Something Something The 2016 Blue Jays

This is possibly the very last game for the 2016 Blue Jays, so I want to share something similar to what I was fully intending to write around October 3rd, the day after the conclusion of the regular season.

Honestly, it looks like the 2016 team was going to be one historically looked upon with frustration, perhaps even disdain. This was a squad with so many unexpected pleasant surprises going its way, such as Michael Saunders' explosive first half, J.A. Happ's emergence as a top lefthander in the entire game (J.A. Happ fer crissakes!), Marco Estrada proving he's not a one season wonder, and a Rule 5 pick coming out of nowhere against any expectation to become both a key bullpen piece and a damn lovable dude.

They had all this going for them, the strongest starting pitching by ERA in the whole American League (imagine how many Toronto teams in the past 15 years would've killed for that?), and yet they couldn't make it work. Though their overall numbers were strong, the teams offense was truly a mirage of that performance. There were just so many long spells where these legitimately great hitters scuffled at the exact same time, resulting in tough loss after tough loss in painfully winnable games.

These guys didn't have the magic of the 2015 team. And well frankly, who does? That team went on such an insane late season run that the playoffs didn't become a dream, it became an inevitability. Maybe the 2016 version had that in their heads the whole time, an overconfidence if you will. Overconfidence is fantastic when you're a pitcher, it means you're not afraid to throw a strike and make a mistake. It can and will backfire but the majority of the time, that's a mighty fine thing to have on the mound. In the batters box? Yeah that can be a great thing also, you want a batter who isn't afraid of failure (because so much of hitting is precisely that very thing). But these 2016 Blue Jays hitters for the most part took overconfidence to a whole other level. They swung out of their shoes at so many pitches not in their zone because they surely believed they were capable of hitting that particular one a mile. That approach can work, and will get you big cheers when you're hot, but when you're not you just look the fool trying to pull a curveball six inches off the plate. Frankly, it was insanely infuriating to watch game after game and I was indeed negotiating with myself how harsh this end-of-the-season article was going to be on this underachieving team, squandering the golden opportunity before them considering their pair of surely departing free agent sluggers.

Then the Wildcard game happened. And the parrot took a walk-off walk around the bases.

Then the ALDS happened. And nemesis Texas took their sad dreams and their sad little punch into another offseason wondering what just happened.

And this is what will make 2016 such a strange year in Blue Jays history. A team at a crossroads, good but not great, with two franchise icons halfway out the door, until an honest to goodness playoff run happened. The problems they're having against the Clevelands are the problems they've had all year: these bats are up and down and there's really no inbetween for them. 2015 was like asking the girl or boy of your dreams out on a date and they kiss you to say yes -- 2016 has been like that except some nights they're busy, other nights it's an obvious lie to be polite to you, but then once in a while you two go out and have a magnificent time. And then you wonder: "why can't it be like this every single time?"

Why not indeed. It's Kluber (18-9, 3.14)  v. Sanchez (15-2, 3.00), 4:07 ET first pitch.