Back to the Jays

It's been awhile since I talked Blue Jays. Baseball that is. Since then, I believe they went on a 9 game losing streak, won a few more after that, won some series, lost some series, got swept by Florida, and just swept Your World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. Yah, the Toronto Blue Jays did that.

If you live in Toronto (which is the only place I think anybody actually CARES about the Jays, outside of random people in other parts of Canada), then you'd think they were in dead last in the league.

Except they're in 3rd place in the toughest division in baseball. 1 game back of the Yankees for 2nd, and 4 games back of the Red Sox. They have a 37-31 record. You know how many teams outside of the AL East have 37 or more wins? 3. Texas and Milwaukee both have 37, and Los Angeles has 44. The Yankees have 37, but have played 2 less games than the Jays, hence the 1 game lead. The Sox have 40 wins.

The Jays .544 record would put them in 1st place in the AL Central, and 2nd place in 3 of the 4 other divisions. It would actually be a virtual tie for 2nd in the 4th with the Angels in the AL West. All those 2nd places would be 1-1.5 games back of first, except for the NL West, where the Dodgers are running away with it (7.5 games back if the Jays were there). It's a long season, and it's far from over for the boys in Blue.

This with a massacred pitching staff. None of our injured starters from last year are coming back this season. If Tommy John got royalties for every time the surgery named after him happened, he'd owe the Jays a Christmas ham. My brother has a theory that Arnsberg is actually injuring the pitchers with his coaching, and Halladay hasn't blown out his arm because he was good before Arnsberg got here. That may be worth looking into.

The hitting had been sporadic lately too, but a rejig of the lineup by Gaston seems to have woken up some players. Rios is finally playing as he should be in 6th position, with his average jumping 10 points immediately, and his RBI and HR count climbing again.

And this weekend? A series against Washington. Washington... the worst team in baseball by a country mile. 18-46 Washington. .281 Washington. 9 games back of SECOND LAST place in the LEAGUE Washington.

I expect we'll get swept.

That's (I hope) an exaggeration. Tallet will hopefully bounce back strong from his terrible start in Florida. Romero's still shown himself to be strong. There's just that TBD spot between them to worry about.

Halladay out until the 28th with a strained groin (another "WTF?" injury for Doc), our closer Downs out with a sprained toe (huh?), and even recently returned Casey Janssen out with an inflamed shoulder.

The fact the Jays have stayed THIS competitive with a revolving door of pitcher injuries is impressive in itself. The question remains - can they keep it up?