Toronto Blue Jays first half MVP the fans

Toronto Blue Jays at the all-star break are 43-43 and it has been a first half of near misses because if they had a chance at a 6-2 home stand they would lose the finale and go 5-3 over they sweep one team and then get swept by the next team they face. It would be not a stretch that the Jays could have a 48-38 record by just winning 5 of those season changing games and be in the middle of the wildcard picture instead of being 2.5 games behind the Orioles for the second playoff spot. First half MVPs The biggest MVP in the first half has been the Toronto Blue Jays fans who have been coming out in a lot bigger numbers this spring/summer as the Jays had 22,203 last season through 42 games and this season they have averaged 26,379 which is a boast of 18.8% in attendance this season. So the Jays have had an extra 175,366 and if the average ticket of 30 dollars would be bringing in 5.26 million dollars and merchandise has been way up at least 60% and the new jerseys are everywhere and the crowd coming into the Rogers Centre are less stupid as the past couple of seasons so lets hope the Jays can stay close and give the fans a reason to continue making the trip to the stadium. Batting Edwin Encarnacion is diffidently the offensive MVP this season with his 23 homers and 58 RBI are on pace to lap his career best in both categories but it his July numbers that are extremely impressive as he has only one homer and 3 RBIs but is still swinging a hot bat hitting .375 (9 for 24) and has 7 walks and only 2 ks which for a streaky player like Encarnacion in the past when the power is cut the drops like a rock in past seasons so this is a great change and is almost at .300. The move of both Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus into the top of the order has created a great increase in runners on for Bautista and Encarnacion who numbers recently Bautista have exploded as he has had 52 of his 65 RBIs in June and May while Colby Rasmus has 32 RBIs in his past 32 games (june/july) after having 20 in his first 20 games. After the break it will be important to have Adam Lind turn the fab 4 into the magnificent 5 while it will be very interesting to see how Bautista is effected by the home run derby as he only had 12 homers and 38 RBIs and a drop of .77 in his batting average in his last 65 games. Pitching The early pitching MVP was by far Brandon Morrow who in 13 games had a lot of good stuff behind his 7 and 4 record especially the 3.01 ERA and more impressively his WHIP of 1. His three complete game shutouts this season was a great combination of ground balls and keeping the pitch count down and focused on getting a ground ball and letting the infielders take care of the rest and the opponents were batting .179 against him. Then he started the elbow injury crew that have been quite a few with a couple close ones but then a lot of not so good and extremely scary stuff. After Morrow it has been Casey Janssen who has finalized the back of the bullpen where Jason Frasor, Darren Oliver, and he get a lead going into the seventh inning and U can almost put it in the win column. With Casey Jannsen who has 12 saves on the season and in those 12 save opportunities as the closer he has given up 4 hits in 12.1 innings pitched with 10 ks and a walk. While Darren Oliver has held opponents to batting average of under 2 and has a whip of 0.92 while Jason Frasor has not given up a run in 14 of his 17 appearances in June and July and gave up 4 runs in 14.2 innings pitched. The Francisco Cordero and Sergio Santos mess has been very bad especially Cordero who was unsble to close games as a Jay and even when he is able to get ground balls something always go wrong and he gets booed off the field. While Sergio Santos just has not been around and it does not feel like he will be around as a Jay for whatever the reason. Tom Mehegan