Jays to reach their goal of 85 wins?

It doesn't look like it. I don't think there even going to match last years
win total. With the way their playing (and a combo of a lot of games vs. A's
and M's) I only see them winning 70-75 games at the most. The Jays crashed
and burned after 81 games. Hopefully this was a wake up call to JP that the
pitching staff needs an overhaul, the pitching is so bad even the leagues
2nd best offence can't carry them to more victories than losses. Anybody
know what FA's are going to be available this off-season?

On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 19:51:00 GMT, "Asianflow" <rmchan.TakeThisOut@shaw.ca> wrote:

>It doesn't look like it. I don't think there even going to match last years
>win total. With the way their playing (and a combo of a lot of games vs. A's
>and M's) I only see them winning 70-75 games at the most. The Jays crashed
>and burned after 81 games. Hopefully this was a wake up call to JP that the
>pitching staff needs an overhaul, the pitching is so bad even the leagues
>2nd best offence can't carry them to more victories than losses. Anybody
>know what FA's are going to be available this off-season?


With the Jays at (or just about) their self-imposed budget for next
year (after all changes to overall salaries so far this year), and
with the Jays compelled to sign Halladay long-term and *perhaps* try
to sign Escobar, I fear they have no available funds for any free
agents wanting more than the league minimum.

IOW, they are fux0red for (at least the first few months of) 2004. No
real help expected until perhaps the last half of 2004 from minor
leagues.

There has been a running argument the past few years from some posters
in this newsgroup. Some have argued that there is no reason to believe
that offence cannot win at major league level whereas the minority of
us have always argued that you WIN with pitching and defense.

I wonder if anyone has changed their opinion regarding this, based
upon the past couple of years??????


I have always believed and still believe that while you can win in the
early months with offence, and even some Septembers, once division
winners have been all-but-determined (depending on who you are
playing), the season is mostly decided in the dog days of July and
August, and to win those games requires consistently good pitching and
consistently good defence.

Jays have neither.

They managed to win games in the final month last year simply because
nobody cared much about them, and they managed to win games against
weaker clubs using the time to check out their futures. I am not so
sure those teams will bend over so easily this time around.

For my own prediction, I will say they maintain their approx .500 so
that still puts them in the 78-84 win range. Projected for 2004 is
75-85 unless they spend more $$$ than currently planned.


Ripper