Up 2, down 2, up 3, down 3. Such is the slow ploding season to date.
A 19-16 record on May 14th and the next 4 games are against the Rays, and the Yanks. What would hope for, hell right now, I'd settle on splitting the 4 games. Perhaps that is what the Jays will do, but that will leave 3 games over .500 at roughly 25 % of the season played.
On average, we are getting decent pitching, marginal bullpen efforts, pretty fair defense, but terribly inconsistent offense. Bautista shows signs of breaking out. Some days so does Escobar, and Lawrie and Encarnacion have supplied the balance of the offense. This team has not hit, and therefore this team has had no extended win streaks. Win a series, lose a series. In the most current road trip just concluded, they went 5-5, but they won the 1st 2 games against the struggling Angels, and split with the Twins, who still have the worst record in the majors.
If I was Joihn Farrell I would send for my copy of Phsycic Baseball, or get myself to a palm reader to see if there was something to change the fortunes of the home squad.
Nothing he tries seems to work, no buttons are the right ones. Adam Lind slides down to 8th, has one good game , and returns to his eventual slide out of town. Has anyone been paying attention to David Cooper ? Can we dare put a glove on Encarnacion other than a batting glove ?
This team had the city and fans in a tizzy after their spring triumphs in Florida, but boy not making hay over teams you expect to beat will put them in a very tough position after June. Plus, it may well impact their position as buyer or seller. They definitely before the 2-2 split in Minny were kicking tires in Philly over Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino, are they still doing so. Hamels is just a rental, he's informed the Phils he expects to sign a deal for 7 years. Why not ?, he's only 28, has playoff success. But he is a rental, and if the Jays don't act, the Dodgers or the other pseudo contenders will.
The Jays have a deep system, but perhaps they lack the will to make a bold in season move to add talent. Their big moves have come in the winter, moving Halladay and Marcum to re stock the shelf. But the time will come when you either spend freely on free agents, or you swing a deal because you have a logjam of talented kids and they can't all play.
Perhaps they suprise me and sweep the next 4 games against traditional foes, and sit 23-16, closer to the top than the middle. Right now they remind me of a team with defective spark plugs, and with that, they have no traction.
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