2008 Blue Jays

I'm watching the Blue Jays absolutely clobber the World Serious Champs and current Wild Card leaders, the Boston Red Sox. While I'm not about to suggest the playoffs are within grasp, I have to say I've been pretty impressed with this year's edition of the Blue Jays.

The fact of the matter is that, competing with the Red Sox and Yankees huge payrolls and Tampa Bay's massive collection of top-5 Draft picks isn't going to be easy. This division is tough, and the Jays are rolling along a few games over .500. I read somewhere they have the 3rd best record in the league since mid-June or something. Considering that the offense has performed well below expectations all year (finally producing some runs recently, but still no power at all), if we were even a little better offensively and didn't suffer those awful losing streaks early in the year, we'd be right in the thick of it. We wouldn't even have to be as good as "average" offensively.

Because the Yankees and Red Sox won't let up, I think building this sort of team is the best strategy. All we need is a "perfect storm" season; the type of season where everything works out right. I know its hard to imagine if you're a Blue Jays fan, but they happen sometimes, and we just have to hang around until it happens. Unless we can spend double our payroll, this wait for our opportunity approach is the best we'll be able to muster to be competitive in the AL East.

Here's a position by position run down;

1B - Big hole here with Overbay. He's alright, but unless you're a team that gets all its big production from other positions, Overbay doesn't really cut it here. He can be a decent cog, but unless we're getting our power from other productions, 1B is a logical place to improve.

2B- No complaints with Hill, I just hope he gets healthy by next year. But if not, we do have some depth in the middle infield.

3B - I like Rolen, but there's a pretty big chance he's done. Not good.

SS - Like 2B, we have some depth here. However, that's about all we have. In a great offensive year, I would love to be able to play John MacDonald here, for the purely selfish reason that he's great to watch defensively.

OF - Does the potential of the Lind, Wells, and Rois OF of the future remind anyone of the 80's BJ outfield of George Bell, Lloyd Moseby, and Jesse Barfield. Except making more money, and with 2 Moseby/Barfield players and no one as good as George Bell. But that's still not bad. Wells, despite what people will have you believe, has actually been pretty good this year when he's been playing (the .310, 35 HR Wells is too much to hope for, He's probably more of a .290 and 25HR guy, which is fine for a Gold Glove CF). People also have Rios all wrong; although his effort sort of sucks sometimes, and his power this year has been bad, we need to stop expecting him to be a big masher. I think because he's gone on a few HR runs over the last few years, we expect this to be the norm. We should think of him as a great #2 hitter in the Carl Crawford mold who can scare you with occasional power. Lind is prime to take a step back next year, but at least we know he can hit. And Travis Snider is on the way.

SP - No complaints even if AJ leaves. If he stays we're set, but he won't. Still, Halladay is amazing, Marcum looks for real, and between McGowan, Litsch, Purcey, Jansen, and whoever else, we have at least an average supporting cast for a while. However, things change very quickly with pitching, so who knows.

RP - Pretty good and pretty young. Again, things change quickly, but there are enough horses to go to war with here.