Pretty Good Moments of 2009: Opening Day

After taking a few days to decompress, I figured it would be a pretty good idea to go back and pick out the few moments of brightness from an otherwise dark season to help remind us why we put ourselves through it day after day.

First up, opening day.

Highlighted by Adam Lind's home run and 6 RBIs, a homer by Travis Snider, hanging 8 earned runs on Justin Verlander, and the biggest crowd of the season, the Jays coasted to a 12-5 win with Roy Halladay pitching. Even Alex Rios and Vernon Wells had great games (2-3 with 2 walks and 2-4 with a walk, respectively)!

Of course, there were also the idiots who thought it would be good idea to throw paper airplanes onto the field and maybe could have caused the Jays to forfeit the game, but we can ignore that.

Roy Halladay Is Pretty Awesome

So, maybe it deserves an * because it was against a Red Sox line-up that had maybe 3 good hitters in it.

And, yes, it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things as Boston had already clinched their trip to Anaheim.

But if that was the last start Roy Halladay makes in a Toronto Blue Jay uniform (and I hope to hell that it isn't), what a way to go out.

Maybe the highlight of the year was seeing him bean Ortiz. How could you not love that? He's one of the best pitchers in baseball and maybe the best player in team history, he doesn't have to do that. None of his teammates and none of the fans would have lost any respect for him if he had just went about his business. But there he was, sticking up for Adam Lind after that bullshit with Papelbon the night before.

He's not going to win the Cy Young this year (again), although I think you could make a decent case for him, but if that was his Blue Jay swansong, well, it was pretty fucking awesome.

Shitty Loss: Complete the Sweep Edition

Didn't watch this one (couldn't, anyway), but it seems like it was more of the same old same old we've been seeing against the Rays all season. 4-14 vs. the defending AL champs this season.

The Rays also became the first team to beat Roy Halladay four times in a season.

And Marco Scutaro got hurt, which means that we'll get to see some wacky line-up combinations for as long as he's out (say hello to Jose Baustista, lead-off hitter).

And Travis Snider sat again, wouldn't want him to get any at-bats against Major League left-handers.

At least the Jays are done with the Rays for the season. That's something to be happy about.

Shitty Loss: 09/09/09 Edition

9 strikeouts (and 9 hits allowed). 9 innings. A chance to go to 9-0 against the Twins.

It would have been nice if the offense could have helped him out. Aside from a pretty good night from Travis Snider (and, I guess, Encarnacion's triple), the Jays made Carl Pavano look like, well, Roy Halladay, and probably put the final nail in the coffin of Doc's Cy Young chances this year.

At least this one was over quickly.

I've Heard This Kevin Millar Guy Isn't Very Good

Kevin Millar has been pretty awful in 2009, I think we can all agree on that. Signing him in the first place might not have been the worst decision in the world (and he's hardly making any money, baseball-wise), but having him on the 25 man roster for the whole season while putting up a line of .215/.297/.354 may be. That would be bad enough, but the fact that the majority of his at-bats have come in the clean-up spot since Scott Rolen was traded to the Reds, it's inexcusable.

However, it really doesn't make a difference in the long run and it's really nothing worth getting upset about. At this point in the season, the Jays are an awful team. Putting a superior hitter in place of Millar (which really isn't that hard) only makes them a little less awful and does it really matter if the Jays finish the season with 70 or 72 wins?

More important things to worry about are Travis Snider sitting (especially against righties, but he should also be getting some hacks in against lefties whenever he has the chance), whatever bullshit is going on with Jeremy Accardo and Cito Gaston, if Vernon Wells is going to continue to be terrible going forward, what a post-Doc rotation might look like in 2010 or beyond, and whether or not guys like Carlson, Janssen, and League can rebound in the bullpen going into next season (and I'm sure there are a million other things that I'm forgetting).

Kevin Millar is awful and a guy like Randy Ruiz should be getting his ABs, instead, but he's not the (main) reason that the Jays suck and he's not going to be a member of this team going forward. Pull your hair out over something else.

That's Why!

It's not going to make a difference in the standings or keep the Yankees out of the playoffs or even go down in any history books as it was 'just' a one-hitter, but wow, that's why I keep watching, I guess.

Just an amazing job shutting down the best team in baseball. Awesome.

Kübler-Loss

I think we're all familiar with the stages of grief, even if only from that old episode of the Simpsons where Homer eats bad sushi. Since this season has been as about as enjoyable as one long post-season 9 or so Simpsons episode, let's try and pinpoint where we entered each stage. Fun!

Stage 1: Denial

I'm saying at the end of the 0-9 Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore road trip. There were a lot of warning signs during those 9 games. The hitting disappeared until the final game, the bullpen had a couple of collapses, and the team lost 2 Roy Halladay starts. Still, they came back and won the first 2 games of a series at home against Boston and I was convinced everything was fine. They were only a few games back in the division and I just figured the offense went to sleep because their timing was messed up by having to face Tim Wakefield's knuckleball in the first game of the trip. Everything was going to be fine.

Stage 2: Anger

This one is a little tougher. I'd say it was sometime in June, maybe around the time of Doc's groin injury. They were losing a lot of games that it seemed like they would have been winning earlier in the year and were about the only American League team to be having trouble in Interleague play, including losing 2 of 3 to the lowly Washington Nationals. I think my anger was placed towards weaker teams in weaker divisions who hadn't started to fall out of the race so soon.

Stage 3: Bargaining

Let's see. There was a long stretch where it seemed like they could have won almost every game that they ended up losing and by mid-July or so, it was getting to be too much. I know I was blaming most of the losses on bad luck and was telling myself that the team was better than this. That if they held on to Halladay and Rolen and Rios and made a few tweaks, things would even themselves out next season. They had to (I'm 99% sure I was saying the same thing last year, just with A.J. Burnett).

Stage 4: Depression

Easily around the trade deadline. I was coming around to the idea of trading Doc, but it wasn't easy. I had visions of him putting on a 'Philadelphia Phillies 2009 World Series Champions' hat and I didn't like it. The team was going through this stage, too, and you can really see it in how they've played defensively since Rolen was traded. Also, more blowout losses, including Halladay getting rocked a few times, which is really a kick in the nuts, especially since it's probably cost him any kind of shot at the Cy Young award (or, at least, a 20 win season).

Stage 5: Acceptance

I probably reached this one pretty recently. Where I used to getting frustrated when I'd see Kevin Millar's name penciled in as the club's clean-up hitter, now I'm just resigned to the fact that it doesn't really matter. The team has played like shit with better hitters in that slot, I'm not sure having one of the worst hitters on the team in there is going to make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Same deal with Jeremy Accardo not getting a September call-up. I know it's an incredibly stupid and petty thing to do, but I can't bring myself to get too upset. Maybe they can get something decent for him in an off-season trade. This also applies to Cito's obsession with using guys like Carlson and League, even though they clearly didn't deserve to be used in high leverage situations.

So, there we go. I think it's pretty accurate in how I was feeling towards the team at the time. I don't know if it took my longer to come around than most fans, it probably did, but I think any early season glimpse of the playoffs is going to send me over the edge until this team finally makes it. And, you know what, I'll probably go through this all over again next season. I never learn.

Shitty Loss: WTF Edition

I didn't think it was possible for Roy Halladay to have a bad a start as that one (even though he was mostly nickled and dimed to death in the first inning). The whole team has really gone into the tank after losing a bunch of close games to fall out of the race, the Doc trade rumours, the Rolen trade, and the Rios stuff.

That second inning sure was nice, though!

Shitty Loss: Roy Halladay Edition

I don't think I ever defined what I consider a shitty loss. Basically, since the Jays have seemed to lose an inordinate amount of games by 3 runs or less over the past 2 months, or so, I figured that was a good criteria. I will make an exception, though, for any game in which Roy Halladay loses.

Despite his 7 strikeouts, Doc clearly didn't have it in this one. Going less than 7 innings for the first (non-injured) time in about 20 years is pretty noteworthy for him. I don't know, maybe the start looks a little better if the ump doesn't blow that call on Youkilis at first, but the Sox seemed to have his number most of the night.

Not that the hitters bailed him out at all, squandering the few chances they had to try and make a game out of it, Encarnacion being the biggest culprit.

Hard to take anything positive out of this one, unlike the last few games where there was something you could point to that looked good. Maybe Wells getting a hit with RISP, as pathetic as that is, was the highlight for the Jays.

Another Shitty Loss

Well, I can't say that this one was any more of a nut punch than any of the other shitty losses this team has had in the past month or so. I guess they always sting a little more when Doc is on the mound, though. The first inning sucked, with A-Rod maybe being out when trying to get back into 2nd but being called safe and then a few bobbled balls that let him score (maybe Millar should have let Hill play that one). And then bringing the tying run to the plate in the 8th, but not having Overbay hit for Millar (although Millar had a decent at-bat, at least, before striking out [side note: was it just me, or did they Jays get caught looking a ton in this game?]). Wells's double was nice, but you can never really expect to come back against Rivera. Same thing with the 9th inning and getting the 2 guys on for Hill (I know we all had visions of a walk-off shot, but the guy's going to the Hall of Fame for a reason).

Again, the margin of defeat was razor thin (you have to go back to June 27 to find a game they've lost by more than 3 runs), enough to make me think the team just needs some minor tweaking on the offensive side to contend next year. I'm probably delusional, but what other choice has this team given me over the past 15 years?

The Roy Halladay Situation

The media has been piling on J.P. Ricciardi over his handling of the Roy Halladay trade deadline situation. And while I agree that it was unfair that Doc had to go through what seemed like months of 'will he or won't he be traded', I have to wonder how much of that was the fault of the media. They're the ones who took what J.P. had been saying before the season started ("We probably won't trade him unless we're blown away by an offer") and ran it into the ground. Obviously, looking for a story, they started frothing at the mouth and took an opportunity to dream up trade scenarios with half the teams in baseball and when none of those teams were willing to cough up fair value (or, at least, what J.P. decided was fair value) they decided to blame the whole mess on the GM, because God forbid he make them look stupid after basically every one of them said that Doc was as good as gone.

On top of that, all of this has overshadowed the seemingly great Scott Rolen trade that was made with the Reds (Baseball Prospectus called it 'The Worst Deadline Deal'). Getting 2 potential closers for an injury prone, soon-to-be 35-year old 3B could be a steal but no one is paying any attention to that when listing the Jays among their 'Losers' at the trade deadline.

Anyway, back on topic, I just don't get the thought process that somehow makes not trading your best player just for the sake of trading him bad for your team and you have to love the media ignoring their role in how public it all was.