Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
Wrong. Overbay's OPS last season was a brutal .706. In the his only three seasons prior to joining the Jays, he put up OPS's of .767 (in half a season as a rookie), .863, and .816. His OPS is at .792 now, but was at .775 prior to last night. That's barely better than his rookie numbers and hardly on track with his career numbers.
Have we heard a peep about those health issues this season? The seasons where Rolen's numbers have dropped have been years where he missed significant time due to injury and was bothered by it all year. I know he was hurt at the start of the year, but that was a freak finger injury and not the shoulder injuries that would have him missing games every other week.
The guy has a .685 OPS. I don't see how expecting much better than that is expecting a "potential superstar". His injury problems have nothing to do with his numbers either seeing how they were all put up before the concussion.
Wells' numbers have been up and down all his career, but he always follows poor years up with great ones.
Troubles are hitting a little below expectations. Rios OPS has been hovering around .700 for most of the season. That's not even great production from your shortshop, let alone a corner outfielder.
Let's see some proof of these outside sources predicting the Jays to be one of the worst offense teams in baseball and that all of their hitters (including the guys in their prime) would hit well below both expectations and career averages.
Riccardi is a ###### bag. That's who he is. He's one of the few GMs in sport who will actually say what's on his mind (for better or worse).
And I don't see why Whitt keeps getting a free pass. Just because the guy managed team Canada doesn't mean he's not an arrogant jerk. It sounds to me like he expected to be handed the manager job even though the guy has very little experience at managing.
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We could go back and forth on this issue all year long so instead of going over each point I will say what I have been saying all along for various reasons whether it be health, age, skill it isn't surprising that many of the Jays are having down years. The simple fact is that overall the team is just not that good of hitters. Take away most of the guys top years and it is an average to below average hitting team.
I will look for some of those pre-season predictions when I have the time but with limited internet access at work it may take a day or two. I do know that there was a lot of whining from the Primetime Sports homers about many predictions.
I don't think Whitt should or is getting a free pass. My only contention with the issue is that Riccardi could have let it go but instead took another opportunity to make himself look like an ass, and in my view he doesn't have the track record, especially in TO to get be able to afford to do that crap. He has shown himself to be a bottom tier GM and coupling that with being an ass isn't exactly the best way to stay a GM or get re-hired in the future.