The happenstance of those juicy high Draft picks and a fair bit of beginner's luck had as much to do with our immediate success as any particular skill on my part. Whatever the case, we have put together a nifty little squad full of leaders and guys seemingly hell-bent on getting the maximum out of their baseball talents, with a really strong mix of all the elements I like: high contact, decent pop, strong defence and good wheels, and are off to try our luck back up in the Skylobby League.
But, the question begs, are we going to be good enough to remain there?
To answer this, I'm going to take you on a brief digression into my thoughts on how to achieve the sort of sustained success that is acceptable to the people who pay the bills - above all, my salary.
For mine, the key to this type of structure is fairly straightforward: recognise your station within the hierarchy.
Where does the Blue Jays franchise sit in this regard? In the mid-to-upper tier of the Skylobby, by my reckoning. Our budgetary range is somewhere around the $50-80 million mark, as things currently stand. The Cards, with $80m at their disposal, had the highest budget of all Skylobby teams in the season just completed; the Rockies, with $55m, the lowest.
Now there is a huge difference between
recognising and
accepting your station in the Otis Association. Achieving a sustainable upward paradigm shift is what this is all about. Falling on either side of this "bell curve" is where the danger lies. You need to be patient, happy to consolidate at your "proper" level for a bit, all the while strategising how to achive the upward shift I mention in a way that, when you make the jump, you are ready for the consequences - playing against richer clubs with deeper pockets and stronger rosters than you have. Not just playing against them, mind you, but holding your own against them.
Now I understand that I'm fairly new to all this, which makes these ideas somewhat formative. But I am a logician, a tactician, by nature. And, while some aspects of what I have just said may morph and evolve over time, the underlying gist should hold true. More importantly, it will to some degree compensate for whatever lack of innate baseball intellect I may suffer from.
Okay, so let's look at our performance in 1990 with a focus on what needs to change for 1991 and beyond.
Pretty solid metrics across the board here. If I'm going to nitpick, we still need to be more patient at the plate (most strikeouts / 8th in walks) and could do with some defensive tightening.
BATS
The one player who stands out in a negative offensive context here is Carl Armstrong. He is our skipper, however, and therefore an integral part of our mix. He's also near-elite at 2B/3B/SS. But it is clear he is more of a backup utility type than a starter.
We knew what we were getting when we acquired Eugene Clough: the trade-off of low contact for big bop. Still, he'll either need to hit higher than 208 or whack more than 19 out from here on in. I'm not saying he's at risk of being traded, just that he's at risk of losing his starting role.
We'll talk more about Alex DeGoti a bit later on.
Other than that, we're looking good.
SHOPPING LIST: Upgrade at 3B a must.
BALLS
In Dave Fleming, we have one of the brightest pitching prospects in the entire OA. But there's a bit of a dropoff from there that we'll need to look deeply into. Ed Galasso was superb and should win Pitcher of the Year. Mike Witt needs to be more consistent. Ger Thomas was impressive in his rookie season but I remain uncertain of his ability to take the next step. Neck Stanley's future with us undoubtedly lies in a swingman role.
I've not seen a more commanding relief performance than the one Rawly Eastwick gave us after coming over from the Cubs. He truly was lights out with 25 saves from 26 chances.
The rest surprised to the upside for the most part, as their 2nd-ranked 3.75 ERA shows. But this is another world up in the Skylobby and again I'm just not sure some of them are quite good enough to handle the rise in class. It is a somewhat odd feature of the OA that relievers are super expensive, so we're going to have to be most astute with our purchases in this part of the squad because we're only going to be able to afford a couple of high-end guys.
SHOPPING LIST: Setup men from both sides.
GLOVES
OK, so back to Alex DeGoti. Love the guy. Few work harder at their game or play it with more gusto. But... that -18.4 ZR is a real blot on his copybook. Admittedly we had him playing at his less-favoured SS rather than 2B, where Juan Silverio is established, but if we don't see some improvement from him next season, we'll almost certainly have to act. And, with various others in the squad able to offer decent enough utility value at each of his positions, if he goes, he
goes.
Our OF isn't strong from the glove perspective, with LF Jay Wright, CF Denzel Clarke and RF Vic Ramirez combining for a negative 10 ZR. But their bats are why they're there and we just have to wear that. Plus, DC and Vic are rookies and hopefully have some improvement in them.
SHOPPING LIST: Ticket taken and wandering the middle IF aisle.
WINGS
If you harken back to one of my earliest posts after taking the Blue Jay reins, you'll remember that we are in the outhouse for Draft picks this time around. So what we've got is all we've got for now at least.
And what we got outside of what you've seen ain't great.
Still, we'll keep working away with them and you just never know what might happen.
With regard to mature-age minor-leaguers in our system, OF Cedric Mullins and IF Chris Shaddy are the pick of the position players, while pitchers Bill Bernier, Julian Morgan and Rick Fornay - who struggled at the MLB level for us this season - are those with some claims on getting the call-up. RF / DH-type Hank Beasley has me fascinated - there's just something about him that suggests a far better player than we've seen so far. He is being closely attended to, so that we might unearth this inner stud.