Richard comments
Apr 26/26
A nicely matched game with the Jays’ bats just outhitting Cleveland. This victory marks a SERIES WIN for the Jays. Toronto fans have a day of celebration, Cleveland, lamentation as the Jays beat Cleveland and the Raptors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers. It may be a tad premature to say the Jays are on a roll.
Apr 25/28
Relievers Fluhardy and Varland really know how to make baseball exciting with flaky and inconsistent pitching. Varland is especially adept at giving fans heart stopping moments and pulse pounding palpitations with his shaky inconsistency. The 9th inning could give teenagers heart attacks when Varland pitches but he came through this time!
Apr 24/26
Rosie Dimanno wrote an excellent analysis about Jays’ relievers, a great piece of writing that was an analysis, rather than a gripe. Read it at ROSIE . Nevertheless, Scherzer may be out of steam at age 41. He is one strikeout away from a milestone record but the way he started this game, it is thin ice as to whether or not he will have a good outing next time. The guy has devoted his life to baseball and deserves to be put into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. His career is on the wane but lets hope he’s got to have a few more solid games left in the tank. I hope so as this guy is a “team-first” player, much like many other of his team mates.
Aprl 22/26
They tied the game in the 7th, only to have reliever Fisher give it away with walks and hits next inning.
Apr 21/26
Not to be glib, but two in a row, good. They may be turning things around.
Apr 19/26
Flash in the pan or are the boys returning to old form. Eight runs in the very first inning is out of their norm as of late. Cross your fingers. Maybe the boys are beginning to stir again. Let’s hope.
Apr 18/26
They’ve just lost their mojo. They’re not clicking on all cylinders. Bats cold; relief pitching bitter cold. The wheels have fallen off the team wagon. But they’ve got the players. So batting will come. As for the pitching…starters OK, relievers questionable. Hoffman may have to have some consideration for re-tuning in the minors like Little. This is not yet a catastrophic situation, but it sure is bordering it.
Apr. 15/26
Comedy of errors. The JAYS led the whole game. Taylor relieved in the 8th and the wheels fell off. Tylor Rogers error, Venezuela error. leads to 2-1 Brewer lead and defeat. Once again another reliever fails to live up to his role. Rogers’ pitching style looks intimidating but the results are piss poor…walk, walk, … not the way relief should go. So, Jays are in a slump with batting still a problem. As to relievers, Little is gone to the minors. They cannot send the whole relief squad to the minors. The whole team needs to shake its collective head.
Apr. 14/26
Road games begin…good start. The Brewers aren’t a hot team but they still gave Jay relievers a hard time. By the 4th inning, the wheels started to fall off. Gausman hung on a bit longer but eventually had to be pulled in favour of Huffman who proved to be questionable. Brewers led late into the game, 4-2. Then, the Jays batting heated up and reliever Varland saved the team with solid pitching. Jays won 9-7 but pitching is still problematic for the team but batting has started to mirror that of last year.
Apr. 12/26 Not much to add if the hitting ain’t there
Pitcheer Eric Lauer suffered lasting effects of influenza and it drained away needed energy. But this is major league baseball. Slip for a minute and it will cost you, even against teams who may be playing at a mediocre level at the moment.
On paper, the Jays are a much better team but in reality, the team is not playing at the level their paper appearance suggests they can.
Today’s game will be another test…pitcher Max Scherzer is at tail end of his career, 41 years, an age when a professional baseball player should be retired. Cross your fingers!
Apr. 11/26 It’s early in the season
Maybe the only thing going for the Jays at this time is that it’s early in the season: the pitching is erratic and undependable, starters are struggling, relievers aren’t earning their salaries; injuries are beginning to demolish the lineup…fractures, sprains, influenas have knocked out at least a half dozen of the players, a number of them will be out for weeks. This is not a good state of affairs. Manager John Schneider’s got to pull some rabbits from the baeball cap in hopes of keeping the Jays competitive and close to 500 baseball. The only good thing in this whole mess is that that we’re only a week into the season. So there’s plenty of time for turning things around.
Apr. 8/26 Really struggling, Stone cold bats
Panic may not be appropriate just yet, but it has to be heating up.
The Jays aint hittin’ worth beans, out hit by opponents by double. The bats are stone cold and manager Schneider must feel the heat from the disgruntled fans. There shouldn’t be grumblings about the manager. He has been solid in his job for a few years. Nor should there be any about the players, just yet. Nobody has given up yet but they must be feeling major dissatisfaction with their performances.
This isn’t the longest losing streak they have experienced. Their worst was 12 games in 1981 and 11 in the late 70s.
Apr. 7/26
They’re struggling terribly
Sadly, the JAYS are really struggling. Many things have gone ‘south,’ pitching, relieving, defensive play, mental errors. Not panic time, too early but it is time for each player to shake his head and refocus.
Baseball is pitching and hitting. The team needs to shake their heads and refocus on those facets in their play. Right now, they’re fighting to keep up with the team that just beat them in the World Series. Winning one game from the Dodgers might make it a turning point.
_______ written Apr. 2/26
Their bats are stone cold
The hitting is not where Jays should be or are used to being. No single Jay should be highlighted, but the whole team has kind of grown cold when it comes to hitting. That may be a good thing now, at the start of the season burt it sure makes for miserable fan watching of the team.
Pitching inconsistency
Pitching, the lode stone of any baseball team, has been too inconsistent with the current Jays, particularly with the relievers who have proven to be very undependable. To isolate on any one of the relievers would be unfair as they are struggling in tandem even if one or two are high on that list of struggling, disappointing pitchers/relievers.
Bad luck couple with poor play
The team has had a few players making mistakes, playing poorly and playing below their capability. Again, it would be unfair to focus on any one player as a number of them fit into this category. The team as a whole needs to sit down, regroup and get their heads on baseball again.
It is a weak start to the season but it is just that, the start. Lets see where we are a couple more weeks down the road giving the team a chance to get things back together again and play the game at the level at which they are capable.
