The BJ's are about to sign Troy Glaus. And of course they've gotten AJ and BJ already. (Would be pretty cool if they could also sign Pierzinski and Nitkowski and Surhoff). I'm starting to wonder of Andrew's long-standing prediction of the emergence of a three-team AL East may be coming true.
(...on a related note, remember 9 months ago, when the Orioles were leading the division? God that was ridiculous.)
At some point, and I'm too lazy to look it up, I believe I said that all the Jays really needed in order to compete was a solid #2 starter, a bullpen ace, and some power. Well, I guess JP was listening; Burnett, Ryan, Overbay and Glaus seem to fit the bill pretty nicely. This club should be decent offensively, with one of the scarier pitching staffs in the league.
ReplyDeleteYeah the Jays all of a sudden a starting to look pretty decent. I was reading somewhere the other day (BP, maybe) about the relative impact one player can make (which is generally not much - 3-5 wins max in most cases), but if the Jays can get Glaus, they would, on paper appears to be closing the gap on the Sox. If you figure Glaus is good for plus 40 runs and Damon is good for minus 40 - the runs scored advantage goes from 910-775 to 870-815. Last year the BJs ERA of 4.06 compared well to the Sox 4.74.
ReplyDeleteSure I had touted Overbay as a possible solution for the Sox, but the more I look at his numbers, the less I think he is an impact bat - nice piece but he still only had a very good year in 2004. In 2005, he was not much better than Shea Hillenbrand.
So while everyone is bemoaning the loss of Damon, next season really hinges on getting above average performance from Mssrs. Schilling, Foulke, Beckett and another arm or two.