The last game of the season has been played, and the Blue Jays season is officially over. The young and energetic team pulled off a come from behind win to beat the White Sox, and to finish the seasona t .500, going 81-81. The team's record this season defines there season, average. There were the good moments, like the production they got from three key rookies, and the bad ones, like the inconsistent starters, and the consistintley horrible bullpen. Henderson Alvarez, Eric Thames, and JP Arencibia highlighted the season by showing off there talents at such young ages, and made Canadians hopeful that the Jays have a strong young nucleus that will compete for a championship in coming years. But to go along with all the amazing rookies, there was the one bad one. SP Kyle Drabek pitched a wonderful first game of the season when he improved the Jays to 2-0 on April 2nd, but after that is was like he was just throwing balls at the catcher, and was hoping they would land somewhere in the strike zone. Drabek walked 55 batters this season in just 78.2 innings pitched, and had a WHIP of 1.805. The only good thing about Kyle Drabek's season was that his WHIP and his ERA were much better than those of Roy Halladay when he was still young.
Before the season AA signed Jose Bautista to a 5 year contract extension, base on the fact that he had one great season. Most fans and writers said that the Jays just blew 65 million dollars because Bautista's season was a fluke, and that he would never be able to come close to the season he had. Jose didnt put up the same numbers he put up last year, he put up better. He had a .304 batting average, he was walked 131 times, hit 43 home runs, had an OPS of 1.060, an OPS+ of 184, and a WAR of 8.6. Once again, AA came out on top of a deal, cand proved the whole world wrong.
What would a season recap be without mentioning the return of pitcher Dustin McGowan. McGowan last pitched on July 7th 2008, before having two surgeries on his shoulder, and one on his knee. McGowan came back to the majors this month, and was firing the ball to home plate. Dustin will likely contend for a spot in the Blue Jays 2012 rotation, but could end up in the bullpen if other pitchers have better spring training's then him.
In December of last off-season AA made a move that nobody saw coming. He traded Jays ace Shaun Marcum to the Brewers for Canadian prospect Brett Lawrie. Lawrie was on the eve of his call up to the bigs after ripping apart AAA on May 31st when he was hit by a pitch and broke his hand. Brett would finally be called up to the Jays in August, and he was terrific. He hit 9 home runs, drove in 25 rbi's and had a war of 2.8 in just 43 games. Lawrie single handedly increased Blue Jays attendance, and will be one of the jays best player in years to come.
Ricky Romero came into the season as the Jays 3rd opening day starter in as many years, and not alot of people expected him to play as good as he did. Romero was an all-star, had an ERA of 2.92 and a WHIP of 1.138 in his unbelievable season. Romero will likely finish in the top 10 vote getters for the 2011 AL Cy Young award.
2011 was witness to a lot of memories for the Jays, from being no-hit by Justin Verlander, to welcoming Roy Halladay back with a home run off of the bat by Jose Bautista, it was truly an exciting season. The Blue Jays look to start a playoff run next year, and will have a new logo next season as well, so it is good-bye to the scripted Jays Logo, and hello to a mystery logo still not revealed by the club, although there was a picture leaked.My next post, which should be up soon will be about the one stat that caused the Jays to not be playoff contenders this season.
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