Roto Baseball Guru

As the Toronto Blues Jays kick off their final home stand today against the New York Yankees, they will be battling for the coveted 3rd place spot in the division.  This is a position that the Blue Jays have been quite familiar with since the turn of the century, but this is definitely new territory for the Evil Empire.

Nobody predicted the rise of the Tampa Bay Rays.  Soon after the All-Star break when injuries hit the Rays and they appeared to be free falling, most experts and pundits wrote them off.  But as to thumb their noses to the so called experts, the Rays quickly rebounded and here in the last week of the season, are still in first place - still holding off the World Champions Boston Red Sox.  They have shown the poise and perseverance required to win, and this season maybe the breakout party for the Rays that is long overdue.

So as the Jays and Yankees battle for third place, there is little consolation for the Yankee ball club or fans to finish third.  Anything other than a World Championship is considered a failure - especially when sporting the highest payroll in baseball.  If the Jays do win the series and the Yankees end up in 4th place, it may as well mark the end of this Yankee dynasty’s reign.  The Jays, Rays and Red Sox have much younger teams that have shown they are on the upswing.  The Yankees, although still sporting perennial All-Stars, are past their prime and will probably need to go into rebuilding mode in the next few years to get back on track.  As the last game at the historic Yankee Stadium was played last Sunday, the event may also symbolically mark the end of this Yankee era.  It was fun while it lasted.

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!

Over the past week, two of the hottest hitting teams in baseball are the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago White Sox.  The Blue Jays, who have been starving for consistent productive offense all year, have been facing the AL East rivals Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and have been laying an offensive smack down on their opponents.  With the blow out victories of 15-4 (BOS), 14-3 (NYY), 11-0 (BOS) the Jays’ bats were devastating their opponent’s pitching without mercy.  The White Sox have not been slouches either.  Their collective wins of 13-1 (OAK), 13-5 (SEA), 15-3 (SEA) over the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners respectively reminds us why the White Sox has one of the most feared lineups in the American League.

So what does this wealth of hitting translate to in fantasy terms?  Taking a look at the weekly top hitters of the past week, we see that Blue Jays and White Sox hitters take up five of the Top 10 spots.  In fact, if we expanded the rankings a couple of spots, we would have been able to add in Marco Scutaro (Tor - 2B,3B,SS,OF) to the number 12 spot.  Producing a hitting line of - 6 runs, 2 doubles,  2 HRs, 7 RBIs, .400 BA, .448 OBP, Scutaro just barely missed breaking the Top 10 for the week.

With both the Blue Jays and White Sox hitting so well, it is not surprising that their hitters dominated the weekly top hitter rankings for the past week.  Hitting is contagious and when a team gets on a roll the likes of what these two clubs have gone on, fantasy owners of players on these clubs cannot help but smile and enjoy the ride.  Let the good times roll!

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