There were a few story lines around yesterday's win that I could have featured in the headline. I went with the Jays win despite the "future of the franchise" riding the pine. Adam Lind; Aaron Hill and Travis Snider have all been struggling and John Farrell elected to give them some down time. I could have gone with how the West Coast trip has been the ruin of many a young teams dream but I didn't. These west coast trips are tough and a 2-4 record shows that. There is also a redemption angle, after blowing a lead on Monday the Jays capitalize on Seattle blowing a lead yesterday. Chris Ray, really, in a one run game?
Some thoughts on recent events:
Jose Bautista had the big hit yesterday. But as I was following the game on my phone on the way home from work I saw this beside Jose's name: 2HR; 2 RBI. Before yesterday Bautista had two RBI's, both on solo home runs. Jose is hitting over .350 but he hadn't been driving in runs. I believe Jose is getting used to how he is being pitched to in 2011. Mostly he is seeing a steady diet of breaking balls, it was a hanging breaking ball that he jacked his home run off yesterday. Jose is trying not to swing at too many of the breaking balls and as a result he has ten walks this season. But from time to time a pitcher will throw a fastball, usually when it is not expected, and Bautista has been missing them. Because he is expecting a breaking ball he is fractionally late on the fastball. I think he will adapt as the season progresses but this adaption is a constant theme for break out guys. Aaron Hill doesn't see too many inside fastballs since he hit 30 bombs a few years ago.
Quick question, Jose's SLG this season is 618. That is fifth on the Jays. Name the four players ahead of him. Answers below.
This brings me to issue number 2. Remember in the spring when Adam Lind had a new swing; when Travis Snider was going to have a break-out season; and Aaron Hill was also going to bounce back? It's not quite going to plan, is it. I know it's early days so keep throwing those guys out there but this is a big year for these three to establish themselves as "the future".
Courtesy of Mike Wilner for the idea, Jayson Nix played 434 innings at 3B last season and made 16 errors. Edwin Encarnacion played 841 innings and made 18 errors. Nix has made a couple in the last two days so watch out.
JP Arencibia has played much better than expected both on offense and defense. JPA has four walks and seven K's so far. That is better than expected plus his OPS of 1110. He is very good at using the whole field to hit.
The Jays are +17 in runs, second only to Texas in the AL. Based on pythagoras the Jays would be in first place in the AL East. But their record in one run games is 2-5, and that is pulling them down right now.
Kyle Drabek has shown the ability to win when he is not at his best. Yesterday he was wild, something we saw in 2010.
Here are his stats from Brooks Baseball:
| Pitch Type | Avg Speed | Max Speed | Avg H-Break | Avg V-Break | Count | Strikes / % | Swinging Strikes / % | Linear Weights | Time to Plate |
| FF (FourSeam Fastball) | 92.05 | 94.8 | -2.25 | 6.21 | 24 | 14 / 58.33% | 1 / 4.17% | -0.2303 | 0.413 |
| CU (Curveball) | 82.95 | 89.9 | -0.24 | -4.19 | 14 | 7 / 50.00% | 1 / 7.14% | 0.7819 | 0.458 |
| FC (Cutter) | 90.27 | 92.1 | 1.33 | 3.56 | 10 | 3 / 30.00% | 1 / 10.00% | -0.0424 | 0.419 |
| FT (TwoSeam Fastball) | 92.53 | 94.9 | -6.37 | 4.08 | 66 | 35 / 53.03% | 6 / 9.09% | 1.2652 | 0.411 |
| Pitch classifications provided by the Gameday Algorithm and may be inaccurate. | |||||||||
Drabek threw 90 fastballs out of 114 pitches. His strike percentage was barely over 50%. I assume he threw so many fastballs because he was behind in the count so much. Drabek had nine swinging strikes yesterday. Drabek's cutter was his best pitch in his first start of 2011 but he is dropping it because he can't control it. He needs that cutter against some of the lefty heavy teams like New York and Boston.
The Jays head into Boston for four games, including the patriots day game Monday midday. In the first three games the Jays roll out Brett Cecil; Jo-Jo Reyes; and Jesse Litsch, each one pitching with thoughts of Brandon Morrow in their minds. Morrow will make one more Dunedin start, on Sunday. With an off-day on Thursday the Jays can slot Morrow into the rotation next weekend and one of these three will be out of luck. Boston are reeling at the moment but having to face three pitchers who are not on top of their games in the first three conests of the series could be just what the doctor ordered. It will be an interesting weekend.
The answer to my question is JPA, Jose Molina, Yunel Escobar and Corey Patterson.
What else is going on?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110414105111443