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It can’t be helped as a Jays fan that when Blue Jays news is scarce, there is little to do but to analyze, critique and second guess what the organization has done this off season. With the Blue Jays 1992 World Series being televised on Sportsnet over the holidays, fans have a great chance to reminisce about the good ol’ days and compare what the ’92 team did to win their World Series. So when I went scouring the world wide web looking for Blue Jays discussion, one of the repeated talking points used to debase the new team is that the new players acquired won’t bring that big of an improvement seeing as they came from 69 and 74 win teams, respectively. These kinds of statements are based in falsehood for many reasons.

2012 Opening Day Blue Jays Starters (And their Fangraphs WAR value at the end of the season)

Yunel Escobar: 1.8 fWAR
Kelly Johnson: 0.7 fWAR
Jose Bautista: 3.2 fWAR
Edwin Encarnacion: 4.4 fWAR
Adam Lind: 0.2 fWAR
Brett Lawrie: 2.9 fWAR
Eric Thames: -0.6 fWAR
J.P. Arencibia: 1.3 fWAR
Colby Rasmus: 1.4 fWAR
Batting Total: 15.3 fWAR

Ricky Romero: 0.5 fWAR
Brandon Morrow: 2.4 fWAR
Brett Cecil: 0.1 fWAR
Henderson Alvarez: 0.5 fWAR
Kyle Drabek: -0.1 fWAR
Pitching total: 3.4 fWAR

2012 Starting Lineup Total: 18.7 fWAR



2013 Projected Starting Blue Jays Lineup (Based on 2012 Fangraphs WAR data)
Jose Reyes: 4.5 fWAR
Melky Cabrera: 4.6 fWAR
Jose Bautista: 3.2 fWAR
Edwin Encarnacion: 4.4 fWAR
Adam Lind: 0.2 fWAR
Brett Lawrie: 2.9 fWAR
Colby Rasmus: 1.4 fWAR
J.P. Arencibia: 1.3 fWAR
Emilio Bonifacio: 0.6 fWAR (64 Games, 274 PA in 2012)
Batting Total: 23.1 fWAR

R.A. Dickey: 4.6 fWAR
Josh Johnson: 3.8 fWAR
Mark Buehrle: 2.1 fWAR
Brandon Morrow: 2.4 fWAR
Ricky Romero: 0.5 fWAR
Pitching Total: 13.4 fWAR

2013 Starting Lineup Total: 36.5 fWAR

Indiana Jones wrote:so you're saying there's a chance???...