This year marks the 15th year in a row that the Toronto Blue Jays will not be playing baseball in October. The team started off strong going 27-16 and taking the division lead but since then have gone a pathetic 39-64.
To make matters worse the team has been surrounded with negativity all season as "star players" Vernon Wells and Alex Rios (who was shipped off to the Chicago White Sox for nothing in return) vastly under achieved. Add to the this the fact that ace pitcher Roy Halladay was involved in trade rumors for half the year and you have yourself a real problem.
The Halladay trade deadline talk really hurt not only the team's play but also the Blue Jays as an organization as it made them look foolish and very unorganized. Many fans were calling for GM JP Riccardi's head and even other baseball executives around the league were scratching their heads at the way Riccardi was handling the team.
Despite all of this negativity some players have managed to have amazing seasons providing the Jays with some optimism moving forward.
Adam Lind has had a MONSTER season. He is one of only 3 players in the MLB to be hitting .300 or better with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI. The other two are Derek Lee and Albert Pujols. Lind is also tied for 2nd in the league in doubles with 46 behind only Brian Roberts. These are crazy numbers for a guy who is in his 3rd season in the big leagues and really only his 1st full season. He will only get better as he moves forward and he is the kind of player that the Jays can build a team around.
Aaron Hill is another guy who has had a breakout year. He currently leads the Blue Jays and all second baseman in the league with 32 HR and 98 RBI. He is also hitting a healthy .285 and is playing his usual stellar defense. When Hill first came into the league I was pretty down on him but he has grown on me and time after time he has produced when called upon. The guy is a great baseball player and at 27 he should provide the Jays with stability at the position for years to come.
Marco Scutaro is another guy is producing. Granted his numbers have tailed off a bit after his crazy start but they are still pretty solid. 12 HR 60 RBI and a .285 average from your lead off man is pretty good. He also leads the team in OBP with a .382 and runs scored with 100 (9th in MLB). It would be nice if he could steal a few more bases, only has 14, but he gets the job done nicely. The problem with Scutaro is that he will become a free agent at the end of the season and might want some big bucks.
As always Halladay has been amazing. He leads the team in wins (15), ERA 3.03, inning pitched (214), strikeouts (189) and complete games (7). The man is an absolute beast who can eat up innings and win games on his own. Now he does have 9 losses but that is because he didn't get much run support at the beginning of the season and he also struggled a bit near the trade deadline when rumors were swirling. The Jays may trade him in the off season but if they decide to keep him then he will be solid again next year.
Going into next year the Jays will also have an abundance of young pitchers to choose from. Robert Ray, Brett Cecil, Mark Rzepczynski, and Ricky Romero have all shown flashes of brilliance this year. While their stats may not be very impressive they are all still very young and very talented and should provide some good competition at spring training.
As always the Jays bullpen was solid this year with Jason Fraser and Scott Downs splitting time as the closer nicely. Jeremy Accardo had himself a pretty nice year as did Shawn Camp. The Jays will need to get themselves a solid closer if they want to compete next year however as no one they have right now is a stellar closer. They have guys who can fill in nicely but no one that can come in and just shut down the opposition.
So while it may seem like the Jays suck there are reasons to be positive. If Travis Snyder can have a full season in the majors and the new stand outs on the team can continue their success then the Jays can build. Sign a couple of free agents in the off season, maybe dump Vernon Wells and his fat head and contract and you might have something.
I also must remind everybody that Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan should be back next year adding some much needed stability to the Jays rotation and allowing the team to trade some of their young pitchers for some solid bats.
Maybe 2010 could be the year the Jays finally get back into the playoffs.
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