Buffalo Boy's Blog

As bad as it has gotten this year for the Jays I thought I would look back and see how would I rank as a fan their ten worst seasons, not necessarily by record but throwing in expectations and how fans were led to believe they would be better.

Obviously they have had more than their fair share of lean years since 1993 but lets not just do this by how bad their record was, they had some awful seasons when the franchise first started out in 1977 but no one had any expectations right away so can we really consider those seasons their worst?

I consider this season 2009 to be possibly their worst season ever. They started so well with high expectations once they got through April with their best start in franchise history, then their inept GM allowed this meltdown they have gone through to not only continue but he made moves and did not make moves that continually puzzled all Jays fans. From Roy Halladay not being moved to Scott Rolen being traded for an under achieving Edwin Encarnacion to Alex Rios who still had upside being given away for nothing.

Here are my top ten most disappointing/worst/call it what ever you want to Blue Jays seasons:

1. 2009- First to Fourth in a month. First place as of the last week of May, by the end of June they were in fourth place with their GM seemingly packing his bags. He could have made a move to better the ballclub in May seeing all the injuries and the talented young pitching prospects available in the organization but he failed to pull the trigger on anything. JP is fired after the last game of the season guaranteed.

As bad as its been since the World Series years this season has got to be rock bottom. All the promise and all the hype of April and May squashed because a team can't stay healthy and the GM can't make a move to save it from collapse due to those very injuries. The Job of the GM Is to put his team in a position to be successful with the tools it needs, JP had a first place team with talent to move to make it better, he failed at his job and it was probably the biggest failure of his tenure.

2. 1987- Like I said this is not about how bad the record was but how disappointing the season was....They went into the last two weeks of the season with a 3.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers and with a week left Tony Fernandez went down with a season ending injury and the team fell apart and was swept by the Tigers in the final series of the season and the Tigers finished 2 games ahead to win the AL East, still hurts to look at that finish, could have been their first World Series Championship had it not been for that late season meltdown.

3. 1988- After a 96 win season in 1987 what a drop off, 86 wins and third place, the disappointment from '87 carried over a year.

4. 1994- Strike shortened season and despite great performances from Molitor, Olerud and Alomar early on the pitching wasn't there to keep them at the top of the AL East following two World Series. The strike would leave the Jays a shadow of their former selves.

5. 1979- Okay this is a season where record counts, 501/2 games back? Are you kidding me? Good things were on the horizon though.

6. 2006- This was a year that everyone including myself thought that this team had a chance to make the playoffs and they did have a chance. They were in the wildcard right to September and finished higher than third place for the first time since the World Series years. What made this season so disappointing was the management of the team and the injuries. Ted Lilly and Shea Hillenbrand both had outbursts toward manager John Gibbons. They also traded Canadian favorite Corey Koskie and they pissed off Shea Hillenbrand mid-season. With a little luck and maybe better team chemistry this team could have been a post-season contender.

7. 1998- What made this year particularly ugly was the firing of Cito Gaston and the subsequent hiring of Tim Johnson, he actually had a decent season as manager but again if not for chemistry issues between him and his players this team may have competed into the post-season, Ed Sprague, Pat Hentgen and other long time Jays had serious issues with Johnson who was supposed to be this great communicator and manager. What made this even more maddening was the fact that Johnson was caught lying about his service in the Vietnam War which ultimately led to him losing any respect he still had from the players and his eventual dismissal.

We fired Cito for that? Whats more is that competing against Johnson for the job was none other than Davey Johnson and Paul Molitor who myself and others have been a fan of bringing in as manager of the Jays for a long time. This season began a string of season searching for the right guy.

8. 2008- Again a decent record in 2008 but despite the great pitching the offense couldn't stay healthy or produce. We let Frank Thomas go early on and brought back the one manager that won the big one for us Cito! He managed to get the team into contention but due to nagging injuries to Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and late season major injuries to Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan, two key pitchers on the staff the season ended pre-maturely.

9. 2007- Injuries, we all remember the day BJ Ryan went down. It took two weeks to get Jeremy Accardo going as the closer.

10. 1990- The Jays record on August 28th of 1990 was 66-64, they had a miserable August going 11-`16 up til that date. They were if my memory serves me 6.5 games out of first place on September 4th. By September 18th the Jays tied the Red Sox but would never take the lead in the penant race. They finished 2 out. For me I will always wonder what if they had a stronger August? They played lazy baseball for stretches that year. That changed after the season as the biggest trade in franchise history would take place in that offseason going into 1991. They would also acquire Devon White. 

Im depressed, tomorrow I'll look at the best.