There's an undercurrent of buzz around the Jays that there will be some sort of new uniforms next year. I will preface my forthcoming views on that subject by saying that in my opinion the Jays have never worn better looking unis than those worn in the early '90s and if the new look was based largely on that one, I'd be a happy girl.
That said, if they really want to step up with some "next generation" patterns, then I suggest adopting the pattern worn by Yu Darvish in this photo.
I'm not good enough with photoshop type programs to do anything but screw it up, but imagine if you will a font very similar to the current Jays logo replacing "Fighters" - a Maple Leaf on the black sleeve and a Jays logo on the cap. Throw in a bit of red or not somewhere if you wish. I think it would be outstanding to be the first to wear that sort of pattern. The alternates might take some more creativity - I'm not sure what the road alternates look like for the Fighters or other Japanese teams. But possibly something that has blue over black, or charcoal gray over black would probably work. I'm confident a professional designer could expand nicely on the basic foundation.
In other news, as if you haven't heard, Mills is down to AAA - likely for good. Perez will get his next start, likely his next three turns, and joel Carreno is up from AA to pitch out of the 'pen - and if you don't understand that, read is as a straight up audition for next year's bullpen. Though it's not impossible he'd go back to AA to help the Fishercats through the playoffs.
Here's something to consider: Over the last 35 games, the Jays are 22-13 (.629) - over 162 games that's a pace for 102 wins, it's a better winning percentage than any team except the Phillies has on the season as a whole, That's one game back of the Yankees and a half game behind the Red Sox over the same period, and at the same pace they would finish with 88 wins. It didn't happen all against weak competition either. Nineteen of the 35 were against teams with better records then they have.
And, other than Encarnacion, it wasn't driven by unusual performances. EE had an OPS of 1.101, but Bautista's was .907, and JPA was at .704 which is consistent with his season as a whole. Lind's was under .700, Hill's under .500, scobar and Thames were right in line with their season stats, and Lawrie and Rasmus didn't play most of those games. That line-up averaged 5.43 runs per game, compared to the previous average of 4.53, they gave up 4.63 runs per game over that stretch, as compared to 4.53 in the previous games.
While one must acknowledge that the over-achiever will regress most likely, yu must also note that Lind will hit better to the same extent, that JPA likely progresses some and yes, even Hill (or whoever replaces him) won't play all year hitting under .500 - so I look at this team and I'm pretty frackin' optimistic about 2012.
2 comments:
I feel your enthusiasm! Add in that McGowan may be on track to make a Sept call up and it just gets more and more exciting for this team.
Offensively there are very few holes (caveat is all players will have tough stretches). But overall, I don't see a lot of downside offensively on this club 1- 9. With Davis, McCoy and Teahen off the bench this could be our best all round team for years.
I see 4 question marks for 2012:
1 - who are the #4 & 5 starters - pick from a bunch which includes: McGowan (please let his arm hold up), Drabek (needs to get control period.) & Alvarez (does he develop the slider as a consistent MLB quality pitch?) and do you make a trade for a starter with the wave of talent in AA right now?
2 - who is in the 2012 bullpen? Right now Litsch, Jannsen, Perez, Villaneuva are assured jobs. But what about Fransisco, Carreno, Ledezma (if he gets control) & Chad Beck? Given AA's rightful fondness for supplemental draft picks, I think you will see 2 "B" level free agent signings here just to secure extra picks.
3 - Do you bring back Aaron Hill? I vote yes as unless AA can make a deal there is really not much on the FA market other than Kelly Johnson and because of that, he is sure to be over priced. Both in terms of the # of years and $'s. But if we can get Hill back on a reasonable deal (3-4M) I can then live with him in the #9 slot in the line up.
4 - Snider or Thames? Nice position to be in!
Tammy, I like the idea - this is the first concept I've seen that includes a "swoosh" through the top part of the jersey. I think the difficult part would be finding a font for the middle to say "Blue Jays". Perhaps they could even use the retro one?
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