Nooooooooo!

Well I guess there isn't much else they could have done, but still. Maybe they could have held onto Eveland a little longer. Why couldn't Rzep have pitched a little better in the minors?

Well I think it's ok to give them that one

I'm willing to take the positive of another good Romero start over the negative of the blown save when we balance it off against the fact that the Mariners desperately needed a win, and especially one in that fashion. They bunted in like the 3rd inning, 2x, with 2 men on base, in a desperate attempt to get anything going. With the top of the order. Later they had a guy bunt with 2 strikes. That's just sad.

At the same time if a miracle occurs and the Jays somehow manage to win 80+ games it's going to be pretty annoying to think that the difference in the season was 15 blown saves by Gregg. But that's not very likely.

Anyways it would probably be really good for everybody if the Jays and Mariners could figure out how to get the Jays to leave Seattle minus Overbay.

Oh and the Mariner broadcasters are like death. I listen on Satellite radio so I get the home team's broadcast. I kept switching over to the stern repeat even though it was a live game I was so bored.

Turmoil among those who run slowly

Even though I have to say I agree with a lot of this and this, I have to say that I'm kind of tired of the Lyle Overbay show. Yeah I think he's unappreciated, and I really think a career that could have been great got really screwed up by that hand injury a couple of years ago, and no i don't think he should be booed. BUT. The Jays have paid him a lot of money for nothing, and he is not the future, Brett Wallace clearly is. I started out this season thinking he should get as much of a chance as possible to prove as much as possible so that he and the Jays can get as much out of any trade. That time is coming to an end though, and really he just needs to go. If they can't trade him for something useful by the time Wallace passes that Super 2 status or whatever they call it, they should just release him and get on with it, unless he goes monster between now and then.

In other news of the slow footed, Randy Ruiz was released. Oh well it's not like we couldn't have seen this coming. Now he can go to Japan and eat tons of food and, hang with hot japanese chicks and be a hero. Somehow I feel this may be what he always wanted anyways.

The worst draft pick in the history of Baseball

Jays sweep the Rangers over the weekend, and you have to say that it's looking like a less than 70 win season is going to be a dissapointment. One of the big reasons for this, if not the biggest has got to be the worst draft pick ever himself, Ricky Romero. He's basically stepped in and done just about the unthinkable and replaced He's Gone! After 8 starts last season He's Gone had 61IP with an ERA of 2.95 and 1 CG. Romero has 56.1IP, a 2.88ERA and 1CG. If Romero had the rep of the Gone One he might have racked up a couple more innings, but at the same time the bullpen needs their work too. Only time will tell if Romero can truly replace the Gone One, but he's certainly showing that only idiots ever judge draft success.

Something not to loose site of though is that as great as the contribution of Buck, Bautista and Gonzalez has been, I think it would be just about lethal to make any assumption that any more than 1 of them can be a long term solution in a contending lineup. Although they are all posting great OPS right now, the OBP is not good for Buck and Gonzalez. I think Buck might be a keeper as the everyday catcher batting 9th, but if you think he's going to bat 6th for your pennant winning team, good luck to you.

Next 10 games will be another pretty good test. I would have thought before the season in 7 games against Minnesota, Seattle and LAA you would do well to get 3 wins, but now I'm not so sure. I have no opinion on what they should do against the D-Backs.

New Mega Update

Sticking with the theme of caring about the Jays enough to blog about once a week, lets do a mega update.

Don't know if anybody noticed yesterday but the Jays won their 20th game of the season yesterday. Given that they have not yet played 40 games yet that means they will be at least a 500 team for a full quarter of a season. If you had told me they would be a 500 team for any quarter of the season i would have laughed very hard, so good for them. I chalk this up as always to very good starting pitching, and ridiculous slugging by Buck and Gonzalez.

Basically I think opposing pitchers are putting all their efforts into holding down Hill, Lind and Wells, and maybe Overbay. Buck and Gonzalez (and to a lesser extent Bautista) are reaping the rewards. This is going to come to an end soon (both have an OBP around 300) and if Hill and Lind don't pick it up there are going to be a lot of 2-0 and 3-1 losses, and 100 losses here we come. But enjoy it while it lasts.

In other news I fully expect to see Brett Wallace here anywhere after the beginning of June, despite this article.

Things I don't care about

Where the Jays get swept by the Phillies in June. I can agree with a lot if this, but I am not surprised. Lets just say that in the ever growing list of evidences that Rogers is serious or not about owning a competitive mlb team, Addie and paying out an extra $6mil in the He's Gone trade go into the "Yes" column, and this goes in the "No" column. Nothing is really going to convince me of their seriousness until I see them pay out an extra $20-40mil to get the last pieces of the puzzle for a truly competitive team anyways, so this is just a little more evidence to add into those columns.

Wherein we we re-evaluate our expectations for the season

Ok so things have been going really well for some reason, and the Jays are on the cusp of winning a 6th straight game. This was unexpected, and i chalk a lot of up to the quick exit of Tallet from the rotation, Eveland's  being a better than average #5 starter and the crazy slugging the team is doing as a whole.

Anyways, i think 70 wins is a pretty reasonable expectation now, but i wouldn't be surprised if they still end up at 60 somehow. Anywhere around a .500 record would be crazy.

I'm still going to go back to my belief that the only starter who should come close to 200 innings this season is Romero. The Jays are really playing with fire if they let Marcum go over 180IP, and nobody else on the staff should even be considered. If they don't do this there might be a "gaudy" win total this season but there will be suffering in years to come. You need look no farther, but there's a whole list if you want it. This assumes Eveland is going to get traded, he should be able to handle a full 30 start season, even though i think it will be better to strike while the iron is hot.

Of course if the teams keeps slugging at top 3 in the AL all season then 70 wins should be easy, but what are the chances of that?