 |
| the lads |
Aside from the reflections on the fleeting nature of all human glory occasioned by the retirement of the great Joey Votto (several from Votto himself, delivered in his characteristic mélange of disarming frankness, fondly recalled childhood, and straight-up whimsy), you know something? August was a great month of Blue Jays baseball! I admit that several of the young boppers currently bopping remain strange to me, but it is a welcome strangeness after a fairly feeble first half from the guys of whom I had previously heard. As you know, fifteen-win months (which don't even sound that hard!) are the gateway to ninety-win seasons (which are almost impossible!), and it kind of crept up on me that the Blue Jays actually managed sixteen wins in August. Did it help to play seven against the Angels? Oh necessarily, and yet the Blue Jays won literally all seven, which is in and of itself pretty sweet. Vladdy has continued to mash well above his (young) career (young) norms, and looks to be a top-ten player in all of baseball on the year with even a decent September to wrap things up. More surprisingly, for at least a few weeks, Bowden Francis has been the best pitcher in all of baseball. Nobody thinks that's going to hold, obviously, but it's been neat, and if he could even be a decent middle-of-the-rotation sort of guy next year, that would go an awfully long way (towards my enjoyment). With a good September, the Blue Jays would end up a .500 team; with a decent one, a handful of games under, which would probably feel like a the fairest representation of what has been. But I don't know. I feel like this team as currently constituted, with no real upgrades over the winter, is a slightly better than .500 team in 2025, and there will certainly be a little upgrading here and there with whatever money remains after signing Vladdy to a zillion-year, squillion-dollar contract extension (please please please do this, guys).
Anyway, as Keegan Matheson noted recently, "baseball: they just keep playing it." Let's see how it goes!
KS
