The Toronto Blue Jays, now losers of 4 of their last 5 and steadily fumbling their way back to .500 baseball, seem to have lost that edge and desire. The team has been marketing their “Hustle & Heart” campaign for most of the season, only for the on-field product to abandon that concept as the season draws to a close.
Their latest effort was downright embarassing, a 13-1 beat-down by the Tampa Bay Rays, a team the Jays have typically played pretty well against so far this season. After taking the first two of a four game set against Texas, the Jays settled for a series split before dropping the first two against Tampa Bay in a three game set to close out their homestand. Typically much better at home than they are on the road, can we expect this sub-par performance to continue when they visit the suddenly hot Baltimore Orioles at Camden yards on Monday?
The team is lacking in motivation at this point. Jose Bautista is the only player with anything left to play for at this point, chasing down Blue Jays club records and career-best numbers. Many of their pitching staff, while having good seasons, likely don’t want to risk an injury in what are essentially meaningless games. Cito Gaston’s run as head coach is approaching it’s conclusion and it seems management is content to ride out the rest of the games with this lineup.
But are they squandering this opportunity? Sure they’re out of it, their position in the AL east is pretty much a lock, the attendance is starting to reflect that. The Jays have a rare opportunity to draw more fans and get more desire and motivation back into the ballclub, simply by inserting some fresh faces. They’ve already shut down Brandon Morrow for the year, why not give your other young arms like Cecil and Romero a rest?
Young pitchers like Kyle Drabek, Zach Stewart and Chad Jenkins could be inserted for a few spot starts down the stretch, while players like JP Arencibia, David Cooper, Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Jackson and Adam Loewen could be slotted in to get them some exposure to major league pitching. Arencibia was already given a brief introduction, and is back with the club now, but has yet to get any significant game time.
There are many different viewpoints on the subject of giving young players major league tryouts, as you have to consider whether they would get better experience by participating in some AA playoff ball should their teams be in contention, or whether exposing them to major league talent too soon could destroy their confidence. On the other hand, they would be playing to smaller crowds, and teams who have playoff spots locked up could also be resting their stars for the post-season, making the competition ramp-up more gradual.
While next year’s lineup for the Jays is not set in stone, one would have to imagine that at least a few spots would be up for grabs, and what better way to get an idea of what you have than to slot in some young players against teams like the Orioles? I’m sure promoting some new young faces could also lead to a spike in attendance figures as the season closes out.
All in all, this year has been a decent one for the Jays, as they’ve shown they have what it takes to compete with the big clubs, and they have a lot of fresh young talent ready to come in and make this team a competitor in 2011 or 2012. GM Alex Anthopolous has made some keen moves thus far, with the additions of Yunel Escobar and Jose Bautista showing their promise.
With Cito ready to ride off into the sunset and take an office position with the club next season, it seems inevitable that the team will start to relax a little in the final few games, but is a happy send off for Cito worth the trade-off of squandering the remaining games on players that will not be with the club heading into next season? Only time will tell, but we may look back on this period as a missed opportunity to accelerate the development of the future of this ball club.
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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. 
TPiddy I agree that we’re wasting our chances here now that we’re out of the race. we need to give our prospects a good taste of what it means to be playing in the big leagues, since they’re the ones that are going to be our keystones of the future.
Maybe with the new coach, whoever it may be.
Yeah, there’s a lot of buzz around who it’s going to be. Many are saying someone of a hispanic background. I’d just like someone who works well with youngsters.
Is it really Cito’s fault the way the season has panned out as much as it is they play in the AL East? I hate blaming teams’ divisions for their performance but I think with Toronto you can make a case for it. When 57 out of 162 games are against the Yankees, Rays and Sox your playoff hopes are already severely hindered.
There is some truth to that but to be honest it’s kind of a double-edged sword. Yeah you play the toughest competition in baseball, but you also learn from the toughest competition in baseball. Or at least, you should.
If the Jays are really modeling themselves after the Tampa Bay Rays, they need to improve on the base paths, big time. Teams like the Yankees and Rays use a good combination of speed and power to get runs. This is why Toronto is lagging in runs scored even though they lead the majors in HR’s. No one’s on base when they do hit the long bomb!
And soon after this article is posted, we see that Drabek gets the nod. Guess they read your article and decided you were right!
Seems like this was just good timing. Drabek’s AA club just got eliminated from the playoffs.