Batter up! - more literally this time

Today marks the beginning of the Toronto Blue Jays' 2008 season. In what I hope isn't some sort of metaphor for the rest of the season, the game is currently in a rain delay. As I was a huge Jays fan as a kid - and can still usually name all their active players - I feel I should do some sort of season preview. Feel free to skip the rest of this (maybe not the post-script) if you're not a baseball fan.

I'm more excited about this year's Jays team than I have been for any other year since I was too young to know any better. Last year, we had a solid starting lineup - good enough to make the playoffs - but absolutely nobody good enough to step in and do a good job should somebody get hurt. Then a few somebodies got hurt.

This year, we've added a few depth guys (Marco Scutaro, Shannon Stewart, Armando Benitez and others), and have competent fill-ins should the injury bug bite again.

Then there is the addition of David Eckstein. Internet baseball fans love to use statistics to analyze the game - and those statistics don't show Eckstein to be anything special. However, you can't overlook the fact that he's been on two recent World Series-winning teams - and his teammates have all called him a core component of those teams.

The other big move the Jays made was to trade Troy Glaus for Scott Rolen. They're both third basemen who have some injury problems, and it's too early to tell if this will turn out to be a really good deal, or a really bad one.

If McGowan, Litsch, Accardo, and the other young pitchers can be as successful as they were last year, pitching won't be a problem for us. Halladay is going to be his usual one-of-the-best-in-baseball self, as long as he doesn't get hurt, and Burnett can hopefully come close to that. Plus BJ Ryan is healthy again.

Bottom line? The Jays are hurt quite a bit by playing in the same division as Boston and New York - any other division and people would be seriously talking about them as a playoff contender. They've still got a shot, thanks to all the depth additions, but they still need quite a few lucky breaks to make it. Should be fun, though.

--Ryan

P.S. 500 sheets of paper for $6.34? Who knew killing trees could be so cheap?!?