How Are the Blue Jays Doing It ?

Shocked, ecstatic, and scared are all the core feelings that are coming out of my body these days.

Watching the Toronto Blue Jays so far this season has been a great experience. Amidst my long road trip (Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, which I will write more about later), I attended a great game in Cleveland, with terrific seats just behind Rod Barajas.

I watched Doc Halladay have one of his classic prime performances. He led the team to a 5-1 lead going into the ninth. Not to mention the continued strong play from Lind, Snyder, and the rest. BJ Ryan then, the teams closer came in to close the deal, with the strong lead.

Some how, BJ brought us to a 5-4 game, with two outs.

Cito Gaston, the Jays manager, had to come out and bring in Jason Frasor. Frasor came in, and sealed the deal.

Whew...that was a close one! Thank you Frasor, and thank you Cito (even for just coming back...)

That's how you can some up the season so far, the offense looks good especially from the younger guys.

The consistent pitching from Halladay and some of the bullpen is there, and Ryan looks sporadic in the early going.

Then there are the other starters, Ricky Romero, David Purcey, Scott Richmond, and yes now Brian Tallet. They all actually look alright so far.

Romero is pitching well, and the rest pitching about OK.

First off, how well do we even know these starters? That's right, we don't.

The Jays have their whole starting four pitchers out of five, on the disabled list. Shawn Marcum, Dustin Mcgowan, Cam Janssen, and now Jessie Litsch are all out.

That scares me, not to mention our second best starter of last season has joined the evil pin-strips (NY Yankees) for the 2009 season.

I was just watching or listening to the radio for at least a part of each game so far this season, and I slowly realized this, where have our pitchers gone?

The team is doing so well in the early season, that it took me this long to notice.

Listening to the other games, I hear about Batista, Carpenter, Lilly, and yes Burnett. All pitchers who we've recently had. All who are doing well, and had the potential here.

That was how I realized the team were missing our real starters. But just think of a team with just two of these guys.

I've always felt that Riccardi was a good GM, but maybe he keeps looking too far in the future, maybe the Jays actually have what they need, and they just need to stick with them longer. Hopefully they do that with this group.

If they don't, it will be a few years down the road, and I'll be thinking about how it would have been nice if the Jays kept Halladay, Mcgowan, and the others.

The Jays actually have a strong skilled team, and should be able to make a good impact. If the Jays stay off the disabled list, the east could be had, and a pennant could be won, if not this year, then in the near future.

I just need to have one feeling; joy.