The Jays chances of winning this season just got better in my opinion.
The Rays trade a good #3 SP and a good reliever or innings eater for prospects who may not contribute too much this season. Myers is a good pick-up though. So they no longer have as impressive of a rotation and they will have to rely on a bunch of young guys.
The Yankees are still trying to spend less and have a hurting left side of the infield. Tex has been declining the last few years, Swisher is as good as gone and all those innings may be catching up to Sabathia.
The Red Sox are going to rely on Farrell to fix the pitching staff and who wouldn't with the wonderful job he did with our starters. They also signed Victorino and Napoli. Meh.
The Orioles were a fluke last season and probably won't be as lucky this year. The year after when Bundy and Machado have more experience they could be scary.
I'd say Shields is a pretty good #2, but that's nitpicking.
Myers and Odorizzi aren't going to have a huge impact this year, and the loss of Shields will. I'm a little skeptical on Myers' bat... he reminds me a lot of Travis Snider.
The Rays are going to have to use Cobb or Archer, if I'm correct, and in all likelyhood neither matches Shields this year.
1st place isn't looking too far off. I'll be waiting for the Whiskey Pete thread.
I think that trade obviously helps the Jays this season as Shields always dominated us... A good trade for the Rays in the long run though.... A puzzling move by the Royals as they still suck... No better then a .500 team still... For the price they paid, they should have got David Price... But as for this season the Rays got a little worse... The Jays can arguably be considered a favourite, with TB second and NYY third... But the Jays have to stay healthy just the same
I still think the Yankees are the favorites. They are too stacked with all-star caliber talent not to be. Sabathia is a horse...not seeing him having some major collapse this year. I'm still baffled by Baltimore. Just can't see that happening two years in a row. Boston will improve, but not vastly and Tampa should decline.
Jays are primed for a playoff run! I love that they are in the mix for another starter, but AA has done a good enough job where they can legitimately see how things go for a while into the season before deciding to try to make another move. Things may go very well and the rotation may be perfectly fine, but if not there's always the trade deadline. I love the idea that 3 out of every 5 games we will be EXPECTING to win...sure beats 4 out of every 5 expecting to lose.
Yankees will be hurting... They have no catcher, 3B, need OF help... Questions in the rotation besides Sabathia and Kuroda... Which Jeter will show up as he was showing signs of slowing down before last rebound season... They have an Allstar 2B in cano (who may be leaving next year), and a strong pen IF Rivera is healthy but they are no powerhouse and looking to lower payroll... If the Jays are not the favourite then I would have the Rays there... Right now I would put the Jays ahead of the Yanks IMO
The same basic things were said about the Yankees last year and they ended up 22 games ahead of us and in first place. Agree they have no catcher and need some OF help. A-Roid is a joke at 3B, but he's a joke because he so massively under-performs his contract...but he's still an average contributor at the position. Jeter was supposed to "slow down" last year and hit .316. Agree Rivera is a question mark at this point.
I'm not really arguing much with you though...you are perfectly justified in making arguments that the Jays should be favorites now. I think you can make arguments for them, Tampa, NY, and even Baltimore (I can't wrap my brain around why, but if they did it last year...).
For the first time this century, I am planning to buy some Jays gear! Never thought this day would come!
A rod is out until at least the Allstar break is why I said Yanks have no 3B... He could be out for the majority of the year.... Overall for run differential the O's were out scored, or were at least that way late in the season... This means they won a lot of 1-2 run ball games (and lost by bigger margins)... They will have a hard time reproducing a season like before when overall you get out scored... Though they have a really good bullpen which helped those close games
I can agree with the Yankees being the favourite. They seem to always have a good regular season. Their acquisition of Youkilis was a good one.
I do think some of the younger guys are really going to have to step up this year for them though. Nova and Hughes have to cement themselves as mid-rotation starters.
One long shot trade idea I was thinking of was Jays getting Ian Kinsler... With all the talk of moving Kinsler to 1B or LF to make room for Profar (and Kinsler not happy about it after signing 5 yr extension ) maybe Texas is looking to move him... It could free up money for them to sign Hamilton if they wished.... The amount of prospects and/ or MLB player (Arencibia maybe) would be determined on how much, if any dollars Texas would eat... I wonder if he is on the trade block
Sabathia is good, but he also made his fewest innings in a season since 2007. He still did 200 so nothing to laugh at but it could be a sign that his endurance is decreasing with his size 290 lbs and age 32.
The same basic things were said about the Yankees last year and they ended up 22 games ahead of us and in first place.
Maybe so, but you really started to see the cracks. You were wondering a little how they were doing it rather than saying, well, they're doing it again. At least I was.
But this year is a little different, Jeter is coming off a VERY bad break of his ankle. A-Rod wont be around. Tex looks like a shell of his former self. Grandy looks like his losing something. No Swisher. Mo coming back but also coming off major knee surgery after missing a full year....at 41. No Soriano to back him up either.
Anyway, the questions before were all about age (I didn't even mention the ages of their #2 and #3 SPs) now it's about age mixed with major injuries. At some point the Yankees will hit an age wall. They even signed all old guys this year because they are trying to only sign one year deals. The Yankees have a worse team coming into this year than they did last year with major injury problems. I can see the Yankees being way down in the 4th hole if everything breaks right. Of course, right now I would have them 2nd or 3rd depending on what the Rays do with the extra money they have from the Shields trade.
Reading this thread is great as it was BEFORE the Dickey trade.......... With that I think the Jays HAVE to be the favourites in the division as not much has changed for the other teams since. Except of course the Rays grabbing up the middle infield of the Jays from last year....good luck with that!!
With the assumed maturation of Lawrie and hopefully Rasmus, this team could be scary good. But there are still lots of question marks. BUT, they don't need all of them to come through to be in the playoff race.
Here's a question, does anyone think the Jays actually make a run at Josh Johnson after or during this season? I don't think so. I think he's a pitcher they needed for this year because of the injuries to Drabek and Hutchison. With both of them and Happ in the fold I don't think they'll extend him for what he'll command on the open market. Qualify him and grab up the draft pick. Top ten pick this year and two next year would be big in rebuilding the farm. Any chance Appel falls to ten? Probably not....
With 100 steals probable from the middle infield (Boni, Reyes and Izturis), 70+ HRs from the corner IFs+C, and 80+ from the OF....this team is set up on offence. The starting rotation is top 5 in the league....the bullpen is the real question mark. But there are tons of power arms in there....with Oliver coming back to settle it. Things are looking good.
Johnson might get a crazy contract, so I tend to agree.
Now, is it crazy to think that Drabek/Hutchison/Happ/Nolin can fill the 5th spot in 2014? It maybe was before when they had to fill 3 rotation spots, but one? Amazing how the SP depth has changed in one year. They definately have concrete depth now.
Be really interesting to see what they do with Johnson. It will depend on how well he performs coming out of the gate and a host of other things. I hope they lock him up early because if he starts tearing it up the first few months, he may prefer to test the market and I think this guy is legit.
Even if Lawrie doesn't mature and Rasmus hits .225 again...this team could STILL be scary good. That's how filthy it is.
