The Roundup

I was going to choke out a "still in it to win it post", but I didn't really have the stomach for it after reading the latest Richard Griffin piece to lead off my morning. And I know what you're thinking, what did he write this time? He didn't do anything egregious, it's just the subject matter of his reportage.

If you've intimated that Will is the rational, level-headed one, I am the mystical, hysterical yin to his yang. Normally, I place great stock in stats and cold hard numbers, but I cannot escape the sinking feeling that the Jays 2008 season may well die somewhere on the road between Minnesota and Philladelphia regardless of what the standings say.

The Jays will have their work cut out for them this afternoon and evening at the Jake/Progressive Field, where they have been inexplicably incapable of winning, period. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of losses; the last graphic I saw showed them at 1-13 over their last 14. The Twins are like cockroaches, especially in their own building (where one of our outfielders always seems to lose a fly ball in the ceiling), and will be a test over three games. Philly is Philly, an offensive juggernaut without the benefit of a DH. And I note without irony that we're exactly one-year removed from the 9-game losing streak that killed the 2007 Jays five weeks into the season.

(Being mystically-inclined, I'm secretly hoping that my unbridled negativity will inspire the club to a nifty little winning streak, but would never admit to it for fear of jinxing my well-laid plans.)

On to the Griff piece that put me in such a foul mood.

Somebody is this close to talking his way out of town and that somebody is... Shannon Stewart? The Jays bullwhip approach, collective front office ADD, doublespeak and whathaveyou appear to be taking their toll on the veteran left fielder.

"This is like a bad dream," the 34-year-old veteran said before the Jays were rained out here (they're scheduled for a doubleheader today). "Things happen in life that are unexpected. I went through a lot in the off-season. It was kind of difficult just because of the situation. I knew I wasn't going to be the guy (here). The way I look at it, I was more like insurance. I've had the opportunity to play, but it's been weird... "I don't think people really understand how hard it's been on me," Stewart said with no hint of self-pity. "Not saying just the (lack of) playing, but a lot of stuff. It's been difficult. It's been more of an eye-opener because I didn't think it was going to be like this. What can you do? If you don't go out there, if I don't play well, then the other guy's got to play. I haven't lit it up. To be honest, I haven't felt comfortable since the spring.

"The reality of it is that this role that I'm in, I'm not doing anybody any good right now. I'm not doing the team any good. I'm not doing myself any good. It's like, what am I going to do next year? Hopefully, I'll keep working till I find it. They might want to do something else. It might get to the point where they might want to bring in other guys and see what they can do."

As a human being, Stew has always come across as one of the better sorts. Never crossed anyone, never spoke out of turn. His career was over for all intents and purposes despite a fairly decent 2007 until JP bailed him out with a low ball contract offer in February. He signed on as a bench player, Matt Stairs' platoon partner in left, and has probably been used more than most of us would've envisioned two months ago.

He has, however, been hitting all over the lineup, been proclaimed "the guy" in left and seen young kid Adam Lind deemed the starting left fielder all in about the span of a week. I really don't blame him for feeling a little bit confused and disappointed. By bringing in Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson, the bold, profane handwriting is clearly on the wall. Mench was the more rational of the two as a platoon DH to compliment Matt Stairs, but don't kid yourselves that Wilkerson and Stewart aren't auditioning for the same roster spot once V-Dub returns in about 2 months (+?) time.

Stew got his job when JP dumped Reed Johnson and may now it lose it with an equally unceremonious departure from the club to which he'd given his all. The hard part to swallow is that once again a very small amount of Benjamins will probably be the deciding factor on whether he or Wilkerson sticks. Stew was about a million bucks cheaper than Johnson and Wilkerson--paid the pro-rated portion of the MLB minimum--would be a million cheaper still if JP drops the axe on Stew by the All Star Break.

I just want the club to win and, in the end, have no objections to any roster shuffling that makes the club better regardless of the players involved. I've even voiced more support for the amoral "Sign Barry Bonds" set. But it all just sits ill, the aforementioned bullwhip approach, collective front office ADD, doublespeak and whathaveyou. Shannon Stewart has made over $33 million from baseball, roughly half that paid by the Jays, so I can see why he might be thinking retirement or Japan would've suited him better than this soggy drama in Toronto.

ELSEWHERE:

* Like the Montreal Canadiens he adores so much, Eric Gagne has choked and stunk up the joint when it mattered most. That was an ill-spent $10 million. Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder if Gagne's struggles don't mean that Brewers GM Doug Melvin won't come calling for a reliever since he and JP have had fruitful trade relations in the past. After Billy Beane, there's noone JP likes doing business with more than the erstwhile Canucker in Cheeseheadland.

* This is one of the most remarkable pieces of sports journalism I've ever read. I was sort of surprised when TJ Simers of the LA Times wasn't laid out by Androo Jones during this "interview", but then again it's entirely possible that everything in this story is fictionalized. Bon Apetit!

* What is this, April Fool's? Manny Ramirez wants a Gold Glove? I actually don't think it's that bad an idea to give him, the whole process being the mockery that it is.

-- Johnny Was

The Roundup

It feels like the season is slipping through our fingers, doesn't it? I'd like to tell you to buck up, that hope is not lost, but that's not my nature. And especially not now when we're one year removed from the bastard losing streak that stunk the 2007 Jays.

Like it or lump it, pessimism is the country cousin of realism.

Typically one doesn't make any early conclusions about the nature of a ball club until the end of the second month of the season, but that date draws ever closer. Premature though it may be, it's hard to resist the temptation note to weigh in on the completely and utterly pathetic offense the Jays have mustered to date.

Wilner's perspective:

With runners in scoring position, the Blue Jays currently have a worse batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than had the 2003 Detroit Tigers. That would be the 43-119 Detroit Tigers. The only reason the Jays are sticking around the .500 mark is because the pitching has been almost as ridiculous as the hitting has been, just in the other direction. If the Jays were just kind of OK with RISP, instead of overwhelmingly craptastic, they’d be about two games back in the East right now, if not better. It has been amazing to watch.

Griffin drops a typical steaming log, bemoaning the lack of a "plan":

What's the Jays' game plan? Some guys collect stamps. Some collect coins. Some collect wives. Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi, since last November, has obviously decided to collect left fielders.

Yesterday's two roster moves by the Jays to sign free agent Brad Wilkerson and to purchase the contract of Kevin Mench from the Rangers smack of redundancy.

Maybe. JP was certainly spinning his wheels yesterday, but I doubt anyone else sees Wilkerson as a game-changer.

Elliot weighs in with his usual folksy manner:

Pitching is not that easy.

Blue Jays starters have been mowing down the opposition as if facing second-division teams from the 75-and-over division of the St. Petersburg old-timers league.

Whether your name is Roy Halladay, Dustin McGowan, A.J. Burnett, Jesse Litsch or Shaun Marcum -- especially if your name is Marcum -- you have been cutting through opposing lineups.

They have mowed hitters down like a John Deere taking on dry Bermuda grass, blowing the other way on a windy afternoon.

And still we languish in semi-mediocrity because of an offensive drought.

Everyone is sad.

Subjectively, it feels like every time the Jays get anything less than a perfect outing from their starter, they're assured a loss. Glancing at the schedule, their record in games where the opposition scored 3 or more runs is 7-17 (6-14 April, 1-3 so far in May). You're right to think that a team should be expected to have a losing record in its more poorly pitched affairs, but in only 10 of those games did the opposition score 5 or more runs. This team wasn't built for super heavyweight slugfests--we all knew that going into the season--but one would hope that the odd 5-4, 6-5 victory wasn't beyond its grasp. You're subjective, emotional fears that the Jays are pretty much done for when they surrender more than a handful of runs on any given night are mostly real.

It's hard to point out scapegoats when the offensive suckage has been so thoroughly collective. Only 5 regulars have OPS+s much north of the right side of 100 and noone aside from Scott Rolen is tearing the cover off the ball.

* Overbay and Zaun have come mostly as advertised, but their SLG%s are sub .400, which means we're not getting much of the baseball equivalent of the "secondary scoring" that hockey analysts value so much
* Young cornerstones Hill and Rios have been slumping horribly, the former worse than the latter
* Marco Scutaro might be our best shortstop candidate
* Roughly 100 PAs into the season, Shannon Stewart has been godawful with the bat (66 OPS+), but gets a pass because of his career numbers
* overall, we're 12th of 14 in runs scored in the AL

It's all well and good to argue that this suckage cannot continue unabated, but neither too can our savagely effective pitching (second in the AL with a 3.45 ERA; translating to a nifty 118 ERA+).

The acquisition of Kevin Mench was a smart cheap (if overdue) move that boosts productivity from the DH slot, so kudos to JP for that. Brad Wilkerson, like Shannon Stewart, was a stopgap measure unlikely to pay real dividends. Your guess as to whether both will still be with the club by the All Star break is as good as mine.

I don't think all hope is lost. Three games under .500 is neither an enviable or catastrophic position to be in and pitching as stellar as ours means we aren't likley to freefall for long. It's all academic if the Jays go 2-8 or worse on their current roadtrip, but I'm hoping beyond hope that JP will pull off the impact trade ASAP that gives us the punch we need to at least get our offense to the middle of the pack.

Crazy hat time? Let AJ Burnett reel off a few more quality starts, and move him, move him, move him. If Jeremy Accardo can right himself, he's a moveable part with Brandon League at Syracuse. As is Brian Tallet. There are others, I can't list them all.

Who should we be looking at bringing on board? Jason Bay, Adam Dunn, Milton Bradley, hell, you could even ask the Braves about Mark Teixeira. We won't know until later today how seriously Vernon Wells is injured and if it turns out he'll be gone for an extended period of time there's even more urgency when it comes to bringing in a Big Scary Bat from outside the organization. Someone, anyone, and soon, please.

I want to believe, throw us a frickin' bone.

-- Johnny Was