It's been sometime since I posted here and My 1st thread since being made a Team Leader for the Jays board, don't know why but they chose me so treat me well. And to tell the truth I been more focused on the upcoming NHL season than Baseball


The Blue Jays with a record of 73-74 after tonight's loss to Baltimore was officially eliminated from the Wild Card.

Only one word sums up the season, disappointment, Vernon Wells stands out like a sore thumb (I use that loosely, more on it later). After signing sure a big contract extension how can people not point the finger at him well he shouldn't be the only getting the blame. General manager J.P. Ricciardi has more money than ever to build a team but can't EVEN get close to the Playoff race at all, you can blame the division but someone has to go against New York and Boston. The thing that gets me really heated about J.P. is complete disregard for the fans, lying about major injuries and letting it all side under the door is just wrong.

It first came up in Spring Training with closer B.J. Ryan and his elbow which turned out to need Tommy Johns' surgery, and yet they still allowed Ryan to pitch through Spring Training and the 1st week of the season telling the truth and now Vernon Wells needs to have his shoulder fixed and they knew about this before his contract extension and are only talking about it now.

Signing Royce Clayton, just for signing Clayton is bad enough but expecting him to be a starter, yeah great job on building a winner J.P. then the John Thomson crap, mistreating, not giving him one chance to prove he belong just to save 1 million dollars in bonus money. Great Work

Then in July J.P. completely called out A.J. Burnett publicly about his injuries, that's just not sometimes a GM should do, especially the GM who signed said pitcher. Should have kept behind doors and be a good little boy J.P.

Manager John Gibbons for all the injuries he had to deal with over came a big weakness of dealing with the bullpen which was one of the best in AL this season, at least he has shown grown as a manager but sometimes he still looks and acts way too green to be a manager. With all the injuries it's hard to blame him for how the season turned so it looks like Gibbons is off the hook according to the Jays' front office.

Tory Glaus has been battling his foot and heel all season long and now this steroid stuff coming out, makes his season even worse.

Reed Johnson and Lyle Overbay had they own long term injuries to deal, Johnson with his back and Overbay with his hand, both haven't been the same at all, both are hitting around .240, still provides great defense but they might have come back a little too early especially Overbay.

Gregg Zaun also broke his hand this season and that hurt the Jays but as a result it made room for rookie Curtis Trigpen to come up from AAA and show the team why he was drafted in the 2nd round. Trigpen showed his arm off right away by throwing out runners which Zaun can't do. Trigpen has shown enough to probably battle for a roster spot next year.

Then injuries to the pitching staff, Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Gustavo Chacin,


Time for some good points
Matt Stairs - deserves his own thread for what he has done, won a roster spot in Spring Training after signing a MLC, awesome player to have around the clubhouse, has stepped up when injuries hit hard with Johnson and Overbay namely.

Alex Rios - what a jump he took in play this season, 2nd time named to the all-star team and finished as the runner up in the homerun derby to Vladdy. Looking like the face of the team right now. He's been amazing, one area of concern is his consistency, HR totals been up and down, on the other hand Rios has been up and down the lineup all season, hitting anywhere from 1st to 6th.

Aaron Hill - my god has he grown as a player this season, providing great defense and hitting a ton for a contact hitter, if he was more well known his name may have come up for the all-star team or a Gold Glove, he's one to look out in the near future.

Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, and Jeese Litsch - grouping them toegther since they have worked out great from injuries to the rotation, especially McGowan his career just took off this season a big turn around during the season, suddenly looking from a career AAA pitching to a no. 2 starter. Then Marcum and Litsch are proving they belong with teh team, Litsch's record doens't look impressive (5-9) but he's been getting little to zero run support.

The Bullpen outside of Jason Frasor has been great this season, Accardo has stepped up to the closer after Ryan's injury and Frasor's failure, Janssen is looking great too, supposed to be Brandon League's outcoming party this season turned out to better for Accardo and Janssen, the future of the bullpen is looking very good with those 3.


My final words

Fire General manager J.P. Ricciardi.

He cried about money and he got it, cried again and got more, and what has he done, nothing.