so..has JP really improved the jays?

[mega]

intiially i loved JP...i love the way the team is stacked up this year and i think we're finally sure-fire contenders...

but i randomly decided to look up the roster for a few years ago...

in 2002

we had halladay, loaiza and chris carpenter

our infield was delgado, hinske, o-dog and woodward

and our outfield was wells, shannon stewart and catalanotto



doesnt seem much better imo....

[go_jays_go]

Offensively, we've definately improved. I think JP knows what he's doing and I'm liking it so far. It's not like we didn't want the big names here. He had the money to use, so he used it. I believe that JP will lead this team in the right direction.

Welcome to the cafe!

[kimchi_chigae]

welcome to the cafe mega!

why 2002? let's look at 2003, a year the jays had a winning record...

we had...

Rotation:
Halladay
Lidle
Hendrickson
Escobar
Sturtze/Towers/Walker/Davis

Closer: Lopez/Politte

Lineup:
Huckaby/Myers
Delgado
Hudson
Hinske
Woodward
Johnson
Wells
Stweart
Phelps

the team went 86-76 that year which was pretty good. i believe they were one of the best teams after the all-star game and the 04 season looked promising.

the 06 rotation looks a lot better IMO. Halladay, AJ, Chacin, Towers and Lilly are prolly gonna put up better numbers than the likes of Mark Hendrickson and Tanyon Sturtze. The rotation was pretty good last year, actually picthing wasn't a problem for the Jays in 05, the bullpen also did a good job. The biggest improvement has to be in the closer's role. BJ Ryan should provide the stability the Jays needed at the position.

I think it was also in 03 that the Jays were second or third in the AL in runs scored, quite impressive, but at the time Phelps was hitting the ball in the 500 level, now he's out of baseball...isn't he? Hinske had a good rookie year, but all has gone downhill for him, Glaus is definitely an improvement. Zaun for Myers and Huckaby...meh. Myers had a career year in 03 and Zaun had a pretty good year last in 05...don't expect a lot from him in 06 though...not offensively. Hudson plays great D, but the Jays won't miss his bat much, Hill should do a better job offensively and he's not bad on D...he's no o-dog, but who is? Adams had a good year last year, way better than Woodward. Stweart's career was already in decline when he left the jays and he can't stay healthy, i think we are better off with what we have now. So, the only negative thing is the lineup is missing Delgado, but i think JP was able to replace much of the power lost when delgado left. Also the depth of the team is much better than a couple of years ago.

i think JP had improved the team significantly, it's been a while since the Jays had this good of a team IMO.

GO Jays!

[mweir145]

intiially i loved JP...i love the way the team is stacked up this year and i think we're finally sure-fire contenders...

but i randomly decided to look up the roster for a few years ago...

in 2002

we had halladay, loaiza and chris carpenter

our infield was delgado, hinske, o-dog and woodward

and our outfield was wells, shannon stewart and catalanotto



doesnt seem much better imo....

Catalanotto wasn't a Jay in 2002, he was a Texas Ranger. As for Carpenter and Loaiza, well those two were just terrible for the Jays.