Blue Jays: The rest of the August schedule is a great test

After starting the month of August with an 8-6 record, this young Blue Jays’ team is about to face a good test for the remainder of the month with their upcoming opponents.

It’s been pretty exciting watching the Blue Jays these days, which has been a welcome change after a long and difficult first half. The youth has arrived and so far they have delivered in a big way, bringing a consistently impressive performance and an injection of life into the Blue Jays’ fan base.

It’s been helpful that they ran into teams like the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles, but they’ve also more than held their own against contenders like the Rays and Yankees as well. They’re about to get a few more tests before the month is over as well, and it’ll be interesting to see how this talented young roster responds.

After the off day on Thursday, the Blue Jays the Mariners for three games in Toronto, and will play the away part of the series from Aug 23-25. The rest of their schedule is going to be very difficult, as they’re get the L.A. Dodgers between the two sets with the Mariners, and it sounds like they’re going to get the best of their pitching staff as well. According to a tweet from Dan Shulman, the Dodgers should have Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, and Hyun-Jin Ryu lined up for that series.

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After the Jays are done with Seattle for the second time that leaves them with just four games left for the month, and thankfully they’re all home games. The daunting part is they’ll welcome the Atlanta Braves for two games, and then begin a three game series with the Astros. They’ll also head back to Atlanta for a two game set at the beginning of September, before playing out the season against their difficult AL East division counterparts.

One of the reasons for moving on from veterans like Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez, Freddy Galvis, and plenty of others was to open up playing time for the next generation of this team and to give those players the big league experience they need to continue to develop. However, the other reason is because it will give the Blue Jays’ front office an opportunity to evaluate the pieces that they still have, and decide how to proceed from here.

With the amount of ticks in the win column and runs being scored lately, many Blue Jays fans are already coming around to the idea of a rebuild, and seeing why the front office wanted to head in the direction that they have. It will be interesting to see if the good times can keep rolling against opponents like the Dodgers, Braves, and Astros, and if not, if the fan base will understand that it’s okay to lose to the best teams in baseball at this stage.

We’re an impatient bunch, but the good news is that these budding stars are putting hope back into a deflated fan base, and they’re doing it much more quickly than I thought it would happen. Hopefully they can finish the season in the same strong fashion, but if they have some struggles let’s all keep things in perspective. The future is bright, and the fact that the present has been so positive has been a pleasant surprise. That said, don’t be shocked if the momentum continues either.