Major League all-star Tony Gwynn is credited with one of baseball’s top-25 quotes: “We know we’re better than this, but we can’t prove it.”
The Toronto Blue Jays are feeling much the same as their revamped $117-million roster was, as of Friday afternoon, nine games under .500. Even the bookies have declared the Jays done. Bodog.ca has Toronto a 33-1 underdog to claim the World Series. The Tigers are favoured at 13-2.
Manager John Gibbons says the immediate goal is to get back to .500. Problem for Toronto as it looks at the 36 games remaining before the all-star break is that 30 of them are against teams with records better than .500.
On Thursday, the Jays selected Californian Phil Bickford with their first pick in the annual draft of high schoolers and collegians, the 10th overall pick in North America.
The 6-foot-4 Bickford strikes out a ton of batter, but he’s four or five years away from wearing a Blue Jay jersey.
For the record, the top Canadian, as expected, was Edmonton lefty Rob Zastryzny, who went to the Chicago Cubs 41st overall.
Even lefty Mark Buehrle, who locked up a $12 million dollar salary and is a miserable 2-4 with a 5.42 ERA with the Jays, has figured out what ails a team sitting last in the American League East.
He says when the Jays pitch well, they don’t hit. And when they do hit the ball, their pitchers can’t find the strike zone.
Pretty basic stuff which a team with so much talent should be able to turn around. Teams making the playoffs need at least 94 wins over 162 games. Once my kids do the math, I will surely see the numbers don’t translate well for the Jays.
I asked some baseball fanatics for their take on the Blue Jays, and here are their views:
Kellen Jones: “Love to see (Brett) Lawrie get it going offensively. Hopefully Buerhle and (R.A.) Dickey can get some wins. (Jose) Reyes is having a great year but needs some help. And if they keep losing they might as well get David Wells back pitching and Carlos Delgado back at first.”
Bruce Booth: “From what I’ve seen the two obvious negatives are poor pitching and injuries. The less obvious is that too many games it seems players’ minds are not in the game. Any coach I ever played for could excuse a physical error but mental errors are not excusable.
Jared Sochan: “Health is the key. If they can stay healthy they still have a chance to get back in the race. Lots of ball still left play.”
Randy Fedorchuk: “The Jays and the two SoCal teams are getting the worst results for $$$ spent in baseball. I do see some signs of life, for example, the great outing yesterday by Dickey vs the Giants. The injury to Jose Reyes was a big blow. They cannot get back in the race now.”
Clark Inglis: “To state the obvious, the Blue Jay pitching staff is classically underachieving. They miss Reyes. But my other take on them is that Brett Lawrie will never match his rookie success. I think he is a Pete Rose wannabe and by his over-zealous antics on the field, will spend more time on the DL than he will on the field. I wonder how big an irritant he is to his teammates with his in-your-face, rah-rah attitude.”
Connor Jones: “The Blue Jays are having a rough year. I think they should release Dickey and Reyes and call up Oggy Ortman off the Vernon D-Backs, and Jim Maniago (BCHL referee) from the Trail Orioles of the Senior Men’s B.C. League.”
Jarrett McNeal: “My take on the Jays is that their starting rotation has been abysmal. The starters need to get better as their bats are slowly waking up, which is a good sign. If they can stay away from any more injuries and the starters get on track, they could make a run for a wildcard.”
