Hellmuth's Mole;341994 wroteI love the ridiculous over reaction to "names" ITT.
The Angels have signed Josh Hamilton (my god did you see him demolish the HR contest at the all-star game a few years back??), give them the World Series.
So this winter a team that was below average in pitching and tied for the AL in blown saves (I'm talking about the Angels not the Jays....and they were tied the the Red Sox in blown saves), has lost Grienke, Haren and Santana from their starting rotation and replaced them with Ryan Madsen (closer coming off Tommy John surgery) Joe Blanton and Tommy Hanson (2 NL starters that now have to face an extra hitter each game)...oh and Josh Hamilton. For their sake I hope he has worked on his slider this off season.
No GM in their right mind would have made those moves other than out of necessity, and when you factor in they now have basically shut the door on Peter Bourjos and his upside because they are paying Wells 20 million to play left field are things really that rosey?
The Jays aren't perfect, but complaining about their pitching is ridiculous. Buerhle and Johnson instantly add 2 top of the rotation guys and their bullpen will be one of the best in baseball next year regardless of the role Janssen plays. It was trending that way late last season and they have only added more depth.
Every team has warts but I like the look of the Jays better than most right now.
EDIT: And Brent, listing Texas as an automatic wild card AFTER losing Hamilton? They choked up a huge lead in their division last season when they had Hamilton. Now they lose him, Napoli and Michael Young and are talking about moving Kinsler to first to fit in a rookie with a great possibility they will be starting a rookie in CF too?? Hardly sounds like a playoff contender to me.
Maybe. but by your own argument so do our new pitchers after leaving the NL. As long as TO has to play Red Sox, Yankees, Tampa, and a Baltimore team that made the playoffs 18 x's each, while teams like Texas and the Angels get to face of Seattle and now Houston, the Jays have a harder schedule. They were 20 wins from
tying for a wild card spot. And adding Hamilton to our roster would have helped in what I still believe is the hardest division in baseball.
I love baseball and the Jays, don't want to change division. I believe in second chances, but who really knows how Melky will do
without the juice. (hopefully) Santos how he will react after his surgery.
AA made some things happen for sure, and seems like he is "all in" why not spend money on Hamilton and Dempster as well.
It is going to be fun for sure walking up every morning and turning the game on.
I stand by both predictions. Jays won't make the playoffs and won't hit 87 win. Hope I am wrong!
