Roto Baseball Guru

It’s been awhile since the Toronto Blue Jays have played meaningful September baseball, and this year will be no different.  However, as we are in the midst of a 7 game winning streak (the longest in over 4 years) and I just witnessed another thrilling last at-bat grand slam come from behind victory over the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays - I can say that at least it’s enjoyable to watch.  I can also soak in the solace that with this win, we are also dead even with the New York Yankees at 75-66, still a good 10.5 games back from Tampa Bay.

The Jays seem to relish in playing spoilers in September.  Although I don’t have the stats in front of me, I do recall that September is usually a good performing month for the Jays, and so far with a 5-0 record to start September, the Jays look to continue that trend.  But the bigger question is, does this all really matter?  Even with all of the great recent play, the Jays are once again not playing any meaningful games in September.  Although they may mathematically be still in it, the reality is that the Jays management is getting a better feel of what they have and what the future will hold.  From what I have seen so far, the future should be bright.

With a 1-2-3 of Vernon Wells, Alex Rios and Adam Lind in the outfield, the Jays will have a young and solid group, that if playing up to their potential, will rival any other outfield tandem in the AL East.  They have shown this year that they have the top pitching staff, but that will take a bit of a hit next year with the wide known speculation that A.J. Burnett will opt out of his contract and walk away for greener pastures.  I have also been quite impressed by 20 year old September call-up, Travis Snider, who is eating up Major League pitching like he was back in Triple A Syracuse.  Finally, there’s the Cito Gaston factor.  Although there were many critics of his re-hiring back in June, the results that he has brought to the Jays since he replaced John Gibbons cannot be ignored.

Gaston and his staff has slowly but surely began to bring the bats around and given them confidence to deliver in the clutch, the critical weakness of team all year.  Although he’s not magician, it’s been night and day at times the way the Jays hitters approach their at-bats and there has been a gradual improvement till this point.  All of the recent results, plus the whole aura of being the only manager to bring Toronto a championship in baseball - has earned Gaston an extension to his contract until next year.

As a Jays fan, I maybe disappointed with another September of meaningless baseball, but with Gaston in charge, the players that we have locked up, and ultimately the progress that the team has made in the past few months … I am shockingly optimistic of what we can do next year.  But until then, at least I know there will be entertaining September baseball to watch!

Update: September 9th, 2008

The Jays have run their winning streak to a whopping 10 games in a row!  This is their longest streak since the franchise record 11 game win streak back in 1998 between the strech of Aug. 27-Sept. 7.  Although it will still take a miracle for the Jays to make it into the playoffs, this is a fun ride that we should all enjoy while it lasts.  Let’s go Blue Jays!

So far this year, there has been a few feel good stories in baseball.  Josh Hamilton’s resurgence after winning his fight with cocaine addition is nothing short of remarkable. Cito Gaston’s return to the Blue Jays brings back warm fuzzy memories.  And in between all of that is Jason Giambi’s return to the limelight.  As a self-admitted steroid user, Giambi has not been the same since he’s been off the juice, or at the very least he has not been viewed in the same limelight.  His numbers have been decent:  .271 BA, 32 HRs, 81 RBIs, 74 runs in 2005 and .233 BA, 37 HRs, 113 RBIs, 92 runs in 2006.  Last year was a bit of a write off because of his injury, but perhaps it has been the stigma of being called a steroid user that have tainted his accomplishments since 2004.

However, for whatever reason it seems as though this year he is starting to receive his old accolades back.  The truest display of this is his near selection to this year’s All-Star game.  Again putting up very respectable numbers you can say that he earned the potential spot on the team.  Some have said that Giambi’s resurgence hints that he is on some performance enhancing substance again.  However, contrary to that belief, the true reason for Giambi’s resurgence is something a bit more innocent.  Behold exhibit A:

A slumping but smiling Jason Giambi.

The heroic Jason Giambi: Spot the Difference?

Although he looks ridiculous, some have even described it to me as a pedophile moustache, there is little doubt in my mind the correlation between the lucky pedophile moustache and the All-Star like production.  Baseball players (and sports players in general for that matter) are well known for their superstitions (recall Wade Boggs and his chicken routine), so far from it for me to say if something is ridicolous or not … especially if it’s working.  So here’s to Giambi’s pedophile moustache!  Whatever rocks his boat and gets him results.

It may be too early (it’s only been a week) but it looks like Cito Gaston has worked his magic on the Toronto Blue Jays bats.  An offense that was anemic for the whole month of June, has woken up and scored over 5 runs in 5 of the 8 games since his return.   With a rock solid pitching staff that has been dominating the AL, this maybe the one-two punch that all Jays fans have been waiting for to bring the team back to contention.

However, it’s too early to say, but it’s nice to be pleasantly surprised by the quick turnaround.  Now lets see if Cito can straighten out Burnett … but that maybe even wishful thinking!

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