Keira

MW: I’d prefer him hitting first, but sure.

Well, that’s certainly true in the case of the Blue Jays; in fact you can’t have a contender ANY year – since 2000. I really think Jays’ fans have been condidtioned to have low expectations since the glory days. There doesn’t seem to be much talk of World Series aspirations, pennannt dreams, or even divisional or wildcard accomplishments. But there seems a crying need for “meaningful baseball in September” (NOT last year’s chimera: “if the Red Sox lose ten of their last twelve games…” sort of thing.
As J.P. grinds into his eighth year of unfulfilled ambitions we are being told that 2010 is the year things will finally change – Right! I don’t think J.P is a “laughingstock” or “incompetent”, but I think he should have been let go after 2007, because using injuries to the likes of players like Johnson (released before the next season), Zaun (benched – finally), and Overbay (“Hey, he had a good year in 2006″) was unforgivable.
Unfortunately, after years of embarrassment, the Rays have developed into an impressive young team, and while I doubt if they’ll win the division this year I can see them being contenders for the immediate future, while the Yankees flounder, but tread water because of their massive payroll.
J.P.’s legacy – assuming he EVER leaves – will be to have taken a third place team and turned it into a fourth place one. Needless to say he will never get another job as a general manager in the major leagues…

MW: I seem to remember there being a lot more long-term injuries to key players in 2007 than Johnson, Zaun and Overbay. Weren’t Hill and Rios the only regulars who stayed healthy all year? And yeah, the only thing Overbay has ever done in the majors is have a good 2006.

MW: Why would you assume that?

MW: I don’t know. Did you?

Dude, it’s a sports blog, thank your lucky stars I used punctuation at all ;-)

MW: I should thank my lucky stars that you used punctuation incorrectly?

MW: See above.

Well not too many teams have two different lead off guys. And Scutaro’s LHP splits are better than Overbay. Scutaro was .343/.338 against R/L last year, Overbay was .384/.285 and .378/.315 for his career.

MW: It’s a shaky argument that “not too many teams have two different lead off guys.”

Just a further comment on post #63 — even if it were correct to say “RsBI” (which I agree is quite ridiculous), it would not be correct to have an “apostrophe” in it. The “Runs” do not own the “Batted Ins”!

MW: Yes!!!

Where was that pride when “last year was happening”.

MW: R’s BI? I hate when people say that. It’s RBIs. An RBI is its own thing, it’s not an R.B.I., even though it’s an abbreviation.

Do you allow “runs batted in” or is it “run batted in”s. Whatever rolls of the tongue best is what eventually gets used. So when you pluralize the written out version “run” get pluralized. When you pluralize the abbreviation you get RBIs or ribbies. Not sure you really need to pluralize it at all. Who lead the Blue Jays in RBI or HR should be adequate.

MW: I prefer to use RBIs, myself.