Season Over

Eighty-six games. That's how long the fun and excitement lasted in what was the most fun and exciting start to a Blue Jays season since the team went to back-to-back World Series in '92 and '93.

Sure the 2006 edition was 49-39 at the All-star break and finished with 87 wins but they never held a playoff position, division or wild card, after the first two weeks of the season. Other than that, it's been a long and painful grind for Blue Jay fans over the last 15+ years.

With the emergence of the prospect-loaded Tampa Bay Rays last year, the playoffs went from being an extremely difficult but not totally impossible proposition for Toronto - hoping either the Yanks or Red Sox have an off year and no other team runs away with the wild card, to indeed becoming an impossibility. Beating three teams in your own division that are very clearly better than you, perhaps even the top three teams in all of baseball? Not going to happen.

That's why on May 18th, at 27 -14 and sporting the best record in the majors, Blue Jays fans were varying degrees of delighted, ecstatic, and shocked. The hitters were knocking the cover off the ball, a no-name pitching staff (outside of Doc Halladay) was racking up quality starts, Cito Gaston was baseball's winningest manager in the previous 100 games and the fans were enjoying a different, and foreign, feeling. A winning feeling. A first place feeling.

Boy was it sweet. Continuosly playing with the lead. Repeatedly getting the two-out hits when they mattered. Waking up everyday and poring over another winning box score. Checking and re-checking the standings and always seeing Toronto at the top. It was completely unexpected and altogether unlikely to continue, but it didn't make it any less painful when it stopped.

Following last night's loss to Tampa, the Jays are all the way back to .500 on the season and are considerably closer to last place than first in the AL East. Seven teams are ahead of them in the wild card race and it might as well be all of them. It feels like the wind has been knocked out of me, like my dog ran away. It's nice to see that key positional players, guys like Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, are also taking it personally. (Sarcasm alert.)

The bats predictably cooled off, the rotation features several guys nobody has ever heard of and changes on a daily basis, and the bullpen has completely imploded. The ride is officially over.

Earlier in the week J.P. Riccardi publicly stated his willingness to deal the most dominant pitcher in the game, the same guy who also happens to be the only current reason anyone would bother tuning in to the Blue Jays, Roy Halladay. Every fifth day could be the time Halladay throws the second no-hitter in Toronto history, he's that good.

It just doesn't matter. Halladay could win 25 games a year and throw multiple perfect games and it still wouldn't matter because a middle of the range payroll will never compete with New York or Boston in the AL East. At least not the way this middle of the range payroll team is constructed.

The Rays have provided the blue-print: Stockpile young prospects and then hope they develop.

Until Toronto does, a 41 game start and an 86 game ride back to .500 is the best Blue Jay fans can ask for. But what if we want more?

The Best and Worst of NHL Free Agency

The Worst

1. Bob Gainey & The Montreal Canadiens - If Gainey's plan was to make his team smaller and easier for his fans to hate while completely ignoring chemistry...well then, mission accomplished. The trade for Scott Gomez and his horrific contract (anytime you can get a 15 goal scorer for $7 million a year you have to do it) kicked things off and it only got worse from there. Brian Gionta got $25 million for a great season that happened to come four years ago. If you throw out that one big year (48G, 41A in '05-06), Gionta has averaged 22 goals and 25 assists since he became a full-time NHLer. Decent numbers, but certainly not worthy of $5 million a year. Mike Cammalleri is three years younger than Gionta and definitely a more legitimate sniper, but he has yet to post back-to-back solid seasons and should be forced to give a third of his $30 million to Jarome Iginla. To top it all off, Gainey signed Jaroslav Spacek, a 35 year-old defenceman who normally misses 15-20 games a year due to injury, to a three year contract for only slighlty less than it would have cost the team to keep Mike Komisarek. I have December 10th 2009 circled as the day Gainey is fired but wouldn't be surprised if it happend before then. Like...say, tomorrow.

2. Mattias Ohlund - This contract (7 years, $26 million) is Chapter 25 in my new book titled "How Oren Koules and Len Barrie destroyed the Tampa Bay Lightning". I understand and applaud the fact that you want to invest in the development of a young stud defenceman (Victor Hedman) you just drafted #2 overall, but do you really need to commit seven years to it? Wouldn't three or four have been enough? Ohlund's goal scoring totals have decreased five straight years as has his overall effectiveness.

3. Jay Bouwmeester - At his introductory press conference yesterday, when asked what made Calgary his choice destination, Bouwmeester answered "Ahhh, well, ahhh, ya, I just talked to a lot of the guys that play here, and ahhhh, ya, just ya, seems like a good place to be". He's a great skater and extremely good defensively in one-on-one situations, but seems to be about as intense as Vernon Wells. And he looks like he should be on 'The Hills'. And he's never played a single minute of playoff hockey, ever. Not in four years of junior and not during his six year NHL career. Not exactly the credentials you look for when it comes to winning.

4. Marian Gaborik - Absolutely one of the most talented players in the league but also one of the most injury-prone. His games played stats over the last five years read like this: 65, 65, 48, 77 and 17. In case you're wondering, it's an 82 game schedule. Handing Gaborik a five-year deal would be like a movie studio inking Lindsay Lohan to a multiple-film contract - totally inexplicable and potentially disastrous. Are we sure Glen Sather was the mastermind of those great Oiler teams in the 80's?

5. Nik Antropov - He didn't quite get the five year $25 million salary he reportedly asked the Rangers for, but the Thrashers came close (four years/$16 million). Another player who routinely spends time on the sidelines nursing injuries and often hurts his team with careless stick penalties. At his best, Antropov is an average second-line center. At his worst, he is Nick the Not-so-Quick who generally floats through games and is certainly not a difference-maker. Fortunately for Antropov, there is no need for a difference-maker in Atlanta, where the team is hopeless.

6. Vernon Wells - True, he doesn't play hockey but his numbers are so terrible (.301 OBP this year, .330 for his career) that I just couldn't resist pointing out how absurd his contract is. Following the 2006 season in which he slugged 32 homers, J.P. Riccardi signed Wells to a seven year extension that kicked in before the 2008 season. It earns him $10 million this year, $21 million next year, $23 million in 2011 and then back to $21 million for each of the final three seasons (thru 2014). In the 337 games Wells has played since signing the extension, he has 43 homers. That's one good month for Albert Pujols.

The Best

1. The Sedins - How Mike Gillis got the Sedin twins to sign for less than half of what they originally wanted (5 years/$30.5 million a piece rather than 12 years/$63 million each) is borderline incredible and he deserves considerable praise. The passing Sedin and the scoring Sedin are two of the most consistent point-producers in the NHL and Vancouver has them locked up at an un-outrageous price. They aren't the guys that will lead them to a Cup because they lack the grit and intangibles to do so, but what they do provide isn't easily replaceable either.

2. Scott Niedermayer - Nothing shocking about Niedermayer returning to Anaheim on a one-year $6 million contract, but it is an excellent signing for the Ducks. The best or second-best (to Nick Lidstrom) defenceman in the game will be only the 11th highest paid player at his position and leaves ample room to re-sign Francois Beauchemin and work out an extension for Bobby Ryan.

3. Craig Anderson - Slowly managers are catching on to the fact that it is idiotic (outside of Brodeur and Luongo) to pay a goalie big-time money. Anderson posted the third best GAA in the league last year when he (at times) wrestled the #1 job away from Tomas Vokoun. His two year $3.6 million contract will prove to be very rewarding for the Avalanche.

4. Mike Knuble - A consistent 25 goal scorer to play on the opposite wing with either Ovechkin or Semin for only $2.8 million a year? Yes, he's 37 years old but the contract is only two years long and Knuble has always been a 'stand-in front of the net and bang home rebounds' type of player, it's not like his game relies on speed. Well done Mr.McPhee.

5. Nobody - Honestly, I tried to talk myself into putting the Marian Hossa contract here, reasoning that the final four years of the twelve year contract he signed with Chicago only pay him a total of $3.4 million. So it's really only an eight year deal with an excellent cap-hit of just $5.2 million a year. But then again, IT'S STILL AN EIGHT YEAR DEAL! I also considered the contracts given to Havlat (too much injury history), Khabibulin (disappearing act), and Komisarek (over-hyped by the Montreal media) but quickly poked holes in each. In my opinion, the majority of free agent contracts handed out yesterday (and last year, and the year before, etc.) are somewhere between stupid and ridiculous and will cause the teams that awarded them more pain than gain.

Blue Jays Report Card - Part II - The Arms

From Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com on the struggles of Vernon Wells...

Wells' travails make for an intriguing test case in selective media overkill. When Red Sox DH David Ortiz was homer-less in mid-May, he was the target of incessant speculation in Boston and beyond. Did Ortiz's power outage stem from problems with his wrist, his knee, his eyes or his lack of a swagger? Did he miss Manny Ramirez, or was he really 36 years old instead of 33? Naturally, with no evidence other than Ortiz's statistical decline, the performance-enhancer freight train also chugged its way into the picture.

Wells, in comparison, has gotten a pass. His performance this season has been overshadowed in part by the ridiculous run of injuries to the Blue Jays' pitching staff. But he's Exhibit A that there's an advantage to playing in Toronto besides the terrific ethnic cuisine.

Blue Jays first baseman Kevin Millar, who spent three years in Boston, said a struggling star is bound to get more breathing room while tucked away in Canada. No surprise there.

"In this market, guys are very fortunate when they go through struggles, because it's not magnified by any means," Millar said. "You throw up a 1-for-10 in Philadelphia, New York or Boston, and it's the end of the world.

"I'm not saying any struggle is easy, because Vernon is definitely trying to cure his thing and get out of it. But you're definitely fortunate that you're in another country and you're playing for the Blue Jays and you've got three beat writers instead of 40."

Translation: Come to Toronto where you can suck and no one will care.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the Jays. Should someone tell Kevin Millar we have the internet up here?

Anyway, on to Part II of the Blue Jays report card...

Roy Halladay – At the time he went down (trying not to cry and shaking my head in disgust) with injury, Doc lead the majors in wins, innings pitched, walks allowed and awesomeness. If you’re a true Jays fan, you never miss a Roy Halladay start. The fact that there was even a little talk earlier in the season about Zack Greinke being the best pitcher in the AL is like saying the Jonas Brothers are a better than Pearl Jam. Yes, Greinke had a nice run...for nine or ten starts. Halladay has been lights out for eight years now. Grade: A+

Scott Downs – Downs has been truly amazing since the start of the 2007 season but I wonder if hurting himself while getting out of the batters box will somehow cause a seismic shift in his karma. I mean, when opposing major league hitters step into the box and say to themselves, "this guy got injured during the most basic play in baseball" they would have to be confident, right? Grade: A

Brett Cecil - The 38th overall pick from the 2007 draft has made five starts this year as a 22 year-old and they break down like this: one excellent outing, three very solid performances and a beatdown in Fenway. I'll take that. Grade: B+

Ricky Romero – Ok, so maybe J.P. didn't screw up this pick in the 2005 draft as bad as originally reported. Romero has looked good as a rookie, throwing seven quality starts in only nine appearances and sports a very respectable 3.59 ERA. Yes, the end of the steroid era has changed the pitching landscape, significantly altering and improving the stats for every average and below-average pitcher, but Romero isn't the next Gustavo Chacin. No he's not. He better not be. Please, don't let him be. Grade: B

Brian Tallet – I’ve always enjoyed his work, especially when he was playing Hyde on ‘That 70s show’. Pretty remarkable that an actor was able to change careers like that and I like how he downplayed it by using a stage name like Brian Tallet. And now, transitioning from relief to starting? That is impressive. Hyde struggles with his command at times and has had two horrendous starts (June 14 vs. Florida & April 29 @ KC) but overall he's been very valuable. Grade: B

Scott Richmond – I did not like the way Cito skipped Richmond’s turn in the rotation a few weeks back and apparently Richmond didn't either, because he threw up a dominating eight inning, five hit, 11 strikeout game in his return to a starting role. Also, it's pretty cool that he can perform at a major league level while mostly looking like he's 30 seconds away from falling asleep. Grade: B

Jason Fraser – Reason #9624 why bullpens can be slapped together in any way, shape or form: Frasor was absolutely ignored by previous manager John Gibbons but has reappeared in Cito Gaston’s bullpen and has been very good. I would trade high on every reliever I ever developed. You know, assuming I was a big league GM. Grade: B

Brandon League – Great when the score isn’t close. Grade: B-

Jesse Carlson – Reason #9625 why bullpens can be slapped together in any way, shape or form: For the most part, you never know what you're going to get from one year to next. Grade: C+

Shawn Camp - Before his brutal appearance in Tuesday's game against Cincinnati, Camp had been pitching well, allowing only four runs over his last 16 innings and just a single run in his last eight. Of course prior to that he had a horrific three game stretch in late April and early May that probably would've buried him if our entire pitching staff wasn't held together by band-aids. Grade: C+

B.J. Ryan – How Riccardi didn’t dump Ryan’s contract last November is unfathomable. B.J. came back last year after missing ’07 following Tommy John surgery and posted solid numbers (32 saves, 2.95 ERA & only 4 blown saves) that should have made him marketable on the trade front despite the fact Jays fans could see the cracks forming. His $10 million salary was cheaper than what Brian Fuentes received from Anaheim this past offseason when several contending clubs were looking for an established closer. Throw in the fact that with Downs, Carlson and Tallet, the Jays bullpen was flush with lefties, and righty Brandon League was continually thought of as a potential option to finish games, and you understand why I nearly hurl my remote through the TV everytime I see Ryan enter a game. Now, with 19 hits and 14 walks allowed in only 18 unforgettably terrible innings, the Jays might be forced to eat the remaining $15 million on his contract. Grade: D-

Casey Janssen – It’s beginning to look like the spectacular year he had in ’07 was the end of his career rather than the beginning. Grade: N/A