The Jays And Brewers Are For Real

We are roughly 54 games into the season.  That is about one-third of the way through. We have learned quite a bit and the MLB is a very different landscape from last season. For one the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants are likely the two best teams in baseball, but hot on their heels is an unlikely two teams, the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers.

Both got off to hot starts and most expected one or both to fade away as the season progressed, but we are now getting to the point where each team have passed tests that prove they are legit contenders.

These two teams owned identical losing records last year at 74-88 and both sat at or near the bottom of their division. Not to mention none of their stats were very impressive. Not to mention their pitching, which was also atrocious. Milwaukee had a 4.20 ERA in 2013 while the Blue Jays posted a 4.81.

This season, both the Jays and the Brewers have found highly talented hitters. The Jays in Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista and the Brewers have Ryan Braun and Carlos Gomez. Their pitching has also improved. Admittedly, they do not have the best pitching staff in the MLB, but Toronto’s ERA has dropped to a much more acceptable 3.83 over the last 55 games, while the Brewers have a 3.42 ERA. Clearly their improvement from this season to last is huge.

It also helped that the Boston Red Sox, Tamp Bay Rays in the AL East and the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central have regressed in talent. It definitely paved the way for other teams to take over at lest and that is exactly what the Brewers and Jays have done.

As long as the Jays and Brewers just keep doing what they are doing and their pitching stays consistent they will be keeping the pace all season.