AL East Round Up: Numbers Edition

Toronto Blue Jays

Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Oh, man. Every day, my friends ask me, “Do you think they have a chance?” Of course they do. The math says so. Yet, math doesn’t show the reality. Right now the Blue Jays are 6 games back of the Wild Card and 10 back of the Orioles. With just 21 games remaining, their elimination number in the division is 12 and their Wild Card elimination number is 16. They have a 1.5% chance of making the playoffs. So, to quote Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, “So your saying there’s a chance”. A streak of 3 wins against the Rays made math look better, but then 2 losses to the Red Sox and math is just as cruel as it was in high school.

– The Blue Jays offense is not really the problem this year. They are near the top of MLB in offensive categories. They’re 5th with a .260 average, 4th in slugging (.418), 4th in hits (1261), 6th in runs (625) and 3rd in home runs (161).

Betsided

Another frustrating is the number 1. As in how many dimensions this offense has. They live (and die) by the long ball. I read the other day* that home runs have accounted for between 6- 15% of runs in baseball. That’s it. The Blue Jays need to improve on the other 85% of scoring runs. If a strength of your team, the sole strength is only 15% , is it really a strength?

-Sigh, do we really want to talk about the pitching numbers? Oh alright. But, don’t say I warned you. If your squeamish, you might want to look away…the Jays sit at 24th in ERA (4.12), 16th in wins (72), 25th in innings pitched (1258.2), 25th in WHIP (1.35) and…no, I can’t do it anymore. It’s too ugly.

Considering the above numbers, the Blue Jays (and fans) should feel lucky to have not been eliminated already.

*When I find the link to where I read this, I will update this post.