The Jays chances of making the postseason are slim indeed at this point. Before todays game Baseball Prospectus had the Jays at a 1.6% shot at the playoffs, or about the same as the Brewers. I'm sure it is a bit lower now.

Still, a hot streak and they could easily sneak back into the picture. 6 1/2 behind the wild card with 4 teams ahead of them doesn't make it easy, but if they could just get one *#&@ hot streak of 7 wins straight it would help. iirc the odds of a 500 team having a 7 game win streak in a season is above 50% so why can't our Jays just sneak one in eh?

No kidding. Even last year, during the season from hell, the Jays managed to put together a 6-game win streak and a 5-game win streak. This team is certainly better than last year, so what gives?

The Jays are due for a run here. I don't know how much good an 8-game winning streak will do them at this point, but it would make me feel better!

I'm not too disappointed that the Jays are effectively out of the race -- I thought it reached that point a few weeks ago. This year was one too early. Next year could be fun, but on the other hand it will really hurt if they are 15-35 after two months...

Despite not expecting the Jays to make the postseason (really at any point this year) I still enjoy the individual games and passionately want us to win each one. And a good win, even in the middle of a terrible losing season, is still immensely satisfying. I get much more upset about a single bad loss than elimination from a divisional race. Perhaps this reflects my UK background -- out of 20 teams in the top soccer league, only about 4 or 5 have the slightest chance of winning, and everybody knows it right from the first day of the season. But they still love watching the games.

By the way, this game report conjures up the mental image of NFH in the bath far too strongly.

Maybe this is just me, but either Larry Millson or his headline writers at the Globe seem to have an axe to grind against Vernon Wells these days. Throughout this road trip, virtually every loss that wasn't the direct result of a pitching collapse is portrayed as Wells' failure to carry the team and deliver in the clutch. It gets tired in a hurry.

NFH, I think you're spot on about observers (I won't even say fans) of the team who undercut their chances from the start and seemingly revel in I-told-you-so glee when their predicted failure comes to pass. Some of them are former fans who've turned cynical and now want everyone to share their bitterness, but others are just defeatists who prefer to complain rather than present a compelling vision or a constructive alternative.

The latter kind, unfortunately, is also rampant in this country's political, cultural and media institutions....

I knew they were going to have a hard time making the playoffs this year, but if you are a fan of the game and this team, you cannot be disappointed for what they have done so far this year. this team is a fun team to watch and the fact that they are playing intense, meaningful games this late in the year is an unexpected gift. This past couple of weeks i have been hanging on every pitch and situations, knowing that each could play a part in their playoff run.

For all those who still want to be negative towards this team, thats fine. Go ahead. I will read, but i can form my own opinion and i am not disappointed at all by this team. 35 games left, and they still believe they can do. and i will be with them the rest of the way.

you cannot be disappointed for what they have done so far this year

Exactly. I don't think that making the playoffs was a reasonable aim for this year. Improving to a bit above .500 (even while coping with a small number of injuries to key players) and developing some key rookies positively, are the signs of a very successful year. Doing it while being exciting to watch is a bonus.

I'm not disappointed in '05, especially coming after that '04 campaign. '04 was hard to watch, but '05 has been filled with high points and flashes of hope and brief, glowing views of the future. The fact that they stuck in the race so long without Roy Halladay, arguably the best and most important player on the team, is near-miraculous. How many starts has Halladay missed, and how many of those were losses that could have been wins?

That's some spilled milk, and I won't cry over it. Jordan's great summary from yesterday gives me something solid to base my visions of the future on, and I have to say that they look pretty good, provided J.P. kicks some ass this offseason.

NFH, I think you're spot on about observers (I won't even say fans) of the team who undercut their chances from the start and seemingly revel in I-told-you-so glee when their predicted failure comes to pass. Some of them are former fans who've turned cynical and now want everyone to share their bitterness, but others are just defeatists who prefer to complain rather than present a compelling vision or a constructive alternative.

Do you think it comes from a desire to not be hurt? I think it might. After my bath, I went to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin last night, which delivered everything a film entitled The 40-Year-Old Virgin should deliver and a little more. It features a man who now avoids women because of a series of disastrous near-misses in his younger days, and surprisingly it's more about love than about sex.

It made me think of Bob McCown not wanting to be hurt again by the Toronto Blue Jays.

It made me think of Bob McCown not wanting to be hurt again by the Toronto Blue Jays.

What's kind of amusing about that is: the Jays won back-to-back World Series in '92 and '93. There are a lot of fans of teams like the Rangers, the Mariners, the Cubs, the White Sox, the Indians, etc. who would have a hard time feeling sympathy for McCown. "Oh, gee, your team hasn't won in 12 years, how can you continue living?" /sarcasm
I'm happy if the team is competitive. I'm happy if (as they have done this season) the Jays give the good teams all they can handle. I'm happy if teams like the Angels are glad to see the Jays leave town. I got to see the Jays win two World Series, and anything more is just gravy.

As for The 40-Year-Old Virgin, if I hadn't gotten lucky and found love when I did, I could easily have been that guy. Easily.

I'm happy if teams like the Angels are glad to see the Jays leave town.

That was easily the high point of the season for me. Good call.

Maybe this is just me, but either Larry Millson or his headline writers at the Globe seem to have an axe to grind against Vernon Wells these days. Throughout this road trip, virtually every loss that wasn't the direct result of a pitching collapse is portrayed as Wells' failure to carry the team and deliver in the clutch. It gets tired in a hurry.

Based on the headlines available here, that isn't the case. Today's was certainly portrayed as a Wells failure ("Wells falls flat in key at-bat") but I can only find that one instance.

Of course, you might get a different version of the story (and thus, a reworded headline) in Ottawa, I don't know.

As for the Globe and Mail Sports section front page update, today we have the Jays' loss front and centre, an explanation of Sundin's reticence (I had that last week, and it hurts, I tell ya) and a Lance Armstrong story. In terms of baseball coverage, it's better than yesterday, when everything above the fold was hockey-related, everything below was Armstrong and the Mussina Massacre was on S3.

Finally, Bob McCown is useless with respect to baseball. That is all.

The people that are down from the Jays to start and then present an "I told you so" attitude at the end of the season are at a lower level of fandom than everyone else. They sacrifice hope and faith (two essential ingredients that make up a fan) to show the world that they were right all along.

And why is McCown so gleeful that he was right? McCown's response to the team losing is due to the team failing to keep up ground with the leaders. Their record is stil the same record when we were 4 games back earlier in the year when he was discussing about his whole 'buyers/sellers' situaton.

The Jays haven't had a winning streak over 4 this year (which I think occured in May). And up until recently we hadn't had a losing streak of 5. I think we're due.

NFH, you're probably right ... I just can't have any sympathy for people who are supposed to be professionals and yet allow "hurt feelings" -- or worse, an adolescent desire to avoid them -- interfere with their job.

Of course, you might get a different version of the story (and thus, a reworded headline) in Ottawa, I don't know.

The Globe really is a different animal in different cities -- the Vancouver version looked very different from the Ottawa or Toronto editions when I was there a couple weeks ago (and the newsprint quality was terrible). I don't have any Millson pieces attainable to fall back on, but it's just been my impression of his work lately. Scapegoating drives me nuts.

Anyone coming up to 518 today?

I see nothing wrong with Vernon Wells being put on the spot when he doesn't produce, sorry VBF ;)

The guy is, IMHO, the team's best offensive player. He should be counted on to produce, and when he does everyone praises him for it as they should. But then there are times where Vernon inexplicably gives at-bats away. With runners on the corners and less than 2 outs Vernon has got to know that the scouting report says down and away. Chacon never threw him anything remotely close to the plate, and Vern took 3 lousy hacks and his at-bat couldn't have lasted more than 30 seconds. That's why I don't consider Wells one of the best hitters in the game, YET. Sure he might join the group at some point in time, but in my opinion he just gives away too many at-bats. I don't think I've seen him hit a slider down and away this entire season, yet half or more than half of his K's come from swinging at the sliders down and in the dirt. When is the guy finally going to learn to lay off?

With all that said, I still see Wells as a very good hitter, just not in the top tier of hitters. Add to that his sparkling defense in center(Can someone explain to me why he and Cat were walking to the Jeter triple, what the hell was that?) and you have a very nice young player.

As far as the deafetist fans go, it's just a strong desire to be right in my opinion. It's true that they don't want to get hurt, but these are usually people with huge ego's and there's nothing better than getting to stroke their own ego.

I'm still not giving up on this race however, I still think that with the Jays returning home they can make up some ground. Especially since they are playing the Tribe. We'll see what happens, it's been fun.

I too would like to say thanks for all the wonderful memories of the '05 season. It's definitely been a great year in terms of drama, conflict and emotionally a drain (How many 1-run games have we lost). I've tried to watch as many ball games as I could(God bless Sportsnet East/West/Pacific/Ontario and the wonderful relationship I've had with PVR, guys, I think I'm honestly in love!!! Like the 40-year old virgin, it's been a long time coming :)
Looking back on the year, at the first of the year people here and everywhere were bemoaning the fact that the jays hadn't even improved on last year, and would struggle to win 70 games, I mean, we signed a decent 3rd baseman, but mainly because he was Canadian and we wanted a Canadian on our club (why then didn't we get Eric Gagne, Jason Bay, and Larry Walker, they would all look good and after all, they are Canadian). And we traded for a supersub Shea Hillenbrand, that nobody else wanted becausse he wasn't good enough. What else did we do? Nothing! I don't think anyway, I'm probably forgetting something, so I apologize about that.
But now look at us, we are above .500 and our future does indeed look bright. We have several up and coming good-great players, with a couple of superstars in the midst, and J.P. has about 30 million dollars to spend this year, or spend 15-20 and then have 40-45 next year, I don't care. The fact is, we have a decent young team, that hopefully, key word hopefully, will get better next year, and the year after, and only time will tell.

Here's how I see the team in the not too distant future:

Lf: we can and hopefully will improve here. I love Cat, but championship teams need to break up loving relationships (wow, sounds like my ex). I don't know who, Adam Dunn is a name people have suggested, and I'm not saying I don't like him, but Brian Giles would be my preference, or Barry Bonds because I think he'll play until he's 70 or so...j.k.
Cf: Wells, lets face it, you either love him or hate him, but he's so smooth. He can and will bat around .300 with about a .350 Obp and he can hit around 30 hr. His offence has quietly come to very respectable numbers and this is without a big bat to protect him (Delgado). I know he swings at a lot of 1st pitches, but I don't care. I know he breaks my heart when he pops up with a runner on 3rd and less then 2 outs, but I don't care. He is above average offensively and he's a gold glover defensively, I'll take that. Yes I will, in fact I'll take two.
Rf: Rios. I will take Rios, as I already think that he's a good ballplayer, with room to improve. I think that defensively he's more than good, keep in mind this is only his 2nd year and he's got decent numbers offensively. Ok, not a whole lot of Hr's but like I said, it's his 2nd year. He's also only been a Rf'er for 2 years, so his defense can only get better. I'm not saying he's untradeable, but I like him.
UOf: I love love love Reed Johnson, and I think that he's the perfect player to spell a guy when they need a night off. He's unselfish, plays his hardest every single time he has a chance to, and he can do the little things like sac bunt, bunt for a hit, and get hit by a pitch. (For those who don't think HBP is a skill, then why am I not in the majors. I'd take a ball 20 times a year to my phat body for 300K a year.
3rd: Hill or Koskie. At this point I'd say let Hill play and either move Koskie in a trade, if at all possible, or suck it up and cry because we don't need him. Sorry CK, you are a great individual, but on the Toronto Blue Jays of '06 and beyond, unfortunately redundant. I wish you nothing but the best, with another team. I think that if Hill hadn't shown that he's a good ballplayer that I might be singing a different song, but I think at this point I'd be willing to take a chance. I mean, defensively it's his first year playing 3rd at the majors anyway, and offensively, I like his chances.
SS: While he may never turn out to be a gold glover, I think that he will be an above average defender, and his bat will only get better. I think that since he's been a leadoff hitter, he's batted close to .300 with some long grueling AB's that he's made the pitcher throw 6, 7, 8, pitches to either get out, or hit the ball the other way, or draw a walk. I see him as an excellent leadoff hitter with a +.300 BA and a .375 OBP
2B: Do I need to say anything about Hudson, seriosly, we know what we'll get from him Offensively, which I can live with his numbers, and defensively he's like a frieking rover out there. I've seen him collide with the CF'er in CF, I've seen him take a ball in shallow LF, and I've seen him crash into the wall along the 1st Base line. Is there anything the man can't do with a glove. Question. Hands up if you don't expect him to make at least one unbelievable play once every game, and then get disapointed when he doesn't. I know my hand is up, and most honest BJ fans are sitting around the cpu with one arm raised, (think about how that must look to the outsider). Ok, hands down now, my fellow weird bauxites!!
1B: I feel like crying here. I honestly don't know what to do. I like Hinske as a competitor, but don't know about his bat. I like Koskie as a competitor, but don't know about his bat, I like Hillenbrand as a dirtbag competitor, but, wait, I know about his bat. I like Shea, but to be honest with you, I'd rather have him as a DH/super sub, who can play the corners/DH. That means we can either keep Koskie and Hinske and platoon them, or trade both of them for nothing because of their salaries and sign a 1B, who I don't know, but it sounds good on paper. I'm at a loss for 1B, sorry people.
DH: Shea as mentioned above. I don't want to compare him the immortal Paul Molitor, but I see similarities in these guys, with Shea being the mini me of Molitor.
Bench: I like menechino, as he is a grinder, with a little bit of pop, who can fill in the middle infield. I'd also like to see a guy who can play all over the field, with a good bat, who wouldn't though. Maybe a switch hitter, so that he can be used regardless of the pitcher.
Catcher: I'm happy with Zaun, as I think that we're seeing a rejuvinated catcher who's been abused this year because there is noone else to catch, sorry Huck, but like I said, there is no one to spell Zaun. I think this may hurt Zaun next year, but I'm also hoping next year him and Quiroz can split playing time 80 games each if GQ can stay healthy. If by midseason he's hurt, or not performing, then we may need to upgrade.
Pitching: Please God (or powers that be of the baseball world) let Halliday never be hurt again and let him remain a BJ until he's ready to retire, and let him retire on top of his game like Roger Clemens will this year AGAIN, and then retire again next year and the year after.
Halliday, Lilly of '04, Chacin, FA around 7.5 - 10 million a year, any ideas Burnett, and then Towers, McGowan, or whoever.
That rotation I like
Bullpen: Is it too early to give up on League, I'd say almost but not quite. Is he another Peterson. Give him one more shot and then if not, can him. Frasor, Chulk, Speir, and Shoenweiss I like a lot, with Frasor being #4, but not because he's not good, but because I like the other one's better and he seems to tire during the year. Batista, I don't know about. He's got ok numbers, except for maybe his K's, which isn't horrible, but it seems that everytime I watch a save opp with my friends who hate him, he blows the game. When I watch by myself, he's fine. Curse my friends, it must be their fault.
I'm also ok with Walker and Downs being long men/spot starters.

We also have a lot of pitching depth in the minors who may or may not be ready to step up next year in case of injuries or poor performances. What ever happened to Justin Miller or the Tat Man as I liked to call him.

so LF, 1B, SP, Closer maybe, and a bench player. I trust JP can do this for less than 30 million a year. In order of priority I think it's 1B/SP as being necessities, and LF/Closer being wannabe's.

That's my rant, have fun with it, and be nice.
Phil

I find it ironic that while Reed Johnson is without a doubt the best bunter on the team, his inability to drop down two sac bunts have really hurt this team this past week. With that said, I still love the guy and think he's the perfect 4th OF.

Really, I don't see the point of being a fan unless you're going to commit. I like baseball, but I can't really imagine watching more than a couple of games a year if I wasn't committed; they take a good two and a half hours out of the meat of the evening, and living as I do in the Atlantic time zone long or extra inning games tend to keep me up past when I really ought to go to bed. Life would be simpler if I wasn't a fan, and my non-sports fan friends would probably think of me as slightly less of a nut if I didn't follow the Jays as obsessively as I do.

To follow a team is to follow the public lives of something like forty men over the course of a season. You watch them succeed and fail and develop or fail to develop over six months, and while you can never really know what these guys are like, you can at least get a basic outline of their personalities. With all of that in mind, how can you possibly not get committed-either for or against the team-if you follow them day to day? Even the most mediocre, run-of-the mill team imaginable has something to draw you in-it was the 2001 Blue Jays, for God's sake, who rekindled my interest in baseball.

Bob McCown's missing a great game.

I wanted to make a weird point about Eric Hinske. Normally, the references I hear with regards to him are that with his contract he is completely untradable and we’ll have to eat his entire salary if we want to move him. I’m not sure if this is completely true. Based on what I can find, Hinske’s salary for the next two years will be $4.33 million and $5.63 million. In terms of VOPR, he’s ranked 24th among all MLB 1st basemen with 12.2 in 2005. In previous years his VORP was: 2004- -2.2, 2003-24.1, 2002- 55.4. The clear outliner is his 2004 season. So, at least according to VORP, he’s an above average 1st basemen. Plus, from what I can tell, he plays an average 1B and has the ability to play an average or slightly below average 3B (just like Hillenbrand, that has value). If the Jays were willing to eat about half the contract or, next years salary, wouldn’t you think he would have some value to a team looking for a short term solution at either 1B or 3B? Teams that come to mind are: Twins, White Sox (if Konerko walks), Dodgers, Astros (depends on Bagwell and where Berkman plays), San Diego, Cleveland, Angels. The receiving team would get Hinske for about $2.8 million over the next two years. That’s a pretty cheap alternative, no? I wouldn’t expect to get Brandon McCarthy in return, but I still think he might have more value than what we think. Thoughts anyone?

Well upon climbing within 4 games of the wild card, it's important to note that the Jays still had less than a 10% chance of making it to post-season according to Prospectus. Quite simply there are too many teams ahead of them to guarantee them gaining ground in any scenario except winning a clear majority of the games they play here on out.

I remember reading another study by Rob Neyer (or maybe he was quoting someone else) about teams at trade deadline having to be within 3 games of a playoff spot to have a real chance. There might be exceptions here and there but generally speaking if you're not within 3 at the end of July you're not very likely to get there at all. The Jays were a few more than 3 back at the deadline AND they lost Halladay for a good 8 weeks.

28-7 would probably win the WC. .800 baseball for a month + by a ~.500 team. It's not impossible, it's just highly unlikely.

'The people that are down from the Jays to start and then present an "I told you so" attitude at the end of the season are at a lower level of fandom than everyone else.'


Just to comment on this.

Some people are just a wee bit more 'realistic' when approaching things in life. One way isn't right or wrong, and one kind of fan isn't better then the other.

I was down on this team's chances at the beginning of the year, and I was somewhat wrong. They are at .500, but they had to get a superhuman effort from Halladay to get there - he still leads AL pitchers in VORP even after all the time on the DL.

You'll have to excuse some of us if we don't get excited over the chances for 2006 or 2007. Personally I just don't think they have enough quality players in the organization to compete with Boston and New York. Of course a good amount of reason for that is the payroll disparity, but I don't have a lot of faith in JP in the free agent market even with some dollars to spend.

Almost all of my fandom arises out of my childhood and rooting for my university in college sports. I was a mild fan of some NFL and NHL teams growing up and I root for the Lakers. But now, I find it very difficult to attach myself to a team. I find that I actually enjoy just watching because I like the games and the sport. Even having fantasy teams won't get me to watch a sport I don't enjoy.

So now while I enjoy football, hockey, soccer and other sports, at this point in my life, unless I move to a city and really attach myself to a team, it becomes very difficult to be as diehard of a fan as I am for the Blue Jays.

It's just as well - rooting for the Jays and Cal football and basketball is sufficiently taxing. I don't need to stress myself over other sports when I can just enjoy the games and seasons or pick who I want to root for on an ad hoc basis without commitment. But even then, I would never identify myself as a fan of that team.

Man, I sound like such the guy. But hey, I'm committed to the Blue Jays and I'm all for monogamy. I have a friend who has a 10-year old son that really likes Ichiro and proclaimed himself a Mariners fan in their big 2001 season. He then became an Angels fan during their championship run in 2002. Last year, he switched allegiances to the Cardinals after the Angels got knocked out but then became a Red Sox fan after they won the World Series. His dad has tried to talk to him about team loyalty but so far, it hasn't worked. If I ask him today what team he's a fan of, I have no idea what he's going to say.

One way isn't right or wrong, and one kind of fan isn't better then the other.

Indeed. I've never understood why some people seem to feel the need to compare themselves to other fans. Gee, maybe we should try to psycho-analyze that!

If you do want to make that comparison, though, a fanbase that is less easily excited about a team's prospects, onte that's harder to "win over", will provide more incentive to the team to try to field a better team.

I remember trying to say something like this at the time of the Roger Clemens signing, comparing what the Jays tried to do to re-kindle a dwindling fanbase, to what the Leafs were doing at the time. (nothing -- their fanbase was rock-solid... it looked like they were about to revert to the Ballard era, when they really made no effort to ice a good team, because there was little incentive to do so).

So, if a diehard fan really wants to compare himself to a bandwagon jumper, or a "negative" fan, maybe he should think about where he'd be without those "inferior" fans...

I was down on this team's chances at the beginning of the year, and I was somewhat wrong. They are at .500, but they had to get a superhuman effort from Halladay to get there - he still leads AL pitchers in VORP even after all the time on the DL.

I think the big difference here is that I don't see you being all smug about how great your prediction was -- you're not happy that the team has failed to exceed your expectations, right? That was my jumping-off point for all of this.

Well I certainly don't feel like I was right, they have been much better then I thought they would be, especially Hillenbrand.

You are right though, I think I even wrote a few times that I would be more then happy to be wrong.

I think that even the same person can be very different when it comes to different teams, I know I'm a different football fan then I am baseball fan. I'm much more emotional when it comes to Football because I think I spend so much time 'studying' baseball, and looking at it analytically.

No one is saying that you have to think the Jays are going to go 162-0 to be a real fan of the team. I don't necessarily think I'm a better fan of the team than anybody. The issue is not so much with expectations, low or other wise, as with a persistent Chicken Little attitude on the part of some people, of whom McCown seems to be the most prominent example. The Jays will never win. The division is too tough. A good start will fizzle. A bad start will stretch on to the horizon. Toronto's a hockey town. And on and on and on. If you want to say that the Jays are unlikely to surpass Boston and/or New York next year, that's perfectly fine. If, on June 30th of next year, the Jays happen to be in first place, it's equally fine to say that you think it might not last. What drives me, and I think some other people here, nuts is people who insist that it can't last. A modicum of optimism, a sense that things at least might turn out well, it seems to me, is kind of a requirement for being a fan, and I think there are definitely people in Toronto's sports media who don't. I don't think we really have anyone like that here, but "anti-fans" exist, and they seem to be louder, pound for pound, than almost any other segment of Jays fandom. They've got a right, of course, but what I want to know is, if the team's that futile, why do they bother to pay attention?

Wait a sec.......

when did so many people care about what Bob McCowan has to say about the Jays?

I care because there are people who believe him.

The media plays a *huge* role in deciding people's opinions of the team. What they say can influence people's decisions like "Should I go to the game tomorrow?", which can ultimately affect how team's do financially.

There's no question in my mind that Simmons, Elliot, Griffin and McCown have instilled a certain amount of apathy either. The idea to younger kids that the "Jays suck" is now something that just carries, without any thought to whether the team is good or bad.

I feel sorry for anybody that lets a few media members opinions influence them if they want to attend a Jays game or not.

Ron, it's not that simple -- Jerry Howarth repeating that the Jays have been lousy with runners in scoring position, for example, gave real weight to that perception, but when Rob ran the numbers the Jays turned out to be better than average.

Lots of people here on Batter's Box have repeated that the Jays are lousy with runners in scoring position -- do you feel bad for them that their perception has been shaped by the local media?

VBF was talking about how the media can influence people's decision of whether to attend a game or not.

Talking about the perception of RISP is a whole other bag (which I assume doesn't effect people's decision of whether attending a game).

I would feel much happier if Jays fans didn't spend so much time attacking each other. None of us has anything to gain from this.

Jerry Howarth repeating that the Jays have been lousy with runners in scoring position, for example, gave real weight to that perception, but when Rob ran the numbers the Jays turned out to be better than average.

Actually, I said "The Toronto Blue Jays are at the very, very worst, slightly better than average in crucial situations." (Emphasis mine...uh, that is, my original emphasis.)

And they still are, folks! With runners in scoring position:
AL Average: .274/.349/.430, 0.39 RBI per AB
Toronto: .269/.340/.444, 0.41 RBI per AB

With runners in scoring position and two outs:
AL Average: .251/.344/.398, 0.33 RBI per AB
Toronto: .251/.348/.423, 0.36 RBI per AB

And yes, even in the elusive Close and Late situations!
AL Average: .251/.323/.385, 0.13 RBI per AB
Toronto: .268/.331/.388, 0.10 RBI per AB

Talking about the perception of RISP is a whole other bag (which I assume doesn't effect people's decision of whether attending a game).

You're right in that they are two very specific things. But I don't think that they're easy to separate -- either the Toronto media influences what we think about the Jays or they don't. I can't see them influencing, say, our perception of performance with two outs and runners in scoring position but absolutely not influencing whether or not we feel the team is worth seeing.