The Jays had the day off yesterday, but it has been 2 weeks since the last bullpen report, so it's that time again. No rest for the weary.
This being the 5th bullpen report, a summary seems in order. Here are the first 4 reports: v.1, v.2, v.3, and v.4.
Without further ado, the chart for the last 2 weeks:
May 27-June 9
(entrance inning/batters faced/opp. GPA)
date Batista Speier Frasor Downs Schoen Chulk Walker
Ma 27 6.0/4 7.0/4 8.0/3
.175 .113 .233
Ma 28 8.0/3 4.2/10
.000 .000
Ma 29------------------another Doc complete game----------
Ma 30 6.2/6 4.2/7
.150 .1
Ma 31 8.0/4 7.0/7 5.0/9 8.0/4
.238 .436 .128 .783
Ju 01 7.2/1
.000
Ju 02 7.0/4 4.1/9
.175 .105
Ju 03 8.0/5 7.0/4
.243 .175
Ju 04 7.0/4 6.0/3
.363 .000
Ju 05 7.0/5 6.0/4 1.0/12 5.0/3 3.0/6
.243 .175 .513 .233 .000
Ju 06 8.0/4 7.0/4
.350 .363
Ju 07 8.0/3 7.1/3 6.2/2 5.1/9
.000 .483 .000 .375
Ju 08 7.0/3
.000
Ju 09------------------day off------------------------------
Each member of the bullpen now has a defined role: the closer (Batista), the set-up men (Frasor, Speier and Chulk), the LOOGY (Schoeneweis) and the left-handed (Downs) and right-handed (Walker) long men. Let's take a brief look at Batista, Frasor and Speier, with the help of THT's detailed statistics. We'll catch the others next time.
Miguel Batista
John Gibbons has stuck very closely to the modern closer role in using Batista. He has come out almost always for one inning of work. Five times Batista has come on with two outs in the eighth to finish the game, but otherwise it's been nothing but short stints. Batista is on pace to pitch 70 innings this year, an average number for a closer.
Batista has taken advantage of the improved Jay defence to be successful. He is striking out just over 1 per 2 innings of work, but walking many fewer than last year. He has not allowed a homer this season. The defence has responded by turning almost 77% of balls in play into outs.
Jason Frasor
Like Batista, Frasor has usually pitched short stints. Most often, it has been an inning or less, and only once has he thrown more than an inning and a third. In over half of his appearances, he enters in the eighth inning. He is on pace to pitch 67 innings this year, a modest workload for a set-up man.
Frasor has pitched adequately this season. His control has not been as sharp as would be ideal, with about 1 walk every 2 innings of work, but all other aspects of his game have been fine.
Justin Speier
Prior to spring training, Speier was the presumptive closer on the club. The team converted Batista into the role in March, and made Speier into the primary set-up man. Whether it was due to diminished confidence or some other reason, Speier struggled mightily in April. John Gibbons responded by moving him into a lower leverage role, and Speier pitched well in May. In June, he has been brought into more important situations. He has almost always pitched an inning or less in his appearances, and is on pace to throw 51 innings this season.
Speier has struck out few, less than 4 per 9 innings, walked very few and given up more long-balls than you would like. He's a flyball pitcher, and the Jay outfield defence has done a nice job of turning the great majority of the balls in the air off him into outs. He will need to miss a few more bats to be successful over the season.
