2015 - How many wins?

[bringbackhoffa]

99.

Donaldson hits 55 homers, Bautista 45, and Edwin 40
Goins learns how to hit, bats .265, with an OBP of .330.
Pompey wins Rookie of the year
Michael Saunders, and Jose Reyes both stay healthy
Marcus Stroman wins the Cy Young
The Jays bullpen bounces back to 2013 form
Ricky Romero return to pre-Miss America form, and wins 8+
The Jays randomly install grss during the all-star break
I wake up from dream

and you fail

[torontoaces04]

99.

Donaldson hits 55 homers, Bautista 45, and Edwin 40
Goins learns how to hit, bats .265, with an OBP of .330.
Pompey wins Rookie of the year
Michael Saunders, and Jose Reyes both stay healthy
Marcus Stroman wins the Cy Young
The Jays bullpen bounces back to 2013 form
Ricky Romero return to pre-Miss America form, and wins 8+
The Jays randomly install grss during the all-star break
I wake up from dream

and you fail

and you missed the joke

[bringbackhoffa]

99.

Donaldson hits 55 homers, Bautista 45, and Edwin 40
Goins learns how to hit, bats .265, with an OBP of .330.
Pompey wins Rookie of the year
Michael Saunders, and Jose Reyes both stay healthy
Marcus Stroman wins the Cy Young
The Jays bullpen bounces back to 2013 form
Ricky Romero return to pre-Miss America form, and wins 8+
The Jays randomly install grss during the all-star break
I wake up in poo

and you fail

and you missed the joke

what joke?

[BramptonYute]

The joke.

I say 86-87 wins. I think an injury (not Saunders) will derail our season.

[suntzuballin]

Jays for wild card tgis forum page goes nutz.

[dballislife]

90+ if we thinking playoffs right?

so in the 90s i hope...wuts the point if u dont even believe or hope

[C Court]

Pretty much win half, lose half.

82-83

[Schad]

90+ if we thinking playoffs right?

so in the 90s i hope...wuts the point if u dont even believe or hope

90+ most years to be the fifth-best team in the AL. 87 is probably the bare minimum, as that was the threshold in 2009 when there were effectively three good teams in the whole of the league and a bunch of mediocrities behind them.

[Yosemite Dan]

At the end of last season the big problems looked to be the bullpen, 2nd base and the outfiield. Didnt see any of that being addressed. I also think we are overestimating the quality of our starting pitching. Hard to be optimistic when we are depending on Stroman and Hutchinson to be our 1 and 2. Am I the only who thinks Stroman pitched way over his head last year and to expect to repeat last year's performance is asking alot. Hutchison my have a bright future but everything he has showed so far doesn't give me much confidence that he is anything but a 4 or 5 starter at this point in his career. Martin can only do so much.

And we can't keep assuming Dickey and Buerhle will churn out 25+ starts every year. Age is gonna eventually catch up to these guys and this may be the year. And the Jays seem to have a real hard on to put Sanchez in the bullpen. I'm sure after the first failed start in spring training, they'll make him the closer an hour after that and assume he's gonna be saving 30+ games.

We still have a gaping hole at 2nd base offensively and a gaping hole at SS defensively. Proclaiming Pompey the starting CF after a few weeks in the majors is a recipe for disaster. Management and a lot of fans have a very romanticized version of our team this year and that many of our young talent is just gonna step into huge roles without missing a beat and no regulars are gonna get hurt. We all lost our minds when Saunders appeared to be gone for half the season. If Edwin or Jose are out for a few week which is quite likely, this board will become suicidal. I think a .500 record is more realistic.

[Mehar]

At the end of last season the big problems looked to be the bullpen, 2nd base and the outfiield. Didnt see any of that being addressed. I also think we are overestimating the quality of our starting pitching. Hard to be optimistic when we are depending on Stroman and Hutchinson to be our 1 and 2. Am I the only who thinks Stroman pitched way over his head last year and to expect to repeat last year's performance is asking alot. Hutchison my have a bright future but everything he has showed so far doesn't give me much confidence that he is anything but a 4 or 5 starter at this point in his career. Martin can only do so much.

And we can't keep assuming Dickey and Buerhle will churn out 25+ starts every year. Age is gonna eventually catch up to these guys and this may be the year. And the Jays seem to have a real hard on to put Sanchez in the bullpen. I'm sure after the first failed start in spring training, they'll make him the closer an hour after that and assume he's gonna be saving 30+ games.

We still have a gaping hole at 2nd base offensively and a gaping hole at SS defensively. Proclaiming Pompey the starting CF after a few weeks in the majors is a recipe for disaster. Management and a lot of fans have a very romanticized version of our team this year and that many of our young talent is just gonna step into huge roles without missing a beat and no regulars are gonna get hurt. We all lost our minds when Saunders appeared to be gone for half the season. If Edwin or Jose are out for a few week which is quite likely, this board will become suicidal. I think a .500 record is more realistic.

I absolutely agree with your thoughts. This team to me is a .500 team (will finish a couple of games above or below). Downgraded at LF, Downgraded by inserting Smoak over Lind, question marks at 2B, and CF, with no upgrade in the Pen and SP.

[bballsparkin]

88

edit: although the two posts ahead of me have hurt my confidence in my guess. Hoping things go right and some magical internal development.

[Lateral Quicks]

I'm going with 85-84, down from 87-86. I think the offense will be among the best in the league, and defensively we're much improved. The starting pitching should be good enough, barring injury, to keep us in most games.

But I'm not at all comfortable with this bullpen. It looks like we're going to depend on two guys who haven't pitched above A ball to get major leaguers out in the late innings. Things could get ugly, or could turn up all roses.

Which isn't to say this won't be an entertaining season; it most definitely will be, much more so than the last couple of years. Hopefully we're in come the deadline and can pick up a piece or two to solidify our holes.

[akakalakin]

76 wins

Starting 3 Buerhle, Dickey, Hutch were barely above 500, Sanchez and Norris not likely to win 15 each to propel them to playoffs.

Lack of depth after the rookies inevitably have their problems and injuries will be causing people to say rebuild by July 1st.

[Randle McMurphy]

Subtract 3 wins for the loss of Stroman, I'm down to 85.

[Dan2087]

85 wins sounds about right

[Michael Bradley]

Stroman's injury definitely hurts. Whether too optimistic or not, he was projected to be the team's best starter by a good margin and was stretched out enough to last an entire season. They are going to have to find a way to make up those ~3 wins somehow, and it's likely going to have to come from internal development (players outperforming projections). A full season of Travis instead of Izturis/Goins might be an extra win right there, but Sanchez in the rotation over Estrada might give that back depending on how long of a leash Sanchez has (I'm expecting him in the pen by May so that might mitigate some of the damage). Tough to say. Norris and Travis are the two rookies I expect to contribute right away, with Pompey's value coming mostly from defense/speed initially.

I was expecting around 82-90 wins with Stroman healthy and actual relievers in the pen. Now with Sanchez in the rotation, Castro/Osuna presumably expected to pitch high leverage innings out of the pen, and Dinner likely getting many DH AB's (hurting the defense and possibly the offense from that spot as well), I'm not really sure what to expect now. I think 85 is a safe number, give or take. The bottom could really fall out quickly though with injuries and/or rookies performing like rookies. The upside is there, but without Stroman, the margin for error is slim.

[Santoki]

I felt it was time to bump this thread. A nice little read to look back on as we hit 85 wins tonight.

[JoeyBats]

99.

Donaldson hits 55 homers, Bautista 45, and Edwin 40
Goins learns how to hit, bats .265, with an OBP of .330.
Pompey wins Rookie of the year
Michael Saunders, and Jose Reyes both stay healthy
Marcus Stroman wins the Cy Young
The Jays bullpen bounces back to 2013 form
Ricky Romero return to pre-Miss America form, and wins 8+
The Jays randomly install grss during the all-star break
I wake up from dream

C'mon now, you ruined an otherwise reasonable post with this prediction.

Crazy how a joke post became pretty accurate

[SharoneWright]

I think I won the pool... somebody check me. I said 89. dballislife "hoped" for something 90+...

How much money do I win?

[Xaos]

I voted for 87-86 wins. Exceeded my expectations.