Toronto Blue Jays @ Minnesota Twins | May 10-13

dballislife · Post #681 » by **dballislife** » Mon May 14, 2012 4:01 am

Randle McMurphy wrote:
dballislife wrote:this is frustrating, we're by no means a bad team, but its starting to look more and more like we're just above average again

You can say that again. Oh wait, you already have.

everytime, i will never disappoint

Boner Champ · Post #682 » by **Boner Champ** » Mon May 14, 2012 4:21 am

tsherkin wrote:
Tyrone Slothrop wrote:Outside of the Yankees and Rangers (and a healthy Red Sox team), I'd take the Jays offense over any team in the AL. People who think this is a bad offense are pretty clueless.

This would be relevant if we were in any other division in baseball.

I agree that the Jays are not a bad team, in fact a surprisingly good team despite crappy peripherals... but we're over-performing those peripherals, which won't last, and it doesn't matter what we look like if we continue to lose games; the reality is that our division requires more than others do, and we haven't put enough on the field in basically two decades to get it done. Which is frustrating, hence the negativity. We've BEEN one of the better teams in baseball for years, and if we were in the NL or even in another AL division, we'd be gravy, but we're not, so we need more.

The offense IS problematic, though. We have a lot of guys who aren't hitting for contact, some of our power guys haven't been going, and we've got the ultimate failure at 1B. This is a problem, no matter how you look at it. There are signs of Joey Bats coming around, EE has been a pleasant surprise and so forth, so there's hope moving forward, but we've certainly struggled.

You can't see some of this stuff and not be frustrated, though, and in the course of discussion, it's going to come up. We AREN'T good enough to compete in this division right now, and regardless of what we might theoretically accomplish outside of that division, that's all that matters, because we're not changing divisions any time soon.

Romero is a good pitcher; wouldn't say he's good enough to be a legit staff ace, but he's been pitching very well for a while, so he was due for a stinker. He couldn't hit the zone, got smacked around, whatever, it happens. He'll be fine next game. The offense really just couldn't do it early enough; we couldn't score until the starter left, which was problematic, and by then it was too late.

This.

No, we're not terrible, but we're not great, and our offense is certainly not as great as everyone was raving during preseason. The team is a couple of games above 500 on a creampuff schedule and with our question-mark-riddled 2-5 starters playing well beyond expectations. Yes, we can legitimately expect Bautista to improve and our closers to convert better, but heading into the remainder of our AL East-heavy schedule, this team will likely be out of a playoff race by mid-August. Again.

Hope I'm wrong.

WpgPage · Post #683 » by **WpgPage** » Mon May 14, 2012 4:29 am

5-5 on this road trip, I will take that if they can go 4-3 on this home stand they will be at 23 wins through just over 1/4 of the schedule, I am more than happy with that.

Post #684 » by **tsherkin** » Mon May 14, 2012 2:17 pm

Is someone making a Tampa thread? I don't see it.

Raptor_Guy · Post #685 » by **Raptor_Guy** » Mon May 14, 2012 2:19 pm

WpgPage wrote:5-5 on this road trip, I will take that if they can go 4-3 on this home stand they will be at 23 wins through just over 1/4 of the schedule, I am more than happy with that.

How are you happy with that? They've just played the easiest part of their schedule and you're happy that they're only a few games over .500?

LLJ · Post #686 » by **LLJ** » Mon May 14, 2012 2:46 pm

tsherkin wrote:Romero is a good pitcher; wouldn't say he's good enough to be a legit staff ace, but he's been pitching very well for a while, so he was due for a stinker. He couldn't hit the zone, got smacked around, whatever, it happens. He'll be fine next game. The offense really just couldn't do it early enough; we couldn't score until the starter left, which was problematic, and by then it was too late.

Romero isn't a "true" stud pitcher (which is to say, he's not a Lincecum or Halladay), but the continued insistence on having a true "ace" is overrated as well. An ace is still going to pitch about the same number of games as a 2nd or 3rd when all is said and done. Yes, an ace is slightly more important in the playoffs with hypothetically more rest between games, but that's really not our biggest concern yet, anyway. It's more important to stack your rotation with very good pitchers from 1-5 rather than having one stud, one good one, and 3 other question marks, which was often the case during the Halladay years.

I like the way our rotation is developing, trying to be strong from top to bottom rather than top loaded.

Post #687 » by **tsherkin** » Mon May 14, 2012 6:42 pm

LLJ wrote:Romero isn't a "true" stud pitcher (which is to say, he's not a Lincecum or Halladay), but the continued insistence on having a true "ace" is overrated as well.

I don't generally disagree... Except when the rest of the rotation is really questionable and inconsistent, mostly "potential" guys. If we had three guys around Ricky's level, I would be blown away happy and I am generally very happy to have Romero on our team. He's really turned into a quality guy.

rather than having one stud, one good one, and 3 other question marks, which was often the case during the Halladay years.

Agreed, and we have similar batting issues. But I, as you later note, am also intrigued by the potential of guys like Morrow and Drabek, I'm loving Hendo (:p to you Alvy people

) and even Hutch has promise as a back-end starter.

A balanced rotation would be nice. Philly has that, of course a REALLY good version of that, and it has served them rather well through Howard and Rollins slumping, position-player injuries, etc.