Philadelphia Phillies: With your Team out of the Playoffs, Who to Root for?
By Chuck Booth
American League: The Toronto Blue Jays
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Who are they: The Blue Jays finished the season with an 89-73 record to make the wild card game where they beat out the Baltimore Orioles to advance to a divisional series aginst the Texas Rangers. The Blue Jays are paced by a top 10 offense and pitching rotation while also playing in the American League East, one of the toughest divisions in all of major league baseball.
The Jays are led by big bats and big personalities with Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki leading the way. In the rotation, everything falls in line behind Aaron Sanchez.
Why Root For Them: If you like flair and bat flips, the Blue Jays are your team. They’ll hit the ball longer than almost any team and play with a flair that isn’t normally seen in the modern game. The Jays also have the American League ERA in Aaron Sanchez who posted an ERA of 3.00 over192 innings pitched. They limited him in September so that he would be fresh for the playoffs, will it pay off?
This will be the second playoff appearance in a row for the Blue Jays after losing in the American League Championship Series to the Royals last year. Outside of that, they don’t have much of a playoff history. They won the World Series in back to back years in 1992 and 1993 over the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies respectively.
Can the only team north of the border win it again?