The Toronto Blue Jays do one thing, and they do it well. They hit home runs. The Jays lead the majors in home runs with 188, 20 more than the Boston Red Sox. Jays right fielder Jose Bautista leads all players with 38, 6 more than Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Unfortunately for the Jays, baseball is about a lot more than the home run, as evidenced by last night’s 5-0 blanking of the Jays by the Red Sox. Clay Buchholz, who has a good shot at the AL Cy Young this season, absolutely shut the Jays down in spite of allowing the lead off batter on base in 6 of the first 7 innings. This showcases the problem with the re-tooling Jays line up, as Gaston and company couldn’t manufacture runs against an ace pitcher like Buchholz.
Being in the AL East, the Jays will regularly see the likes of top pitchers like Buchholz, Lester, Sabathia, Garza, Hellickson, Price, Burnett and all of the other powerhouse arms that the Yankees and Red Sox sign (many say it’s only a matter of time before Cliff Lee dons the pinstripes).
While the Jays have been able to counter with solid pitchers of their own in Marcum, Romero, Morrow and Cecil, they just can’t seem to get the job done at the plate. When the hits come, they come in bunches, like their 16-2 beating of the Red Sox, their 17-11 win over Tampa and back-to-back 8 run performances against the Yankees, but so far this has gotten them nowhere as they remain in that comfortable 4th spot in the AL East that they have occupied for the last several years.
When you look at the way teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays are built, you can easily see they have solid combinations of power and speed, and a willingness to use both. The stats seem to indicate that a healthy balance of the two is required in order to win. The Rays are a bit light in the home run department this year, especially with the injury to Carlos Pena, but they lead the majors in stolen bases and they know how to move runners and manufacture runs.
The Yankees have found a good balance between the two, being in the middle of the pack in both home runs and stolen bases. Players like Cano, Jeter and Gardner are complimented by the hitting contingent of Swisher, Texiera and Rodriguez.
Boston, when healthy, can put out speed players like Pedroia and Ellsbury, and counter that with Ortiz, Drew, Beltre and Youkilis providing the power options. Every contending team in the AL East can beat you several different ways. If the long ball isn’t working they’ll grind out at bats, bunt, steal bags, move runners over and manufacture runs any way that they can.
We’ve seen glimpses of this from the Jays this year. Players like Wise and Escobar can provide that speed option at the top of the order and hit for average, but they’ve been far too inconsistent in this area. Anthopolous knows this, and as such has added players like Escobar and Gose to the system to try and balance out the offense. Tyler Pastornicky and David Cooper could also end up being good options to hit for average get on base.
While many fans this season have been treated to a fun and exciting Jays club, watch them go up against the best hurlers in the majors and you quickly begin to understand how this team is still mired in fourth place. Many (including me at times) have blamed Cito for his unwillingness to look for alternatives to the long ball, but we all know that this club will not round into form until after he is gone.
All we can do is trust that Anthopolous sees what we see, and knows how to fix it. If Escobar and Gose are any indication, We should have several winning seasons to look forward to. Until then, let’s all enjoy the light show the Jays put on while we continue to watch this young team develop.
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Born and raised in Northern Ontario but currently living in Toronto, Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. Home to his two favourite sports teams, Tyler revels in the day to day sports experience that is Toronto. 
I dont’ know what it is that they need, but they need something to compliment their ability to yard. That take away and they’re keeping Baltimore company.
At least they made this year’s fourth place finish mildly interesting to follow.
Your’e on the money there. If the Jays had players that not only could have brought the long bomb, but also gotten on base as well, we would have broken the AL Easts longest playoff drought. Please get us a leadoff star A.A!