Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle
I don't think you need to play small ball to win, but I think you need to be able to at least be able to dabble in it if need be. I don't think the Jays can do that.
Like someone said a couple of pages ago, look at the game 6 against Kansas. They had speed on third with I think no outs (may have been 1), and they were unable to bring that guy home to tie the game. That's ludicrous. I was mad for the longest time with Gibby for not bunting there, and than I reflected on it a bit in the winter, and was like " Why am I mad with Gibby, the Jays don't even have a guy capable of laying down a bunt so what's he supposed to do". Watching some of these guys try and bunt last year was cringe worthy (Pillar and Revere being the worst offenders) .
They live and die by the long ball, which is fine. Seems to be working out for us, but I don't think you can argue that it doesn't lead to a lot worse of an offence drought when some things go wrong than a lot of other teams deal with. Sure someone can pull up some stat that shows they are middle of the pack or whatever, but that's an average over the time where everything averages out. When the Jays stop hitting home runs, it's downright brutal.
That said, I don't think it matters as much this year. Last year there were teams like Houston and Kansas in the playoffs. The teams in the hunt this year, outside of Cleveland, are all basically mashers like the Jays with pretty pedestrian pitching. Small ball may only be a factor in the World Series against the NL.
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Thankfully, two of those outs in Game 6 are no longer on the team (Navarro and Revere).
I hate comparing any team to KC because of that $#%#ty teams luck over the past 2-3 years.
Houston is worse than any of the above teams when talking about power hitters who don't hit for average.
I agree though, the road to the WS will run through many teams with big offence and little pitching. Thankfully, the jays have big offence and big pitching.
At the end of the day, the team that makes the WS will be the hot team. Baseball is so streaky, its absolutely insane that a 162 game season can be decided by 1 - 5 - 7 game series.
On another note:
I wonder if the jays will make any final moves before Aug 31?