What I expected was that in the event of injury, there'd be a couple of guys to step it up and fill in.

I didn't expect that for a decent part of the year we'd have a rotation of Halladay, Lilly, Janssen, Marcum, and Taubenheim. I knew there'd be injury and possible collapse, but I didn't think it would happen to three pitchers. I was hoping that for the one or two guys that got injured or imploded, there'd be someone to step up.

Janssen did for a while, and Marcum did okay, but it was unreasonable to expect solid contributions for two pitchers (Casey and Ty) who played A ball next year. Hopefully they can bring back Lilly or another pitcher and have a pretty solid 1 through 7 starters. That will do damage.

It's what I expected in April, I think. So it's hard to be really disappointed.

But by July, I was expecting better. I didn't think the team would stall out around 6-12 games above .500 almost all year. The lack of a back end rotation and just better timed hitting held the team down.  The Jays are 3rd in OBP, 1st in Slugging, yet 8th in runs...don't put all the blame on the pitching staff. The five guys who qualify for the batting title have all been bad in the clutch (aside from average Wells), at least by the hardballtimes measurement.

 

 

In that sense, I see that as a positive for next year. I address clutch hitting as one of two things:

1) Experienced hitters that know pitcher's strategy and adjust to being able to hit the ball in high leverage situations. Frank Catalanotto and Carlos Delgado fit this description well.

2) The luck of the draw that # 87 of your 150 hits happen to be with two runners on.

So in that sense, with that offense I see no reason why that cannot be improved for next year.

I thought we'd win 85-90, more likely 85 than 90, so this is about how I thought it would go.  I thought some guys would be worse (Glaus, Rios, Johnson) and that others would be better (Towers, Chacin, etc.) but all in all it was about what I expected.

What I expected, not what I hoped for.  I was hoping for 90+ but ... sigh. 

2007 - Jays will be top 1/2 (or top 1/4) of the league in pitching while hitting goes south again?  Or will the current pattern finish the way we'd all love it to...

2004 - nothing goes right
2005 - great pitching, horrid hitting
2006 - poor pitching, good hitting
2007 - great pitching, good hitting = playoffs!  :)

I think 2007 is THE YEAR. In 2008 and on, Glaus and BJ Ryan both make around $10 million per year, and AJ makes $12 million. The contracts become more backloaded, and the guys older towards 2010. The farm isn't that great, which will start to hurt in 2008, yet no one really knows how the farm will be 2 years from now. Vernon Wells might be gone. Yet none of these things really affect next year, and I'm actually quite optimistic for next year. The right holes HAVE to be filled in the offseason, which means 7 starters need to be lined up, but I think the hitting is good. 2007 is the year they will make the playoffs (IF they make it).

I guess one thing to be optimistic about is that, barring injury (a big if) that 3 of the 4 big long-term contracts are pitchers and I can see them doing well through their mid-30s; see the Spanks with Unit, Moose and Mo.  Glaus with his chronic knee problems might not fare as well.

As to the poll response, I voted that this season was less than I expected, but it is mitigated by the implosion of the Red Sox and their $50 million higher payroll.  And they get to enjoy The Dude on their bench next season.

I was hoping as well as expecting closer to 90. Injuries are pretty hard to predict so it's a crapshoot at best anyway. Pretty hard to argue with the "you can never have too much pitching" theory though.

On the one hand, I expected to finish ahead of Boston although I didn't think second place in the East would be a playoff team...

on the other hand, I expected 90-91 wins.

On the one hand, I expected 85-87 wins...on the other, I expected third place.  The Sox really fell apart in the second half, didn't they?  It's not really part of this poll, but it seemed to me that their collapse coincided with Lester's illness.

I was hoping for slightly more wins for the Jays, but a non-playoff season with a second place finish should be considered a success.  Hopefully J.P. can recreate the off-season waves he made last year by resigning Wells and Lilly, signing a real SS (not LOOGY!) and using his newfound payroll wisely.  "There's always next year!" is starting to actually have meaning.

No one has mentioned recently, but maybe some of the Red Sox free-fall could be attributed to the lack of interleague play in the second half?  Take away that spiffy 16-2 record vs. the NL and they're a very pedestrian 68-73 vs. the AL this year. 

Curse those Florida and Colorado series!

Smithers, if you take away the NL and the Orioles, the Red Sox are a not-even-pedestrian 55-71.  Incredible but true.