2006 Line-up:

Hitting Lineup:
1. Russ Adams, SS
2. Frank Catalonotto/Reed Johnson LF
3. Vernon Wells, CF
4. Troy Glaus, 3B
5. Lyle Overbay, 1B
6. Shea Hillenbrand, DH
7. Alex Rios/Eric Hinske RF
8. Bengie Molina/Jason Phillips/Gregg Zaun, C
9. Aaron Hill, 2B

Rotation:
1. Roy Halladay, RHP
2. AJ Burnett, RHP
3. Gustavo Chacin, LHP
4. Ted Lilly, LHP
5. Josh Towers, RHP

Bullpen:
BJ Ryan, LHP
Scott Downs, LHP
Scott Schoenweiss, LHP
Jason Frasor, RHP
Dustin McGowan, RHP
Brandon League, RHP
Pete Walker, RHP
Shawn Marcum, RHP

The season opener is in 3 days so I thought we'd get a thread up to support the only team capable of making a playoff run in this city. Go Blue Jays!

I love this team.

I love Jerry Howarth's amazing radio voice on the fan 590.

Wow, that pitching rotation is sick. My boy Gustavo is going to do damage this year for sure.

Wow, that pitching rotation is sick. My boy Gustavo is going to do damage this year for sure.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview06/co...tory?id=2388038

Vernon Wells, beeyotch!

Gotta love the ESPN frontpage

I wish we could have traded Hinske...but maybe he'll bounce back this seson.

Wow, ESPN thinks Vernon Wells might win AL MVP? Why does everyone continue to be fooled and teased by his potential? We all know he can be one of the best two-way players in all of baseball but it just isn't happening. He seems to be regressing since his 2003 season where he hit .317 with 33 homeruns and 117 RBI. We can hope that now since he has protection with Glaus batting behind him, it might actually help him out but who really knows with Vernon.

first hatin on bosh now vernon lol i see a pattern pbi

Yeah there were 2 reasons vernon never got back to his 2003 form.
The first was an injury that he never fully recovered from in 2004 and last year it was because he was the ONLY bat who scared people in the Toronto lineup, he should be able to bounce back.

BJ Ryan is gangsta!

That was a sweeeeeet game.

Score?

He cusses like a sailor.

6-3 Jays win it.

Halladay was solid.

Molina hit a huge homerun. Nearly made it onto the 5th deck.

BJ Ryan comes out, 3 up 3 down 2 strikeouts.

We also can't forget that Alex Rios hit a HR as well because every time he goes yard it's an event. That brings his career total to 12 HRs in nearly two years.

Go Jays!!

Halladay was solid but B.J Ryan is the main man. Long are the days when our managers would send Batista to lose a game for us. Did you see the confidence in Ryan's eyes when he even began pitching?? That man is so confident. Something Batista never was.
This is a great team. I think ill watch a lot of Blue Jay games this year which is something i never did since long ago.

BTW, where's Frank Catalenato? And did i just see Eric Hinske?? I thought JP Ricardi would go swimming with him and drown him in a lake.

I agree with the BJ Ryan comments, that dude looks furious! He looks so massive and full of testosterone like some kind of bull. I bet he bites the heads off of newborns all the time..sweet.

It's hard to judge the team from this game because when Hallady is on the mound it's money in the bank. He is so good that he makes the team look amazing with his great pitching. I swear Doc is the best picture in the league, I just find him so impressive and focused.

I have a feeling Rios is going to put up some nice numbers this year and same with Wells.

I can't believe the depth this team has at pitching, frickin amazing.
Jays pitching > yankees/Bosox pitching

Vintage Josh Towers.

Yeah, that guy is junk. The Jays should have traded him and kept Dave Bush. Bush has alot more potential and is more dominating when he's on. Towers has weak pitching, he only wins games because he throws a ton of strikes so sometimes he gets lucky when the opposing team is having an off hitting night.

I don't follow baseball at all because its only slightly less boring than NASCAR- but I will say that in 6-8 weeks the Jays will be sinking to the bottom of the heap and everyone will ignore them again. It always happens.

Vintage Uncle Ted.

Teds probably right, but I'm still hoping that maybe the Jays can keep it together so this city can gain some respect in the pro sport world.

I like this Jays team a lot. Which is hard for me to say because I'm an Expos refugees. But really, I think it's a very nice team.

It's thoughtfully constructed, and has a very nice mix of youth and vets, so there isn't a feeling that this is the only year they have to win this thing. Of course a whole bunch of things need to go right for them to reach the postseason, but you can say that about almost any "contender" out there, including last year's WS winner.

I do think though that the Jays are missing one full-time corner outfielder, specifically one that can run (a Juan Pierre/Scott Podsednik type). This team is built to last through a long big league season, but it will not do that well in the playoffs without at least some ability to manufacture cheap runs.

JP is a Beane disciple, the last thing he will ever do is add a player whose strengths are stealing bases because it goes against everything he believes. We are a "Wait for the three-run homer" type of team and a player like Pierre would be pretty useless as a Blue Jay.

i'm an expos refugee who's latched onto the angels because of vladdy and k rod, but i'm a jays well wisher. i wish they didn't get rid of o dog though, he was a good character guy, the jays need a crazy dominican or something to spice the team up

I may be absolutely reamed by the monster that is the PBI, but: MANNY!!!

I think you misunderstand Billy Beane's philosophy, which is not that you can't spend money on a guy whose forte is base stealing, but that if you have limited resources, you can't afford to spend money on guys whose fortes happen to be the least important part of the game.

Base-stealing is unquestionably one of the least important parts of the offensive part of the game of baseball. It often results in wasted outs and is often performed by guys who are limited in more important aspects of the game.

That said, TO is no longer a "limited resources"-type situation. Oakland, whose payroll cannot exceed 40M ever, is, and as such, has to concentrate on stuff that is most likely to win games, slugging and on-base percentage. The Jays, on the other hand, are now chock full of players of such players AND, more importantly, have the resources to address their weaknesses. So I for one, fully expect them to go out and get a "run manufacturer"-type player eventually, if not this season then next, to feature him at the top of the lineup.

Specifically, we currently have Reed Johnson and Frank Catalonotto splitting time in leftfield. Between them, they had roughly a 0.780 OPS last season. It is completely possible to get a guy who will be the fulltime left-fielder, who will match that OPS, and who will throw in some speed to boot. All they have to do is spend a bit more money (and not even all that much). I'm almost positive JP is thinking this way too.

Of course, if he goes out and gets another 35 HR guy for leftfield, I wouldn't be all that upset either.

wow rios did some serious revaming in the off-season he already ahs 2 home runs!! jays up 2-0

Blowing a 6-0 lead always shows people that you are ready to take the next step.

^ you are too much, it's like on PTI when they play good cop bad cop, and you're ALWAYS the bad cop

You got to beat these type of teams if you plan to contend HB, it's as simple as that.

159 games to go...the bats are gettin' it done more than I thought and the pitchers have been worse than I thought....shows how much I know about baseball.

the jays took a page out of the raps playbook tonight someone needs to tell them in toronto.... no lead is safe

Rob Babcock > JP Ricciardi

Tupac > Josh Towers > PBI

Well looks like the raptors season is almost finished, so PBI needs a new team to rag on.

Honestly...just STFU, its 5 games into the season.

Apparently 2000+ cynical posts aren't enough.

This type of comment is just stupid.

All of JP's acquisition have been solid so far in this season.

Overbay - Solid
Glause - Excellent
Molina - Solid
AJ Burnett - haven't seen him yet.

PBI don't kill himself because they blew a 6-0 lead in the 4th game of the season.

I get the feeling PBI only makes comments for peoples attention. And i'm sick of it...

nice rally by the jays that was a solid all around game by everyone except lilly

Lilly didn't look good at all today. But its been 2 weeks since he last pitched in a game, so i will give him a pass this time.

You just figured this out??

How is saying "Babcock > Ricciardi" a plea for attention? Have any of you ever heard of humour? Please direct your anger elsewhere or put me on ignore, it's as simple as that. You people have the option of putting me on ignore but you continue to beeyotch and whine about my posts so just STFU once and for all and put me on ignore. No one is forcing you to read my posts and I'm not going to change the content of what I post simply to appease some two-bit fence sitters like you.

^^^^^

I was forced to read that post because I am a moderator.

Can I sue Scott??

^ Yeah, I agree. The act is getting majorly old...

We're not fans to torture ourselves. We're fans to have fun. If it's not possible for you to have fun, don't be a fan for f*cks sake.

PBI is just the guy who hates everything to give perspective, i think i finally "get" his posting style

Well, wasn't Burnett just a big waste of money. I bet you he will be injured most of the season, make a start here and there and give up plenty of runs or just re-injure his arm and be out for good.

55 mill down the tubes, woo heeeeee!!

There's word that Halladay's gonna miss his next start and have an MRI on his arm.

I'm starting to get a bad, bad feeling about this season.

We've played one frickin' week