What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time we were talking about the Blue Jays as a legitimate World Series contender \u2013 this year we are talking about the team just being competitive and with an outside shot at a Wild Card spot. <\/p>\n
AL East: +900
\nAmerican League: 16\/1
\nWorld Series: 28\/1<\/p>\n
Key Additions<\/strong>: Dioner Navarro<\/p>\n Injuries and some disappointing efforts by a host of last year\u2019s Jays derailed their season \u2013 what can we expect this year?<\/p>\n 1 Jose Reyes SS Hopes are that Lawrie and Cabrera bounce back, that the acquisition of a good hitting catcher in the form of Dioner Navarro helps and that spark plug Jose Reyes stays healthy along with team leader Jose Bautista \u2013 both of which spent far too long on the DL last year for this team to contend.<\/p>\n Toronto ranked eighth in the AL last year in runs despite the injuries \u2013 if the players live up to expectation there is little doubt that this team can be an elite offensive squad. But that is a BIG IF.<\/p>\n 1 R.A. Dickey The Jays experienced their share of injuries in the rotation last year and were middle-of-the-pack because of it. Simply put \u2013 the Studs weren\u2019t the Studs and the injuries to the pitchers they relied on set the team back drastically. By all account, Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek are healthy and ready to assume their rightful spot in the rotation.<\/p>\n Toronto has some talent on their staff but injury questions continue to plague the team. The inability to get one of the free agent arms available in the offseason isn\u2019t a great sign either. Toronto\u2019s season success realistically relies on the health and effectiveness of their starting staff \u2013 not unlike any other MLB team. At full health we can expect the Jays to have a top third staff but we almost guarantee Brandon Morrow will get hurt, and that Kyle Drabek will take some time to find his groove after Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n RA Dickey is 39 years old \u2013 Mark Buehrle is 35 \u2013 age is catching up to these guys, Morrow is brittle, JA Happ is journeyman #5 type guy and Drabek may have issues getting back to form. Simply put \u2013 the Jays have too many questions to be considered a top flight rotation and without starting pitching, you simply don\u2019t get that far in the Majors.<\/p>\n Casey Janssen RP Add Aaron Loup, Brett Cecil and Dustin McGowan to the list of arms coming out of the pen and the Jays look to have a solid group of relievers \u2013 one that was fourth last year in terms of ERA in the AL and is poised to at least duplicate those numbers this year. If the starters can do their part it looks as though the Jays have some arms at the back end to secure some victories.<\/p>\n There are some nice pieces on the Toronto Blue Jays – numbers 1-5 in the order are strong \u2013 Reyes, Bautista, Encarnacion, Lind and Rasmus should provide some decent offensive numbers. But with question marks all over the starting rotation and the fact that they play in the AL East has the Jays looking very much like an average team once again. 83-85 wins appears to be the ceiling for this team which will result in a familiar fourth place finish in the division.<\/p>\n 2014 MLB Team Previews \u2013 Toronto Blue Jays What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time we were talking about the Blue Jays as a legitimate World Series contender \u2013 this year we are talking about the team just being competitive and with an outside shot at a Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":33762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[61196,61195,10737,10736,10863,10864,10865,44481,678,10861,2687],"class_list":["post-72853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2014-al-east-futures","tag-2014-mlb-team-preview","tag-al-east-predictions","tag-al-east-preview","tag-blue-jays-futures","tag-blue-jays-odds","tag-blue-jays-predictions","tag-blue-jays-world-series-odds","tag-mlb-betting","tag-toronto-blue-jays-picks","tag-world-series-futures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72940,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72853\/revisions\/72940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}CappersPicks.com’s In House capper Razor Ray’s 2014 EARLY BIRD MLB Season Package is posted! Top 5 2013 MLB Capper!<\/a><\/h3>\n
Projected Starting Line-Up<\/h3>\n
\n2 Melky Cabrera OF
\n3 Jose Bautista OF
\n4 Edwin Encarnacion DH
\n5 Brett Lawrie
\n6 Adam Lind 1B
\n7 Colby Rasmus OF
\n8 Dioner Navarro Catcher
\n9 Maicer Izturis 2B
\n [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
\nOn paper the Blue Jays have a nice offensive team \u2013 Bautista, Encarnacion and Colby Rasmus offer some good power in a park notoriously generous to hitters. But Melky Cabrera had an off season, Brett Lawrie failed to find his groove and the catcher position offered almost zero offensive production.<\/p>\nProjected Starting Rotation<\/h3>\n
\n2 Brandon Morrow S
\n3 Mark Buehrle
\n4 J.A. Happ
\n5 Esmil Rogers
\n6 Kyle Drabek<\/p>\nCloser<\/h3>\n
\nSergio Santos RP
\nSteve Delabar RP<\/p>\n2014 Prediction:<\/h3>\n
View The MLB Cappers Leaderboard For 2013 – Picks Packages for 2014 are On Sale Today! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"