AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	
Travis	9	.444	.500	.556
Dldson	14	.214	.353	.357
Edwin	41	.195	.327	.341
JBats	61	.230	.300	.328
Martin	25	.280	.308	.760
Tulo	3	.333	.333	.333
Upton	29	.276	.344	.483
Snders	8	.250	.333	.250
Pillar	16	.375	.412	.438

When you asked for meaningful baseball in September, you asked for the worry, for the torture, for the sinking feeling.

Yup, kids. This is what it's usually like and last year was the exception. As a rule, September baseball is non-stop Dread.

This, exactly. When September baseball is not meaningless, it can be painful. I still remember 1987.

I find, though, that I am philosophical about it. If the Jays can't beat the Red Sox at home, they won't advance far in the postseason even if they get there.

I don't know why, but everyone always forgets 1990. Ahead by 1.5 games with a week left on the schedule, the Jays lost six of their last eight and finished 2 games behind Boston.

I was actually in Baltimore for the last game of the season that year! The Jays went into the game down one; a Jays win and a Sox loss meant a playoff. Both the Jays' last game and Boston's last game were close. The Sox game finished first, and the scoreboard at Memorial Stadium showed happy Red Sox celebrating. The Orioles fans started celebrating too, as they didn't like the Jays because of 1989.

When the Jays knew that they had lost, Henke was on the mound, and it was tied in the bottom of the ninth. He served up a game-ending cookie to Mickey Tettleton, because there was no need to do otherwise.

The only good thing about the game was that, while the Orioles fans were celebrating, I zipped up the stairs and out the exit, and beat all of the post-game traffic.

The border crossing back into Canada also was fun:
"How long have you been out of the country?"
"Three days."
"Where were you?"
"Baltimore."
"Did you see the Jays play?"
"Yep."
"Drive on through."

Funny - don't have many memories of the 1990 team. mainly how Cito was platooning Hill and Ducey in September while Bell DH'ed and Olerud was benched despite having a decent rookie season

Olerud started very slowly that year - he was batting .209 on April 29 (though with a reasonable .333 OBP). (I love Baseball Reference.)

I once was researching something in 1990 newspaper microfiche loops, and one of the common themes that some of the crankier sportswriters were spouting at the time was that Olerud needed to spend time in the minors because that's what Real Baseball Players do. They ride the buses, change in crappy minor league locker rooms, and etcetera. They aren't immediately handed a free ticket to the majors, grumble grumble. (These were the same writers who spent most of their free time complaining about George Bell.)

I think there was one writer who suggested that Olerud should be sent down in favour of Ed Sprague, but my memory may be playing tricks on me.

Often times this year it seems as if the Jays have had a pitcher on the ropes early, let him wriggle off with limited damage done, and then proceed to be shut down the balance of the game; hopefully this will be the reverse of that scenario.

Check out Ivan Nova. He's this year's JA Happ.

Rich Hill 2005-07 (portrait of a healthy young man):
4.39 ERA, 318 IP, 278 H, 46 HR, 119 BB, 294 K

Rich Hill 2008-14 (an unhealthy young man grows old and wild):
5.42 ERA, 153 IP, 151 H, 12 HR, 108 BB, 157 K

Rich Hill 2015-16 (baseball is easy):
1.74 ERA, 124 IP, 75 H, 4 HR, 35 BB, 146 K

Not sure what is most impressive about this unlikely career path. The fact that he even stuck with baseball for 7 years during which he averaged just over 20 MLB IP per year? The fact that he has now tackled to the ground his wildness and homerun proclivities? The fact that at age 35 he apparently morphed into Clayton Kershaw?

He should have Sandy Leon as his personal catcher.

He has more doubles than he has singles. He has more homeruns than he has singles. He has 50 hits, 38 of which are XBH.

By the way, this go-big-or-go-home approach carried him through the minors as well, during which time 49% of his 643 hits were XBH.

He is listed at 5'9", 180 pounds. Which probably means he is not even that big.

Thanks. I assumed that was part of the equation but didn't know where to look that up.

Dick Hayhurst's accusations from 2013.

I also hate 200ip projections instead of 32gs projections - because imo going deep into games is a real SP skill. projecting 200ip for a guy like EdRo, who averaged about 5.5ip per start is a big stretch compared to doing it for Stroman and Sanchez, who both average near 6.5ip per start.

Wait just one second - we have been going through a season-long drama over how many innings Sanchez will be allowed to pitch, and Stroman, with four strong starts to finish the year will end up with just a shade over 200 IP (a career high by a considerable margin), and you want to just blithely assume that they are good for 32 starts a year, because it helps your argument?  I'm not taking any position on the merits of your broader argument regarding the quality of each team's respective young players, but there is more than a little wishcasting involved if you want to take it as given that they are each good for 32 starts.