Toronto Blue Jays: Early Thoughts on the 2011 Season

With the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox virtually going winless, the first week of the baseball season was an ideal time for the Toronto Blue Jays to take advantage of the opposition's hiccups and ride the wave for as long as possible. 

But as we have seen for the past couple seasons, there's something lacking with this crew, at least for now. 

I have proudly put on my foam finger and stated that the Jays are in an ideal position to take advantage of the AL Wild Card. Instead of sitting atop the division, Toronto is now trailing New York and, unbelievably, the Rays, who started 1-8. 

Minus Jose Bautista, who has been playing as advertised, and Yunel Escobar, who seems very comfortable in his new skin, the lineup is slowly showing its holes. 

The three big bats hoping to have breakout years—Adam Lind, Aaron Hill and Travis Snider—are hitting a combined .216. Any thoughts of contention are in their hands.

If that group, especially Lind and Hill, have anywhere near the disastrous season that was 2010 it will be a pretty rough year for the boys in TO. 

Pitching, on the other hand, is the Jays' strong point. Still, there have been a few minor roadblocks after 18 games. 

Brett Cecil, who led the team in wins with 15 last season, has been demoted to AAA to regain his fastball and ability to throw strikes.

Jesse Litsch, coming off Tommy John surgery, was sent down to Vegas. Despite having relatively better numbers than Jo-Jo Reyes, Litsch still had options remaining, which allowed Francisco to be activated from the DL. 

Ricky Romero and his crew have been able to keep the team in the majority of games while the hitters spin their wheels for the time being. 

Kudos go out to Kyle Drabek and Casey Janssen. 

Drabek has really taken to his role. Struggles are certain as a rookie, but if he can continue to work through his control issues and let the hitters get themselves out (he really has dominant stuff), we could be looking at the Toronto's next No. 1.

Janssen has been his reliable self. This guy continues to get outs whenever he's called upon, and in whatever situation presents itself. A 0.00 ERA proves that. Janssen deserves to be up for the rest of the year.   

If I were to grade the Toronto Blue Jays' early performance as a whole, I'd give them a C-, only because 8-10 is not acceptable with so much on the line.

Here’s to writing off April, and for the month of May to reveal the Jays' true grit.

Devon Teeple is the founder of The GM’s Perspective. You can follow The GM's Perspective on Twitter and facebook.