Jim Turner: The season is just about upon us, so just how many wins can we expect from these revamped Blue Jays?

Sean won the prize as our resident psychic last season, predicting 80.

Joel Williams: With all the moves the suddenly free-spending, money-ball eschewing Blue Jays made this off season hopes have risen around the city. Everyone is excited about the prospects for the Jays this year. And why not?

Well for one thing, they're not going to make the playoffs.

Indeed, the Jays were the big winners of the off season. But they're still not good enough to take even the wild card. (Maybe if they were in the National League - anywhere in that second-rate league - they'd have a shot to win the division, never mind wild card.) A lot would have to go right with this team: no one gets injured, Ted Lilly and Lyle Overbay rebound, the young middle infield continues to improve, Gibby finds a way to make his platoon "outfield" work, Chacin duplicates his wins.. etc etc. And then a lot would have to wrong with the other 9 AL teams who all have a legit shot at the playoffs.

I'll play the odds and say the Jays finish with 89 wins: An improvement over last year, to be sure. But, sadly, not enough to win anything.

Christopher James: I don't think Boston is good enough, I don't think New York is good enough. I don't like Youkilis and Lowell on the corners or a rotation of Schilling, Wells, Clement, Beckett and Wakefield. Too iffy at the top, too mediocre at the bottom.

I don't like NY's lack of depth if injuries hit, or a rotation of Mussina, Johnson, Chacon, Wang, Pavano. Too injury prone, too old. The Jays have some questions coming into the season, but their core is young, and if injuries strike, we have an extra third baseman in the outfield, seventeen extra first basemen, and a bit of depth at SP.

A lot has to go right for the Jays to be a top team in the East, but when isn't that the case? They grabbed a legit #2 starter, a legit #1 catcher, a legit closer and a legit power threat. I hear a lot of "a lot of moves, but not the right moves," but I think that's crap. I think Hill will be a hair worse on defence than the best defensive 2B in the game, which isn't bad at all, and will have an OBP higher than .300. Adams will get better, Chacin has a new mentor in Molina, and if Towers ends up 13-13, it will look better with a legit #2 starter with 16 wins.

I see the Jays winning 93 games, 2 up on the Yanks and 6 up on Boston. I see them winning the division, and facing a tough Oakland team in the first round. I see Cleveland vs Anaheim in the other Division Series, and the Jays losing to Cleveland in the ALCS. In the NL I see the Mets being upset by the Brewers and the Cards beating the Giants. WS Cleveland beats the Cards in 7.

Sean Doyle:Based on their runs scored and runs allowed, the Blue Jays deserved to win about eight to nine games more than they did. So how did a team with enough firepower to win 89 games end up with only 80? Was it chemistry, or a lack of clutchness (clutching? clutch-hood?) or a bad bullpen, or a bad manager? Thankfully no. For the most part, teams that underform based on their run totals tend to rebound, since its mostly bad luck at work. The odds are against luck lasting too long, whether its good or bad.

That's the good news.

Although the Jays scored more runs than they allowed, if you add up their hits, walks, home runs and such it seems they were very lucky to score as many runs as they did. Teams that overachieve in this way tend to fall back to Earth; the odds are against luck lasting too long, whether its good or bad.

That's the bad news.

So what kind of team did the Jays really have? And how much did they improve it during the off-season? My guess is that the Jays true level of play last year was neither as good nor as bad as their record or run differential would suggest. Despite my pre-season prediction of 80 wins last year (hooray!) they were probably more like a 84-win team.

What has changed? In the lineup, for all the activity, not much. Hudson and a half-season of Koskie are replaced by Glaus and a full season of Hill. Molina takes most of the catcher at-bats from Zaun, and Hinske cuts into Rios' playing time. Glaus gives the Jays a Big Scary Guy, something they missed sorely last year. As for the rest of the lineup, some of the new guys will succeed, some won't, some returning players will improve, some will flatline like Alex Gonzalez. At least one hitter will break out, and one will probably be out for the year. Also it will get warmer in the summer and dark each night.

Brave predictions, I know, but my point is that this group of Jays hitters will be one Glaus better than last years', but overall we can expect an offense that is about league-average, and about the same as last year's lucky-to-score-as-much-as-they-did squad.

Most of the praise/guarded optimism/mockery (I'm looking at you Baseball Prospectus) comes on the run prevention side of the game. Despite losing Hudson's truly great fielding, the Jays' defense is still solid in most places. By most counts, Russ Adams was a liability last year, and if he can play like a league-average shortstop this will largely make up for Hudson's loss (defense is tough to measure, but he cost about as many runs at shortstop as Hudson saved at second).

On the pitching side, the Jays hope to enjoy a full season of Roy Halladay, who would earn the Jays four or five wins more by not getting his leg broken again. Burnett replaces Dave Bush in the rotation, which is worth a couple of wins, but both Chacin and Towers can be expected to regress a little from their fine work last year. Nothing against either of them, they'll both still be good, but it's not realistic to expect 412 innings of 3.71 ERA from the pair of them.

So after all the moves of the year, it comes down to this: if Glaus and Halladay both produce like they can they'll reach 90 wins. Not enough to win this year, but enough to be a lot of fun to watch.

JT: The Yankees will still score a ton of runs, but Randy Johnson is 73 years old, Mussina is in decline and Pavano is overrated. No Flash Gordon in the pen this year, and Mariano Rivera can't be that good again, right? Right? I also expect to hear Johnny Damon booed lustily in the Bronx before the year is out. Boston is vulnerable, too. Curt Schilling is a MUCH larger question mark than Roy Halladay, but people continue to harp about Halladay as though he's fragile. He suffered a FREAK injury. So long as he can avoid the line drives, he'll be completing games and racking up more than 230 innings. Meanwhile, if Schilling's ankle doesn't get him, his age might.

Boston's offense is still potent, with Big Papi and Manny driving in 500 runs and Varitek among the best at his position, but Lowell and Gonzalez could be offensive black holes, and whither Keith Foulke?

So for as many questions as the Jays have, and you're always mindful of the health of expensive pitchers, it strikes me that the Yankees and Sox have just as many. Of course, they also have a much bigger warchest to upgrade midseason. You never know who will end up in the Yankees lineup or rotation in June.

I think the Jays' new additions will all manage to stay healthy, and fairly productive - though look for Molina to decline. Where the Jays have room for tremendous improvement is in their young players, specifically Rios, Adams and Hill. It's a pretty safe bet that Mark Loretta is not suddenly going to bust out with 25 home runs. Alex Rios might. I look for two of Hill, Adams and Rios to have vastly better seasons than 2005. Add it all up, and let's go for the gusto and say 94 wins. Post season, here we come.