saskjayfan

Everything doesn't have to go right. I think you must be blind to the fact that everything went wrong last year! Tumor on a guys spine. A full year of JPA. Over 300 games lost to your core 6 position players...that's 2 full seasons. Losing 40% of your rotation....guys just have to play to their abilities and be reasonably healthy.

The Jays scored 712 runs last year. This was 9th in baseball, 8th in the AL. Detroit was 2nd with 796. The Jays got 712 runs with the following: Reyes - 93 games Melky - 88 games(games played were with a tumor on his spine Lawrie -107 games buatista 118 games rasmus - 118 games encarnacion - 143 games a full season of JPA where he produced a .592 OPS worst 2nd base production in the league The core players missed over 300 games combined...that's 2 players missing 2 full seasons! The Jays gave up 756 runs with 685 being earned runs. Pitching was not good and defense was not good. Goins will improve the defense. Navarro will be an improvement on defense over JPA. Having your core players healthy and playing will improve the defense. The 3 and 4 starters in Johnson and Morrow did not play and when they did they played hurt or terrible. There was no depth in the rotation leading to wang, Ortiz, laffey, rogers, Redmond etc..pitching a lot of innings. Morrow looks healthy. Jimenez or Santana could be signed. A rotation of Dickey, Buehrle, Morrow Jimenez, Happ and better depth behind and defense behind can't shave 56 runs? 700 runs isn't a big stretch and would probably put them 20th or so in baseball...but an extra 90 runs on offense from having guys stay healthy would be a run differential of 100.....even if the run differential is 50 or 60 they should have a shot. The Yankees scored 650 runs and gave up 671 last year and won 85 games despite have a -21 run differential. No shot...zero. Yes you are being realistic. Give me a break. A team with Bautista, Reyes, EE, Rasmus, Lind and Lawrie have no shot...none. You sound a lot more like a pessimist.

I have to admit that was pretty good

This team has zero shot....love it. Great post.

Redmond isn't very good. He threw 70ish acceptable innings and suddenly he's solid as a rock. We can't put pressure on hutch, drabek, McGowan, romero or stroman though....we have to run Redmond out for a few months and him fail before we bring one of those guys in so that there isn't any pressure on them. Give me a break. Redmond is chin min wang.....we should be putting out the best arm from day one...every game matters and working through some things from day one will be best for whoever that arm is.

guys can't throw strikes until they can....guys can't lay off a breaking ball or hit until they can. I'm not saying drabek will or won't, thus the if in front of everything I said about Drabek. From what I've seen of Drabek, the kid has talent. From what I read about his time in the minors he started to get better control of his pitches. A lot of what ails drabek is between his ears like all ball players. Lind was down and out and the same things were being said about him in the middle of 2012. Bautista and Encarnacion were both after thoughts and laughing stocks at one point. Snider got to the point of people giving up on him and he's never put it together. Is Drabek a Snider or a guy who magically has the light bulb go off and everything clicks. I'm fine with people labelling Drabek a Snider. Gose is a guy I don't think it will ever click for. Some people love Gose. All I was saying is we have a lot of ifs in drabek, McGowan, stroman and Hutch. Only one of those if's have to go the Jays way. Last year the jays had Wang, Ortiz, Laffey...who weren't if's, they were bandaids. I just see something in Drabek and there's a good possibility I'm blind, but time will tell...lol.

should have had a reality series from dec to feb 15 to pick the starters....at least rogers would have made some tv revenue to use to sign other guys next year!

"Drabek s*** the bed twice" He's pitched a total of 169 innings in the MLB. If you didn't have the patience of a 16 year old boy about to get some you might understand his upside. His velocity was good last year. He's always had good movement. He's never been able to control his pitches. 6 walks in the minors was a first glimpse and reason for some optimism. If Drabek turns the corner and matures mentally and learns to command his stuff he has upside. You have 4 pitchers with high upside and drabek is probably at the end of the line with the reserves so who knows if he will get an opportunity, but the jays will definitely use multiple guys at the back of the rotation and may have a few busts before they get some stability...

The Thomas deal produced some of the best commercials in blue jay history in 07. Big frank knocking those kids out with those pillow cases was pure gold....worth every penny.

Drabek is 26....time to s*** or get off the pot. I don't want to see the guys in Buffalo throwing the ball better than the guys in Toronto...whoever is going to play the best makes the team...Redmond can go to the bullpen....the jays have to make some decisions and may lose a guy or two...but playing less talented players is no way to make the post season, which should be the goal. A team truly intent on winning shouldn't be concerned about losing a run of the mill guy like redomond.

I'd say Hutchinson, drabek, stroman and McGowan all have shots, although stroman perhaps less likely. I'd take any of the three over Redmond. Spring training results are going to matter for the back end of the rotation.

I still think the jays sign a starter, but if they don't I would bet large sums of money that Redmond will not be in the rotation coming out of spring training.

Walker couldn't stay healthy, but his peak was higher than jeters. That's why you call it a career though. 19 years of consistency is pretty impressive.

with the ladies maybe....

I assume you are both doctors, because if you're not, this is a rather useless discussion.

Katfish hunter is missing from that list and he had 224 wins...so you can have success with type 1 diabetes...however it makes things a lot more challenging.

I don't know how you would consider Adam Lind if you were putting him in the 6th spot as one of the worst in baseball. He posted the 24th best OPS in all of baseball last year. That plays pretty well in top of the lineup let alone out of the 6 spot. Melky Cabrera and Lawrie are the big keys for me. Melky clearly wasn't healthy. You could see the pain on his face every game. He posted a .682 OPS despite all that, which really isn't that bad. A healthy Melky could easily post a .750+ OPS which is above average for a number 7 hitter. If Navarro posts a .700 OPS out of the 8th spot that compares well with other number 8 hitters. The Jays might have the worst number 9 hitter or close to it in all of baseball, but their top 8 look to be very good. This offense is going to score a ton of runs. It's a matter of how well the pitching can hold up.

I was too busy to check up on baseball till now today. I was hoping to see a jimenez, Santana or Burnett signing, but at least they did something..lol

Fair enough, maybe I'm thinking back to last year when he started 0 for 25 or whatever it was. He really didn't face many lefties early on last year, but with the injuries and lack of depth they had to plug him in. I agree, with finding a right handed bat other than Sierra though.

Adam Lind was tied for 31st in all of the MLB last year in wRC+ with Carlos Beltran and everyone on this board wants to get rid of him..lol

I'll go with the latinopost and say Jimenez! http://www.latinopost.com/articles/3748/20140203/mlb-mlb-free-agents-mlb-free-agents-2014-new-york-yankees-new-york-yankees-trade-rumors-toronto-blue-jays-ubaldo-jimenez-toronto-blue-jays-rumors-baltimore-orioles.htm

The difference between 50 innings pitched by janssen and 50 by jeffress is probably 10 to 15 runs.....I`d rather give up 10 to 15 runs less personally...

I`m pretty sure pitchers figured out after the first month that JPA will swing at anything. He basically saw less balls in the strike zone than any player in baseball. He`s not going to rack up more home runs until he learns a bit of plate discipline. Hopefully he continues to improve...he does have good power.

as bad as he was for the jays....in just 179 plate appearances he was .285/.352/.358 with the Royals with 16 stolen bases and caught twice with improved defense. Typical...player is awful for the jays and much better elsewhere......

Hey there Yoda, why do you have multiple logins? Is that a straight forward enough question for you? Can you make sense of it? Why don't you answer the question?