News
Beeston views season as a mixed bag
Toronto (75-86) at Baltimore (63-98), 1:35 p.m. ET
By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
10/04/09 1:27 AM EST
BALTIMORE -- Paul Beeston, the Blue Jays' acting president and CEO, joined his team at Camden Yards on Saturday to deliver a year-end speech to the players. There was the matter of telling the club about the dismissal of general manager J.P. Ricciardi, but Beeston had other issues to discuss."The message was just one of the old Clint Eastwood [movies], 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,'" Beeston said. "The good, the beginning of the year. The end of the year was the ugly. In between was kind of the bad. We had some good performances. We were pleased with a number of the individual performances.
"We think we've got something we can build on for the future. At the same time, there were some things we can't be pleased about as a team. Winning 75-77 games is nothing you can be pleased with."
The good that Beeston spoke of was the fact that the Blue Jays soared out of the gates, posting a 27-14 record in the early going and residing in first place in the American League as late as May 23. The bad was the 48-72 stretch that followed. The ugly was the recent reports of clubhouse issues between the players and manager Cito Gaston.
Through all the ups and downs, one of the consistent bright spots of this disappointing season for the Blue Jays has been rookie left-hander Ricky Romero. A long shot to win a job in the rotation at the beginning of Spring Training, Romero fought his way into the mix and emerged as an AL Rookie of the Year Award candidate as the season progressed.
On Sunday, when the Blue Jays wrap up their season with an afternoon tilt against the Orioles, Romero will take the hill in search of his 14th win of the season. Romero has highlighted a cast of young and inexperienced starters, who held down the fort on a depleted starting staff this year. He also has a fan in ace Roy Halladay.
"He's been a lot of fun for me to watch," Halladay said recently. "Guys like that, that come in, that have respect and that go about things the right way, it's nice to see. Ricky Romero -- he's come up and wanted to talk and you can't force-feed guys. I think they have to want it, and you wait and see who wants it and that's why for me, Ricky's been a positive."
Pitching matchup
TOR: LHP Ricky Romero (13-9, 4.26)
Romero cracked the win column for the first time in five career starts against the Red Sox last Tuesday, scattering seven hits over five innings. The southpaw's 13 wins are the second most by a rookie in club history, one shy of Mark Eichhorn's 14 in 1986. In three appearances against the Orioles this season, Romero is 0-2 with a 5.59 ERA.
Guthrie will get the ball in the season finale. The right-hander has fulfilled a season goal by making all of his rotation turns this season, and he's 7 2/3 innings away from breaking 200 for the first time in his career. Guthrie leads the AL in losses, home runs (32) and earned runs (108) allowed, but he'll try to finish strong. Bird feed
The Blue Jays' new general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, was born in Montreal, making him only the fifth Canadian-born GM in baseball history. The others include Gord Ash, Doug Melvin, Murray Cook and George Selkirk. ... Designated hitter Adam Lind has missed three straight games after being struck on the right elbow by a pitch in a game against the Red Sox on Tuesday. ... The Blue Jays have scored more runs (794) than they have allowed (766) this season, but they are 11 games under .500. Toronto will join the 1918 White Sox as the only AL teams in baseball history to finish at least 10 games below .500 while having a positive run differential. ... Outfielder Jose Bautista went 0-for-4 on Saturday, ending a streak of four straight games with at least one home run. Prior to Bautista, the last Blue Jays player to homer in four consecutive games was Vernon Wells in 2003. ... Toronto belted 46 home runs last month, marking the most long balls the team has ever hit in September. ... The 19 home runs by Randy Ruiz (10) and Travis Snider (nine) this season are the most by a pair of Toronto rookies in one season since Eric Hinske (24) and Josh Phelps (15) combined for 39 in 2002. Tickets
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Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
