Signs of Life?

Well, it's been a pretty sweet 10 day run, eh? Obviously the sample is pretty tiny but the feeling was always (with the saner folks at least) that there was no way that guys who were established successful guys would not ALL simply go over the cliff collectively at once. As I noted in the last entry, they HAD to be better than what they were playing, whether or not they were ever actually a playoff quality team.

Still waiting on the collection of scrubs in New York to revert to their true selves though.

In any case, let's acknowledge that no, this is not a .700 team for the rest of the year (they do need to play about .611 the rest of the year to reach 90 wins) and yes, you can't assume Ramon Ortiz and Chad Jenkins are going to be this good for very long (albeit Jenkins might end up being better than I had thought he was) but much of this success has been driven by several of the known quantity guys finding their groove. I'm willing to feel some confidence that this is not a mirage and the team is indeed coalescing into something resembling what we expected coming into the year.

I continue to be impatient for Lawrie to really get rolling, I continue to be frustrated that the best Rasmus can muster is "okay" and obviously my heart cries out for Jose Reyes every night; on the flip side, dig Adam Lind, eh? The strict platoon is certainly a factor but so far he's looking rejuvenated in his production and his approach. Among the pitchers, it was a total mystery what was going on with Buehrle, and as always I await Brandon Morrow stepping up to the elite level permanently, but I'm glad to see Dickey beginning to put the discomfort behind him, and like everyone else, I'm blown away by the continued ascension of Casey Janssen to elite status.  Brett Cecil is living up to my hopes and dreams too.

Some other tibbits you are probably aware of but I'll throw out there anyway...

• Marcus Stroman will get his first start this weekend for New Hampshire. Some, notably Rich Griffin, have speculated that the Jays thin depth may open the door for Stroman to get some starts for the Jays relatively soon.
• Dustin McGowan pitched a dominant inning for Dunedin in relief last night. if he continues to do well with his recovery (after each appearance) he could be relatively fast tracked to the major league pen when some oft he other guys start to wear down or prove themselves incapable (I'm looking at you, Brad Lincoln. What the hell, dude? Also, Esmil, don't think I haven't noticed your failings).
• Sergio Santos is going for minor clean up surgery, estimated time-table for return is six weeks. It's only eight weeks until the ASB so I wouldn't be stunned if you didn't see him until after the break.
• Daniel Norris finally had a good start.About damn time. McGuire pitched well tonight but I've seen that occasional success before - get back to me when it's five or six games in a row. John Stilson made a (quality) relief appearance last night, if indeed he is a reliever from now on, he's another guy you could easily see push his way into the Jays pen this season. Honestly, with Janssen closing and Cecil proving himself capeable of the Downs/Oliver type role next year, you might have Santos, McGowan, Stroman, and Stilson forming the core of the balance of the bullpen in 2014and beyond and all of those are potentially dominant guys as relievers. 
• Whither Ricky Romero? Historically I'm the last person to too-quickly write a guy off but at this point I'm damned worried that he's lost his mojo for good.He needs to get going.

Finally, I'll amen the sentiment that I think is pretty commonplace in Jays fandom - can anyone do anything about the over-optimistic reporting on injuries? Everyone is always "just days away" exceptthat he doesn't ever actually return on time. Look at Brandon Morrow, who's now been pushed back to Saturday (he says and AA affirms that has a lot to do with him facing the Yankees instead of Ortiz which is a reasonable construction in a vacuum) - how many times have they "just pushed him back a couple of days" now? He's missed enough turns now he could have just been on the 15 Day DL in the first place.  I am a total cynic about when Johnson will be back simply because of the track record at this point. Hopefully things will turn around on that front too.