2003 Toronto Blue Jays season

2003 Toronto Blue Jays
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s) Rogers; Paul Godfrey (CEO)
General manager(s) J. P. Ricciardi
Manager(s) Carlos Tosca
Local television The Sports Network
(Pat Tabler, Rod Black)
Rogers Sportsnet
(Rob Faulds, Tom Candiotti, John Cerutti)
Local radio CJCL (AM)
(Jerry Howarth, Tom Cheek)
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The 2003 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's twenty-seventh season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing third in the American League East with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses.

Offseason

Regular season

Summary

The 2003 season was a surprise to both team management and baseball analysts. After a poor April, the team had its most successful month ever in May. The offense was mainly responsible for the stunning turnaround. Delgado took over the major league lead in runs batted in, followed closely by Wells. The middle infield positions remained a gametime decision – Bordick played shortstop and third base, Dave Berg second base and third base, Chris Woodward shortstop and Orlando Hudson second base. Minor league call-up Howie Clark entered the mix as a utility player after Hinske underwent surgery to repair a broken hamate bone in his right hand, which he had tried to play through for the first six weeks.

Despite their hitting successes, poor pitching continued to plague the team. Roy Halladay was spectacular in winning his first Cy Young Award, going 22–7, with a 3.25 ERA, but he didn't get much help from his fellow pitchers, although he had a poor start himself. Rookie Aquilino López was a pleasant surprise out of the bullpen. Kelvim Escobar and former NBA player Mark Hendrickson were inserted into the rotation with their places in the bullpen filled by waiver acquisitions Doug Davis and Josh Towers, who went 8–1 after being called up from Triple-A Syracuse. The closer role was a season-long revolving door, with nobody able to take hold of the reins. Trade speculation had focussed on the acquisitions of pitching at the expense of hitters, but in the end the team simply divested itself of impending free agent Shannon Stewart without getting a pitcher in return. Instead Bobby Kielty, another outfielder with a much lower batting average than Stewart's, was obtained from the Minnesota Twins and later traded in November 2003 to the Oakland Athletics for starter Ted Lilly. The top four pitchers for the projected 2004 rotation would include Halladay, Lilly, free agent Miguel Batista, and the return of Pat Hentgen.

After the spectacular turnaround in May 2003, which helped the team move to just few games behind the wildcard leading Boston Red Sox, team performance slowly returned to reality, as predicted by team management. Carlos Delgado was second in the voting for the American League MVP Award, although the Jays were in third place in their division. The Jays also announced that a new logo, and new uniforms, would be used as of January 1, 2004.

Opening Day starters

Season standings

AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 101 61 0.623 — 50–32 51–29
Boston Red Sox 95 67 0.586 6 53–28 42–39
Toronto Blue Jays 86 76 0.531 15 41–40 45–36
Baltimore Orioles 71 91 0.438 30 40–40 31–51
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 63 99 0.389 38 36–45 27–54

Record vs. opponents

2003 American League Records

Sources:

Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim — 1–8 3–6 3–4 6–3 6–1 6–3 5–4 3–6 8–12 8–11 6–3 9–10 2–7 11–7
Baltimore 8–1 — 9–10 2–4 3–3 3–3 3–4 3–4 6–13–1 2–7 4–5 8–11 7–2 8–11 5–13
Boston 6–3 10–9 — 5–4 4–2 8–1 5–1 2–4 9–10 3–4 5–2 12–7 5–4 10–9 11–7
Chicago 4–3 4–2 4–5 — 11–8 11–8 11–8 9–10 4–2 4–5 2–7 3–3 3–4 6–3 10–8
Cleveland 3–6 3–3 2–4 8–11 — 12–7 6–13 9–10 2–5 3–6 3–6 5–2 4–5 2–4 6–12
Detroit 1–6 3–3 1–8 8–11 7–12 — 5–14 4–15 1–5 3–6 1–8 2–4 1–6 2–7 4–14
Kansas City 3–6 4–3 1–5 8–11 13–6 14–5 — 11–8 2–4 2–7 4–5 4–3 7–2 1–5 9–9
Minnesota 4–5 4–3 4–2 10–9 10–9 15–4 8–11 — 0–7 8–1 3–6 6–0 5–4 3–3 10–8
New York 6–3 13–6–1 10–9 2–4 5–2 5–1 4–2 7–0 — 3–6 5–4 14–5 4–5 10–9 13–5
Oakland 12–8 7–2 4–3 5–4 6–3 6–3 7–2 1–8 6–3 — 7–12 6–3 15–4 5–2 9–9
Seattle 11–8 5–4 2–5 7–2 6–3 8–1 5–4 6–3 4–5 12–7 — 4–5 10–10 3–4 10–8
Tampa Bay 3–6 11–8 7–12 3–3 2–5 4–2 3–4 0–6 5–14 3–6 5–4 — 3–6 11–8 3–15
Texas 10–9 2–7 4–5 4–3 5–4 6–1 2–7 4–5 5–4 4–15 10–10 6–3 — 5–4 4–14
Toronto 7–2 11–8 9–10 3–6 4–2 7–2 5–1 3–3 9–10 2–5 4–3 8–11 4–5 — 10–8

Notable transactions

2003 Draft picks

Source [12]

The 2003 MLB draft was held on June 3–4.

Round Pick Player Position College/School Nationality Signed
1 13 Aaron Hill SS Louisiana State United States 2003–06–17
2 50 Josh Banks RHP Florida International United States 2003–06–04
3 80 Shaun Marcum RHP Missouri State United States 2003–06–23
4 110 Kurt Isenberg LHP James Madison United States –
5 140 Justin James RHP Missouri United States –
6 170 Christian Snavely OF Ohio State United States –
7 200 Danny Core RHP Florida Atlantic United States –
8 230 Chad Mulholland RHP Missouri State United States –
9 260 Jamie Vermilyea RHP New Mexico United States 2003–06–05
11 320 Tom Mastny RHP Furman University Indonesia
18 530 Ryan Roberts 3B Texas United States 2003–06–05

Roster

2003 Toronto Blue Jays
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Manager

Coaches

Game log

2003 Game Log

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

= Indicates team leader
Player G AB R H HR RBI Avg. SB
Carlos Delgado 161 570 51 101 42 145 .302 0
Orlando Hudson 142 474 54 127 9 57 .268 5
Eric Hinske 124 449 74 109 12 63 .243 12
Vernon Wells 161 678 118 215 33 117 .317 4

[13]

Other batters

Player G AB H HR RBI Avg.

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO

Other pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO

Relief pitchers

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO

Award winners

All-Star Game

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Syracuse SkyChiefs International League Omar Malavé
AA New Haven Ravens Eastern League Marty Pevey
A Dunedin Blue Jays Florida State League Mike Basso
A Charleston Alley Cats South Atlantic League Mark Meleski
A-Short Season Auburn Doubledays New York–Penn League Dennis Holmberg
Rookie Pulaski Blue Jays Appalachian League Paul Elliott

[15]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/carpech01.shtml
  2. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lyonbr01.shtml
  3. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lintodo01.shtml
  4. ↑ Felipe López Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  5. ↑ Mike Bordick Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  6. ↑ Frank Catalanotto Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  7. ↑ John-Ford Griffin Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  8. ↑ http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=2003&t=TOR
  9. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hillaa01.shtml
  10. 1 2 Scott Service Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  11. ↑ Bobby Kielty Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  12. ↑ "Feature: 2003 Free Agent Draft Pick Compensation". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
  13. ↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TOR/2003.shtml
  14. ↑ Blue Jays All-Stars | bluejays.com: History
  15. ↑ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

External links

Preceded by
2002 Toronto Blue Jays season		 2003 Toronto Blue Jays Season
2003 		Succeeded by
2004 Toronto Blue Jays season
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