Since returning from the disabled list on June 29th, Roy Halladay's won a single game. Why? No, certainly not because of the trade rumours. That's ridiculous. Doc's an incredibly well-paid athlete; that shit comes with the territory. Harry Leroy can't get into the victory column because the Kevin Millar batting cleanup led Toronto Blue Jays can't be bothered to give him any God damn run support.
June 29th vs. Tampa Bay: zero runs. Doc departed after six innings; the Jays struck for their only run of the game in the 8th inning.
July 4th at New York: five runs. Clearly, that's about as good as it gets for Halladay.
July 9th at Tampa Bay: two runs.
July 19th vs. Boston: three runs. A masterful Halladay performance in a 3-1 win.
July 24th vs. Tampa Bay: two runs. Garzafied.
July 29th at Seattle: two runs. Toronto was two-hit over seven by Ryan fucking Rowland-Smith.
Yesterday, August 4th, vs. New York: three runs. The Jays left eight runners on base last night. Individually, 16. While Doc threw another complete game. For shame.
That's seven games, and 17 runs; an average of 2.43 runs when Doc's been on the mound. In other words: absolutely pathetic. What breaks my heart: six of those seven starts have come against Tampa Bay, New York, and Boston. Halladay deserves more. Halladay deserves better.
It's during moments of weakness such as this one that I begin to wonder about 2010. Sure, Toronto can boast a rotation of Halladay, Ricky Romero, Shaun Marcum, and any combination of Brett Cecil, Scott Richmond, Mark Rzepczynski, and Jesse Litsch. Who knows, maybe even Dustin McGowan. But no rotation will make up for the fact that this team just can't get it done offensively in the AL East. I'm looking right at you, Vernon Wells. And, please, J.P. Ricciardi, get Millar the fuck off my favourite team.
The Best in the Business
If you had to ask me to choose between The Globe and Mail's Jeff Blair and SI's Tom Verducci, I couldn't do it. Both of them know their baseball. And both of them just "get it."
Saith Verducci, from a must-read piece about the lunatics who think the Jays were "losers" at the trade deadline because Ricciardi didn't pull the trigger on a Halladay trade:
"So what did people expect? That the Blue Jays should lower their asking price on the best pitcher in baseball when they didn't have to move him in the first place? Would compromising when they didn't have to do so put them in the 'winners' category? Ownership really didn't want to dump such a popular franchise player, anyway."
There's more. Please use it freely as ammunition against the Ricciardi bashers (especially: Joanna):
"Toronto is not Cleveland, with its budget problems, Pittsburgh, with an organizational model that has been a complete failure, Kansas City, which is awful but still wastes money on second-tier journeymen who don't know how to win, or San Diego, which will check out of the contending business for the next couple of years until its farm system improves. Toronto's problem is that it is a good team in the wrong division. 'Good isn't enough,' Ricciardi said. 'You have to be great.' The Blue Jays have won between 83 and 88 games seven times in the previous 11 years, have a winning record in that span with more wins than the Cubs, Diamondbacks and a dozen other teams -- and still didn't sniff the postseason. Eight National League teams made the playoffs in that time with 88 or fewer wins."
Nope, playing in the AL East has nothing - nothing at all - to do with the fact the Jays haven't played October baseball since 1993. And keep calling it an "excuse." It's not. It can't be. It's reality.
Here's some Blair. Just the goods, and no bullshit, as per the usual:
"Call up Travis Snider. Ship out Kevin Millar. Do something. Never mind cowboy up. I’d rather see cowboy out. I mean, manager Cito Gaston announced an open audition for the cleanup spot before Tuesday night’s game, and it’s not even mid-August. How does that happen in the American League East, anyhow?"
Cito. He's a stubborn, stupid, silly man.
One more link. I'm not happy about it, but thanks to Drew - LtB's most recent post over at the always resourceful Ghostrunner on First, I will cease mercilessly hating on Rod The Bod Barajas. But that .288 on-base percentage is still disgusting.
9 comments:
Do they wait until September to call Snider back up (there are limits on options, right)? What about that Ruiz fellow? I don't even know what position he plays, but watching our lineup is pretty sad really. We can't go into next year like this...rebuild, or one big bat in addition to Snider.
Rod's .288 OBP is not good...but I think he's contributed more than the guys who are the real problem this year, who shall not be named.
Yes the run support for Halladay sucks, but last night was hardly all the hitters fault.
Halladay gave up 3 Home Runs and let 5 runs cross the plate, yes there was errors in the first inning to make sure they weren't all earned but that is still 5 runs.
That means the Jays had to score 6 to win? The average runs scored per game is in the 4-5 range for the entire league so it is unfair to put it all on the Jays at that point.
For the rest of the games. Hate away, they were awful. But then again earlier in the year Halladay was getting the support, these things tend to balance out in the season.
Wilner is now officially a propagandist! Halladay gave up 5 runs(4 earned) , 10 hits and he's still good??!! The Yankees braodcasters gave mad props to Doc BUT one of them mentioned the fact that they got 5 runs off of him at Yankee Stadium, which isn't like Doc. In addition, Doc gave up 10 hits in that 3-2 loss to Oakland. If anyone think sthat he is the same old Doc ...think again. Thanks to Ricciardi, who rattled him with all this trade talk, he's off his game. Bad Job, JP look at what you've done.
The next GM should really beg the Rogers to get not one BUT two at bats to compete. They need to trade away Rios and get an Abreu , a Figgins or a Damon someone that can hit! They can't move wells, so move Rios or Overbay. Move Snider to first, put Snider in the outfield BUT get two bats! Resign Scut. They also need a new GM (Jp's time is done)and Cito's time is done as well.
Good stuff. Was expecting to see myself listed in the Ricciardi haters section, though;). Also, questioning Vernon Wells' ability to hit? Are you coming around to my way of thinking? Thought this blog was all Vernon belief, all the time.
Reminds me of Dave Stieb... if Halladay got the kind of Support Jack Morris got that one year he'd win 30 games for sure.
I couldn't have said it better, the A.L. East isn't an excuse, it's a reality. People are naive if they think playing in the A.L. East doesn't factor in, because it does in a significant way.
Here's some facts. If the Tampa Bay Rays win tonight,they will have 60 wins, making the Sox, Yanks and Rays with 60+ wins. Only two other teams in all of baseball have 60+ wins.
@ ELR: Snider won't be up until late August. There's a post about it up on Drunk Jays Fans, via MLB Trade Rumours. It's all about options, and Toronto keeping his rights for an extra year. So, more Millar! Win. As for Rod, he's actually one of the more "clutch" hitters on the Jays, and there aren't many. And according to a post on Beyond the Box Score, regarding catchers' defensive ability, Rod's a plus there, too. I'm done hating on him. He is what he is.
@ Johnny: Is it wrong to expect the offence to score six runs, sometimes? The Jays haven't done it for Doc. Over the last seven games, Halladay hasn't been at his best, but he's definitely given the team a chance to win. 2.43 runs a game. That's brutal. That day the Jays put up five, it should have been enough, but Halladay struggled. It's typical. You're probably right, though, about it all balancing out at the end. It's just crazy frustrating. If the team was able to win Doc's starts, which I maintain they should, they'd be above .500.
@ Anon: I think Halladay's spoiled us. We expect better from him than to allow five runs against the Yankees, but that's one formidable lineup. And, again, I don't buy that "rattled by the trade talks" bullshit. Everyone's got to go through it. Deal with it. That's why these guys are paid so handsomely. Halladay's recent performance is in no way Ricciardi's fault. Doc hasn't looked right since coming off the DL. If anything, it's his groin.
As for bats, yes they need two. I hope Overbay is moved. Rios, I still have hope for. Damon? You must be kidding. I'm aboard the re-sign Scutaro train. J.P.'s time could very well be done, and Cito is quickly losing his appeal.
@ Andrew: I would definitely put you in the Ricciardi haters camp. As for V-Dub, this blog is still all Vernon belief, all the time, but that doesn't mean I can't admit he's been brutal. Although he did make one beauty of a catch tonight.
@ The Captain: I guess all pitchers want crazy run support, right? I think it's a shame Doc won't win 20.
@ 25th: D-Rays won. That's messed up. It's a deadly division. One day, we'll get there.
Brother Eye, I am so very much with you on the scutaro train. Re-sign that beautiful argentinian beast to a gajillion year deal.
Damon sounds like crazytalk unless someone has a time machine, and moving overbay sounds like a good option. As much as I love Cito and his moustache, I really think this team needs a new voice. Managment needs to change this offseason in some way.
All you can ask of a pitcher is to keep you in the game. Even Halladay at his worst is better than 98% of pitchers at their best. You don't think the Rangers would love a guy whose worst outing is a five run/three homer game? Get real. The guy isn't going to be lights out every single time. But when he isn't, if he keeps you in the game, that's a stud.
Put it another way, the league average ERA is around 4.80. That means that Halladay at his worst is still league average. People's expectation is unreal some times. Eyebleaf's point is that he kept his team in the game in all those games and should have had at least three or four wins out of his efforts. And he's right.
Damon? Whuh? The guy is going to be 60 next year. And he throws like a girl. He got an outfield assist the other night. I didn't see it but I bet it bounced at least six times.
There should be some cheap bats out there for the taking next year. Nick Johnson comes to mind. The trouble unfortunately, is that Toronto has to overpay marginal players to leave the United States to play.
Ricciardi is doing fine. I've always been a Cito Gaston fan, but his loyalties to guys like Millar are baffling at times. Millar should be released, like yesterday. The Jays need a guy who has patience at the plate but still produces. Scutaro needs to be kept because he is the most patient hitter on the team. The Jays need more OBP guys and at least one guy who can hit it out on a regular basis.
Then again, their rotation could be scary good next year and as such, you might be better going for the best defense you can put on the field. The Blue Jays have options, unlike the Pirates and the Royals as Verducci mentioned (I think he's a good writer too). They just have to be smart and lucky with those options. The AL East is killer though.
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