Comments on: The Week Ahead: Moment of truth for Blue Jays

By: Codebeard

Codebeard — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:37:33 +0000

@Flipsy
You can’t take one or two “advanced” stats and claim that tells the whole story. I can throw a couple out that say they’re mediocre.
Their ERA+ is 99 (100 is considered an average team, the AL average is actually at 101 right now), their WHIP is 1.322 (good for 6th, just above league average), and their BB/9 is right the league average of 3.5.
There’s a few areas where they excel, there’s a few where they’re not as good. They’re not dominating, so they’re average-to-fairly-good.

By: Flipsy

Flipsy — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:27:58 +0000

Btw: The Jays pitching staff is so mediocre that it ranks first according to some (advanced) metrics: http://www.fangraphs.com/teams.aspx?pos=all&lg=al&stats=pit&type=1&season=2010&month=0 Which of course means that they rank near the top in most conventional measures. Some fact-checking please.

By: Flipsy

Flipsy — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:07:54 +0000

Now that’s a weak story.
5 series to watch, all from the NL. NOthing going on in the AL? Well, I guess it’s a foregone conclusion that the Jays will drop out off the Wild Card race which renders the Jays-NYY series irrelevant. Along the same lines, as others already pointed out, the Jays starters have been surprisingly good. The bullpen has been weaker than in past years, but calling this a mediocre is a bit much.
And while I don’t really believe they will content the fact that Hill and Lind (and Overbay) have not been producing mean that the offense may stay on course. And I doubt their pitching staff will turn into the Indians or Orioles.
Almost everyone expected the Jays to be in contention for the no 1 pick next year. Clearly they have shown that they are much better than that. But of course, that’s not that interesting of a story. Let’s write about how they will crush and burn this week and how shitty the attendance is. Maybe we can even write about relocation.

By: Paul Martin

Paul Martin — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:49:43 +0000

Finally a Blue Jays story. By the way, I have seen little evidence that the Yankees are one of the two best teams in baseball. They are only 1 game ahead of the Jays. You have also not noticed that Toronto’s top 3 starters (Marcum, Romero and Cecil) are very good. The Toronto bull pen is also quite good.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 31 May 2010 07:52:49 +0000

“The offense has survived slow starts by Aaron Hill and Adam Lind, and more than offset a pitching staff that has been predictably mediocre.”
Very disappointed with that comment. The Jays are fourth in the majors in XFIP (4.00), and fourth in FIP (4.00 as well). The ERA isn’t pretty, but they strike out a lot of hitters and do a very good job of keeping the ball on the ground. The defense makes the pitching staff look bad, but the pitchers are a hell of a lot better than mediocre.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:34:47 +0000

Woah the Braves in two of the series-to-watch? I can’t believe Craig didn’t write this.