Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
The Jays made the playoffs mainly due to the top end performances of Donaldson + Jose + Edwin and quality secondary performances throughout the lineup. Jose has fallen off the cliff and the quality of the secondary players has diminished significantly.
Unless that changes this week, they are not going to make the playoffs. They will then be forced to decide what they need to do to alter things so their entire lineup is dangerous, unlike this year where there has been a few black holes at the end of the order. Or they will have one playoff appearance to their credit and will have to rebuild again.
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The Jays made the playoffs last year because they had a record pacing offence, got the players all pumped up when they added Price and Tulo which gave them some swagger, and Boston and New York were nowhere to be seen.
I firmly believe and have said since last winter, the minute they didn't even offer Price a contract and decided they wouldn't negotiate with Edwin and Bautista, all that swagger and pride went out the window and this would be a different team. Jays players went from believing in themselves on the same level as the elite, to being just another team again and back to have an "us versus management" mentality.
I'm not going to debate the merits of Price's contract, but I think it's pretty hard to debate that him not being on this team or the Jays bnot going out and getting someone to replace him didn't have an affect on this team's mentality on the field. They lost their fight. They never really had any fight all year despite the enhanced record due to the starting pitching.