August 22, 2008

Scoring Runs Is Fun

Another 14 runs. Another 20+ hit game. Twenty-one last night, to be exact. More importantly, another win for the Blue Jays. I don't know about you, but I could get used to this type of offence.

I'm tempted to yet again ask where these guys have been all season long, but, well, Sidney Ponson was on the mound for the Yankees yesterday. Sorry, Sir Sidney Ponson. You know things are desperate down in the Bronx when Ponson is part of the rotation. And, get this, Carl Pavano is starting on Saturday. Carl fucking Pavano! I didn't even know he was still alive, let alone still under contract and pitching.

Prediction: Pavano gets his ass handed to him on Saturday, and is never heard from again.

Even though they faced Ponson and a Yankees committee of garbage relievers, full marks to the Jays offence. They finally gave Roy Halladay some God damn run support. Joey Inglett, Marco Scutaro, Alex Rios and Adam Lind went a combined 14-for-22, scoring 11 runs and driving home eight.

Lind continues to bring smiles, and erections, to the Jays faithful. As for Inglett, what do you think, has he played well enough to be given a shot at second base next season (with Aaron Hill moving to short)? I'm leaning towards saying yes. His .308 batting average in 83 games is impressive, and he's been solid out in the field as well. He's most definitely filled in admirably for Hill. The final month of the season is going to be an important one for him.

As for Doc, win number 15 went in the bag last night. Him and his BFF A.J. Burnett have a nice little battle going on for most wins on the team. They've got 31 between the two of them, and have finally become the dominant 1-2 punch we envisioned they would be three years ago.

J.P. Ricciardi was busy yesterday as well, picking up Jose Bautista off the scrap heap from the Pittsburgh Pirates. It speaks incredible volumes about the Jays offence when a guy who's let go by Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh! - has more home runs in 2008, 12, than any Blue Jay. That is so immensely sad, but I guess it just goes to show how dominating the Jays pitching staff - both the rotation and the bullpen - has been this season. The arms are the reason why we're five games above .500, and the reason why I'm still dreaming about the wild card.

I mean, even Melvin fucking Mora has 95 RsBI. Rios leads the Jays with 58. Bautista has 44. It truly is amazing we're still in this thing.

Here come the Boston Red Sox, and I'm sure a contingent of Massholes to the city with them. Seven games back, I'm going to keep it real: nothing but a sweep will do.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was pretty sweet to watch the Jays scoring and actually giving the Doc some run support, just like you said.

Are you serious with Aaron Hill moving to SS next season? Looking at Inglett's minor league statistics, he's a .305 hitter over 8-9 seasons in the minors so he has the ability to give the Jays some help.

The big thing the Jays need, as you outlined, is power (HR/RBI's). If the Jays can get some help with power and if AJ stays in the Dome, which is highly unlikely, we could have a wild card contending team next year.

With the likes of The Doc, AJ, Marcum, and McGowan the starting rotation would compete against any rotation in baseball. Plus, if Rios and Wells have strong come back years with respect to power numbers then the Jays, with the addition of another 25HR/90-100RBI guy, can really do some damage in the AL.

The Jays really need to add another bat this offseason because this BS lineup with power numbers like this just won't cut in the big leagues.

Fantasy Baseball
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Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

thanks for your comments, fantasybaseballmacbookpro. you're a rudey.

Hill was drafted as a SS, right, so the possibility to move him back there does exist, especially if we find a quality second baseman. Don't get me wrong, Hill has looked great at 2B, I think he can win a gold glove, but Mighty Joe has been great, and I think deserves some consideration. With Johnny Mac and Scutaro around as well, we'll be deep on the bench.

Like you said, we need a big bat. The middle infield has not been the problem.

And I don't know about you, but I'm pretty intrigued with the idea of bringing back Carlos Delgado to down to DH. That would be tremendous.

Anonymous said...

Rudey huh? When I said, "are you serious about Hill going back" I was surprised to hear that because I didn't know they were thinking of putting him back to SS. I wasn't saying it in a negative way.

It's funny you mentioned Delgado because I was just looking at this numbers and his recent 5-5 night. His numbers shadow our entire team, now that's sad!

With Delgado and his age this is wouldn't be a good signing, unless it was a 1yr deal w/ a club option which I highly doubt that would happen. I think the turf at the Dome would wreck havoc on his knees and even though he would be a DH and only a DH I think the extra time spent on the turf would limit his productivity.


Fantasy Baseball
http://fantasybaseballmacbookpro.blogspot.com/

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

fantasy: when i call you a rudey, i mean it as a compliment. you're a rude boy...like, a swell chap...and i appreciate you readin the bloggage...

i'm partial to delgado for nostalgic reasons, i guess...it would be nice to see him come home surrounded by what should be a decent team...but i thought we had a decent team this year, ready to contend, so what the hell do i know...

Anonymous said...

For a team like the Jays to contend they need almost everyone on the team to have a career year.

The Yanks can get away with it because when some of their guys have "off years" they still hit .300/25-30HRs/85-100RBIs.

If Wells was producing like he was in 2003/2006 and if Rios was hitting more HRs than steals, yes I do enjoy him running and creating things but I'd rather see him hitting some jacks and driving in some runs. The Jays would be in contention.

When the majority of your team has a career year it is fairly easy to contend and even bring home a World Series Championship.


Fantasy Baseball
http://fantasybaseballmacbookpro.blogspot.com/