7 in the 7th to take this. Too sweet. Lind 3 for 4 with 5 RBIs. Zero walks allowed by Cecil in his debut. Scotty Downs, solid as usual. Ring up another double U.

Back from the game, 3rd row behind Jays dugout!

Happened to be some 5/10 player from Party/FTP behind me we chatted during the game.

Otherwise, good game by Cecil, but the bullpen choked, but the bats saved us!

great start for Brett, it's a shame the horrible bullpen coughed up the lead and his win. I was watching the game with his sister and she was going nuts. She used to catch his bullpens when he was a soph in college hahaha. I wish he came out for one more

Nice, another solid (from what I've seen today) starter. Cito's gonna have some major decisions but I'm hoping Cecil makes it tough on him lol

Good show from Lind and Downs is just incredible. He reminds me of the days of Henke/Ward and BJ's best days as a Jay lol, he's pitching at such a high level

Why is it that all our pitchers have horrible ERA's in the minors, but seem to do alright in the Majors? Does the Las Vegas 51's just have horrible defence, or what?

The PCL(Pacific Coast League AAA West Coast) is a hitters league, the hitters stats are inflated, and pitchers stats are too. Supposedly the ball's are easier to hit out or something, I've always read and heard.

Thx for the insights, Kyleb

That's nasttyyyyyy

Someone with Insider please to be summarizing this.

Failing that kyleb should just be paged here.

In the East, history suggests that we ignore Toronto's hot start at our peril; 18-10 teams with three straight seasons above .500 tend to keep the good times rolling. On the other hand, particularly with three teams forecast to win at least 94 games, the PECOTA-based odds suggest a deck still stacked heavily against the Blue Jays, and last week I identified a handful of reasons they might regress. Forecast to have the league's lowest-scoring offense, they're suddenly and improbably the highest-scoring unit, fueled by an infield that's hitting a combined .303/.380/.479, with Aaron Hill (.360/.404/.552) and Marco Scutaro (.262/.400/.458) both particularly over their heads. Their rotation has been decimated by injuries, and it's possible that three starters who helped them post the league's top ERA last year—Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum, both rehabbing from off-season arm surgeries, as well as departed free agent A.J. Burnett—won't throw a single pitch for them this year. Through the end of April they had played the league's second-easiest schedule (.474, based on PECOTA-projections), but they'll face the AL's second-hardest (.513) overall. Not helping the Jays is the fact that the indicators suggest that neither the Yankees nor Rays have scuffled enough to rule them out, and both have substantial upgrades waiting in the wings—the former in the form of Alex Rodriguez, the latter via David Price, the game's top pitching prospect.

In all, it's still too early to discard those pre-season predictions simply because of a few teams markedly exceeding expectations. As Rany's work shows, it's not until the 30-game mark that the die is cast even for teams at the extremes, and only around the 48-game mark where current season performance outweighs projected performance. All of which is a polite way of saying check back in a few weeks and we'll really know what's going on.

Summary:

- Offence playing over their heads (esp. Hill and Scutaro).
- Too many pitchers hurt.
- Very easy schedule in April, gets a lot tougher from here.
- Upgrades coming for Rays (Price) and Yankees (A-Rod).

Conclusion: Likely a paper tiger, but check back in a month.

I agree with this 100%.

Regardless, I just hope the Jays continue to build forward...and maybe we can turn into a constant contender in the next year or two.

Anyway, Im going to the Yanks game tomorrow and possibly the ChiSox on Sunday. Should be fun. I quit 2p2 as of now (spending too much time here), but it was fun talking Jays with you guys. Go Jays.

F THE HATERS PLAYOFFS GOGOGOOGOGOGO

Aaron M'fin Hill

The downfall is gonna have to wait, Aaron Hill is too m'fing good.

lol you guys see Scoot practically sprint to 1st after his BB in the 1st inning?

Also, Gene Tenace for god.

Boom! Vernon Wells in your eye.

God this team is good.

lmao @ watermelons

Wrong.

Elevation is one problem.

Yeah cause the Jays don't have any upgrades coming at all..........

A-Rod can hit 3 home runs a game and it won't matter with the Yankees bullpen.

Price is basically a rookie pitcher, and Tampa Bay is already 6.5 behind Toronto. Again, note their bullpen problems.

Also, 10 games at home and 14 away in April with one day off. Really easy schedule there.

I think it's too early to put too much weight was is supposedly a "weak" schedule. The Jays have not played the Red Sox (and vice versa, obviously). The Orioles were swept by the Jays, and the Yankees and Rays are not performing any better than the teams the Jays have been beating in the AL Central and West.

The jury is out on how the Jays will play the Red Sox this year, but people are making some assumptions that if the Jays had played the Yankees and The Rays that they would not be 20-10 right now.

Let's keep in mind that despite finishing 4th in the AL East last year, the Jays had a winning record in the AL East. It was the AL west that crushed them. They Jays also had a very good second half. That said, their hitting is much better than the 2nd half last year, and though their ERA numbers will never get as close as last year's, this year's staff may have more runs to work with.

Halliday is solid, the middle, set-up and other relief is very good, and of the hodge-podge of starters it looks like there are a few additions that are doing well.

The loss of Ryan and Litsch should not be troubling, IMO.

In short, I am more optomistic than I was before. I think the Jays can tolerate some of those offensive numbers falling back 'towards" normal ranges. I'm sure we all don't believe that Lind, Hill, Scutoro, and Barajas are going to keep this pace up. But, what if they don't decline as much as the predictions would indicate, and what if some of the new starters who have shown promise settle in?

Also, Rolen only has 10RBI, and Wells is only performing average, and Rios is not putting up power numbers yet. Overbay is where he should be. So, it's not like the whole team is having career years.

It is not improbable to think that we are looking at a 95 win team, and 1st place or a wildcard.

For the first time this season. the Blue Jayas have a projected winning percentage (adjusted for PECOTA) for the entire season over .500.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/st...ps_oddspec.php

???

Thata' what it looks like it was ~ at this time last year based on this.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/te...e-scores.shtml

And this year it's pretty much dead on 20k. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attend...9&seasonType=2