Jays Defense Ranked 2nd

Post #1 » by **bryant08** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:17 pm

I checked in with MLB.com a few days ago and I can't find the link now but I remember they listed the the Jays defense as 2nd best in the league and the bullpen as 5th best in the league. That's pretty good stuff considering the recognition from across the border.

Post #2 » by **arrpy** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:50 pm

Really? ... I didn't think we had that good of defense. But that's pretty nice for the Jays. Hope it lasts.

kcthekid · Post #3 » by **kcthekid** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:02 pm

our outfeild is stacked as far as reed/wells/rios...cannons from all angles
our left side of the infiled is an upgrade of last yr, rolen/eks and we got jonny mac to boot! hill and overbay very serviceable in their positon, sounds about right, i dunno if they desevere to be 2nd, but there def up there

Post #4 » by **Geddy** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:42 am

I think second is fair for this team considering our outfield, and our infield now that Glaus has been replaced with Rolen. The only spot i'm still worried about is the catcher. I hope other teams don't run wild on us this season once again.

The_Hater · Post #5 » by **The_Hater** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:24 pm

arrpy wrote:Really? ... I didn't think we had that good of defense. But that's pretty nice for the Jays. Hope it lasts.

We have the best defensive OF in baseball when Wells, Rios and RJ patrol it. I've heard them described as '3 Centerfielders in one outfield'.

And with McDonald getting so much time at SS last season we had one of the top SS/2B combinations in the baseball too. I would say that we were only weak at Catcher but I doubt these rankings account for Catcher's ability to throw out runnners. Probably just range factor and errors.

Post #6 » by **arrpy** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:41 pm

I always knew our outfield was really strong, and our infield is getting stronger each year. As you said, our catcher is our only weak spot. I guess JP's plan was defense. If were second, who's first?

raps4life~ · Post #7 » by **raps4life~** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:59 pm

So...

We have one of the leagues best offense.
We have one of the leagues best defense.
We have one of the best pitching staffs.

Obviously, all hold true only when the team is healthy.

I have high hopes for this team!

Post #8 » by **arrpy** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:56 pm

On paper, the Jays are one of the best teams in the league. And this season they will show it. *Crosses fingers*

The_Hater · Post #9 » by **The_Hater** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:59 am

raps4life~ wrote:So...

We have one of the leagues best offense.
We have one of the leagues best defense.
We have one of the best pitching staffs.

Obviously, all hold true only when the team is healthy.

I have high hopes for this team!

Can't say that I agree with this part. We ranked 10th in the AL in runs scored last season and have quite a few players that need to turn around bad seasons (and others that need to repeat great seasons) just to get to average.

vaff87 · Post #10 » by **vaff87** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:06 am

The_Hater wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Can't say that I agree with this part. We ranked 10th in the AL in runs scored last season and have quite a few players that need to turn around bad seasons (and others that need to repeat great seasons) just to get to average.

I think we *can* have one of the leagues best offenses. It's weird, last year the Jays had one of the best bull pens and rotations in all of baseball, despite playing in the offense loaded AL East. They also, as this thread suggests, were one of the very best defensive teams. But their offense struggled. However, in 2006, they had a great offense(finishing 2nd in all of baseball in OPS), however, while their pitching was above average, it was not great. If the Jays can stay healthy and regain the offense from 06, repeat their pitching and defense from this past year, they can be really good. However, there are of course a lot of ifs. Let's hope for once, everything falls into place.

risktaker91 · Post #11 » by **risktaker91** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:30 am

2 years ago we had one of the best offenses, and last year we had one of the best pitching. So we're ranked second in defense, and if we can get back the offense from 2006 and pitching from 2007, we may surprise the AL.

raps4life~ · Post #12 » by **raps4life~** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:34 am

If:

Wells returns to previous forms
Rios becomes slightly better
Hill becomes better
Rolen plays like he did last season
Thomas does around what he did last season
Overbay returns to form
Eckstein does around what he did last season

Then:

We have one of the best offenses in the league. I think this happened in 2006, our offense was really good then. Last season we had injuries and bad seasons by Wells and such, so if everyone can do what they are suppose to do, then we do have one of the best offenses in the league.

vaff87 · Post #13 » by **vaff87** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:43 am

Is it at all concerning to you guys that the Jays are struggling offensively in spring training, or do you think that's relatively meaningless?

The_Hater · Post #14 » by **The_Hater** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:29 pm

risktaker91 wrote:2 years ago we had one of the best offenses, and last year we had one of the best pitching. So we're ranked second in defense, and if we can get back the offense from 2006 and pitching from 2007, we may surprise the AL.

Actually that's incorrect. 2 years ago we had a very average offense as we finished 7th in the AL in runs scored that season. At the same time we finished 5th in the AL in pitching. There was a perception that we had a good offense because we hit for a very high average most of the season (3rd) but the team still failed to score a lot of runs.

risktaker91 · Post #15 » by **risktaker91** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:51 am

The_Hater wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Actually that's incorrect. 2 years ago we had a very average offense as we finished 7th in the AL in runs scored that season. At the same time we finished 5th in the AL in pitching. There was a perception that we had a good offense because we hit for a very high average most of the season (3rd) but the team still failed to score a lot of runs.

Yeah that's what I meant. I guess average really doesn't mean offense, but I remember the team was hitting around .298. We had several players hitting over .300 at the beginning of the season.

Michael Bradley · Post #16 » by **Michael Bradley** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:36 pm

IIRC, the 2006 offense had a great 1st half but fell off dramatically in the 2nd half. That's why it seemed like they were a great offensive team.

The Jays need to pitch like they did in 2007 and hit better than they did in 2006 to have a shot. I think there is enough upside with youth (Rios, Hill) and players coming back from injury (Wells, Rolen, Overbay) to break 800+ runs scored again, but the Janssen injury really destroyed the pitching depth on this team. A good defense will help guys like Litsch, Chacin, etc, but the Jays will have a tough time counting on them to pitch a lot. Hopefully someone like Purcey finally finds some command and can contribute in the Majors. We need someone to have a McGowan-type breakout next season, and Purcey is probably the only one in the system with good enough stuff to do it (but his clock is ticking fast).

Post #17 » by **Schad** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:45 pm

Michael Bradley wrote:IIRC, the 2006 offense had a great 1st half but fell off dramatically in the 2nd half. That's why it seemed like they were a great offensive team.

The 2006 team also had a baffling inability to drive in runners. Looking at the numbers, that should have been a top 2-3 offense in the AL...instead, they finished 7th in runs scored. 2nd in OPS+ (one-thousandth from leading the league in slugging percentage), 4th in HRs, 3rd in doubles, 4th in walks, 3rd least K's in the AL; I still can't understand why that club wasn't an offensive powerhouse.

risktaker91 · Post #18 » by **risktaker91** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:58 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

The 2006 team also had a baffling inability to drive in runners. Looking at the numbers, that should have been a top 2-3 offense in the AL...instead, they finished 7th in runs scored. 2nd in OPS+ (one-thousandth from leading the league in slugging percentage), 4th in HRs, 3rd in doubles, 4th in walks, 3rd least K's in the AL; I still can't understand why that club wasn't an offensive powerhouse.

Too many meaningless hits, and too little meaningful hits.