The Mendosa Limbo: how low can you go?

The brooms were out in Tampa Bay today as Halladay couldn't stop the sweep. The ALE has taught the Jays a lesson over the past two series and they're 2-8 over their last 10. The Jays now sit 9.5 back of Boston, 9 games back of the second place Yankees and 4.5 games behind the Rays to sit in 4th place in the division. Before the season started, in no way did I expect the Jays to be playoff contenders. Although, April and May did give me so hope that they wouldn't be this far back a week before the All-Star Game—here we are.

No matter what, I'll always be a Jays' fan and I'll watch as many games as I possibly can. The question is, at what point do we dedicated fans neatly file away our hope under 2010? I am personally setting the "Jays' Mendosa Line" at 10.1 GB: if the Jays at any point get to over ten games back, I will officially lose hope in a good season. By "good season" I mean hope that come September, the Jays will be flirting with a wild card spot. They don't have to be in the wild card spot, I just want a little drama—4 games out would be just fine.

Alright, so when the Jays reach the > 10 GB milestone, then what? I'm throwing my hope toward another team. The question is, what team? Well, it sure as hell won't be anyone from the AL, which leads to the NL. Allow me to very quickly eliminate a few teams: Not the fucking Cardinals, because fuck them; not the fucking Dodgers, because that team shits in the same toilets as Manny "my balls are tiny" Ramirez ; and not the fucking Philles because of '93. So there go the current division leaders. I'm not jumping on some retarded bandwagon.

I obviously don't want to start cheering for a team that's in a situation like the Jays, which eliminates a few more teams: Washington (duh), Pittsburgh, Arizona and San Diego. Of the teams are left, I've narrowed it down to three: The Cubs, The Astros and The Mets. Why?

The Mets (40-43)—They've got a really solid team. Question is, are they going to get healthy soon enough? With Delgado on the long term DL and Putz, Reyes, and Beltran on the short term DL, they're missing a good chuck of change. Sitting at 4.5 back of the Phillies in the NLE, they're in tough, but they still have a very legitimate chance of the division or the WC.

The Cubs(41-41)—There's something about their starting rotation. I really like Zambrano; he's done wonders for me in my fantasy league. Former Jay Ted Lilly is having a great season in the number two spot. Rookie Randy Wells is having a great season. Rich Harden is probably their worst starter and is having a very inconsistent season (dropped the son-of-a-bitch from my fantasy team), but he could straighten out at any time. They currently sit 3.5 back of the division leading Cardinals.

The Astros (41-43)—Having starters Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez, closer Jose Valverde, and position players Michael Bourn and Miguel Tajada on my fantasy team, I've taken advantage of the mlb.tv feature which allows me to switch to games when my players are hitting or pitching. So, over the past few weeks, I've taken in a lot of Huston Astros baseball. They are just simply fun to watch: they've got power, speed and pitching. It's great baseball. They currently sit 4.5 back of the Cardinals in the NLC

For now, I'm not really leaning more toward any of the three. I'm going to continue to watch them on mlb.tv and see how they do.

It really fucking pisses me off to think that if they Jays were in the NLE or NLC as my above group of three, they'd be in serious contention for the post season. Fuck you Bud Selig.

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