Lee Dale

Blue Jays pain: who’s on first?

It pains me to see Adam Lind at 1B. He looks completely out of sorts out there. Every play is either a fumble, bumble or recovery.

And our concussed lead man, captain of the doubles his first year with the Jays, Lyle Overbay? Graceful as he is in the field, he has 27 doubles this year, is hitting just .247, and has on on base percentage that puts him second last in the league for first basemen. Woeful stuff.

Meanwhile, our Toronto, Canada brother Joey Votto? He’s destroying National League pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. He’s younger, cheaper and better than Overbay (by a long shot) and Lind (by a year and a few thousand). And his stats? Not far behind if you combine Overbay and Lind’s output.

The Adam Lyle Overlind Monster
107 runs, 50 doubles, 35 homers, 118 RBIs, and 91 walks.

Joey Votto
91 runs, 27 doubles, 32 home runs, 97 RBIs, and 73 walks.

So, as a Canadian, rooting for a Canadian team, you’d have to think Joey must have gone high in the first round to have escaped the Jays on draft day. 

Of course not.

In 2002 Joey was picked 2nd round, 44th over all by Cincinnati. Nowhere near the top of the talent pool.

The Jays chose Russ Adams in the 1st round, 14th over all, well ahead of Votto, and followed with David Bush 11 picks after Votto. Was there any effort to trade up from Bush? Who knows.

The fun of all this is that Adams is a bust, and David Bush was a big piece of the trade for Lyle Overbay.

And so we’re left without Canadian content, no suitably contributing first baseman, and a team where their best player batting average is 46 points below Votto’s. Ugly, ugly stuff.