As good as the Blue Jays seemed to be in their 13-3 rout of the Orioles I witnessed last week, when you get right down to it, they're not a very good team this year. Their two flagship players, Josh Donaldson and Marcus Stroman, are hurt, and the core of the team is slumping.
And the weird thing is, that whole portion of Sunday's game where Teoscar Hernandez, Curtis Granderson, Kendrys Morales and Kevin Pillar were all hitting home runs. Kind of a rare occurrence in Toronto. Hernandez and Yangervis Solarte both have 11 home runs, and are tied for HR leaders for the team. Think about this. 2 years ago, this was a team that had Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin, Jose Bautista and Troy Tulowitzki all hitting copious home runs. And now none of them are active on this team. And this is what's happening.
The pitching staff has also suffered. J.A. Happ is still a nice enough ace, but Marco Estrada, while a great strikeout artist, can't stop giving up home runs, Aaron Sanchez and Jaime Garcia are down, Sam Gaviglio's doing modest enough but is beginning to wane, and the bullpen is riddled with injuries, bloated ERAs, and a domestic violence suspension.
The bottom line is that this team is not in good shape. But, they're still able to hit home runs and perform offensively when they need to. It's all or nothing with them- either they blow someone else out or they're the ones that get blown out. They're only really dominating the teams they're better than, like Baltimore, Chicago and Kansas City.
They're fun to watch, and the fans still definitely show up, but...the Blue Jays aren't even what they were in 2015 or 2016. Which means they're barely worth hating anymore.
Coming Tomorrow- Could it be? Is the team that was supposed to be leading the NL East FINALLY leading the NL East? And is their speedy shortstop finally staying healthy?
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