Cliff Corcoran, a Sports Illustrated writer, attempted to answer if the Blue Jays are the “real deal.”
In the middle of his analysis, he pointed out that luck has been on Toronto’s side. Starters Scott Rolen, Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, Aaron Hill and Rod Barajas have all been playing out of their minds and have stayed relatively healthy. Then again, this is what the Rays hitters were doing last season, and they didn’t slow down.
However, I think the main factor behind the Jays’ early success is their ease of schedule. But this series with the Yankees marks the beginning of a challenging remaining schedule. Corcoran sums it up beautifully.
The Jays play two-thirds of their games against the AL East in the second half, but they have six games against the second-place Red Sox over the remainder of May, three games against the defending NL champion Phillies in June and a run of 13 games against the Phillies, Rays, Yankees and Rays again leading up to the All-Star break. We'll have a much better idea of how good Toronto is by the end of that stretch, and it seems fair to suggest that, while the Jays probably are a better team than many thought, they won't have one of the best records in baseball by the time July rolls around.
This team has taken care of some of the weaker teams in the AL, but I just don’t see them holding up down the road.
