

If losing cultures exist, they exist in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City, two teams that have been unbelievably bad for a very, very long time. The Pirates snapped a streak of 20 seasons below .500 last year, won a one-game playoff, and took the Cards to five games in the NLDS. The Royals, who last made a playoff appearance when I was two months old, have surged past the heavily-favoured Tigers on a 19-4 stretch.

I think when you haven't played any meaningful games in over 20 years, that's a losing culture. In the bigger scheme of things, there is very little difference between the Jays and the Pirates and the Royals. Sure, they've been "worse" than us when it comes to how many meaningless games they've won, but the number of meaningful games between the three teams has been equal.

How many times have we seen the Jays lead the AL East and then blow it quickly? How many times have we cheered for this team to make a run at a crucial stretch and then they lay an egg during that stretch? Many more times than just this season. We've seen teams with comparable talent or statistically vulnerable teams survive or excel when they need to, like the Orioles. Have they really been so much better a team on paper for the past 3 years? I don't think so, but they've managed to find ways to overachieve. We keep pointing to luck when it comes to the O's, but at some point it sounds like the hollow claims of a fan of loser team.

Obviously, all things end eventually when the right team is put together, they will finally play some meaningful games. Or when you just have a season where your team overachieves. You could argue we've never had enough depth to compete with Boston or New York these past 14-15 years, but you'd think they would have overachieved just once. The Jays have not overachieved once since 93. At some point you have to ask why. Halladay alluded to this a while back as well. There's just a sense that this organization is resigned to what it is, and that's basically a perennial footnote. Don't think it doesn't affect the on-field product as well.