Toronto Blue Jays

As Archi Zuber mentioned in today’s The Morning After post, some intrepid businessperson on the internet– specifically, a site called Teespring– has been selling a t-shirt that appears to be a total fucking… um… homage to the little Edwin Taking The Parrot For A Walk GIF that blew up the internet (relatively) late last month, having been conceived and executed, as I noted at the time, by Zubes and fellow DJFer Scott Johnson way back on May 1st. No, really, I can’t possibly imagine where the idea came from: At the time of writing this person has sold more than $3000 worth of the damn thing, which serves as a lesson well-learned for our lazy asses, but is also… I don’t know… probably kinda bullshit. It’s not atypical, though, as it seems like knocked-off Jays paraphernalia is all the rage. Or… at least is kind of a thing. Witness, for example, these items I was alerted to the other week from reader Tristan, who explained to me that he “was down in San Francisco for the Jays’ mini-series and came across something weird I thought I’d throw your way. Got pulled into Urban Outfitters by my girl…and saw these hugely weird shirts riffing on the Jays’ logo (see attached). Some brand called Staple Pigeon. I’d never heard of it.” “Came home,” he adds, “looked it up and apparently it’s a thing.” That looks… uh… familiar. By which I, of course, mean, like another total fucking homage. And, to be perfectly clear, I have no idea what is in or out of bounds, legally, when it comes to stuff like this– nor do I particularly care. Knock-offs for all, I say! It’s just… weird. Tristan followed up his initial email with another What The Shirt? thing. “Not that I’m trying to avail myself to you as some go-to fashion tipster,” he wrote, “but I’m back in town and stopped in at the Drake General Store on Bathurst last night… only to see this (kind of awesome) montrosity:” The J. Peterman-esque copy from the Drake General Store site explains it thusly:  ”Stand apart from the fair-weather fans with our unique take on the classic Blue Jays logo tee. An inside-out print and Japanese characters add a dose of Drake quirkiness, and our supersoft Supima cotton means this top is as delightful to wear as it is to look at. Pairs well with peanuts and Cracker Jacks.” Ugh. Also… what the shirt? Maybe these sorts of items have always have been a thing and I’ve just never noticed. Or, at the very least, never been so bereft of content as to write a post about it. Gotta be one of those, right?

Come on swing it, 1 - 2 - 3 - now we come to the pay off. Juan Nicasio (4-2, 4.86) gets the ball for Colorado. The Jays go with southpaw Mark Buehrle (3-4, 4.66) and his assortment of funk at 7:07 pm Eastern.

Mark Buehrle has made 14 starts, and it nicely breaks down the middle, his first 7 starts , sucked and 7 starts that have been very good. The demarcation line was his 7th start, and more precisely, the 7-run inning he allowed against the Rays, an inning that included a grand slam and a 2-run homer. The amazing thing about that inning was that Mark was allowed to finish the inning and he went on to throw 3 more innings, allowing just one hit. How often does that happen? How often does a manager leave a pitcher in to give up 7 runs and how often does he leave the guy in to pitch more innings after that? I only found 2 other games (though there might be a couple more, the ADD kicked in and quit searching), this season, where a pitcher was allowed to give up 7 runs in an inning without being pulled in the middle of it. After 7 games, Mark had an ERA 7.02, in the 7 games, and I kind of figured that Buehrle wasn't cut out for the AL East. In the 7 games since his ERA is 2.54. That's a pretty big difference. What's different? In the first 7 games he gave up 11.6 hits/9 innings, in the last 7 games it's been 7.4. In those first 7 games, he allowed 11 home runs, in the 7 since he's only allowed 1. Other things: Column1 First 7 games Next 7 games Ground Ball % 32 43 Fly Ball % 47 32 Line Drive % 20 11 Less hard hit balls makes for more success, hard to imagine. What's caused the change? I don't know. I guess the easy suggestion would be that the 7-run inning gave Mark a kick in the pants. Maybe he decided he didn't want to get embarrassed like that any more. I don't know, sounds hard to believe that he just suddenly decided he didn't want to suck anymore. Maybe Zaun is right and JP has finally learned how to catch him. Nah, I don't believe that either. More likely, like just about everyone else on the team, he got off to a slow start and has turned it around. I doubt he'll keep this up the rest of the way, allowing just 1 home run in 46 innings doesn't seem sustainable, but then I'd hope he won't go back to giving up a home run every 3.5 innings. It does look like he could make it to 200 innings again, when earlier in the season I figure he had no change of continuing that run. What do you think caused the change?

Mark Buehrle takes on Dominican right hander Juan Nicasio tonight as the Blue Jays look to continue streaking. Nicasio signed as an amateur free agent in 2006 and this season marks his third in the big leagues. He's had some unfortunate injuries the last couple years that have limited his starts including this scary fall that resulted in a fractured vertebrae: via thebiglead.fantasysportsven.netdna-cdn.com So far this season Nicasio has pitched alright in 14 starts racking up an ERA of 4.86 and a FIP of 4.43. His walk (3.28 BB/9) and strikeout (6.20 K/9) are both pretty mediocre and Nicasio looks to be a solid option for a young back of the rotation pitcher. His velocity has also taken from a nosedive from the days where he used to hit 100 as a reliever: His repertoire is mainly fastball-slider with some sinkers and changeups thrown in. It's a little hard to find out how Nicasio has survived this season going through lineups two or three times with only a two pitch offering against right handers. His slider doesn't look to be very dominant and it doesn't get many whiffs. via www.fangraphs.com He also pounds the zone with his fastball rarely missing the zone: via www.fangraphs.com Should Lind Play: Yea Nicasio is a righty and Adam Lind is now playing against both righties and lefties so he's going to play. On to the hopeful lineup: Cabrera LF Bautista RF Lind 1B Encarnacion DH DeRosa 3B Rasmus CF Izturis 2B Thole C Kawasaki SS For today's "Find the Link": Find the link between Juan Nicasio and our loveable Georgian centre-fielder. This is going to be an interesting game to watch (although I won't get to) because I have no idea how Nicasio has been able to shut down offenses (a mid 4 ERA is still surprising to me) so much this season. If any Rockies' fans are lurking around here, post a comment letting us know how Nicasio has looked this year. Streaking!

"Not the box factory again, Seymour." Game Of The Week returns with the June 11th game against the White Sox in Chicago. This game featured the Blue Jays debut of onetime New York sinkerballer Chien-Ming Wang, opposed by Chicago lefthander Jose Quintana.The scoring began in the second inning with Toronto up to bat. Mark DeRosa reached on an error by the shortstop Alexi Ramirez and moved up to third base on an Adam Lind double. This brought up J.P. Arencibia with one out and two runners in scoring position. Quintana unleashed a pitch that White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers should've handled but didn't, scoring DeRosa and putting the Blue Jays in flight. After an Arencibia strikeout, Maicer Izturis hit a deep single to score Lind and extend the lead. 2-0 Toronto.In the bottom of the second inning a big swing from Adam Dunn connected squarely on a ball and usually when that happens the baseball goes a long way. This one sailed well over the centrefield wall for a solo home run. 2-1 Toronto.The bottom of the fourth began just as I finished work that evening. We had a television with the game on so I decided to watch an inning there before dashing home to catch the rest of the game. With one out Alex Rios singled, stole second and advanced to third on a flyball to right field. Adam Dunn walked (do two things really, really well I suppose) and Dayan Viciedo singled in Rios, tying the game at 2-2. That brought up Chicago third baseman Connor Gillaspie who turned his bat on an 1-1 Wang sinker up and inside (it doesn't sink much up there), poking it over the rightfield wall for a three run shot. 5-2 Chicago. In my ten minutes free from work I'd witnessed the Blue Jays go from a one run lead to a three run deficet. I cursed "Man this team sucks" under my breath and went on my way home. I missed the next few innings but to summarize: Melky Cabrera doubled in the top of the fifth inning and later scored on an Encarnacion home run. 5-4 Chicago. Then both teams got some hits and some runners on but there were some pitcher strikeouts and ground balls hit to fielders and slow jogs down the first base line oh and a lot of people in baseball uniforms ran on and off the field. Yep. To the top of the eighth!Still trailing 5-4, the Blue Jays opened against White Sox reliever Matt Thornton with Rajai Davis, who singled into right field. Adam Lind stayed in the game to face the lefty Thornton and thousands of Blue Jays fans everywhere screamed for manager John Gibbons and his head. Fortunately Adam Lind is invincible to right-handed, left handed and three handed pitchers these days, as he smoked another line drive into left field. Runners at first and second, nobody out. A prime spot for Toronto to tie the game or even take the lead for J.P. Arencibia.On the first pitch from Thornton, Rajai Davis took off for second base and so surprised the defence that there was no throw from the catcher, nor did Davis even bother to slide. It was if he was taking a jog down his neighbourhood street to get ninety feet away from tying the game, still with nobody out. Then it was Arencibia Time. I believe it was a 2-0 count when Arencibia swung and missed a breaking ball in the dirt. No big deal. Then on 2-1 (I think) Arencibia swung and missed the exact same pitch. Again, no big deal. On 3-1 you're probably looking for a fastball and Thornton's probably looked like it was coming right into J.P's sweet spot before dropping into the dirt. After a high fastball that missed it was a 3-2 count and as a hitter you've got to think. You've got to be aware that the only pitch the guy on the mound has fooled you with is that breaking ball in the dirt, and on 3-2 a pitcher is extremely likely to go back to the only pitch that has worked against you in the at-bat. Makes sense, right? It sure didn't make sense to Arencibia, though. Thornton threw that same pitch in the exact same spot on 3-2, and J.P chased it again and swung just as it bounced in front of home plate. One unproduc

There’s more than one way to skin a cat is a saying that exists. Why the heck that’s a saying, or how it came to be one, is beyond me, but it’s worth keeping in mind when it comes to daily fantasy leagues. Case in point: when I first started playing DraftStreet, I wanted the glory and the big gains. Entering the “standard” format pools where only the top few performances are paid out, I was getting a little frustrated that finishing, say, 10th out of 100 people wasn’t upping my bankroll. After all, being consistently near the top is probably more impressive than occasionally being the top performer. So I lowered my cash out expectations and switched primarily to the “double-up” pay-out format, whereby the top 50% of players get paid out double their entry fee. The gains are much smaller, but in the long run it’s probably a better strategy for me since I’m confident I can continue to beat half the field. Like with the pay-outs, there are a few ways to gain enough points to double up. Usually you’ll need around 40 points, but to be safe let’s say 48, or four points from each roster position. And since pitchers are generally more expensive than hitters (at least, there are fewer cheap options to exploit), let’s say your three pitcher spots need to get you 15 points, leaving about three points per position player. Below are a few different ways you can get to five points from a starter and should really highlight that you’re aiming for strikeouts and a long start over anything else. Wins are valuable but much tougher to predict reliably. 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K, Loss – 4.85 points 7 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 K, Loss – 5.2 points (that’s a net gain for an extra inning with a H, BB, ER and K) 6 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 8 K, No Decision – 5.5 points (a net gain despite a worse start thanks to the no decision) 5 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 K, Loss – 5.15 points (in a short outing, a pitcher really has to dominate) The Daily Five Kevin Correia – $9,035 Picking Correia borderline makes me sick to my stomach because I don’t believe he’s very good. But despite their being 16 games on the MLB slate today, DraftStreet hasn’t given us many cheap options. Correia has a strong wind blowing inward at Target Field and gets a struggling White Sox line-up that has just a .288 wOBA as a team in June (.290 for the season). They are anemic. Correia doesn’t get many strikeouts but he does average more than six innings per start, so if you dial him up you’re looking for him to go seven strong and keep the ratios in check. Jake Westbrook – $9,903 Hey, you’re holding Michael Wacha down, you better perform. Like with Correia, this isn’t a slam dunk but between them you’ve kept your starters under $20k, leaving you ample cash on a day that should be quite friendly to hitters. It’s a bit warm in St. Louis but there’s a light wind blowing inwards, and there’s also the relative weakness of the Cubs line-up. Though their isolated slugging indicates a team with some pop, they rarely take a walk and have a team OBP under .300. Rickie Weeks – $5,085 Erik Bedard loves to give up fly balls. It’s kind of his thing. It’s also a terrible strategy today in Houston, with 85-degree temperatures and a 9MPH wind blowing straight out to centerfield. The Brewers are priced pretty appropriately for the match-up except for Weeks, who slides in cheap because he’s struggled this year. But we know he has pop and he’s actually been hitting lefties really well so far this season, plus has historically put the ball in the air a lot more than he is right now. Colby Rasmus – $8,442 My Toronto Blue Jays are red hot right now, and Colby Smashmus is right in the thick of that streak. His price has risen in daily leagues as a result, but a meeting with Juan Nicasio, a man who has allowed a .191 isolated slugging against lefties for his career, is too nice to pass up. Sure, Colby whiffs a lot and looks like a wet rat with his current hair and facial hair, but he can also ra

There have been a great deal of compelling stories surrounding the Blue Jays this year both of the uplifting and depressing variety. There have been more depressing stories than uplifting ones in the overall scheme of things but the team has settled in nicely of late and it's hard to complain.There is no denying that from shocking under-performance, to horrifying injuries, to surprising contributors, it has been an interesting season for the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays. Interesting seasons are a good things for fans, but the more big narratives there are the more the little ones fall through the cracks. That brings me to today's topic. Melky Cabrera. Melky Cabrera has cruised through his first season with the Blue Jays so far without attracting a great deal of attention. He has played through some leg problems, but he has generally hit near the top of the lineup and has avoided either the ire or praise of most Blue Jays fans. This is quite interesting because so far Melky Cabrera has been positively awful. In 2013 Cabrera has gone about being a poor player in the stealthiest way possible, by hitting for a solid batting average and not doing anything else well. Even in the current day and age, batting average is often the first stat that fans are exposed to and with a .275 average going into last night's game Cabrera looks like a respectable top of the order presence. The problem is everything else he does. Here is the rest of his line in 2013: OBP SLG ISO wOBA wRC+ WAR .320 .370 .094 .304 89 -0.1 Cabrera is putting on a clinic in the concept of "empty average". He really isn't walking enough and he isn't hitting for much in the way of power either. To be fair to Melky, his WAR number is depressed by poor fielding and base running scores that are probably affected by the fact he is playing through leg injuries. Base running in particular has always been a strength of his so it's likely to rebound as the season continues and he gets healthier. Even so, by the Fangraphs version of WAR Cabrera has been as valuable to the Blue Jays this year as Henry Blanco. What sort of confuses me is how this isn't really news. The Blue Jays have a lead weight sitting in their leadoff hole and it seems to be slipping through the cracks. Cabrera was expected to regress from his career year in 2012 where he had an unsustainable .379 BABIP but I think most saw him as at least an average offensive player going forward. Unfortunately, he hasn't been particularly close to average. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that this is not about PED's. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I don't think we have any idea how to quantify the effect of PEDs or neat stopping and starting points for guys who have used them. It seems like a lazy way to explain things and I don't think things are that simple with Melky. Now that we've established the extent of Cabrera's struggles, the more interesting question is what the cause of his struggles is. When analyzing changes in how a hitter is performing the first place I like to look is his strikeout and walk rates. A radical change in either of these rates can signify a change in approach or ability to make contact that could explain changes in performance. Here are Melky's walk and strikeout rates over the last three years as well as his career rates: Year BB% K% 2011 5.0% 13.3% 2012 7.2% 12.6% 2013 6.4% 12.4% Career Stats 7.3% 12.1% Melky is walking a bit less than he has in the past, but not a significant amount. He is striking out approximately the same amount as well. If we acknowledge that Cabrera hasn't changed his approach very much the next logical place to look is the batted ball data. Here are what Cabrera's batted balls look like over the same time period: Year BABIP LD% GB% FB%

Batter pLI WPA Cabrera – LF 0.34 0.033 Bautista – RF 0.48 -0.031 Encarnacion – 1B 0.44 0.138 Lind – DH 0.34 0.063 DeRosa – 3B 0.27 0.052 Pitcher pLI WPA Davis – CF 0.34 -0.005 Rogers – SP 0.47 0.200 Arencibia – C 0.23 0.063 Loup – SP 0.20 -0.003 Izturis – SS / 2B 0.18 -0.015 Oliver – RP 0.17 0.013 Bonifacio – 2B / LF 0.20 -0.015 Delabar – RP 0.10 0.007 Total 0.32 0.283 Total 0.38 0.217 Bests / Worsts of the game after the jump! GBOOT: Esmil Rogers, 20.0% Griffin: Jose Bautista, -3.1% Impact At-Bat: Edwin Encarnacion RBI Double, Bot 1, 9.4% Impact Pitch: Nolan Arenado GIDP, Top 2, -6.7% Highest Leverage AB: Arenado GIDP, Top 2, 1.57 Highest Leverage Opp. AB: Jose Bautista Groundout, Top 1, 1.57 Lineup Contribution: 28.3% Pitching Contribution: 21.7% Average Leverage Index: 0.35 Chart explanation - Esmil Rogers’ line: 6.2ip, 4h, 2er, 5k, 1bb, 89 pitches, 4 swinging strikes, 60 game score, 2.01FIP. - Jeff Francis’ line: 6.0ip, 10h, 8er, 3hr, 2k, 88 pitches, 5 swinging strikes, 22 game score, 8.89FIP. - Esmil Rogers turned in his most impressive performance in the starting rotation, taking a no-hitter into the 6th inning. Jonathan Herrera broke it up with a line drive single with one out, and Rogers lasted until the middle of the 7th. Working with a 8-0 lead, Rogers gave up a ground-rule double to Carlos Gonzalez, and then back-to-back singles to Michael Cuddyer and Wilin Rosario. He managed two ground ball outs before giving way to Aaron Loup to clean up the inning. Darren Oliver and Human Victory Delabar mopped up the 8th and 9th. The Jays arms combined to hold the Rockies to just 4 hits. - The offense woke up in a big way after sputtering in the first game of the series. The party got started with 5 straight hits from Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind, Mark DeRosa, Rajai Davis, and J.P. Arencibia in the 1st inning and a 4-0 Jays lead. - Encarnacion (19) took the parrot for a stroll (t-shirts being sold by someone else are available now!) in the 5th, Arencibia (15) and Maicer Izturis (4) went back-to-back in the 6th to put the 8th nail in Jeff Francis’ coffin for the night. - Arencibia put together a 3-for-4 night at the plate with a pair of RBI. Encarnacion went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI. 58 RBI for EE through 70 games. - The Jays managed 11 hits as a team. Cabrera also had 2, Bautista and Bonifacio were the only hitters to not get on base. - Despite 11 runs the two teams maintained a quick pace, getting in and out in 2:20. - Almost 23,000 in attendance to see the Rockies on a Tuesday night. - For the 2nd game in a row nothing gif worthy happened. - The (34-36) Blue Jays win their 7th straight and move within 2 games of .500. The projected match-up for the series closer is Mark Buehrle (4.48FIP, 0.6fWAR) v Juan Nicasio (4.44FIP, 0.9fWAR). {All numbers via Fangraphs}

A 3-2 night for the affiliates featured two overtime victories and a six-run rally in the ninth. Dunedin needs a victory today to clinch their first-half division title. The bad news was a shutout loss and an overtime loss. Gwinnett 2 Buffalo 0Buffalo, NY ? Dave Bush (7-5) did his best to keep the Bisons in it. He pitched six scoreless frames before the Braves broke through for a run in the seventh. Bush's final line was 6 1/3 innings of five-hit ball, two walks and two hit by pitches along with five strikeouts and eight groundouts. Lefty Buddy Caryle stranded both Bush runners but served up a solo homer in the eighth among his two hits in 1 2/3 innings. He had also a punchout. Brad Lincoln walked one and struck out two in a shutout ninth.The Bisons had just three hits with Anthony Gose getting a double and Mauro Gomez and Ryan Goins picking up singles. Sean Ochinko walked twice and Jim Negrych walked once. Luis Jimenez was 0-for-4 but stole a base. Moises Sierra was also 0-for-4. Ricardo Nanita and Mike McCoy were hitless in their three plate appearances. McCoy replaced Andy LaRoche at second, who hurt his arm throwing according to a tweet from Amy Moritz (@amymoritz) of The Buffalo News.Altoona 5 New Hampshire 4 (10 Innings)Altoona, PA ? New Hampshire scored three times in the ninth to take a 4-3 lead but the Pirates affiliate scored a run to tie it before walking it off in overtime. Marcus Walden pitched 7 2/3 innings and surrendered three runs on seven hits and two walks. Two of those runs were the result of a home run. He struck out four and collected six groundball outs. Lefty Evan Crawford got the final out of the eighth but gave up a double to start the ninth. Dustin Antolin gave up the game tying single for the blown save. Tyson Brummett took over in the tenth and could only retire one hitter as the Curve produced the winning run on three hits. New Hampshire's first run did not come until the eighth when A.J. Jimenez lifted a sacrifice fly. Brian Van Kirk gave the Fisher Cats the short-lived lead with a three-run homer, his first of the season. Kevin Pillar had three of New Hampshire's 10 hits and Van Kirk had two. Adam Loewen singled and walked. Jimenez, Ryan Schimpf, Kevin Nolan and Kevin Ahrens also checked out the singles scene. Clint Robinson and Brad Glenn did not, combining for an 0-for-10 performance.Dunedin 9 Tampa 4 (11 Innings)Tampa, FL ? Marcus Knecht doubled home Dunedin's first run in the second inning and lifted a sac fly in the sixth. Mike Crouse also chipped in an RBI single in that frame. An Oliver Dominguez fielder's choice snapped a 3-3 tie in the eleventh. Dunedin then poured it on with a two-run triple by Jon Berti, who scored on a ground-rule double by Andy Burns. K.C. Hobson finished it off with a two-run homer to right, his 10th of the season. Burns, Berti, Knecht and Derrick Chung all had two-hit games with Knecht getting two doubles. Gabe Jacobo and Peter Mooney singled and walked. Jacobo was also hit by a pitch. He was replaced after his leadoff single in the 10th by pinch-runner Shane Opitz, who did not score. That set the stage for Hobson to take over at first base and hit his two-run blast. Jose Reyes was 1-for-5 before Dominguez pinch-hit for him. Nick Baligod was 0-for-5 but walked once.Scott Copeland did not have his best stuff as evidenced by five hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings. Somehow, the Yankees could only manage a couple of runs. Copeland put up a pair of fours in the strikeout and groundout columns. Ajay Meyer prevented Copeland's line from getting worse by stranding two runners and striking out three of the four hitters he faced in 1 1/3 perfect frames. Lefty Tyler Ybarra was nicked for a hit but struck out two in a shutout inning. Blake McFarland was charged with a blown save as the Yankees strung together a run on three hits in his one inning of work. Southpaw John Anderson supplied two innings of one-hit relief, with all six outs not leaving the infield. Lefthander To

For a team so very unfamiliar with long winning streaks (they haven't won more than six in a row since 2008) the current seven gamer must be very satisfying for the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only that, but they've posted a combine score of 41-11 in those games. Indeed, these are heady days for the Jays. Of course, it behooves us to heed Mike Wilner's oft-repeated observation: a team is never as good as it looks at it's best, nor as bad as it looks at it's worst. Still, in may ways this team is preforming now in a manner consistent with pre-season expectations (shaddup Adam!) and they are finally seeing the results.Since May 5, when the team inexplicably found it's footing, the Blue Jays are 24-15 (a .615 winning %) for the second best record in the AL in that span (one game behind Oakland and WTF is up out there anyhow?) which is a pace which, were it maintained the rest of the season, would result in 91 wins - that puts you right in the thick of the wild-card race. On the other hand, it's a pace that over a full season would get you 100 wins and certainly it's debatable whether this team is of that caliber. On the third hand, Jose Reyes is imminently ready to return, one assumes Brett Lawrie will be back at some point and step up his game, and Josh Thole is already an upgrade on Henry Blanco (and more besides, if Gibby will give him some of JP's mostly empty at-bats). And the best part is that, apart from Adam Lind, the horses of the offense are not performing at an unsustainable rate.Here are the teams top six offensive producers over the last 38 games (and the rest have been no great shakes):Cabrera - .312 - .356 - .446 - .802Bautista - .285 - .370 - .487 - .857Encarnacion - .297 - .387 - .561 - .948Lind - .388 - .417 - .642 - 1.059Rasmus - .250 - .320 - .508 - .827DeRosa - .266 - .329 - .484 - .813Yes, DeRosa is doing more than he's done since his peak years five years ago, but it's not insane and it's in half as many at bats as the others so it's not like the team is being driven by it. Lind is the obvious outlier but going forward, a regression is easily balanced by the presence of Reyes. It's reasonable to assume the offense IS this good.On the mound, the bullpen has been, frankly, insanely good.Janssen - 3.55, 1.11Cecil - 1.40, 0.52Delenbar - 1.50, 1.11Loup - 0.90, 0.65Oliver - 2.25, 1.13Perez - 0.00, 0.50Wagner - 0.96, 0.96 (when does THAT ever happen?)The Starters?Dickey - 4.53, 1.45Buehrle - 3.46, 1.19Johnson - 1.86, 1.14 (only 3 starts)Rogers - (as Starter) 1.77, 0.98 (4 starts)Wang - (tiny sample) 3.14, 1.53 (2 starts)Morrow - 6.14, 1.36 (4 starts)Jenkins - 3.60, 1.47 (3 starts)Ortiz - 3.77, 1.60 (3 starts)Happ - one start, irrelevantRomero - dittoOrtiz is probably gone for the duration, Jenkins has been flailing at Buffalo for some unknown reason, so lets ignore them looking forward. Over the last 13 games the staff as a whole has an ERA of 1.98 and they have piled up a 10-3 record in a not unrelated result. obviously that won't last but it's this kind of run that playoff teams occasionally have.Morrow was reported today to have suffered a setback last night and it seems clear he'll not be back before the ASB. IF he gets and stays healthy, those numbers surely get better and one would think that Rogers would regress some, but the two should balance out (in theory, anything could happen in real time). Buehrle is back consistent with his career numbers, and Dickey while disappointingly inconsistent, is in a range where it's reasonable to assume he is more likely to improve than to regress further. That means that in a rough-and-dirty look ahead, your rotation success largely turns on whether Josh Johnson is finally in his groove or not. This is still a group that can be above average enough to support the offense, particularly as long as the bullpen is so VERY good.In terms of the playoffs, at the end of play on May 4, the Jays were 8.5 back of the wild card with nine teams to overcome in order to qualify. Now, 38