With Cito Gaston on board, can the 2009 Jays resemble this year's Rays?

Each year it seems that a team comes out of nowhere to surprise the baseball and sporting world by compiling on the surface what seems to be a grandiose case of overachieving.  However, upon close analysis, most of the time we should have as fans, been able to see these recent phenomenon’s coming. Take for example, the 2005 Chicago White Sox who in one season were able to erase the previous eighty-eight seasons of futility. How did they do it? To put it simply, an exodus of the traditional home run power that been a highlighted staple of the franchise for years and instead imported people who could play defense, pitch, and run the bases. Case and point is speedster Scott Podsednik at the top of their lineup, went on to steal fifty-nine bases that year after being acquired from Milwaukee the previous year after stealing a team high seventy bases. This brought a much needed whole new dimension to the South-siders.

This coupled with standout performances by Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Jon Garland, and Freddy Garcia gave the Sox one of the deepest rotations in all of baseball. But as anyone can tell you, the key to winning is a good mix of youth and experience.

The next season, the Tigers and Cardinals were the teams to "come out of nowhere" and overachieve their ways into the World Series. Previously seen as a perennial bottom feeder like the defending Champion White Sox, the Tigers used a mix of money to wisely sign talented free agents like veteran Kenny Rogers who effectively mentored and balanced a rotation of a very young group of pitchers that included Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and most notably Justin Verlander into each having a career year (to that point) similar to the White Sox a year before.

The Cardinals in the Senior Circuit National League, likewise relied on a mix of pitching veterans like Chris Carpenter and Jeff Weaver, to team with a youthful budding star like Adam Wainwright. This along with a veteran starting lineup of Edmonds, Pujols, Rolen, Eckstein with a dash of potential in Skip Schumaker, Chris Duncan, and Yadier Molina served as the recipe to follow if one wants to win. A mix of youth and experience.

The result was a World Series championship thanks in part to players like Jeff Suppan, Jeff Weaver, and Wainwright having superb postseason's despite the team sneaking into the playoffs with an 83-79 record. Pitching Coach Dave Duncan found some diamonds in the rough just as he seems to do every year with this year and Kyle Lohse holding true to form.  

 2007 saw the Colorado Rockies go to the World Series. The Rockies with their miracle run of fifteen straight wins just to make the postseason rode this momentum all the way to the October stage set effectively by slugger Matt Holliday playing the role of Manny Ramirez in terms of power and leadership, and a nice supporting cast of Brad Hawpe, veteran Todd Helton, and rookie Troy Tulowitzki. The team also included a mix of players having career years and peaking at the right time in Jeff Francis, Josh Fogg, and especially closer Manny Corpas.

Plenty has been made of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays from their new name coinciding with their new winning attitude and era evidenced by their effective and wise drafting of a slew of players that could fill minor and major league rosters three times over with depth and talent not limited to: Evan Longoria, BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, James Shields, and Rocco Baldelli mixed with still-productive,  wily vets like Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd as the perfect role players, and smart trades including Matt Garza/Jason Bartlett and Scott Kazmir and  Dionner Navarro. We did see this coming, only we thought perennial post season participants, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox would forever stand in their way despite any success they may be able to muster.

This brings me to the point of this article. On June 20, 2008 to little media fanfare, the Toronto Blue Jays fired long time skipper John Gibbons, and effectively replaced him with a proven winner and familiar face in Cito Gaston. What resulted since? Nothing short of a 40-27 record, including a seven game winning streak, meanwhile playing .597 baseball.

Take that over an entire 162 game season and it translates to roughly 96 victories. Growing up in the Nineties, I remember the 1992 and 1993 World Series wins. These veteran laded teams were expected to win seeing how they included names such as John Olerud, David Cone, Pat Borders, Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, and Jack Morris to name a few. It is safe to say we see a lot of that same potential in the 2008 Rays that I did in the 1992-93 Jays. They are just lacking the experience and postseason success that will come in time.

The 2008 Blue Jays include All Star fixture Roy Halladay serving as that team's Morris, A.J. Burnett, role players Lyle Overbay, John McDonald, Alexis Rios, and Vernon Wells. Mix this with the potential in Adam Lind, David Purcey, Shaun Marcum, Aaron Hill, and Jesse Litsch and its easy to see the beginnings of similarities between the 1992-93 Jays and the current Toronto Blue Jays. All they need is the same experience that the Rays lack but Gaston will guide them.

While Gaston may not be the most recognizable name, he should be, being a Two-Time All Star manager and proven two time World Series Winner. Emphasis cannot be understated on the potential for success the Jays have if they can keep their current roster together.

That however, is a big if. With Halladay scheduled to become a free agent following the 2010 season and A.J. Burnett widely believed to activate a unique opt-out clause in his contract we may be seeing the all-too-familiar scene of the Jays perennially underachieving despite their talented roster and being perceived on the cusp of greatness.

It is not often you can go home again as Gaston appears to have done and it is not often that you can right an obvious wrong in bringing back a man who should be considered a legend by the average baseball fan, despite his unheralded firing after the 1997 season amidst four consecutive losing seasons.

Gaston gets the most out of his players. He maximizes talent in a way that Toronto has yet to experience since his first, and unfortunate, departure. Evidenced by their recent win totals of 83 wins in 2007, 87 wins in 2006, 80 wins in 2005, it is clear that all Toronto lacks is a manager who knows how to win, and play the game the right way. Gaston is that man and can be that man again.

It wasn't too long ago that Toronto led the league in attendance in 1993, and routinely averaged over four million fans from 1991-1993 and it should come to no surprise who that manager was during those glory years-Gaston. While one has to wonder what the 2008 Jays could have done had they installed Gaston sooner, I have no doubt that under a full season of his leadership, the Jays can get over the hump that has been just barely eluding them for years now despite their potential.

Don't be surprised if in a year under his tutelage, the Rogers-Centre as it is called now, eerily reminds longtime baseball fans of the old Sky Dome days when it was hard to get a ticket and fifty-thousand people a night walked through the turnstiles. We could very well be witnessing the beginning of greatness with a new team coming seemingly out of nowhere like the White Sox, Tigers, Cardinals, Rockies, and Rays of recent years. I just hope we're ready to realize it and the Jays players realize this and not continue to stammer to third place finishes stuck in eighty-five win limbo. I hope fans appreciate this and are prepared for winning baseball North of the Border in 2009.

Of course, this could all go out the window should Burnett leave and his money is not effectively re-allocated elsewhere in order to keep this team the annual contender its fans deserve it to be.