RealGM

With the moves the Yankees made, and how good boston could be if they put it together and how the rays are, and the lack of significant moves AA has made, are the bluejays still a fourth place team?

I think this will be a 90 win team. No Patterson, Davis, and whoever was at 3rd before Lawrie came up. Not a playoff, maybe nowhere near a playoff team, but currently an improved one. I feel there arn't many question marks left on this team besides 1st and 2nd bases. LF one of Snider of Thames will win that spot, and pitching will be developed from within.

Definitely 4th place, with us being slightly over .500

I'm thinking 83 wins

Our line-up isn't as good as Boston or New York's.
Our starters aren't as good as New York or Tampa's.
Our bullpen looks pretty solid but I'm not sure if it's good enough to make a huge difference.
If Boston's starters are as awful as they were in September, and Tampa's offence struggles, AND a ton of things go right for Toronto, we might be able to finish 2nd. Which still probably won't be good enough for the playoffs.

RapsFanInVA wrote:Definitely 4th place, with us being slightly over .500

I'm thinking 83 wins

oh please, when do the jays ever finish in 4th place with a record hovering around .500?

If I had to guess the win total for this year right now, I'd say 85-90. I think that's a realistic range which takes into account a better overall roster, and allows for some regression more than offset by organic improvement.

Now if a couple of guys like Johnson, Rasmus, Snider or Thames, Lind, Cecil, McGowan, Morrow have monster years (like some of them have had in the recent past), I'd argue 90+ wins is possible. If they're in it come the trade deadline I would hope that AA would look to improve the club to improve our chances.

I say the jays are not going to do good at all. Our rotation is bad at best. I only see 1 good starter (Romero) 1 guy that might take that leap into a good starter next year (morrow) 1 guy that was good last year, but we don't know if he can start every 5 days in the MLB (alvarez) then there are guys that are complete question marks (Cecil, McGowan, drabek, and others)

I feel that we have the upside to make a jump next year, but realistically speaking, we'll be 3rd or 4th again with 85-90 wins. However, I wouldn't be surprised if we can compete for the wildcard if everything goes right (i.e Lind adds some longevity to his game this year, Rasmus and Lawrie pan out, Morrow + Alvares become solid)

84 wins and fourth place. Again.

I think right around 85-87 wins and another 4th place finish. The lack of impact moves keeps us in the same spot.

New York now has pitching
Boston will rebound
Tampa Bay will pitch, scratch & claw.

Most likely still a 4th place team but a 4th place finish with 85-89 wins, with only 2 regular players and 1 SP over their age 30 seasons is pretty good in my opinion.

If there aren't anymore changes before the season starts (I still believe there will be, but time is running out) then I think 86 wins for this team.

Here's hoping for a few more changes!

80-85 wins and 4th place again.

i will gamble and say everything goes right and they win 91 games...but somehow still find themselves next to last in the division yet again. something like that is just bound to happen here in this perpetually sad sack sports city. but hey at least the fans will come out to the games! and then finally they will spend to compete (only to hike ticket prices 20% next offseason).

though it could be worse as baltimore is set to endure a last place finish in the division for the 5th consecutive year...something the benchmark for futility sh*tsburgh pirates can't even say...

Yeah, 80-83 wins sound about right if everyone stays healthy though i hope we somehow win 85-88 games so those bastards have no excuse but to go after the better free-agents next winter.

Edit: Having said that - Next years FA class sucks balls other than a couple nice SP's in which the Yankees will sign Hamels, Cain, Liriano, Greinke, Marcum. I expect 3 or 4 of the listed to sign extensions, so it will be slim pickings come next winter.

If Brett Lawrie is even half the player that he showed in that 40 game stretch last season, the Jays should win about 85 games. Some others like Rasmus and Arencibia will improve, I'm sure, I'd also be surprised if Bautista or Romero were quite as good as last season.

They really need to improve the rest of the offense (removing or platooning Lind) if they want to do much better than 85.

Definitely the 6th best team in the AL though.

Jimmy King wrote:Definitely the 6th best team in the AL though.

Yankees
Red Sox
Rays
Tigers
Rangers
Angels

Which one are the Jays better than?

I would say the Jays and Tigers are very very close I would give the edge to the Tigers but I can see the Jays easily being better than them by the end of the season.

I give the jays the edge because of the AL Beast factor. There is little doubt that the Jays could win over 95 games in the Central.

Edit: The Tigers went 50-22 against the Central last year.