Another loss, another defeat to a division rival, and the Blue Jays are doing everything they can to turn off their fan-base. The Yankees are at a point this year where they’re supposed to be vulnerable, they’re supposed to lay over and die with their slew of injuries and yet that hasn’t happened. Somehow they’re winning and doing it with players you wouldn’t expect like Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, and Jayson Nix, Eduardo Nunez and others.
The Blue Jays on Wednesday managed to salvage a win in Baltimore to prevent being swept and perhaps gave us fans a chance to breathe and say, “Okay, we won that one. Now if we can just go to New York, maybe win 2 or 3 to show we’re not dead wood, maybe it’ll be the start of turning things around.” But NOOOO, it hasn’t happened.
The defence continues to struggle immensely whether its on wild pitches or passed balls like last night, or today with Rajai Davis’ brutal route on Travis Hafner’s triple in CF. It’s just not adding up to anything resembling a quality major league team.
Look we all knew Davis is supposed to be a 4th outfielder to spell guys here and there and to platoon with Lind at DH. However Davis was in CF today because Sabathia was the lefty on the mound, so Gibbons had Rajai in there instead of Rasmus who owns a .188/.188/.313 line against lefties this year in 16 AB’s. The thing is though that Rasmus has superior defence over Davis any day of the week and that resulting triple today brought that 5th and winning run across.
If anything else is plaguing the Blue Jays its the fact that players like Rasmus cannot handle full-time everyday duties due to his inability to adjust and hit left-handed pitchers subsequently resulting in poorer defence in CF when he’s not in there.
Clearly there’s a hole in Colby’s swing as well that Jack Morris pointed out today – he can’t handle the down and in slider – and therefore is being exploited by every pitcher in the league until he learns to adjust and shows that he can hit it.
Even for Jose Bautista, our star and team MVP is still batting under .200 and as the below video shows from last nights game, it seems like he can’t handle certain pitches either thereby failing to adapt his ‘home run’ approach when any hit will do to drive in runs.
Some food for thought, Bautista’s SO% is much higher than last year (23% compared to 15.8%) and the Jays as a whole are scoring on average 3.7 runs per game while allowing 5.1 runs. How many ways are there to express the word UGLY?
The pitching too obviously has been – how do I say it – exceedingly lacklustre and ineffective aside from a solid Janssen and Cecil in the pen and a few quality starts from the starting staff. However Buehrle yesterday and Happ today let the Yankees get right back in the games with poor pitch location, giving free passes and lacking the “bulldogness” to give their team a chance to get back into the dugout harm free.
On the whole, the Jays currently have the 3rd most walks allowed and the 3rd worst WHIP in all of MLB! That’s just not getting it done which is especially SO frustrating after what we thought we had in the offseason.
We’re almost done April here folks, and at the current 9-16 record, the Blue Jays sure have dug themselves a hole in the A.L. East that is going to be a B*%&^ to get out of. I’m not saying it can’t be done – they’re only (good God) 8 games out of 1st – but it’s going to take a winning streak and improved overall play over the long haul to get back into contention.
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Let’s face it; the month of June is crucial for the Jays where if they don’t have a winning month and make a good dent into the hole they’ve dug themselves, it ain’t going to be a pretty rest of the year. They’ll most likely sell off pieces like Josh Johnson, and Darren Oliver, etc. which undeniably would be a huge failure on the team’s part.
It may very well depend on which player has the best “mental toolbox”.
On Sunday, we heard that Brett Lawrie was playing 2B for Single-A Dunedin so the Jays can see how he looks at the bag in order to determine if he can indeed play the #4 position on the big league club. This move intrigued me quite a bit. I have no doubt that he could do it and make a successful transition considering how much of an athlete he is AND he started playing there in Milwaukee’s system when he was first signed as a draftee.
