Adam Lind

Just back from injury, Adam Lind didn't make too much of an impression in his first game. He was 0-3 with a strikeout, but that second game... sometimes, all it takes is a can of WD40 on the old rusty joints, and the body responds, and respond it did - 4 for 4 with a pair of home runs and 3 RBIs, and his batting average is up to .326. Nice production for a Toronto Blue Jays team that refuses to fold at 1 game over .500 (30 and 29).
Granted, the offensive charge is still being led by Jose Bautista (.348 with 20 jacks), but it's nice to have runners to knock in other than the solo shots that look good on highlights reels, but do little else (Bautista has 40 RBIs at this point). That said, Rajai Davis, Yunel Escobar, Juan Rivera, and Corey Patterson aren't exactly playoff bound guys, but they're trying - even if they're not always as good as can be expected (on that note, Patterson and Escobar are currently over-performing, so we have to give them credit for something).
The pitching staff... well, that's scary. We already talked about Jo Jo Reyes winning for the first time in years, but he won again. Kyle Drabek, a key part of the Roy Halladay deal isn't materializing yet, and the pitching staff is all about Ricky Romero, who is over-performing with a 3.16 ERA and a 5-5 record. You've gotta believe, especially when your closer is Marc Rzepczynski (spell that quickly, spelling bee champion wannabes - I know I can't - I went out on mackerel in the 6th grade (2 Es not 2 A's)).
And 1992 and 1993 are light years ago. The Joe Carter home run off of Mitch Williams, a first class idiot that we still have to deal with on MLBTV, is still a great memory - even if the 2 years north of the border by Roger Clemens have become steroids inflated mirages. And there hasn't been much that was good. Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green went packing to other teams as the great hope, but then they vanished, too. And somehow, every player that ever had upside left. The grass was always greener somewhere else. They could have stayed in Toronto and gotten on the all star team in obscurity, but they went for the big money and the big sag in production (Vernon Wells (4 home runs - .183), Alex Rios (4 home runs - .199)).
So if Adam Lind has a good game, we want to believe .305 in 2009 is real and not .237 in 2010 (roughly the same at bats per year - the strikeouts went up as the homers dropped from 35-23 as well).
We want to sing and extol the virtues of the Blue Jays and we want to know what the future can be for a team with a chance, but that said, in the division that they're in, it's going to take more than a few players having career years above their average status. Jose Bautista can't do it all on his own - even if he's so much better than I ever give him credit for (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry).

Jo Jo Reyes

After a dismal beginning to the 2011 season that saw him go 0-5, Ubaldo Jimenez finally seems like he's back, at least for one game, as he shut out the Dodgers on a 4-hitter in Chavez Ravine. Add to this the fact that he was free of walks and had struck out 7 batters and you have the recipe for the first 4 months of 2010 Ubaldo Jimenez. That said, what happened to Ubaldo?
Was it all just make believe? Did we dream that 2010 season? Maybe he's just trying to steal Jo Jo Reyes' thunder after he finally got a win for the first time after losing 28 straight starts. From June 13, 2008, (his last win) to May 30th, he couldn't buy a win. He made it to 3-4 on the 2008 season on that victorious day in June, but after that, he lost 7 more games. He 0-2 the next year, 0-0 the year after that, and prior to his win a few days ago, he was 0-4. Talk about an absolute lack of love.
So can either of these guys rattle off a win steak for the ages? Sure Jimenez has potential, but scouts talked about his lack of velocity in recent times. That's a far cry from Dexter Fowler making a superb catch to save Ubaldo's no hitter and be useful on the baseball field (other than striking out in the batter's box).
But we can't all be great, it's just when a player does what Jimenez did...
15-1 with a 2.20 ERA on July 8th.
19-8 with a 2.88 ERA when the season finished.
We have to wonder.
He had and has potential. The 214 whiffs say it, but he has problems (the league leading 16 wild pitches say that, too).
Reyes is Reyes. The career 5.87 ERA might reflect hope in upside. It might reflect being cheap to get a pitcher to eat innings in a town that doesn't have a contract (see Toronto, and see the $439,000 salary).
But Ubaldo has movement on his pitches and he could be the man... with or without blisters on his hand.
All the same, for whatever he is, he has a great name that just rolls off of the tongue. He's like Asdrubal Cabrera... there's just pop on that name and we want to feel something great is going to come when it hits the senses.
Sadly, prior to tonight it hasn't happened, but maybe, just maybe, like Francisco Liriano turning things around with that no hitter, we want to believe it's going to happen, and then it doesn't, and something worse happens (1 hiccup game in the next 3 and an injury), and we forget the greatness, and the Yankees don't have a pitching option to trade for in July, and  yeah... hope dies withering.
But there are always the moments of glory and the feeling of greatness that is like a long yearned for moment of ecstasy that comes with a pie in the face...
And couldn't we all use one of those.