Here's my first impressions of (most of) the 2006 Blue Jays.
Thomas Boswell, the Washington-based sportswriter, once wrote that you should never judge a ballplayer in a unit of time shorter than a month. On the other hand, the theme of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is that first impressions are often more valuable than carefully-reasoned opinions. So there. Given this hypothesis, here is my $.02 on the Jays so far. (If I've left anybody out, it's because I couldn't think of anything interesting to say about him. Not everyone is fated to lead an exciting life.)
Lyle Overbay
His timing mechanism at the plate actually closely resembles Tony Batista's. Overbay doesn't face the pitcher like Tony B does, but he steps into his batting stance in much the same way. I can see why he is compared to Olerud - he tends to inside-out the ball, and he's not exactly obtrusive out there. Like Johnny O, he's quietly effective. I predict we won't hear much about him this season.
Aaron Hill
At this point, it's a wash. Hill isn't as stylish at second as the O-Dog was, but he's got tremendous lateral range, especially to his right, and a very strong arm. He'll get better at keystone-specific skills such as pivoting. At the plate, both Hill and Hudson are struggling, and I like Hill's chances of improving better.
Russ Adams
Despite his plate discipline, he's only drawn two walks so far. The moral: to draw a walk, you need help - the pitcher has to throw four balls outside the strike zone. Adams isn't intimidating enough at the plate for pitchers to fear challenging him. I still like him at short, but he hasn't done much so far.
Troy Glaus
Good Lord. Sometimes, athletes look like ordinary guys who happen to have extraordinary reflexes, but this guy has wandered in from another planet or something. He's about 50% larger than most humans, especially in the legs; his bat looks like a tiny sapling in his hands. This would be extraordinary enough if Glaus was slow and stodgy, but he's not: he's athletic enough to charge bunts and field them one-handed, he runs well, and he can even steal a base now and again. A question for the Arizona front office: why on earth did you trade this guy? Sure, there's the salary, yadda yadda, and health issues, yadda yadda - but this guy is worth about 2 1/2 Hudsons or 3 1/2 Batistas. You don't win by trading players like this away.
John McDonald
"In case of a fielding emergency, break glass."
Shea Hillenbrand
I fear that no one is going to listen to any of his complaints until he starts hitting more than .214. Compare Shea to Zaun, who lost almost all of his job, and has reacted by whacking the tar out of the baseball at every available opportunity. So much for the "hits well in April" theory - it's too early to give up on him yet, though.
Gregg Zaun
I feel better because this man is on the team I root for. I think I've said this before, but: if a Martian were to land on earth and demand to see what a typical Earthling baseball player looked and acted like, I'd take the alien to see Zaun. Mr. Going Going not only has the attitude (in a positive sense) and the ability of a baseball player - he is articulate and intelligent enough to keep the alien from zapping us into extinction. Good luck, Gregg: the fate of civilization is in your hands.
Bengie Molina
Well, he sure can hit a changeup when thrown by a lefthander. But he's looked bad trying to throw runners out, and wow is he slow. Before Bengie's arrival, I'd never seen anyone nearly get thrown out at second on a ball hit into the right field corner. That's not slow, that's glacial. (I can almost run that fast, and I'm nearly 46.) I still like the signing, but there's a chance that Zaun may get his job back before the season's over.
Reed Johnson
In the immortal words of the Talking Heads: "Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was." Isn't it good to know that, in the topsy-turvy world we live in, there are some things we can rely on?
Vernon Wells
I don't know whether it is because playing for Team USA got his timing going early, or whether he's been liberated by having actual power hitters in the lineup. But Wells has been hitting like a man who has been fettered and is now set free. Why do people challenge this man with their best fastballs?
Alex Rios
I still think he might be succeeding precisely because of the way he's being used: he's only facing pitchers he's more likely to hit, so he's hitting, so he builds more confidence, so he hits more, and so on and so on. I'm pleased as punch to see how he has improved - especially how he is turning on fast balls over the plate and redirecting them to points yonder - but if it's not broken, let's not try to fix it.
Eric Hinske
He's hitting .375, you know. He's not bringing a balsawood bat up there.
Frank Catalanotto
He seems like he's been having a quiet spring - but I took a look, and his on-base percentage is .552. Like, whoa. And Sparky's is .577. Like, double whoa. This platooning, it is a good strategy, no?
Jason Phillips
Someone with shades this cool deserves a major-league job.
Roy Halladay
The moral: when you invest a billion jillion dollars in the fragile arm of a pitcher, you're going to make double-dog sure that this arm is in tip-top shape at all times. Every tweak he suffers fills me with the sort of nameless dread only normally encountered when contemplating the Infinite Void.
A.J. Burnett
There's more than one way to win. Halladay is a successful pitcher because he throws a variety of guided missiles that branch off in various and sundry directions. Burnett seems to have a simpler approach: fastballs up, curveballs down. It's simpler but effective: Ron Guidry conquered the world with two pitches like this. Burnett doesn't seem to quite have complete control of his arsenal just yet, but he would have had six shutout innings in his first outing if the ump had rung Thome up like he was supposed to. (Bear down, Blue - you're missing a great game!)
Josh Towers
The problem is obvious: when you need pinpoint control to survive, you're in trouble if you don't have it. This problem will resolve itself - either he'll find his control, or he'll lose his job to Scott Downs.
Gus Chacin
Seems to have picked up right where he left off: his pitches still dive into right-handed hitters, and they still can't hit them. At least some of the time.
Ted Lilly
At this exact moment, no one on the planet Earth has any idea how Lilly will do in his next start. You don't. I don't. John Gibbons doesn't. Ted Lilly doesn't. Even the Baseball Gods themselves shake their heads when presented with the sight of the Immortal Mr. Tease on the mound. I predict, though, that it will all average out, and future generations will think of him as having had a quietly effective season as a mid-level starter - since, by then, all the Pepto-Bismol bottles will have long since been thrown out or recycled.
Scott Schoeneweis
Pop quiz: name the left-handed Blue Jays reliever, signed as a free agent, who has overwhelmed opposition batters so completely that they have yet to get even one measly hit off him. Your first guess is wrong: the correct answer is Schoeneweis. (Ryan has allowed a hit already, the bum.) He won't keep this up, of course, but what a start.
B.J. Ryan
Good Lord, Part II. This guy's breaking pitch starts at a hitter's hip bone and darts to the outside corner of the plate. No lefthander in the world can hit that. And, if that doesn't work, he seems to be able to throw some serious gas up there. At this point, I only rate Henke and Ward ahead of this guy.
Everybody Else In The Bullpen
Some days, you eat the bear. Some days, the bear eats you.
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