Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
Well, with Drabek and Hutchison going down, it'll open up some spots to acquire a pair of starters in the offseason. Not ideal, but you do remove the whole maybe those two will be legit, and forces AA to get someone because we're basically F'ed going forward otherwise.
Alvarez's stuff is there, he needs a better slider or curve to strike out guys but he's only 21. Usually with pitchers that young with little things wrong, it takes a couple seasons to figure it out, and if/when they do you're looking at a Felix Hernandez/Roy Halladay type upside guy. He's definitely got star calibre upside, so I'm not worried that he's figuring stuff out now.
I was more referring to the lower part of the system, guys like the Lansing 3, Osuna etc. developing better, not so much with Hech, Gose, and Marisnick (all of which need to figure out their stuff). I'm not overly thrilled with any of the Riccardi picks that are in the system, which leaves guys that are in A ball or below. Unfortunately it takes time for those guys to rise through the system as well.
The Jays prior to the injury cliff were on target for an 85 win season give or take a couple wins. That was with Coco, Romero and Alvarez being mediocre. Now we're obviously going to be lucky to win 75, but you can't lose Morrow for 3 months, Bautista for a month plus, Lawrie for a month plus and not expect to lose more games. Any team facing those injuries would be screwed.
It is disappointing, but it's not a disappointment. It would be just the same as if Iginla, Bouwmeester and Kipper were to get injured in December, one till late march, and the other two till February. It would suck, but you can't really get mad that the team sucks in their absence.
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I'm not disappointed with the lack of success of the team, because as you point out, with their injuries they never had a hope.
My concern is now I think the Jays enter 2013 with far more questions than they have answers, and 2013 was thought to be a year they could legitimately contend for the division/wild card if things went right.
The 2013 Jays have huge question marks at LF, 2B, DH, and would need to add 2-3 arms in their rotation. That's a really tall order for AA this offseason.