Thursday, May 30, 2013

I'm Taking a Break

2012 sucked. It was horrible. Everybody got injured. It felt like anything that could go wrong, went wrong. And then the Blue Jays won the winter crown for best off-season, and were picked by most baseball experts to win the AL East. The team was stacked with talent when opening day came, and everything looked up.

You know the rest. Injuries happened, players under performed, and the Jays just had a stroke of bad luck that lasted for the entire month of April. It has continued into May, and the Jays currently find themselves under .500 this month. It still isn't too late. It's only May, but I don't have faith anymore. How can I? Thing's aren't looking up.

R.A. Dickey is not the same pitcher he was from 2010-2012. His velocity has diminished to a point where his average speed on his knuckleball is it's slowest it has been since 2009(75.1 MPH so far in 2013), and his fastball velocity is the slowest it has ever been in his career, close to 3 MPH less than his  average.  Mark Buehrle is slowing down with age, and at his best he was a #3, so his future doesn't look bright. Ricky Romero doesn't need an explanation. He flat out can't get hitters of any kind or level out. Jose Reyes is awesome, but there is only a certain amount of times you can get injured before it just becomes a natural thing, and your body can't handle it. Brandon Morrow is giving up way too many home runs, and is striking out batters way less than he used to. It's concerning too say the least, even given the sample, because it's not like he has such a huge sample of success either.

Those 5 players are owed close to $70 MILLION next year, and I am only confident one will perform well. But, I'm not confident Reyes can perform well and stay healthy. $70 Million is more than 50% of what Rogers will allow this team to spend.

I understand that this is more than a one year thing, it's a 3 year thing. But, this roster, even if everything goes right, only is a 90-93 win team, and everything never goes right. With no extra cash to replace broken parts and try to patch it together, I'm not confident this Jays team will contend in this 3 year window.

There are positive things as well,though. Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Adam Lind are very fun to watch offensively. The bullpen has been fine, and Casey Janssen and Brett Cecil don't allow hitters to do anything. The problem is that the positives don't outweigh the negatives.

So, I'm taking a break. It's only going to be a week or two, but I won't be watching the Jays or blogging about them until June 9th at the earliest. West coast games are coming up that I would have probably not watched anyways, and with my exams coming up in school this is a perfect time for me to study, and put the Jays aside. I'm not sure if I'll be on the podcast these next couple of weeks, I might be, I might not. I'll have to see. I'm also going to try to stay off of twitter as well, so if you need to contact  me, do it elsewhere(Facebook, email). I will allow myself to watch Round 1 of the draft, but that is all.

These are depressing times for a Jays fan, and I can't take it anymore. Hopefully, when I come back, things will be a little bit better, and I'll be able to watch them without screaming and shutting the game off in the first few innings. But, even if things do turn around, the Jays have a lot of dead money in their pockets, and things won't be getting any easier over the next few years.


2 comments:

  1. I hear yah Gideon, some games are tough to watch although May has been a lot better than April, but yes, it still has not been good enough. Dickey has had some good games, even though the last 2 stunk. I think he is still warming up - at least that is what I am telling myself. Buehrle has been a lot better in May, definitely not the ACE he was with Chicago, but as a good #4 starter.
    For me this season, I am most disappointed that Johnson has not been as advertised and Ricky of course has not recovered at all. That is extremely depressing.

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  2. To me Gideon, the biggest disappointments this year so far are Josh Johnson and Romero's general utter-crappiness - why couldn't he fix what was wrong with him. I'm still giving Dickey a chance since he's had some good starts and Buehrle's come around (still a good #4 starter). The Jays are better in May, but still, it's not cutting it.

    Everyone knows that June had better be a good month or else they're toast. As for the 3 yr thing,I know it looks bleak right now, but I don't think we can discount the Jays in 2014 yet. AA can still improve the team with some changes, and perhaps we need to get lucky with some good under the radar performances.

    Hang in there bud.

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