As this season warms up, the Blue Jays are slowly succumbing to the heat. That, temperature puns aside, was pretty much how this season was supposed to play out.
Low attendance numbers suggest that everyone and their pessimistic mothers knew that the Jays wouldn't compete (you bunch of know-it-alls).
Roy Halladay is weaving together his masterpieces in the City of Brotherly Love, and Cito Gaston agreed to run the team only as an acknowledged placeholder. People are taking their cues from the attitude this team gives off.
Yet there's still something to be pondered: Has competency finally found a home in Toronto?
When the Jays signed Kevin Gregg, heads were scratched and scenarios were considered. In hindsight, it now seems to be one of the smoothest moves made in recent Blue Jays history. Alex Anthopoulos deserves to be lauded; J.P. Ricciardi could learn a thing from him.*
Somehow, Gregg has reinvented himself from the home run-dispensing character that lolled about Wrigley Field last summer. In a season where the bullpen has been inconsistent, he's been a rock.
The numbers back this up, as they'll be prone to do when you're trying to prove a point. Gregg has nearly halved his fly ball ratio from last season, from 44.3 percent then to 26.1 percent now.
At this date last season Gregg had already allowed two home runs, eight walks, and had an earned run average of 6.23. This year he's had no one go yard, issued a single free pass, and his ERA stands at a lean 0.90.
Coming into the season the Jays already had two pliable candidates for the closer position, Jason Frasor and Scott Downs. Both have disqualified themselves by being extremely ineffective, just like how that was extremely understated. Gregg is the only real option, and kudos to Gaston for moving quickly to put him in the spot.
Anthopoulos is employing a number of stopgap measures until he can get his team of the future to the big leagues. Gregg was part of the holding action, albeit a confusing part, but he's outperformed the brightest expectations. Of course, it could be due to those two club options on his contract, but that's between Gregg and his representation.
Toronto's bullpen had been a strong point for the previous two seasons, but somehow Anthopoulos predicted this season's collapse. In 2007, the Jays' bullpen had a 3.46 ERA (third in MLB), and in 2008 Toronto's relievers compiled a 2.94 ERA (first in MLB). Last season, with most of the same characters from the last two seasons, saw the bullpen slip to a 4.08 ERA (19th).
This year has seen a further decline (5.52 ERA, 27th in MLB), and the only comfort is how much worse it would have been without Gregg. It's making lemonade with manure and having to squeeze it yourself, but that's the way things are.
Anthopoulos inherited a bullpen that had many of the same players from 2008's sterling campaign. Instead of sitting on his hands and hoping for the best, he moved and found the Jays a player who could redeem the otherwise terrible play of the 'pen.**
Here's hoping it's indicative of things to come.
*Not saying that would have been an insult to obvious joke admirers everywhere.
** Sans Shawn Camp some days.
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