Looking ahead and behind

So here I sit watching another Rays whitewash of the Jays, and wondering how long will it take before we have a team that will contend ?

We need to add some key pieces that the other contenders already have. Here is what we need to address :

A) A full time shortstop who is a grade A defender, and an above average hitter.

B) We need a catcher to make it through the system that hits for power and consistently throw out runners.

C) A lock down died in the wool closer, of the ilk of Rivera or Paplebon

D) A manager who has the ability to relate to young players and make the tough decisions of benching non performers.

E) A 3rd base solution, I mean for crying out, what's it been 15 years ! Hinske, Tony Batista, Troy Glaus, and Jose Bautista. We either get offense or defense, never a good mixture.

Oh and we have to fit the right guys into the bullpen, Downs might be one, but as a situational lefty.

I am sure many Jays fans feel that there team is close, but sadly we are not.

Compare position by position with Boston, Tampa and New York, and be honest, where are equal, and where are we behind. We have received more home runs than we would normally expect and we've really had better than average starting pitching performances than we expected.

We are going to have some good runs this year, but we are finding out the good and bad about this team when we face the Rays, the Yanks, and other top teams, that we are just not in their league.

We have learned that we have made significant progress though, the pool of talent is getting deeper, and the youth we have can be expected to be our cornerstone.

The big celebrations are yet to come.

So tonite I celebrate the 100th blog, have a piece of cake !