The Jays pummelled the Pawtucket pitching staff yesterday, and took
advantage of some... unorthodox outfield play courtesy of Kevin
Youkilis and Wily Mo Pena. They now stand just half a game out of
second place...
One shouldn't be too hard on the PawSox hurlers. If Manny Ramirez had been able to play the field, it would have been a Huge Defensive Upgrade. This says far too much than anyone really wants to know about the outfield stylings of Messrs Youkilis and Pena. Youkilis, to be sure, doesn't normally even pretend to be an outfielder, and twice was fooled by line drives that probably disappeared into a bank of lights. But Pena... I am reminded of the immortal words of Graig Nettles:
It's not that Reggie is a bad outfielder. He just has a little trouble judging the ball, and picking it up.
The great and wise Dave Till was writing about plate mannerisms the other day, so naturally I was giving it close attention these past two days. Adam Lind's march straight through the opposite batter's box is indeed unusual - everybody else passes behind the umpire and catcher en route to their destination.
Otherwise, Lind struck me as fairly standard for a modern ballplayer - quite a bit like Frank Catalanotto, in fact. He straightens up and takes a step back after each pitch, but generally stays more or less in the batter's box. Lyle Overbay is much more likely to back out completely, as is Gregg Zaun.
Zaun is the only Blue Jay I noticed who did even one practise swing in the midst of the at bat - on Saturday, he backed out, took a full practise swing and stepped back in. No one does this anymore. Those of you who remember John Olerud will fondly recall how Olerud would step out of the box, take two quick and elegant practise swings, and then step back in, doing that little tap to the front of his shoulder with his bat that he did before every pitch.
No practise swings! Weird.
And everybody steps out after they hit a foul ball.
The biggest Blue Jay timewaster is, of course, Reed Johnson. Sparky, as everyone knows, sets up his tripod and fiddles with his gloves. To his credit, Johnson is actually very quick with his whole routine (rather like Garciaparra, in this sense.) Reed can step out, lean his bat against his cup, fiddle with his gloves, step back in and the pitcher still hasn't toed the rubber. It's not like Frank Menechino - the Mouse, you may remember, didn't just step out of the box between pitches - he stepped right off the dirt cutout, and regularly wandered halfway to the on-deck circle.
The Blue Jay who messes around less than anyone is Russ Adams. He settles his back (left) foot in at the back of the batter's box, and will leave it there for multiple pitches. He may step back with his other foot, but his left foot stays in place - not for the whole at bat, but generally for two to three pitches, at which point he feels compelled to kick the spot a few times before settling in again. (By the way, Russ had a nice game yesterday with a walk and a double, and a quality at bat even though he struck out. He made two very fine double play turns, with runners bearing down on him. It's about bloody time, is all we can say at this point.)
Alex Rios and Troy Glaus are both pretty brisk and business-like in the box as well - they don't step out much, they don't wander, they're ready to hit. Alex went for a few walks on Saturday, but that was during the awful at bat where he lined pitches off both feet...
And Vernon Wells is by far the most animated man in the batter's box. He stretches, he plays with the bat, he checks his swing and takes a few steps towards the pitcher, he yaks it up with Varitek... he's fun to watch.
Speaking of Vernon - the three runs he drove in gave him 500 in his fairly brief career, all of which has been spent with the Blue Jays. Wells is now cracking into the franchise all-time leader boards - he stands 9th in runs scored, hits, and doubles, and he's moved all the way up to 6th in home runs (this year, he passed Upshaw, Sprague, Gruber, Green, Cruz, McGriff, and Whitt.) He is the 8th man to drive in 500 runs in a Toronto uniform, and if he's still with us next year he's certain to go by Ernie Whitt and Jesse Barfield, and maybe take a run at Tony Fernandez (613 RBI as a Blue Jay.)
Needless to say, none of the other current hitters are anywhere in sight - Reed Johnson and Frank Catalanotto are both lurking in the high 20s in categories like games and hits... Reed Johnson, however, has now been hit by a pitch more often than any Toronto Blue Jay (69 times) except Carlos Delgado (122 times). Maybe that tripod does irritate the pitchers...
As for the pitchers... Roy Halladay started the year 5th in franchise wins, and that's where he stays. He needs 12 wins to catch Pat Hentgen, and 21 to catch Jimmy Key. Dave Stieb is still 80 victories away. He also didn't move by anyone on the strikeouts leader board - he's still in sixth place, although he just needs to fan two more hitters to catch Jimmy Key. Doc passed the immortal Jesse Jefferson to take over 8th spot all-time in Complete Games, but remains stuck on 8 career shutouts, fifth place overall, one behind Pat Hentgen. His 220 IP this season moved him past Stottlemyre, Wells, and Guzman into fifth place on the franchise leader board, and he slipped past Stottlemyre to claim sixth place in Games Started.
And B.J. Ryan needs one more save to tie Miguel Batista for sixth place in franchise history. That was quick...
Still a few things to settle this week. Detroit and Minnesota have to figure out who wins the division, and who's going to Yankee Stadium. Both teams are at home all week, and Minnesota is the best home team in the major leagues. Both teams have the Kansas City Royals coming to town. The Twins also have an extra game to play, and it's also against Kansas City. The Tigers have three games with Toronto, who are playing to finish second; the Twins have three games with the White Sox, who probably want to get it over with and go home. Detroit does have a one-game cushion.
The three NL contenders are all on the road. The Padres hold a narrow lead atop the NL West, and they're visiting St Louis and Arizona, neither of whom have much to play for. Philadelphia has one game with Houston before they visit Washington and Florida; the Dodgers have to go to Colorado and San Francisco. I think this is not coming together to do the Dodgers any favours. And if Philadelphia does end up with the Wild Card, I promise you that Ryan Howard will be the NL MVP this year.
One shouldn't be too hard on the PawSox hurlers. If Manny Ramirez had been able to play the field, it would have been a Huge Defensive Upgrade. This says far too much than anyone really wants to know about the outfield stylings of Messrs Youkilis and Pena. Youkilis, to be sure, doesn't normally even pretend to be an outfielder, and twice was fooled by line drives that probably disappeared into a bank of lights. But Pena... I am reminded of the immortal words of Graig Nettles:
It's not that Reggie is a bad outfielder. He just has a little trouble judging the ball, and picking it up.
The great and wise Dave Till was writing about plate mannerisms the other day, so naturally I was giving it close attention these past two days. Adam Lind's march straight through the opposite batter's box is indeed unusual - everybody else passes behind the umpire and catcher en route to their destination.
Otherwise, Lind struck me as fairly standard for a modern ballplayer - quite a bit like Frank Catalanotto, in fact. He straightens up and takes a step back after each pitch, but generally stays more or less in the batter's box. Lyle Overbay is much more likely to back out completely, as is Gregg Zaun.
Zaun is the only Blue Jay I noticed who did even one practise swing in the midst of the at bat - on Saturday, he backed out, took a full practise swing and stepped back in. No one does this anymore. Those of you who remember John Olerud will fondly recall how Olerud would step out of the box, take two quick and elegant practise swings, and then step back in, doing that little tap to the front of his shoulder with his bat that he did before every pitch.
No practise swings! Weird.
And everybody steps out after they hit a foul ball.
The biggest Blue Jay timewaster is, of course, Reed Johnson. Sparky, as everyone knows, sets up his tripod and fiddles with his gloves. To his credit, Johnson is actually very quick with his whole routine (rather like Garciaparra, in this sense.) Reed can step out, lean his bat against his cup, fiddle with his gloves, step back in and the pitcher still hasn't toed the rubber. It's not like Frank Menechino - the Mouse, you may remember, didn't just step out of the box between pitches - he stepped right off the dirt cutout, and regularly wandered halfway to the on-deck circle.
The Blue Jay who messes around less than anyone is Russ Adams. He settles his back (left) foot in at the back of the batter's box, and will leave it there for multiple pitches. He may step back with his other foot, but his left foot stays in place - not for the whole at bat, but generally for two to three pitches, at which point he feels compelled to kick the spot a few times before settling in again. (By the way, Russ had a nice game yesterday with a walk and a double, and a quality at bat even though he struck out. He made two very fine double play turns, with runners bearing down on him. It's about bloody time, is all we can say at this point.)
Alex Rios and Troy Glaus are both pretty brisk and business-like in the box as well - they don't step out much, they don't wander, they're ready to hit. Alex went for a few walks on Saturday, but that was during the awful at bat where he lined pitches off both feet...
And Vernon Wells is by far the most animated man in the batter's box. He stretches, he plays with the bat, he checks his swing and takes a few steps towards the pitcher, he yaks it up with Varitek... he's fun to watch.
Speaking of Vernon - the three runs he drove in gave him 500 in his fairly brief career, all of which has been spent with the Blue Jays. Wells is now cracking into the franchise all-time leader boards - he stands 9th in runs scored, hits, and doubles, and he's moved all the way up to 6th in home runs (this year, he passed Upshaw, Sprague, Gruber, Green, Cruz, McGriff, and Whitt.) He is the 8th man to drive in 500 runs in a Toronto uniform, and if he's still with us next year he's certain to go by Ernie Whitt and Jesse Barfield, and maybe take a run at Tony Fernandez (613 RBI as a Blue Jay.)
Needless to say, none of the other current hitters are anywhere in sight - Reed Johnson and Frank Catalanotto are both lurking in the high 20s in categories like games and hits... Reed Johnson, however, has now been hit by a pitch more often than any Toronto Blue Jay (69 times) except Carlos Delgado (122 times). Maybe that tripod does irritate the pitchers...
As for the pitchers... Roy Halladay started the year 5th in franchise wins, and that's where he stays. He needs 12 wins to catch Pat Hentgen, and 21 to catch Jimmy Key. Dave Stieb is still 80 victories away. He also didn't move by anyone on the strikeouts leader board - he's still in sixth place, although he just needs to fan two more hitters to catch Jimmy Key. Doc passed the immortal Jesse Jefferson to take over 8th spot all-time in Complete Games, but remains stuck on 8 career shutouts, fifth place overall, one behind Pat Hentgen. His 220 IP this season moved him past Stottlemyre, Wells, and Guzman into fifth place on the franchise leader board, and he slipped past Stottlemyre to claim sixth place in Games Started.
And B.J. Ryan needs one more save to tie Miguel Batista for sixth place in franchise history. That was quick...
Still a few things to settle this week. Detroit and Minnesota have to figure out who wins the division, and who's going to Yankee Stadium. Both teams are at home all week, and Minnesota is the best home team in the major leagues. Both teams have the Kansas City Royals coming to town. The Twins also have an extra game to play, and it's also against Kansas City. The Tigers have three games with Toronto, who are playing to finish second; the Twins have three games with the White Sox, who probably want to get it over with and go home. Detroit does have a one-game cushion.
The three NL contenders are all on the road. The Padres hold a narrow lead atop the NL West, and they're visiting St Louis and Arizona, neither of whom have much to play for. Philadelphia has one game with Houston before they visit Washington and Florida; the Dodgers have to go to Colorado and San Francisco. I think this is not coming together to do the Dodgers any favours. And if Philadelphia does end up with the Wild Card, I promise you that Ryan Howard will be the NL MVP this year.
