2004 Toronto Blue Jays season
| 2004 Toronto Blue Jays | |
|---|---|
| Major League affiliations | |
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| Location | |
| Results | |
| Record | 67–94 (.414) |
| Divisional place | 5th |
| Other information | |
| Owner(s) | Rogers; Paul Godfrey (CEO) |
| General manager(s) | J. P. Ricciardi |
| Manager(s) | Carlos Tosca, John Gibbons |
| Local television |
The Sports Network (Pat Tabler, Rod Black) Rogers Sportsnet (Rob Faulds, John Cerutti) |
| Local radio |
CJCL (AM) (Jerry Howarth, Tom Cheek, Mike Wilner) |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 2004 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's twenty-eighth season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing fifth in the American League East with a record of 67 wins and 94 losses, their worst record since 1980. The Blue Jays' radio play-by-play announcer, Tom Cheek, called every Blue Jays game from the team's inaugural contest on April 7, 1977, until June 3, 2004, when he took two games off following the death of his father – a streak of 4,306 consecutive regular season games and 41 postseason games.
The 2004 season was a disappointing year for the Blue Jays right from the beginning. They started the season 0–8 at SkyDome and never started a lengthy winning streak. Much of that was due to injuries to All-Stars Carlos Delgado, Vernon Wells and Roy Halladay among others. Although the additions of starting pitchers Ted Lilly and Miguel Batista and reliever Justin Speier were relatively successful, veteran Pat Hentgen faltered throughout the season and retired on July 24. Rookies and minor league callups David Bush, Jason Frasor, Josh Towers and others filled the void in the rotation and the bullpen; however, inconsistent performances were evident. Most starting pitchers did not pitch further than the sixth inning; thus, the overused bullpen contributed to the frequent relinquishing of early scoring leads.
The offense really sputtered due to the injuries of Wells, Delgado, Catalanotto and others, although in their absence, Josh Phelps emerged as the team's go to guy, hitting 12 homers and driving in 51 runs before being limited to playing against left-handed pitching and was traded to the Cleveland Indians. Five different catchers were used: Greg Myers, Bobby Estalella, Kevin Cash, Gregg Zaun, and rookie Guillermo Quiróz. Greg Myers was injured running the bases in Minnesota, early in the season, and was lost for the year. Bobby Estalella was called up, but he proved to be brittle as well. Gregg Zaun landed the starting catching job for the rest of the season. Kevin Cash continued to struggle from an offensive standpoint and would be moved in the offseason. The highly touted Guillermo Quiróz was promoted from the minors near the end of the season.
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Wikipedia