In terms of its sports teams, Toronto is a terrible place to be.  I have written about it several times before on this site and on others, documenting the annual failure of any of our major league teams to not only bring home a championship, but to merely contend for one.

The epidemic has grown so bad that it has successfully tempered the expectations we have as fans.  Everybody in Toronto expects the Raptors to be awful and finish at or near the bottom of the standings.  Everybody expects the Leafs to shoot themselves in the foot time and time again and ultimately finish last.  We all expect Toronto FC to miss the playoffs badly, and set records of futility along the way.

That’s likely part of the reason that Toronto fans are often ridiculed by other markets for “planning the parade” at an early portion of the season.  When the Leafs were sitting first in the Northeast division and only two points back of first overall in the entire NHL at the end of November, fans were dreaming not only of playoff hockey for the first time in years, but of the Stanley Cup.  Did we actually believe the Leafs could win?  No, but since we expected them to finish last, we had to celebrate while the good times lasted.  And we did.  Then they ended…with a thud.

For the Toronto Blue Jays, the same thing has happened.  As Jays fans, we don’t expect them to finish last, but season after season we expect the same thing: patches of brilliance, patches of awfulness, and a lot of mediocrity, ultimately culminating in a .500 record, and a 4th place finish – 15-20 games behind the division champ.

But then 2012 hit, and everything changed.  Alex Anthopoulos continued to add young, high ceiling talent to his team, bringing in Sergio Santos to join the likes of Brett Lawrie, Colby Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia, Ricky Romero, Kyle Drabek, and Yunel Escobar.  Suddenly, people began to take notice of what was being built north of the border.  The Jays were no longer a perennial fourth place team, but a  bonafide contender.

And for once, it wasn’t just bloggers, fans, and team management who were saying these things.  Real, actual baseball analysts, on real, actual media outlets like CBS Sports, ESPN, Fox Sports, and Sports Illustrated were saying these things.  Many actually picked the Blue Jays to make the 2012 postseason.  Even celebrities, like the decrepit, old and withered Larry King endorsed the Jays to win the AL East.  It was something we hadn’t seen in these parts since 1993.

And quite clearly, we aren’t used to it.

Instead of elevating our moods and making fans more excited about the season, the glowing praise heaped on our team has done nothing but raise expectations – maybe to unreasonable and unrealistic levels. 

Because judging by the behaviour of many fans at the ballpark, in the streets, and on Twitter, you’d think the Toronto Blue Jays were the worst team in the history of organized sports.

I’ve been to several games at the Rogers Centre thus far, and let me tell you – there has been a ton of booing and a LOT of anger and venom thrown towards the players.  Fans are ripping into Adam Lind, booing him during every at bat, and every play in the field.  Fans booed Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar mercilessly after booting some balls last night.  People on Twitter wanted to flat out murder Francisco Cordero after his blown save last Tuesday, and tried to run Sergio Santos out of town after losing to the Red Sox in the home opener.

Why?  For no other reason than heavy expectations.  In previous seasons, when Toronto was 19-18 in mid-May, many fans looked upon that as a successful record.  “Hey, the boys are over .500!”  But now in 2012, because Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline thinks they might sneak the second wild card spot, an over .500 record is an indication that this team is overpaid, worthless, and hopeless.

Look – the Jays have been victims of several things thus far this year: slow starts from most of the hitters,  a tough few weeks from the relievers,  starting pitchers walking too many batters,  leaky infield defense over the past 10 days, and umpires who appear to be squeezing some players at the plate (see: Bill Miller and his “expanding the strike zone due to personal dislike”).  But the fact is, they are still above .500 and within striking distance of the division lead.  Sure they are struggling, sure they are having a hard time beating the Rays and Orioles, but it’s May 16th.  There is a lot of time left.

The bottom line is this: Alex Anthopoulos didn’t promise the playoffs in 2012.  Paul Beeston didn’t promise the playoffs in 2012.  John Farrell, Jose Bautista, Ricky Romero – none of them promised the playoffs in 2012 either.  This is a team building for the next few years, with a chance to win this year.

Let’s do the boys a favour: simmer down the expectations a bit and let them figure things out without the anger, the frustration, and the boo’s.

After all – expecting success is different than demanding success.  Expecting success turns a regular fan into an entitled fan.  An entitled fan, in turn, equals an annoying fan.

In other words: a Yankee fan.

photo from daylife.com

Not how we drew it up. 

I think that is the way Jays fans can summarize last week, a week where expectations far exceeded actual on-field performance.  When your team plays seven against the Rangers and the Angels, then follows that up with six against Oakland and Minnesota, it’s fair to expect the latter set of games to turn out better.  Not the case for Toronto.

As they say: that’s why you play the games.

Here are three things from week 6:

Week 6: May 7 – May 13

Record: 3 – 3

1. Opportunity Lost

Quick thought: with the pitching the Blue Jays have received this year, how many games would you expect the club to win when they play six against the two worst offensive teams in the American League?  If you said “at least four” you’re likely in the overwhelming majority.

And you’re also disappointed.

Toronto could only manage a 3- 3 split against Oakland and Minnesota last week, and while going .500 on a road trip is never a bad thing (3 – 3 last week, and 5 – 5 total) they’ll feel there should have been more.  Yes, Oakland was above .500 and suprisingly competitive coming into the series, but they were an offensively challenged team missing their biggest offensive weapon after Yoenis Cespedes hit the DL with a hand injury.  Minnesota was the worst team in all of baseball when the Jays came to town, and they were hurt by the loss of Justin Morneau with a wrist injury.

But still, both teams earned a split against Toronto, which has to go down as an opportunity lost.  The Jays had a chance in all three of the games they lost – blowing a lead in the ninth in one, and leaving the tying run stranded in scoring position in the ninth in the other two – but came up just a bit short. 

It makes things even more frustrating when you consider the upcoming schedule.  The next 16 games come against opponents (Tampa Bay, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Texas, and Baltimore) with a combined record of 125 – 83. 

No cupcakes there…

2. Slowly But Surely

He entered 2012 as one of the most feared hitters in baseball.  He finished April as one the most disappointing. 

But Jose Bautista looks like he is slowly but surely rounding back into form.  In six games last week he produced a batting line more in line with what we have come to expect from him: 6 for 22, .273 average, .385 OBP, 1.066 OPS, 3 HR,  3 RBI, 3 BB and only 1 K.  The week improved his season average 15 points to .198, and his season OPS 69 points to .737. 

May has been a much better month for Jose.  While his batting average is still low, his production has greatly improved.  Bau finished April with a .634 OPS, but has exploded for a .938 OPS in May.  Obviously we’d like to see more HR from him, but the fact remains that after last week Bautista is now sitting T-6 in the AL in homers.  His 8 bombs are more than Miguel Cabrera, Mike Napoli, David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre, Prince Fielder, Carlos Pena, Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzalez, and Albert Pujols have hit. 

Put in that context, Jose doesn’t look that bad at all.  And he’s only getting better.

3. One Streak Ends…But One Begins

It was bound to end at some point, especially considering the youth and inexperience of the Jays rotation.  The fact that it even lasted as long as it did has to qualify as a surprise.  I’m talking about Toronto’s streak of having a starter go at least five innings in a game, a streak that ended at 34 on Friday night in Minnesota.  Kyle Drabek lasted only 4.1 IP, and funny enough I thought that it was one of his most impressive starts of the season.

That he didn’t have his best stuff was obvious from the beginning, when he walked the bases loaded in the first inning.  But he allowed a total of four walks and four hits, yet only three runs. It was a text book case of pitching out of trouble, something his five strikeouts greatly assisted in. I thought it was his most impressive start because of what could have been.  The 2011 version of Drabek would have folded up shop in the first inning, probably walked a few more and maybe given up one or two game-changing hits.  He wouldn’t have made it out of the inning and the Jays would have been behind big time.  Instead, he kept the team in the game, a game they very nearly won.

And just in case anybody else in baseball thought that Friday was the speed bump that would collapse Toronto’s pitching machine, think again.  A new streak has already started as Hutchison threw 6 innings on Saturday, followed by 5.1 IP from Romero yesterday.

2 down, 32 to go…

Two weeks ago 500 Level Fan came into possession of an exclusive audio recording leaked from the Blue Jays clubhouse. 

Now, we have received another one, taped after the disastrous events of Tuesday night’s blown save in Oakland.  Have a look:

********************************

Date: May 8, 2012

Time: 1:08 AM Eastern, minutes after interim closer Francisco Cordero allowed a walk-off Grand Slam to Oakland’s Brandon Inge

Scene: Inside the visitors clubhouse at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California

[SILENCE spreads across the clubhouse as the Blue Jay players walk into the clubhouse and sit down at their lockers.  They look stunned]

Adam Lind: That hurts.  That’s a tough one.

[CLACK CLACK CLACK - the sound of cleats walking down the tunnel towards the room breaks the silence.  Francisco Cordero walks into the room with his head down]

Francisco Cordero: Hijo de puta, basura, pedazo de mierda, carajo! Brandon Inge! por el amor de mierda!!!  AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[loosely translated from Spanish, it means "son of a b**ch, garbage, piece of crap, damn!!! Brandon Inge! for f**k sakes!!]

[CRASH SNAP, as Cordero picks up a plastic chair, snaps it over his knee, then throws it towards the bathroom.  He then storms after it, towards the showers, leaving the room]

Brett Lawrie [whispering to J.P. Arencibia]: Damn bro, that dude sucks.  Wasn’t Brandon Inge practically retired a few days ago?  He hits worse than Omar yo!

J.P. Arencibia [whispering back to Lawrie]: Yeah brosef.  Inge is brutal.  But you know what?  I’m afraid of Coco.  That guy is nuts.  Pure loco.  Whatever you do, don’t look at him – he might eat you.

Edwin Encarnacion [to Lawrie]: Yo amigo . Your boy there is right. I played with Coco in Cincy.  He didn’t blow many saves there, but when he did…[whistles]…it was carnage.  I remember one time in Milwaukee, dude broke a toilet in half with his foot, then stuffed a ton of towels and a suitcase in the hole to stop the water from spraying everywhere.  Poor clubhouse guy came to stop him and Coco tried to bite him. 

Lawrie: Woah, woah, woah.  Bite him?  Yo dude, that is off the charts sick!!! Ooooohhh baby!!!

EE: You heard me.  Guy was so freaked he took off and didn’t come back in the rest of the series.  So listen to me.  Keep your head down.  Coco is one crazy Dominican fool.

JPA: No worries there.  I ain’t gonna be looking anywhere near that dude.

[at that moment, manager John Farrell emerges from his office]

Farrell: Alright guys, listen up.  There’s no getting around it – that was a tough one, one we would’ve liked to have.  But you know what?  Silver lining: we hung in there until the end.  We didn’t have our best stuff tonight.  We only had 6 hits.  Ricky didn’t have his best stuff but he battled.  We all battled and somehow we had a lead in the ninth.  Yeah we lost it, but it showed a lot about this team that we hung in there.  Francisco – where’s Franky?

[Farrell looks around and doesn't see his embattled closer]

Farrell: Anyway – I have faith in Franky.  He’s been here befo-

[suddenly a lot of loud BANGS reverberate from the bathroom.  After several seconds, Francisco Cordeo emerges wearing only an undershirt, and carrying a metal garbage can.  His glove is on his head.]

[SMASH as he slams the garbage can on the ground]

Francisco Cordero: Friends.  I let you down.  I not pitch well tonight, or all year.  So you know what I do to fix that?  I burn something. 

[Cordero throw his glove in the can, squirts some lighter fluid on it, then lights it on fire.  Flames shoot out of the can]

Cordero: No more bad glove, no more bad games.  No more bad glove, no more bad games.  NO MORE BAD GLOVE, NO MORE BAD GAMES.

[he repeats this phrase while dancing around the can]

Cordero: Woooo!  We gonna be fine now boys!  We gonna be alright!!!

[Farrell smiles, shakes his head, and walks away.]

[Brian Butterfield sits in the corner, stunned, silent]

[Adam Lind laughs and throws his batting gloves in the can]

Lind: Ya baby!!  Burn up!  No more bad games!

[On the other side of the room, Encarnacion looks at Arencibia and Lawrie]

EE: What did I tell you boys?  That dude is messed up.

Lawrie: He is one sick cat.  But you know what?  I love it.  I LLLLOOOOOVVVVVEEEEEE IIIITTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[end]

********************************

So there you go. 

Coco has spoken.

No more bad games.

photo from daylife.com

Well, that was ugly.

That was really, really ugly – and I didn’t even watch it.

For once I am thankful for a late night game on a weekday, because it prevented me from seeing with my own eyes the disaster that is Francisco “CoCo” Cordero.

Entrusted with a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth, Cordero allowed 5 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks to blow his third consecutive save opportunity.  He is now 2 / 5 in save chances.

The rest of his stats are just as brutal.  Cordero is sporting a 9.53 ERA.  Only Freddy Garcia has a higher ERA in the American League for pitchers with at least 10 IP.  In terms of relief pitchers, Cordero is the worst.  Second worst is Matt Maloney from Minnesota, with an ERA of 8.18.  When it comes to WHIP, his 2.29 number is by far the worst in the AL.  He is also allowing a staggering and bewildering 15.9 hits per nine innings. 

There are other relievers who are having bad seasons in the AL.  The afforementioned Maloney is awful.  Somebody named Adam Wilk on Detroit has an 8.18 ERA, 2.18 WHIP, and 17.2 H/9 in 11 IP.

But there is a huge, huge difference between them and CoCo.  Those two aren’t trusted with closing out games.  For Toronto to continue to give the ball to the worst reliever in the American League (statistically speaking) would be ludicrous. 

We can continue to complain about Cordero, but in reality it isn’t much of a surprise.  Getting Blanked offers some insight into the blatant warning signs he showed last year in Cincinnati.  And to be fair, he wasn’t brought to Toronto to close games.  But still – enough is enough.

So what is the next move then?  If the Blue Jays find themselves wtih a one run lead this afternoon, who should they call?  With Sergio Santos not expected back for at least a few more weeks, the ball will have to be handed to somebody else – but who?

It has been said time and again that going with a closer-by-committee doesn’t work, but I can’t see why not.  The save stat is a meaningless, made up number that adds no value to the game.  All it does is force managers to structure their bullpens into rigid roles basically tying their hands.  Three run lead or less in the ninth?  He HAS to call on the closer, even if the closer has been awful.  After all – that’s what the closer is paid for.

Someday, one team will eschew that belief.  Just like Oakland revolutionized stats in the Moneyball era, just like Tampa is revolutionizing how to build a team for cheap today, one team will revolutionize the bullpen in the closer era.   So why not the Blue Jays now?   We have at least a few weeks to experiment, and if it doesn’t work then Santos will be back to reclaim his spot.

Let’s get back to the question of who.  Sorting by performance in the past 7 days, we find that Toronto’s best reliever has been Jason Frasor: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 0.86 WHIP, 0.00 ERA, .143 opponents average.  That looks pretty good. 

Think looking at the past 7 days is too shallow?  Let’s expand the sample to the past 14 days.  The top reliever then becomes Carlos Villanueva: 4.1 IP, 4 K, 0.69 WHIP, 0.00 ERA.  Again – pretty good.

So there you go – instead of using the “closer”, use the hot hand. 

Because if there’s one thing that’s obvious it’s this:

The current situation isn’t working.

CoCo is not the answer.

photo from daylife.com

Jays fans had their eyes on the past week of the schedule since the winter, when both the Rangers and the Angels went free agent crazy.  With the balance of power seemingly shifting to the West, a week that featured three games against the two-time defending AL Champion Rangers, now with Yu Darvish, and four games against the LA Angels, now with Albert Pujols, was always going to be difficult.

The Jays handled themselves pretty well, and proved to many (including a lot of people in their own fanbase) that they won’t be intimidated by anybody this year.  After a pretty successful week, Toronto gets a bit of a reprieve next week, with series upcoming against Oakland and Minnesota.  Time to go on a run.

Here are three things from week 5:

Week 5: April 30 – May 6

Record: 4 – 3

1. Starting Pitching Supreme!

Heading into the 2012 season, Toronto’s rotation was thought to be a glaring weakness, the one real issue that might stand in the way of a playoff push.  Romero and Morrow provided two dependable arms, but behind them was three spots filled with young, unproven rookies. 

At this point in the season I think we can say we have all been pleasantly surprised.  The Blue Jays rank third in the AL with a 3.55 starting pitcher ERA, fourth in WHIP at 1.18, and second in innings pitched with 187.2.  Jays starters are averaging over 6 innings per start, keeping the bullpen’s usage down.

Last week was a banner week for Jays starters.  Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek each made two starts, and while Hutch struggled a bit to hold the Rangers and Angels down, he kept Toronto in both games and managed to pitch 11.1 IP with only 2 BB and 11 K’s.  Drabek didn’t fare well in his second start, but his first was one of the best of his career as he went pitch-for-pitch with Yu Darvish and finished with 6 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, and 8 K.

But the cream of the crop started mid-week with Ricky Romero on Wednesday.  The numbers will show 5 ER, but he stayed in the game for 8 innings, and lead the Jays to a win over the best team in baseball – the Texas Rangers.  Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez followed him up by pitching back-to-back complete game shutouts in Anaheim.  It was the first time the team has tossed back-to-back complete game shutouts since 1993 when Jack Morris and Al Leiter turned the trick – and the first time they’ve ever accomplished the feat on the road.

1993 ended pretty well.  If this pitching holds up, who knows how 2012 might end?

2. JPA Heating Up

When it comes to slow starts, it’s hard to picture a worse start to a season than what befell J.P. Arencibia.  Toronto’s catcher had a tough Opening Day, going 1 for 7 with 3 strikeouts, but his game winning 3-run bomb in the 16th rendered that moot.  However, three more strikeouts the next day was followed by several more hitless days, and on April 18th JPA’s average had dropped to .063, and his OPS was dreadful .274.

But he had two hits on April 19th, and that sparked a turnaround, culminating in a pretty good week.  Arencibia played in five of the seven games last week, and hit .375 with a 1.037 OPS, 1 HR, 1 2B, 4 R, and 5 RBI.  For the season he is now hitting .234 with a .641 OPS – not great by any means, but much, much better than what he was showing earlier, and actually ranks him 9th among AL catchers with at least 70 AB. 

With Jose Bautista still struggling and Edwin cooling off a little bit, the Jays need other players to step up.  Arencibia is doing a nice job filling the offensive void.

3. Stumbling Out of the Gate

A lot of Blue Jays are still suffering from slow starts, namely Bautista, Lind, Rasmus, and Escobar.  But it’s not only individual players who are off to slow starts.  The team itself is starting to make a habit of starting slowly in individual games. 

Looking at the AL splits tells us that the Blue Jays are the worst team in the American League in terms of offensive production in the first two innings.  The numbers aren’t pretty:

1st Inning: 7 runs scored, .186 average, .582 OPS, 6 double plays

2nd Inning: 3 runs scored, .176 average, .537 OPS, 2 double plays

That is a grand total of 10 runs scored in the first two innings all season long.  Or, in other words, the Jays have scored only 10 runs in 58 first and second innings.  They have yet to produce a multi-run inning in any of their 29 games in either the 1st or 2nd.  Kelly Johnson has 3 solo HR in the 1st inning with an .896 OPS, and Adam Lind (surprisingly) has been the top hitter in the 2nd frame with a .817 OPS.  Other than that nobody is producing at all.

Obviously, this means that the Jays need to play catch up more often than not.  In fact, they have allowed runs in the first inning 7 times this year (8 total runs), and runs in the second inning 12 times (21 total runs), meaning for the season the Jays have been outscored 29-10 heading into the third.  This past week Toronto did not score a first or second inning run in any of the seven games, and allowed 8 runs against.  That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the offense to try and play from behind so often, especially when that offense has been underperforming so badly. 

Falling behind early is not the recipe for sustained success.  Let’s hope the bats wake up a bit earlier into games as the season progresses.

It was the most dominating pitching performance by a Blue Jays starter this season, and one of the most dominating in all of baseball.  Brandon Morrow simply destroyed the Angels last night.

A complete game, 3-hit shutout, with 8 strikeouts, and – most impressively – zero walks.  With the help of two double plays, Morrow faced one over the minimum, only stranded one runner, and only had one man reach second base.  He threw only 102 pitches, 75 of those going for strikes.  He threw a first pitch strike to 21 of 28 batters, and seemed to get stronger as the game went on.

In short, it was the kind of performance that fans have been expecting from Morrow.  It was the kind of performance that the Blue Jays have been expecting from Morrow.  After a bit of a slow stat to the season, is it safe to say that Brandon has finally reached his full potential?

I hope so.  But we can’t say yes just yet.

After all – we’ve seen this from Morrow before.

We’ve seen him completely befuddle the opposition only to fall flat on his face shortly thereafter.  We’ve seen him alternate great games with bad games for far too long.  Inconsistency has proven to be his downfall.

It started right away, in his first month as a Jay.  On April 19, 2010 he beat KC with a 7 inning, 1 run, 3 hit, 2 walk, 8 strikeout gem, only to follow that up with a 6 walk performance in his next start against Tampa.  He finished a good stretch in June by shutting down the Cardinals  (8 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K), only to follow that start with a 6 IP, 5 R (3 earned) clunker against the Indians.  Of course his best game came in August, the complete game, one-hit, 17 K shutout in Toronto vs. the Rays. He didn’t pitch more than 6 innings the rest of the season.

In 2011, hopes were higher, but results were the same.  Nothing screamed “inconsistent” like the stretch of eight starts he made from May 26 to July 4:

May 26 – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K

May 31 – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 9 K

June 6 – 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 K

June 11 – 4.1 IP, 9 ER, 10 H, 3 BB, 4 K

June 18 – 6.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 K

June 24 – 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 K

June 29 – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB 10 K

July 4 – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 5 K

Up, down, up, down, repeat.  Nothing was more frustrating.  He tantalized us with his stuff, taking our breath away.  Then when we came to expect it, he punched us in the stomach with control issues and hittable pitches.  Even so, a great finish to 2011 set him, and us, up for a big 2012.

After the first three starts, it looks like Morrow has finally taken off.  In his fourth start of the season he gave up a leadoff HR in the second inning to Eric Hosmer.

That is the last run he has surrendered – 20.2 scoreless innings have followed.  His season ERA is down to 2.38.  His season WHIP is down to 0.91.  His BB/9 is the lowest it has been ever in his career.  And the strikeouts, while also down overall, are starting to creep back up: 12 in his first 4 starts, 17 in his past 2.

All the signs are there, but can he sustain it?  To be honest, we don’t need him to sustain this pace.  Complete game shutouts are always welcome, but Jays fans will be content with 7 solid innings, night after night.  With the schedule getting a bit tougher (the Jays have series ahead against the Rays, Yankees, Rangers, and Red Sox coming up) the competition will be difficult.

But Morrow seems to be getting it – opponents be damned.

Consider me a believer.

Our old friend @thecraiger was in town over the weekend to take in a Jays game.  Lucky for him he sat right behind Vancouver Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo…or at least a ringer for Bobby Lu.  Needless to say, @thecraiger was not too impressed with him, and makes Bobby last Saturday’s 500 Level Fan of the Game:

Was he a coward? No. Did he let the entire city down? No. Was he a overpaid ‘elite’ NHL goalie who’s wife has such a lack of respect for him that she wouldn’t move to Vancouver to support her husband? No. But wow, did he ever look like the Vancouver Canucks net minder Roberto Luongo. His looks, general demeanor, and mannerisms make me happy to announce the 500 Level Fan of the game simply as ‘Lou’.

His emotions during the Saturday April 28th game against Seattle when a grand slam flew off the bat of Edwin Encarnaceon said it all – he was a laid back dude with no heart or passion for the game- like Lou. However, unlike the real Lou there was no way knowing if this Lou was a person dripping with utter cowardice and arrogance.

Cheers to this Lou, and anti-cheers to his greasy hair, teammates in Vancouver, and the cowardice that is forever embedded in the Luongo name.

Go back.

photo from Reuters Pictures via daylife.com

You’ve heard of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  But to describe last night’s game between the Jays and Rangers, I think we need to expand that a bit.

Last night’s game had it all: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly, the Frustrating, the Thrilling, the Relieving, the Shocking, the Depressing, and the Phenomenal.

Let’s take a look:

The Good

Drew Hutchison – except for the second inning.  The rookie got off to a blazing start, striking out the first four Rangers batters he faced.  And they were tough hitters too: Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, Michael Young, and Nelson Cruz.  Hutchison pitched six innings giving up 7 hits and 2 walks – though 5 of the hits and 1 of the walks came in that second inning.  He showed great composure by shaking off the rough inning and keeping the Jays in the game through six.

The Bad

The afforementioned second inning.  Yikes.  After striking out Cruz to open the inning, Hutchison allowed a single, walk, single, run scoring single, run scoring fielder’s choice, stolen base, two run double, and a run scoring single before getting Michael Young to line out.  When the dust finally settled, Toronto was down 5 – 0.  Ouch.

The Ugly

The defense, by both teams.  Four errors were committed in the game, two by each team – and they were ugly.  Andrus and Napoli flat out dropped ground balls allowing Blue Jays to reach base.  The Jays committed errors on consecutive plays in the 4th leading to the sixth Rangers run.  Plus there were a few pitches that reached the backstop, and a couple of bobbles in the outfield.  Ugly, ugly fielding.

The Frustrating

I guess turn about is fair play.  After leading the league all year in turning defensive double plays, the Jays shot themselves in the foot by hitting into FOUR DP’s last night.  Kelly Johnson grounded into a DP in the bottom of the first.  Then, with the Jays down 5-0 in the 2nd and one on with one out, it was Thames ending the inning with a DP.  Escobar was the culprit in the 5th with the Jays down 6-4.  In the 6th, with the score the same and the Jays threatening with two on and nobody out, rally killer Adam Lind (who went 0-4 and is now down to a .203 average) hit into the tailor made DP. 

The Thrilling

What a comeback.  Down 5-0 to the best team in baseball with one of the best young power pitchers in the game on the hill was a tough spot to be.  But the Jays kept grinding, and not only shook off the early deficit, but also got past the poor defense and all the double plays to finally pull ahead in the 7th.  The best comeback of the season thus far.

The Relieving

Jose Bautista finally, FINALLY, went deep.  After a first inning strikeout in which he looked awful, Bautista followed up Johnson’s bomb in the third with a mammoth shot to the 3rd deck in LF.  It was his first HR since April 23, and he follwed that up with a walk and a deep shot to RF later in the game, showing signs that maybe, just maybe, he’s closer to regaining his silver slugger winning form.

The Shocking

Seriously guys – Craig Gentry?  He put the nail in Toronto’s coffin on Monday with a solo shot in the 7th to make it 4-1.  Then last night he drove in a run with a fielders choice in the 2nd, stole second base, and then scored on an Ian Kinsler double.  Gentry.  The last time any of us saw Gentry, he was being cut by the Cleveland Indians in the movie Major League in 1989:

The Depressing

How else to describe Francisco Cordero?  After Toronto had worked so hard to erase 5-0 and 6-4 deficits, Cordero comes into the game in the 9th and blows the save.  After retiring the first two hitters, three consecutive singles ensure that Cordero allows a run in four of his last five appearances.  He has now blown two saves and has a season ERA and WHIP 5.73 and 1.91 respectively.  You could actually both hear and feel the air go out of the stadium as Cordero colletively kicked all of us fans in the nuts.  Depressing.

The Phenomenal

Brett Lawrie.  Walk off blast.  Jays win.  All is right with the world.

A great game at the ol’ dome last night.  It had it all: an amazing start (4 straight strikeouts for Hutch), a terrible second inning, a Bau home run, a thrilling comeback, a blown save, and a walk off blast by Lawrie.  The crowd wasn’t huge but those of us that were there, after some unpleasant curses thrown at Francisco Cordero for his continued lousiness, went home happy.

One fan in particular missed most of that.  To be fair, she was only like this for the first four innings before the rest of her group arrived, but I don’t know if she knew the first four innings even happened.

The 500 Level Fan of the game yesterday – the Model Employee.  With the lap top fully out and running, she was 100% engaged in what she was doing.  Not content to leave work where it belongs – at the office – she brought it with her to the Rogers Centre, showing her devotion to her career. 

Drew Hutchison striking out three straight powerful Texas Rangers hitters to start the game?  That holds nothing on the latest TPS report.

Kelly Johnson swatting a 3-run bomb to cut the Jays deficit to two runs?  Not as exciting as Microsoft Excel!

Bautista breaking out of his season long slump with a mammoth blast to left field?  No way!  Give me PowerPoint!

Once the fifth inning hit, she was fully engaged with the game, but nothing can take those first four innings away.  Congratulations Model Employee!

photo from canada.com

The fourth week of the 2012 season can be called a reverse sandwich week for the Jays.  Normally the best part of a sandwich is what’s in the middle, but that wasn’t the case last week.

The week began with great promise, as Toronto completed a four game sweep of KC on Monday night, and ended with a flourish – two straight blowout wins over Seattle.  

Too bad about the middle.  Four straight losses, including a three game sweep in Baltimore, that not only crushed Toronto’s momentum – it also destroyed one of 500 Level Fan’s 2012 predictions.  There’s no way the Jays can go 16-2 against the O’s now…

Here are three things from week 4:

Week 4: April 23 – April 29

Record: 3 – 4

1. Edwin on Fire!

We here at 500 Level Fan don’t call him EFMEE (Everybody’s Favourite Man Edwin Encarnacion) for nothing.  Our top notch staff here (a staff of one, by the way) predicted big things for EE this year, and so far he is not disappointing.  Edwin is currently sitting T-3rd in the AL with 7 HR, T-3rd with 20 RBI, and 7th with a 1.005 OPS. 

In addition, while many on the team were scuffling last week, EE definitely was not.  In seven games, Edwin hit for a 1.065 OPS, 3 HR, and 7 RBI, including three consecutive games with a dinger over the weekend – one of them a game changing grand slam. 

For a team that has traditionally had a hard time getting production from the DH spot, the Blue Jays are loving Edwin’s hot start.  And so is Edwin.  Last season he didn’t hit his 7th HR until July 20th and faced constant questions about his productivity, his struggles, and his future with the team.  Now that he has moved into the DH role full time, it looks like there’s nowhere to go but up.

2. Bullpen Woes

Without a doubt, the bullpen was Toronto’s weak spot in 2011.  The failures of the relief corps last year were well documented, as was AA’s quest this offseason to repair it.  While on paper the relievers look much, much better, in reality it’s been the same old story.

Through yesterday’s games, Toronto’s bullpen ranks 4th last in the AL with a 4.52 ERA and fifth last with a 1.34 WHIP.  They have allowed 10 HR, third most in the league, and have already blown five saves, one fewer than the Angels.  Five members of the ‘pen have an ERA greater than 5.00: Cordero, Janssen, Frasor, Santos, and Villanueva.  Luis Perez, Toronto’s best reliever thus far, was roughed up on Friday, just after Cordero – the interim closer with Santos on the DL - blew a 2-run lead in the 9th.

It’s still early, and there is plenty of time for things to turn around.  But this is not the start the Blue Jays were looking for.

3. King Alvarez

He’s only 22 years old but he’s pitching like a much more experienced man.  After another dynamite start yesterday, Henderson Alvarez looks like the real deal.

He has made five starts and has pitched into the 6th inning in all of them.  His one blip was against Tampa, but other than that he has been lights out.  An ERA of 3.62, a WHIP of 1.11, and a composure that is through the roof show that Alvarez is slowly turning into one of Toronto’s most consistent starters.  If the Blue Jays could score any runs for him, the rookie might be 4-1 in 2012.

It’s not all sunshine and lollipops for Alvarez, as some of his peripherals are concerning.  He only has 9 strikeouts to go with 9 walks, for poor 1.00 K/BB and 2.5 K/9 ratios.  He has also hit three batters in 32.1 IP.  But he is showing he isn’t afraid to pitch to contact, and with Toronto’s airtight defense behind him who can blame him?

Again – it’s early.  But Alvarez has turned in enough solid performances to convince many that just maybe Toronto’s rotation – supposed to be a major weakness in 2012 – is actually a strength.