Blue Jays believe this is their year
Sunday, March 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM
DUNEDIN, Fla. - With a new season at hand, managers will all tell you it's good to have players who have something to prove. Incentive is always the best ingredient for winning and, assuming that's so, the Toronto Blue Jays are loaded this year.
Indeed, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has a wealth of players trying to redefine themselves and, as he puts it, "We've got a lot of guys here who play with an edge."
Here are the hungry Blue Jays:
Sunday, March 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM
DUNEDIN, Fla. - With a new season at hand, managers will all tell you it's good to have players who have something to prove. Incentive is always the best ingredient for winning and, assuming that's so, the Toronto Blue Jays are loaded this year.
Indeed, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has a wealth of players trying to redefine themselves and, as he puts it, "We've got a lot of guys here who play with an edge."
Here are the hungry Blue Jays:
- Center fielder Vernon Wells, their franchise player, wants to prove the offseason surgery on his shoulder has restored him to the force that earned him a seven-year, $126 million deal a year ago.
- Shortstop David Eckstein, who had to settle for a one-year, $4.5 million contract this winter, wants to make his former employers, the St. Louis Cardinals, regret not making an effort to re-sign him after he hit .309 in 117 games as their only legitimate leadoff man last year.
- Eckstein's fellow Cardinal mate, third baseman Scott Rolen, merely wants to stick it to his former manager, Tony La Russa, with whom he feuded bitterly the last two years, by regaining his All-Star form after offseason shoulder surgery.
- Left fielder Reed Johnson wants to prove he's fully recovered from back surgery and can once again be the player who hit .319 and led the Jays in hits, runs and doubles in 2006. He got further incentive when the Jays signed their former longtime outfield fixture Shannon Stewart to compete for a part of the left field job. Like Eckstein, Stewart also was rebuffed on a multiyear deal in the market this winter and fired his agent before accepting a minor league deal from the Jays.
- No. 2 starter A.J. Burnett, though continually bothered by periodic shoulder soreness (that sidelined him twice in '07) is in the opt-out year of his five-year, $55 million contract.
- Closer B.J. Ryan is coming back from elbow surgery and looking to regain his role from Jeremy Accardo, who performed a surprise rescue mission for the Jays in '07, saving 30 games in 35 appearances.
- DH Frank Thomas, two years removed from the foot injury that nearly ended his career, isn't satisfied with just leading the Jays in homers (26), RBI (95) and on-base percentage (.377) as he did in '07. He's determined to have another vintage Hall-of-Fame season at age 40.
- First baseman Lyle Overbay needs to show that the broken hand that sidelined him for six weeks in '07 is fully healed and that he's able to provide the Jays with the much-needed lefty power bat (in a predominantly righthanded lineup) he gave them in '06
