Can Hill Hit 43?

As I mentioned in the last Shitty Loss post, Aaron Hill's 31 home runs have him within grasp of at least the American League record for home runs by a second baseman, which is the 39 that Alfonso Soriano hit for the Yankees in 2002. The Major League record may be a bit more difficult, as National League second basemen Rogers Hornsby and Davey Johnson each hit 42, in 1922 and 1973, respectively.

In the last 5 weeks, or so, of the season, the Blue Jays have 35 games left. 15 of those games are at home, where Hill has hit 19 of his homers. A reasonable expectation of 2 or 3 more hit at the Rogers Centre is not out of the question, I don't think. The home games come against the Yankees, Twins, Orioles, and Mariners, who have given Hill 7 of his home runs this season.

Putting him in the 33-34 home run range with 21 games left on the road, a good chunk of those games come in home run friendly ballparks. 5 games at Fenway Park, 4 games in Arlington, and 2 games at Yankee Stadium. They also have 3 games left at Tropicana Field, 3 at Camden Yards, and 4 at Comerica Park. He has 6 home runs in those ballparks on the year, so I don't think assuming that he'll average about one home run per road series here on out is too crazy, either. Six home runs in those 6 series put him up in the Soriano range at 39 or 40. This season, against the teams the Jays still face on the road, Hill has gone deep a total of 15 times.

So, I don't think that matching (or passing) Soriano's mark is out of the realm of possibility. Coincidentally, on this date in '02, Soriano also had 31 home runs (Johnson had 36, while Hornsby had 32 in his 154 game season), so if Hill just does what he's been doing all year, I think he has a real shot at putting his name in the record book and having at least one positive thing come out of this awful season the Blue Jays have been having.

Also worth noting, Ranger's second baseman Ian Kinsler is not far behind Hill's home run total with 28 of his own (he may even be ahead of Hill had he not spent a few weeks on the disabled list earlier in the season), so if he gets hot, Hill may find himself needing to stay ahead of Kinsler in order to just lead the league in home runs for second basemen.

Shitty Loss: Rain Delay Edition

The game had it's entertaining moments, at least. I wanted nothing more than for Travis Snider to be the hero against Papelbon, but I guess it wasn't to be. Of course, they couldn't go down quietly in the 9th, that's not the Jays way, even though they were pretty lucky to get the bases loaded there.

But man, I keep waiting for Aaron Hill to stop hitting home runs and it still hasn't happened. I don't know if 40+ is possible, but, even with his early season power surge, I didn't think 30 was possible and he has proved me wrong and then some. With Roy Halladay's Cy Young chances and Ricky Romero's Rookie of the Year hopes seemingly fading by the start, seeing if Hill can catch Alfonso Soriano's American League record of 39 long balls or Davey Johnson and Rogers Hornsby's MLB record of 42 is about all Jays fans have left to cheer about in this lost season. With games left in homer friendly parks like Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and the Ballpark in Arlington, you'd have to think he has at least a decent shot.

Shitty Loss: Grand Slam Edition

Can't say I paid too much attention to this one, though I did see Zaun's slam (unfortunately).

Remember when Brandon League had that amazing outing at Yankee Stadium last week? Seems a lot longer than 3 or 4 games ago. League is a weird one, as he's been amazing this season against the Yankees. 8 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts against only 2 walks and 5 hits. That makes his 5.20 ERA for the season seem that much worse.

On the plus side, at least Rzepczynski had another decent start, Carlson didn't shit the bed in his inning, and Hill didn't get hurt in his collision at home with Navarro. You take what you can get at this point, I guess.

Hill & Lind

Because this season is circling the drain, let's take a look at some of the good that's come from it. For now, let's start with the team's top 2 sluggers, Aaron Hill and Adam Lind.

Hill's 28 home runs are good enough for a tie for 3rd in the AL, while Lind's 24 puts him in a tie for 8th. While some of their other stats might not stack up with other players in the top 10 (Hill's OBP is especially low), the fact that the team has two players who are on pace to hit over 30 home runs is so nice after last season's offensive nightmare, where the Jays needed 2 homers from Vernon Wells on the last day of the season just to have one player knock out 20.

As bad as things have looked in the past few months, imagine how much worse things would be without these 2 having break-out seasons. With the disappointing seasons that we've seen from Wells and the departed Alex Rios, the streakiness of Lyle Overbay, and that Kevin Millar has even seen 1 at-bat (let alone however many it's been now) out of the clean-up spot, the fact that we can consistently rely on those 2 guys to drive in runs has made this season seem at least little bit less shitty.

Not that I'll remember any of this when they're going to have their bad seasons that every Jay seems to have every few years, but, for now anyway, cheers to them.

Shitty Loss: Daytime, Extra Inning Edition

Another shitty loss! Is there anything worse than losing a day game like that? I mean, at least if I'm at home watching a game at night, those are likely my plans for the evening. I've got nothing better to do and I've set aside 3 hours or so to sit on my ass and watch baseball. But sitting inside on a beautiful day feels bad enough as it is, seeing another stupid Yankee walk-off win just makes it worse. Especially when the game is about 4 hours long.

At least we got another homer out of Randy Ruiz, and not a cheapo off the foul pole, this time. And Jeter got hurt. And maybe A-Rod. And Romero had another pretty good start. And Burnett didn't get the win. So it wasn't all bad.

I'll just blame this loss on Hill bobbling a likely double play ball in the 1st that let a run score and move on. Sounds good to me.