Fighting the good fight

Playing out the string is never easy in pro sports. At the beginning of every season, teams and their fans all believe that this might be the year that they win it all. All teams start the season tied so there's always reason for optimism.

The reality, especially in baseball, is that except for the occasional one-year wonder like the 2008 Rays it's the same handful of teams that are perennial contenders. They're the teams with the top payrolls, proving the old adage that "to make one must spend."

And when you don't have a hard cap it allows teams like the Yankees and Red Sox to outspend their mistakes. Then you factor in an inherently unfair, unbalanced schedule and the vast majority of teams will, year in and year out, just play 162 games a summer.

Case in point is the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had the third lowest payroll to start the season and will finish below .500 for the 19th straight season despite some promising play in 2011 that actually saw them tied for first place on July 25th with the Cardinals. Unfortunately, the Pirates would win just 14 of their next 49 games to slither back into their rightful place in the second division.

This brings us to the 2011 edition of the Toronto Blue Jays, playing out the string for the 18th straight season, almost a full generation removed since Joe Carter "touched 'em all."

Expectations were, based upon an 85-win season a year ago, that the Jays would take another step towards contention this season. The core of their starting staff -- Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Brandon Morrow -- were looking to take their games to another level. J.P. Arencibia was taking over as the full-time catcher. Adam Lind was getting a crash course on becoming a first baseman in the majors.

Yunel Escobar was solidifying his place at short in his first full season with the Jays. Rajai Davis was brought in to bring a speed element that was sorely lacking over the last decade. Travis Snider was expected to become a force after his young career was making more stops and starts than a Yellow Cab in Manhattan. The only real certainty was that Jose Bautista would continue his assault on major league pitching.

Funny things happen, though, over the course of a six-month regular season. Injuries, due to the sheer grind of the season, are inevitable, causing the best laid plans of the pre-season to be altered on the fly. Sixteen different players have spent various stints on the disabled list thanks to a myriad of injuries.

And there was also unexpected ineffectiveness that caused the pieces to be shifted around. Snider, the Opening Day left fielder, had to be sent to the minors twice this season where he finished the year injured and passed on the organizational depth chart by Eric Thames. Cecil, who came out of spring training with a fastball that was having trouble cracking 90 on the gun, was sent to Las Vegas after just four starts and an ERA approaching seven, and now enters the final two weeks of the schedule with just four wins after winning 15 times in 2010.

Kyle Drabek, in the rotation to start the season, made just 14 starts before an inability to control his stuff and his emotions saw him spend the vast majority of his season in triple-A. Aaron Hill, long expected to be a fixture in the Jays' infield, missed a chunk of games early due to yet another hamstring injury and never found his groove. With just six home runs after hitting 62 over the previous two seasons, Hill was sent packing to Arizona in late August, replaced by another underachiever in Kelly Johnson.

You take the good with the bad and that is no different with the Blue Jays, and that puts this organization in a good spot moving forward. A stream of fine looking young players have made their way to Toronto this season. Third baseman Brett Lawrie has certainly lived up to the hype, making noteworthy plays on both sides of the ball on a daily basis. Thames, not even in the equation when the charges gathered in Dunedin in February, has now played in a half season's worth of games and looks like he's here to stay.

A pleasant surprise saw Henderson Alvarez, pitching in A-ball a year ago, make the leap from double-A to the majors and take regular turns in the Jays rotation at just 21. And with the expanded rosters, converted pitcher Adam Loewen is getting a good look in September in the outfield, Pacific Coast League MVP David Cooper hasn't looked out of place filling in for Lind at first, and Joel Carreno has pitched solidly out of the bullpen after being a starter at double-A. All youngsters who have not looked out of place playing at the games highest level.

What should be most commended as the season winds down is the fact that they have continued to battle down the stretch, especially against the contenders. Sure there have been some blowouts to remind even the most optimistic fans that there is still a ways to go before they are fighting for a playoff spot.

The Jays have been absolutely manhandled on three different occasions over the last 17 games. August 28th: Rays 12, Jays 0 ... September 6th: Red Sox 14, Jays 0 ... September 13th: Red Sox 18, Jays 6. Yet they followed up all three of these thrashings with wins, a very good sign that they can put bad games in the rearview and keep moving forward. And that might prove to be the best lessons learned by a young team.

With several of their minor-league teams making the post-season at various levels, playing winning baseball has been evident all through the Blue Jays farm system, something that will pay dividends over the next few seasons. And with the team no longer sleepwalking through the end of the schedule like they did for the better part of the last decade, the contenders no longer look at this fourth-place team as an automatic walk-over.

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 19th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.