Yesterday we probed into very specific Blue Jay questions.  Today we look at the big picture, wins, expectations and attendance.

As many of you have doubtless noticed, our old chum and Bauxite Emeritus Craig Burley posted a piece on the Jays over at The Hardball Times that might be described - well, that can only be described - as a venomous screed:

Thursday saw the AAA and AA teams playing at home again.  There was a Jesse Litsch sighting.  And Tim Collins looked good.

Now that we have covered all the divisions and the other four teams in the AL East it is time to turn our attention to the home team, the Blue Jays.  Our roundtable of prognosticators have opined on many topics.  Feel free to add your two cents.

I am in Dunedin and I spent the day at the minor league complex.  The teams for the regular season have not yet been selected but I did see two games at the same time.  In the morning all four diamonds were busy with workouts and batting practice.  In the afternoon the AAA and AA teams played the Phillies.

Let's be clear. The Yankees are going to win a lot of baseball games this year. Why? Because the Yankees always win a lot of games, whether they're winning the World Series (as they did last year and have done five times since 1996) or even when they're not making the playoffs (as they didn't in 2008, for the first time since 1993 -- years in which they won 89 and 88 games, respectively).

So they'll win a lot of games. Will they win the franchise's 28th (twenty-eighth!) ring? Let's examine the makeup of Bronx Zoo '10 from a slightly different historical angle ...

Bluejays.com's Jordan Bastian says Jays lefty Marc Rzepczynski suffered a injury to his pitching hand thanks to a comebacker off the bat of Yankees second baseman Ramiro Pena Monday night.  Even though the injury does not appear to be serious, the 24 year-old hurler may have seen his chance to make the big club out of spring training go down the drain as he surrendered five runs in 4 2/3 innings during a 5-3 loss to the Bronx Bombers in Tampa.

Between 1910 and 1919, Boston played .579 ball, only finished under .500 once, and went 4/4 in their World Series appearances. A century later, are the Red Sox poised for another "Boston Teen Party"?

Help me, help you, help everyone:

http://www.tangotiger.net/survey/

Carpe Diem.

This is my third year penning previews at Batter's Box and my third year musing about the Orioles.  It hasn't been fun, folks- but I feel as though I'm growing up with this team- one crappy season after another.  But there may be hope yet. 

In Surprise news, the Royals still suck.

One week from today is the Jays last pre-season game.  From this point on Cito intends on playing the regulars more and more to get ready for the real games.  Cito also announced that Jason Frasor is his likely closer.

The Jays got off to a fast start in the spring but the results have been rockier recently.  Shaun Marcum celebrated his being named as the opening day starter by giving up nine runs yesterday and Brian Tallet and Marc Rzepczynski have been getting hit around too.  Brandon Morrow, Dustin McGowan, Jesse Carlson, Edwin Encarnacion and Lyle Overbey are battling injuries.

But these games don't count right?

The AL West was the best division in baseball last season with an average of 86 wins per team.  The Angels won the division by ten games for their sixth consecutive win. The last time the Angels did not win the division was 2003 when Oakland won 96 games and Anaheim had a losing record.

As we turn our thoughts to the 2010 edition, let's start setting the context. Yup, it's Data Table time.