The 2021 Toronto Blue Jays Deserved Better 

As a huge Jays fan, watching their bullpen pitch from May to July gave me unimaginable amounts of heart-burn

If Springer missed like 65 games instead of 80, they probably would have made the playoffs

I'll never forget the Semien walk-off vs the A's. The best blue jays game in recent memory

The AL east is just insanely competitive. We got screwed yes, but we could’ve won some games later in the season like the ones against the Twins and such. Hopefully we’ll get over the hump next year.

This team on paper was incredible. You can see at 11:03 that the bullpen was actually great in April (building on the strong pen they had in 2020) but then literally everyone except Jordan Romano got injured. Kirby Yates got TJ'd before the season even started. It takes a really fucked up god to take two feel good stories (who were polar opposites on the field) in the 2021 Blue Jays and Mariners and have them both miss the playoffs by a game

Playing essentially nothing but away games for more than the first half of the season is something no other team in baseball had to face. There’s at least an extra win there somewhere if the Jays had had a normal schedule. Every team deals with injuries, a bad bp, a critical error at key moments, etc. (and the Jays benefited and won a few games because of some of those by the other team as much as the Jays suffered losses as a result of similar gaffes on the Jay’s side). Those aren’t valid reasons to cry about missing the post season by a single game, but the pandemic schedule definitely is. The Jays were a playoff team.

I think the 90 win Mariners would’ve been cool to see. Like imagine a -50 run differential in the playoffs. Would’ve been cool to see how the most clutch team would survive in the a 1 game playoff and see what could’ve happened

The amount of bad luck this team had was insane, they had about 10,12 games where the lined out about 5 or more times, meanwhile the yankees were getting flukey hits the entire season

The Mariners deserved better too in 2021. Also, in 2002 and 2003 they won 93 games and still missed the playoffs.

I’ve been a jays fan since I was a kid (I’m 26) and I barely had friends who likes baseball cause it was “boring” and “slow” but it didn’t bother me, I still supported. This 2021 run for that last WC spot was so amazing for the city’s baseball fans that it eventually brought in people who weren’t fans, aka my friends. We all watched all the September games together on discord and were pumped each win and we obviously wanted the jays to make it. Unfortunately, we know the results but I only see this team going up. Thanks for the jays coverage! Keep it up

I love that “clutchness” is now quantifiable.

If any jays fan or anyone remembers the Marcus semien error, probably one of the worst I have ever seen which would have won us the game and get us to the playoffs

Jays are WS contenders this year. Dont get it mistaken, the team that ended the season was one of the best in baseball. So the popular, "but they lost Semien and Ray" rhetoric and therefore arent a 90 win team anymore is false. Because the finalized team last year was much more than a 91 win team. Theyve already supplemented Gausman for Ray and theyre sure to make more, add ontop of that another year of experience for their young core and Springer not being as injured, this team is going to be a nightmare for the rest of the league. Their biggest problem last year was the pitching staff for the first 3 months. And that is fixed now. They have a solid 1-4 and a bullpen that can get it done when needed.

That’s how good the AL East was. Absolutely unreal.

Last year feels like the season that got away. Hopefully they can keep building going into next year

America deserved the Mariners Canada deserved the Jays What did we get? 2015 NL Wild Card 2: Electric Boogaloo

As a Sox fan, I feel, Boston deserved the playoffs but the 200 run diff Jays deserved to win the division

On October 3, 2021 I was just coming back to my university after visiting my cousins for the weekend. I went to the Aldershot train station in Burlington, Ontario, a city in the Greater Toronto Area. When I got there I saw a sea of blue jerseys and baseball caps (Never gonna forget the shirt asking me "Who's your Vladdy?") all heading on the train to Union Station to get to the Rogers Centre to watch our team play what might be their final game. As soon as I got back to my room, I opened my barely functional MacBook and brand new laptop to try to play all three final regular season games at once. I watched as the first baseball team I had ever followed all walked back to the clubhouse proud of their sweep and hopeful of their playoff prospects. What followed that night was me staring at my ceiling both sad and frustrated as the team that got me through the worst of a pandemic and that despite relocating three times in one season managed to miss the playoffs by exactly one loss. This team of baseball boys really meant a lot more to me than I thought. Watching this video made me realize that. Through how it helped me connect to my recently deceased father in the months before his passing, to helping me adjust to my new life as a university student, the 2021 Toronto Blue Jays will always have a place in my heart and they truly deserved better. Thank you for reading this far if you still are.

I mostly just started watching the games after they moved but now im a huge blue jays fan and seeing all of this makes me happy but at the same time it hurts

Storm you have no idea how happy it made me when you used the clutch stat

That was a good vid. Just subbed, keep up the good work! 👍

honestly it was fun watch them yanks boston and mariners all have a huge fight for playoff spots and even playing eachother all the time in the last month

Great video man!

That Semien error vs Detroit will always haunt me...

Great content!!

That rotation with Gausman, Ryu, Manoah, Berrios, Pearson looks super solid for this coming year

AL East is a very tough division. To finish with 91 wins is an amazing accomplishment.

The blue Jay's finished with just one more win than the Mariners, despite a run differential over 200 runs better, crazy

I’ve been playing as the jays on mlb 21 for March to October to try and rewrite the season in my head at least 😅 made it in just ahead of the Yankees and also managed to trade for Scherzer

Without a doubt the best team I've ever seen that never made the Postseason. Their offense was absolutely lethal. Their pitching was underrated too. Sure, their bullpen could use some work, but Nate Pearson is coming back and should help out the staff even more, forcing someone to a relief role, and they even have more promising arms in the minors. This team is a favorite of mine to be the next potential dynasty over the next couple seasons. I had previously picked the Chicago White Sox but I don't think they're as strong as Toronto.

october 3rd 2021 my most all-around heartbreaking day as a sports fan and i'm not even that much of a baseball fan

Loved the home record in Toronto. They played on the road the 75% of the year. Hard for a younger team.

I was at the game 162 in Toronto. We won and they had the bright idea of turning on the Red Sox game. Maybe 1 minutes later Devers hits a home run

Nice Vid!

Great video.

We forget the 2018 rays winning 90 games with one of the cheapest owners in the league and not going to the playoffs. And that 2020 season when they went to the World Series where two of the dodgers player were paid the same amount of the whole rays team

Let's go 2022 Blue Jays Go!

Crazy to think, a team without several of its best and most promising players that won fewer games than the 4th place team in the AL East won the world series. Baseball everybody.

I'm so ready for baseball season

The 2021 Blue Jays were kind of the opposite of the 2016 Rangers in how their season played out. The Rangers led the American League in wins that year, never really played much of the season outside of first place in the AL West, and went 32-11 in one-run games. They were extremely clutch that season, but they suffered from an opposite issue. While the Blue Jays were blowing teams out--which inflated their run differential--the Rangers would lose games big, which left them with a poor +8 run differential. When they won, the games were pretty close, and when they lost, they were getting the brakes blown off them. This formula worked until they faced the Blue Jays in an ALDS rematch. It exposed them for being a bit too lucky during the regular season, as they came out unprepared and sloppy - at least in game one. They would eventually get swept. It's so interesting to me when you examine a team's strengths and weaknesses and how that compares similarly to other teams from past seasons. Man, I really love this sport.

This might be a tall ask but I’d love to see a video on the offensive production from the cubs offense in the second half compared to the cubs offense in the first

I speak for the Washington Nationals when I say, I’m truly sorry Toronto :(

All four teams in the AL East are capable of winning the division this year. It's going to be a fun year. Now let's get this lockout over and done with!

Like this was a season where we got done in by a tough division, and a few key losses. But the fact that the Jays did all this while bouncing between 3 different home ballparks this year was impressive. The Brightside is this team has a great future.

they definitely were playoff ready, so many tough loses that proved to be costly in the end.

Mariners and Blue Jays deserve a playoff clinch next year 👏👏👏

To be honest I hope Rays were playing Jays in 2021 playoffs, even when Rays lose in the end, it will be a better series than the Rays/Sox

IMO, they were the most complete team in the AL last year.

I think next, you need to make a video about the 2021 Mariners, who were also an anomaly, but in a MUCH different way.

I was hoping for San Diego vs Toronto World Series. Two young fun teams to watch BUT both fell short. Regardless I went out of my way to watch them last year. I also really enjoy listening to the Padres broadcast. They have a really good crew. Blue jays…..buck martinez was here in Baltimore before Toronto and I’m glad he’s enjoying himself there. For those that didn’t know, T mobile was gives away free mlb tv subscriptions through their T-Mobile Tuesday promotion at the beginning of each year. So that made it easy to watch other teams but of course there’s the ridiculous local blackouts. Nothing that a vpn can’t fix though. I don’t know how this lockout mess will effect that. Oh well, just thought I mention it.

All those 4th and 5th inning pulls from Charlie destroyed the bullpen TWICE. When he let the starting pitchers stretch out, the team was amazing.

Loved this team

@SportStorm I really would like to hear your thoughts on the team now that they' ve signed Chapman?

Chatwood walking 4 straight batters with no one warming up in the bullpen is where I pin this entire season on :( I remember that game as vividly as the A's walk off (and I was live at the A's walk off one lol)

1:54 SportStorm I know you have learned your lesson from the offseason splashes the San Diego Padres did lol

I mean all of these points are legit reasons as why the Jays could have been better, but a big thing not really talked about is that they are in a division with the Yankees, Red Sox and now the seemingly always good Rays and with the stupid playoff design being divisional instead of like top 8 of the conference, it's just an extremely tough division to be in. I would much rather change it to a top 8 conference finish with either less regular season games or shorter playoff series instead of the divisions. I think we're missing out on more exciting baseball this way!

That is the beauty of professional sports, you get what you deserve. If they'd deserved playoffs, they would've made the playoffs. The way team played at end of year maybe made people forget how many games our bullpen gave away earlier in season. How much team struggled offensively at times without Springer in lineup, even while Vlad was crushing. Injuries happen. If they'd played better and had better luck, they showed that when everything came together at end of year, they were as good or better than other playoff teams.

The same bullpen that was their strength only a year earlier cost them a playoff appearance. It was frustrating to watch so many blown wins

Goes to show you can have a top tier roster and sometimes in baseball that simply doesn’t matter. As a Mariners fan I feel for them given we’ve done this multiple times

They went from a team that deserved better to deserve nothing so very quick. I’m glad the Jays clinched again but we need results now. No excuses. Get it done.

Can you do a video on the 2016 Cubs?

And this is y I’m scared of the BlueJays the most as a Yankees fan because now with the families of the players securely in Toronto the core is going to go off

I wish you mentioned that the rays intentionally lost to the Yankees to let the weaker team into the postseason, the rays are smart, if they were trying to win that last game don't you think they would've walked judge in the bottom of the ninth with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out? That's the most clear cut intentional walk I've ever seen, but the rays aren't stupid, they recognized that losing was better for them

Baseball is unfair Blue Jays: 91 RS wins, missed playoffs Braves: 88 RS wins, won World Series

There isn't much mystery here. Their bullpen blew more leads than I can ever remember in a season, they had horrible injuries plague them all year (springer, waguespeck, romero, the list goes on and on). Not to mention getting boo'd at "home" in buffalo and dunedin games, it's a miracle we got 91 wins. So much bad luck.

Can you make a video like this but the 2021 cardinals with the 17 game win streak

After watching this and the recent Free Agency signings that the Blue Jays made, I think the Red Sox and Yankees have awaken a monster in their division

Well it’s hard when there are better teams that don’t fall apart when it comes to September.

Bears mentioning that their bullpen wasn't necessarily bad to start the season, but lengthy injuries to a number of relief pitchers will do you in, especially when you're left with guys like Hand and Dolis to clean up games. Romano is the exception to this, and I'm grateful he's a consistent closer for the Jays, but they didn't have many healthy guys in their rotation for a number of games. They have a number of things going for them this year - a single home stadium to play in, a Golden Glove third baseman with Chapman, the additions of Gausman and Kikuchi on the mound, the core group of young guys is intact, and they'll have Springer for the full season. The loss of Semien did hurt, but if his batting record is replicable with the Rangers, more power to him, but I don't see him hitting as many HRs with their club. This team is hungry, and they have a healthy roster of strong talent. If they don't make it to the playoffs this year, something catastrophic has to happen to prevent them from succeeding.

I agree on Toronto but how bout Seattle, they busted their ass the final weekend for nothing.

If any one of the following things didn't occur then they would have made the post season... Played at Rogers centre all season, springer wasn't injured half the season, the bullpen wasn't all injured and imploded mid season.

Seminar walkout Homer with the 6 run comeback and grand slam was probably the best bluejays game I've ever watched Other then the 7th inning against Texas 😂😂😂

so i was at the last game against baltamore and they put the Washington Boston game on the big screen and the game finished just before the walk off was and there was a hole world of disappointment in the statium

The end of last season was devastating. Just got screwed out of a couple games at the end. One of the games was the worst umping I've ever seen. Ron Kulpa. The bad series against Texas. 1 game out is tough.

It is a bit staggering to see just how polar opposite the jays were to the Ms that year. Not only in one run and extra inning games, but also while the jays could pull off some blowout wins, a key reason the Ms run differential was so bad was because of some key blowout loses (if you take away just 3 games from that 2021 season, the differential would've gone from -50 to a much less horrifying -20). And both teams in 2022 would go on to face each other in the playoffs in a game where the jays lost due to their bullpen, and the Ms came through thanks to clutch hitting that pulled them back from a seven run deficit, culminating in a one-run win. Just... wow.

5:10 ah, the ol' catcher free lineup

This team was absolutely loaded

I was at game 162. Weirdest atmosphere ever it was a blowout early on and everyone was watching streams of the other games on their phones

This team is so underrated despite losing Semien and ray. Their rotation is great and adding Gausman makes it even better. We all know their ability to take pitchers and make the good. They still have a great team with bichette, springer, Guerrero jr, gurriel, etc. The mariners and the blue jays are both RIGHT THERE. BARELY not in the playoffs. I think both teams will improve even more in the offseason.

1 more win. This year. Go Jays!

As a Giants I kept saying they were the team beat if they made the postseason. The offense was explosive.

The World Series winning Braves had an 88-73 record, and the Blue Jays had a 91-71 record and didn’t even get in the playoffs. That’s just bad luck.

godamn i would have LOVED A WAY TIE!!!!!! they coulda done like a mini tournament lol

There are so many places where you can play the "what if game" to get that extra win for game 163 vs the Red Sox. It hurts even more when you realize that the Red Sox made it to the ALCS and the Jays could have done the same if they made the playoffs

You should make a vid on the mariners clutch season. It was a whack season but they made it work

Do this video but with the mariners next

Go Jays Go! 2022 Champs

I wish they were in the braves division

Crazy the Jays had a better record than the Braves who won the WS but didn’t even make the playoffs. BTW, I think you should do a video coverage the 2021 Braves. Personally, as a fan I thought they should’ve sold at the deadline. Truly glad they didn’t.

Al east is crazy good

Why would I put myself through this again as a Blue Jays fan

lol Jays shoulda had a 115 win season...lol unreal...they are gunna be a force going forward....if they go hard in on Jose Ramirez watch out...lol

My Indians won 93 games in 2019 and missed the playoffs 🥲

There should be some win threshold to automatically make the playoffs regardless of standing in your division. I remember a few years back where the Giants had about 100 wins and didn’t make the playoffs. If the leagues have to cut back a few games of the regular season to accommodate an expanded playoffs, so be it. But to have an outstanding season in terms of wins and not make the playoffs - ridiculous.

Make a vid on the 2019 Indians team who won 93 games and missed the playoffs

If the jays don’t trade for hand they’re in bc he blew games for them and the person who they they traded away for him had an insane hit to make the jays lose

The 2022 BJays are coming around, things seem to be falling in to place for them.

Forget about the bullpen arms they picked up. DFAing Dollis was the biggest gain.

the average playoff team past few years seems to be 100+ dodgers, astros(*), red sox.

No mention of the fact that they played in the best division in MLB??? In the NL east, they would have comfortably finished first. The Braves won the WS after winning just 88 games. This is a constant problem in MLB -- the divisions are not all equal in competetiveness, and the AL east almost always has the best teams.