Excitement Brewing in Toronto

Bautista's wrist injury proved detrimental to the Jays' 2012 season

Toronto has had quite the excitement in both basketball and baseball these past few weeks. The Raptors made some noise when they successfully added Rudy Gay to the roster and the Blue Jays did everything they could to acquire a dominant lineup and pitching rotation throughout the offseason. With Jose Bautista missing the second half of the season with a wrist injury last year, the Blue Jays ended with an unimpressive record of 73-89. However, before Bautista went down, the Jays were second in runs scored which clearly showed their ability to produce despite having a record of 44-45 with Bautista in the lineup. But now, as Spring Training is in full swing and the season is looming, Joey Bats is back and the Blue Jays just might make a run into October.

There is no doubt that the expectations are high in Toronto, but as other professional teams have proven, maybe high expectations only lead to laughable disappointments. Two teams immediately come to mind when talking about not performing as well as people believed they could and that would be the Philadelphia Eagles and the Miami Marlins. The Eagles, whom Vince Young referred to as a "Dream Team" in the summer of 2011, finished with an 8-8 record. Not exactly a record that could give someone bragging rights much less respect after such a bold, and somewhat stupid, comment. I can respect that Vince Young set the bar high, but that put a target on the chest of the Eagles as soon as those words were made public. The Eagles had the talent to possibly be a dominant team, but they fell short.

The Marlins on the other hand, did not run their mouths. Well, never mind, Ozzie Guillen was their manager, so of course he ran his mouth at some point. However, going off the lineup the Marlins had on paper, there simply was no reason the Marlins should not have been playing playoff baseball. They had great additions with Guillen as the new skipper, All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes joining Hanley Ramirez in the infield, and Mark Buerhle joining the starting rotation. Not to mention Giancarlo Stanton was a rising star. The Marlins had it in them, but suddenly became dysfunctional and embarrassing. They finished their season at the bottom of the NL East with a shameful record of 69-93.

Jose Reyes' signing should provide fireworks in Toronto

So this brings up the Blue Jays who now look to be a serious threat to the stacked AL East. The Orioles, Yankees, Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays all have recent playoff experience and Toronto just may steal the show. With the addition of R.A. Dickey, Mark Buerhle, and Josh Johnson to aid the rotation, the Blue Jays have a chance to be pretty nasty night in and night out. Their lineup got even tougher with Jose Bautista's full health coinciding with the signing of Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera. The Jays are faced with what will presumably be the toughest division in the MLB but they have the talent and veteran leadership to possibly bring the city of Toronto a World Series trophy. For now though, it's only a possibility. Only time will tell just how serious of a contender this Blue Jays team can be. Because as we've seen before, having multiple stars isn't always guaranteed to work out.