OK Blue Jays

As I did last year, I'm going to wax poetic about the Toronto Blue Jays at the dawn of a new season.

Unlike last year, I'm not going to be full of unbridled and frankly misguided optimism. Wow is that link embarrassing in retrospect.

I mean, seriously.

I was excited over Marco Scutaro.

That won't happen this year. I have absolutely no delusions of grandeur, no expectations for the Jays other than that they might not finish in last place. And I'm not alone.

Drunk Jays Fans agrees with me, as does the Tao of Stieb (the two definitive sites any serious Jays fan should visit). So does outspoken-or-possible-senile manager Cito Gaston, who outright stated over the winter that the team isn't likely to contend until 2010.

With the possible exception of JP Ricciardi's first year in Toronto, this is the first time since I've been alive that nobody's pretending the Jays have at least a chance at the playoffs. It's kind of refreshing.

That's not to say that there aren't any bright spots. Roy Halladay remains the most dominant pitcher in baseball (no hyperbole), and if the rest of our rotation wasn't going to miss the year due to injury, we'd be in pretty good shape. But even if (okay, when) the replacements falter, a strong bullpen is there to take over.

Adam Lind is going to have a breakout season, and Travis Snider is going to show why he's the future of the Jays. The inexplicably popular Aaron Hill is finally back from post-concussion syndrome, and he'll return to scooping up ground balls and winning the hearts of teenage girls everywhere.

Scott Rolen and Vernon Wells are running out of years before "they might return to form" becomes "they've lost it", but they're not there yet.

There's no shortage of reasons to cheer for the Blue Jays this year. That is why I made this post.

Well, that and the opportunity to post this video:


--Ryan