Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Gose and Lind are Notable on a Light Day

Gose and Lind are Notable on a Light Day

Only two games on the docket and Las Vegas were the only winners. New Hampshire were rained out and Lansing had a scheduled day-off. Reportedly Adam Lind is on waivers which expire today. Teams that were interested in him have had three games to get a good look at him before the deadline. Lind had two more hits last night.

Nashville 3 Las Vegas 10

Las Vegas took a 3-0 lead in the second inning when 4 straight singles by the first four hitters of the inning put them on the board. Travis d'Arnaud, Adam Lind, Moises Sierra and Ricardo Nanita were the singlers. The 51's added a pair in the fifth, newly promoted Jon Diaz singled and Anthony Gose doubled and later scored. Las Vegas capped it off with five runs in the seventh in an inning that started walk, error, walk, error. Adam Lind had the only hit in the inning. Lind and Gose had two hits each. Gose's OPs for May is at 940 and his K rate is just 20%, that's a big improvement for him.

Jesse Chavez was roughed up a bit last time out and in this game he was a bit better. He only lasted five innings and gave up two runs on eight hits. Chavez seems to have cooled down a bit after his hot start.

Portland at New Hampshire - Postponed

Jupiter 3 Dunedin 0

Not much to this game except for the 2000 screaming kids. The Jays had only three hits while Jupiter had tens hits to score three runs. Jupiter took a one run lead in the first and scored two more in the fifth.

Egan Smith started and gave up all three runs. Of note Trystan Magnuson recorded all of his five outs via strikeout. He also gave up two singles.

Jake Marisnick had two of Dunedin's three hits.

Lansing - Scheduled day off

3 Stars (slim pickin's tonight):

3rd star - Trystan Magnuson

2nd star - Adam Lind

1st star - Anthony Gose

Posted by Gerry on Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 08:26 AM EDT.

Gose and Lind are Notable on a Light Day | 53 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

John Northey - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 11:29 AM EDT (#256846) #

Well, Lind is doing what you expect a major leaguer to do when demoted - he is pounding the crap out of Vegas. 500-615-900 for a 1515 OPS or around 900 points higher than his ML stats. Of course that is just 13 PA so it doesn't mean much but it is better than, say, a 2 for 13 (which is about what his ML stats would work out to).

Snider is the only other Vegas hitter over 1000, with Perales and Gomes over 950, and Cooper, Gotay, and d'Arnaud in the 849-888 range. Hechavarria & Woodward are low 800's, mid-700's for Sierra/Nanita/Gose and time to figure out a new career for sub-700's McCoy/Diaz (4 PA)/Howard.

Mike Green - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 11:35 AM EDT (#256847) #

Hechavarria started off hot due to a ridiculous BABIP, but has evened things out nicely in May with 3 homers and a 9/14 W/K. His line for May (and in fact his line for his time in Las Vegas, now essentially half a season's worth) looks like something that will translate into a decent enough offensive line for a slick-fielding middle infielder (.260, 25 doubles, 10 homers, 40 walks, 135 strikeouts, say).

whiterasta80 - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#256848) #

Yeah Diaz really doesn't merit a mention there considering he's played one game. I actually still like him as a utility guy for the big club. He's shown he can take a walk (whether that will translate to the bigs is unclear), and he's a strong fielder at multiple positions.

whiterasta80 - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 11:38 AM EDT (#256849) #

Mike, those numbers you are suggesting look remarkably similar to what we used to get out of Orlando Hudson, another "slick fielding" MI. I wonder if he is a decent comparison for Adeniy.

lexomatic - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 12:12 PM EDT (#256850) #

minor league equivalency calculator came up with the following for Adeiny's Vegas stats:
303 ab 37 r 82 h 15 2b 2 3b 4 hr 28 rbi 19 bb 65 k 272/ 316/ 378

uglyone - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 12:12 PM EDT (#256851) #

Gose's May numbers probably translate to around an .800-850ops in a "normal" AAA hitting environment....which would probably translate to at least as good, if not better, MLB production than Rasmus is currently giving us.

Not that I don't think Rasmus will improve, or that Gose should be called up anytime soon, but just thought it was worth noting.

uglyone - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 12:42 PM EDT (#256852) #

Let's take a look at who's benefitting most from the home park in Vegas so far, with the caveat of extremely small sample size for both splits here:

Cooper:

Home: 96ab, 13bb/8k, .385/.450/.698/1.148
Away: 62ab, 8bb/10k, .177/.271/.210/.481

Hech:

Home: 103ab, 11bb/19k, .350/.410/.505/.915
Away: 85ab, 6bb/20k, .271/.319/.388/.707

D'Arnaud

Home: 93ab, 7bb/13k, .312/.369/.516/.885
Away: 64ab, 6bb/14k, .266/.329/.469/.797

Gose

Home: 106ab, 12bb/25k, .264/.350/.415/.765
Away: 76ab, 8bb/24k, .263/.337/.368/.706

Snider:

Home: 50ab, 4bb/12k, .340/.389/.640/1.029
Away: 46ab, 10bb/7k, .326/.431/.565/.996

Gomes:

Home: 61ab, 3bb/14k, .344/.375/.557/.932
Away: 70ab, 3bb/12k, .371/.405/.571/.977

Cooper, Hech, and D'Arnaud seem to be really getting a Vegas boost so far, while Snider and Gomes have not.

Gose has only a slight home edge, and isn't really taking advantage of vegas park factors so far.

John Northey - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 01:26 PM EDT (#256857) #

Wow is Cooper extreme there. Odds are it is the old 'small sample size' but it'd be interesting to see how he was last year. If he consistently is drastically better in Vegas then his odds of a ML career are nil. If it is just a fluke then he still has a shot but needs to step up more in the power department.

greenfrog - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#256859) #

Escobar getting picked off by Shields with one out and Bautista at the plate is bloody embarrassing (and I'm being polite). It's not as though Escobar has never faced Shields, either. Before today's game, he had had 20 PAs against him and five hits. Lots of time to see his best-in-class pickoff move. And what about the pregame scouting report?

Not to worry...if the Jays lose this one (an important game), Farrell can always reach into his ample storehouse of platitudes to explain away the loss.

neurolaw - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:18 PM EDT (#256860) #

Ricky has turned into Kyle Drabek. Is he injured? Does he have a lack of confidence in where his pitches are going? Today it looks like the ump has a tight zone - but this trend has been alarming all month. The Jays can't win with starters giving up these many walks.

I can't watch the games but can anyone shed any light as to what exactly has gone wrong with Ricky?

sam - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:23 PM EDT (#256861) #

Escobar's blunder there is just a mental lapse that should not happen in that situation or at this level. Shields pre-set move is one of the better ones and Escobar is sure to have seen it before. I'm sure in their pre-game meetings the team would have been reminded of it. It's a mistake by Escobar that I'm not sure you can blame on anyone but him. Then again, that's what we signed up for when we traded for him. Mental lapses and occasional laziness are a part of his game and likely why he'll bounce from team to team in his career. Escobar is great in should stretches, but those mistakes wear on you over seasons.

Romero is a mess at the moment, which is really disappointing for a staff ace. I think at this point in his career you'd hope he'd have his mechanics and the psychological aspect of the game under wraps. If you get hit, you get hit. But Romero is walking guys left and center and after he throws first pitch ball to guys, he gets down on himself and the at-bat is essentially over for him.

I'm not sure I understand your frustration with Farrell and explaining losses? Are you disappointed he doesn't call out players in the media after losses? Or do you want him to personally take more responsibility for the losses?

greenfrog - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:28 PM EDT (#256862) #

Ricky just seems inconsistent - some of his pitches are well located, some are well out of the strike zone, some are sort of in between. His FB control/command in particular seems to come and go.

Since his debut in the majors, his BB/9 IP rate has declined from 4.0 to 3.5 to 3.2. This year it's up to 4.5 (likely higher after today's game). I do expect him to harness his control eventually, but this is tough to watch, especially in a big game like this one. He did get a bit squeezed on the 3-2 pitch to Pena in the first inning (outside FB that could have been called a strike), but other pitches haven't been close. Shields has been squeezed too, but has only walked one (the Bautista HR notwithstanding, he's schooled the Jays hitters so far).

neurolaw - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:31 PM EDT (#256863) #

Interesting Sam, so its not like he is hiding a injury and its more a psychological thing. From how you describe it I feel like a lot of the mental issues that plagued Drabek last season are beginning to affect Romero. He knows he has command issues, and so when he walks someone or falls behind everything begins to snowball.

sam - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:39 PM EDT (#256864) #

Neurolaw, I think that's a fair assessment. I think there's also an issue with the tempo of his delivery. There doesn't seem to be much repeatability to the delivery at the moment. But, I think you're dead on with the psychological aspect. Romero just looks defeated once he throws that first pitch ball. Greenfrog is right too. The fastball command comes and goes and as a result all the secondary stuff that he gets hitters chasing doesn't play.

Escobar just took an at-bat off with a guy on second. Second mental blunder in the game.

sam - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:44 PM EDT (#256865) #

The other frustrating thing from this series; the Rays are giving runs away with errors. It will be a serious disappointment if we don't win this series.

sam - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 02:57 PM EDT (#256868) #

Eric Thames is a nice guy, but I don't think he does enough to warrant an outfield corner spot on a good team, nor does he do enough to help you win. At some point in the next little while he's gonna have to get hot or else he should go down.

This sounds weird, but I do miss the frustration of Travis Snider a bit. Unlike Thames, he has that ability to win games on his own. If he were to put together a good week in the next little while I'd like to see him promoted.

neurolaw - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 03:09 PM EDT (#256869) #

And Romero once again completely lost the strike zone. Drabek and Romero have given up 12 walks to the Rays.

If this were the Tiger's defense the pitchers ERA would be sky high. This is getting ridiculous.

Sam I agree - Thames should not be a middle of the order hitter on any good team's lineup.

scottt - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 05:19 PM EDT (#256871) #

Drabek won his game and Romero has no decision in his. It's Hutch that didn't fare so well.

neurolaw - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 05:31 PM EDT (#256874) #

Fair point but generally if your starting pitchers combine to give up 13 walks in 2 games you are more likely to lose both games. The point though, is that its part of a bigger issue that at some point needs to be addressed.

Gerry - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 10:44 PM EDT (#256880) #

The latest report is that Lind was never placed on waivers. Lind is in the Vegas lineup tonight so he hasn't been claimed. I guess Farrell wasn't lying when he said he said he wasn't aware of the waiver issue.

hypobole - Wednesday, May 23 2012 @ 11:19 PM EDT (#256881) #

Gerry, it was pretty well a given that even if Lind did go on waivers, no team would want to pick up almost $11 million in salary commitment for the level of production Lind has been providing. The possibility of a claim would have only been a lottery ticket.

However if he had been on waivers and gone unclaimed, how long would the team have to remove him (or any player who passes through waivers) from the 40 man? Does it have to happen immediately or could it happen any time through that season?

ayjackson - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:07 AM EDT (#256882) #

Apparently he'd have to be removed immediately, and the Jays have chosen not to do so. (If you believe Knobler's and Wliner's sources.)

Chuck - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 06:56 AM EDT (#256888) #

This whole affair of waivers or not is very, very strange. I would have thought that there would be a formal record of such transactions filed with the commissioner's office, and that said transactions would be publicly consumable. I guess not.

This organization takes stealth to the next level. AA's got that Romulan cloaking technology down pat.

BalzacChieftain - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 09:11 AM EDT (#256893) #

I�d prefer to see Davis take a few more ABs from Thames for the time being. His defense is much better, which is indicative of how poor Thames is in LF, and at worst, Davis also has the ability to prop up a hollow average if he hits ground balls due to his speed. I think it's a common sense move that fields a better starting 9 for the time being.

I don't think it'll happen, though, because management stated that Thames won the LF job and they want to give him some more rope, at least until Snider is healthy and hitting.

92-93 - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 09:15 AM EDT (#256894) #

"because management stated that Thames won the LF job"

Management stated that Thames did nothing to lose the job, and that they re-evaluate things after 100 PA. Where have all the Thames fanboys from this offseason disappeared to?

BalzacChieftain - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 09:27 AM EDT (#256896) #

Management has said that they re-evaluate after 100 Abs, but anyone knows that�s an arbitrary statement that is largely dependent on past measures of success and what player is being talked about. Thames shouldn�t be playing largely on the account of his defense alone when he can�t offset it with his bat. As for Thames fanboys, Thames sure hasn�t done much to make anyone love him this year so I bet they�re gone now.

China fan - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 10:08 AM EDT (#256898) #

I'm not sure why anyone would gloat so happily over the poor numbers of Eric Thames, who is still just 25 and still has less than 500 at-bats in the majors. To be accurate, I don't recall anyone being a "fanboy" of Thames. That dismissive word is better reserved for the enthusiastic fans of players like Lawrie (although Lawrie's OPS is the exact same as Thames so far this year).

Rather than "fanboys," there were analytical people like AA and Farrell, who said that Thames performed much better than Snider in 2011 and did nothing to lose the job in spring training this year. I'm sure they are reconsidering that viewpoint by now and will adjust at some point. However, it's a little unfair to crucify AA and Farrell for sticking with Thames when Snider is injured and there's no other obvious LF replacement (aside from Rajai Davis, whose OPS last year was .623).

If people want to gloat about inaccurate off-season predictions, there will always be plenty of wrong predictions to point to. Who predicted that Rasmus would have an OPS of .656 at this point in the season? Who predicted that the Jays would be contenders for the wild-card position, despite their low payroll and refusal to spend money on free agents? There's always plenty of mistaken assumptions to identify if we want to do that.

bpoz - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 10:39 AM EDT (#256900) #

Well said China Fan. His April was good but his May is bad. IMO it takes time to learn. The Jays will judge how much time to give him and decide if he stays or goes down to LV.

They are doing well for such a young & inexperienced team. We really do not know how good these kids will be. After Rios (All Star), Lind & Hill I just have no clue.

greenfrog - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:23 AM EDT (#256905) #

"Who predicted that the Jays would be contenders for the wild-card position"

I'm not sure a 24-21 record is really so shocking, especially after a relatively soft schedule early on. There are a lot of teams hovering around .500 - sooner or later some of them are going to start separating themselves from the pack. The Jays could certainly be one of them, but with all the winnable games they've lost, it often seems as though they just can't stand the prosperity.

Mike Green - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:26 AM EDT (#256906) #

If anyone wants to call me a "fanboy" of Eric Thames, Brett Lawrie, Brett Cecil, Travis Snider or anyone else, go right ahead. At my age, any kind of "boy" sounds a lot better than "would you like to work in, sir" from a 22 year old at the gym.

Thames has had a slow start. He has swung and missed at quite a number of pitches this year that he would not have missed last year. His contact rate is down noticeably, and I was hoping that it would actually improve a little. The package that Thames brought into the season was well described by Magpie during the off-season. If I might summarize, it was of a promising hitter and fine baserunner with defensive deficits that seem that they could be ameliorated to the point that he was average defensively. Instead of taking a baby step or two forward (as players moving from their age 24 to age 25 season will regularly do), Thames has (so far) taken a step backward at the plate. It is true that he will not likely have a regular job for very long if this continues, as his overall performance level over his career to date does not leave him with much wiggle room.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#256907) #

Eric Thames, Career:

MLB (24-25): 541pa, 15hr, 48rbi, 2sb, 5.9bb%, 23.3k%, .260avg (.316babip), .309obp (.049isobp), .435slg (.175isop), .744ops, .322woba, 101wRC+
AAA (24-24): 241pa, 7hr, 45rbi, 5sb, 9.5bb%, 17.0k%, .352avg (.406babip), .423obp (.071isobp), .610slg (.257isop), 1.033ops, .435woba, 150wRC+
AA (23-23): 573pa, 27hr, 104rbi, 8sb, 8.9bb%, 21.1k%, .288avg (.327babip), .370obp (.082isobp), .526slg (.238isop), .896ops, .393woba, 142wRC+
A+ (22-22): 220pa, 3hr, 38rbi, 1sb, 9.5bb%, 18.2k%, .313avg (.379babip), .386obp (.073isobp), .487slg (.174isop), .873ops, .396woba, 151wRC+

China fan - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:44 AM EDT (#256908) #

"....Instead of taking a baby step or two forward (as players moving from their age 24 to age 25 season will regularly do)...."

But the sophomore jinx is also a common phenomenon, as we're seeing with Lawrie. Or a decline from age 22 to 23, as we saw with Snider. Or a decline from age 23 to 24, as we saw with Rasmus. The truth is, nobody knows anything about the trajectories of young players. Thames was worth a try. Now he's got to adjust. If he doesn't improve, he'll be gone.

Mike Green - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#256909) #

I know, CF, but on average, players do improve a little from age 24 to age 25. In Thames' case, his 2011 offensive performance in the major leagues was essentially consistent with his minor league record, so there was a reasonable basis to hope for a small improvement in 2012.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 11:49 AM EDT (#256910) #

"especially after a relatively soft schedule early on."

The idea that the Jays had a "soft" schedule early on was based entirely on the belief that teams like BAL and CLE sucked.....which they clearly do not. The jays' schedule has in fact been very tough from the very beginning, and has been unsurprisingly one of the toughest in baseball - in fact, according to opposition winning percentage, the 5 AL East teams are all in the top-6 in toughest SOS, with only PIT breaking up the clean sweep of the top-5. Here's how the Jays' schedule breaks down so far:

1) BAL (.622): 6gms, 1-5
2) TBR (.600): 8gms, 2-6
3) TEX (.600): 3gms, 2-1
4) CLE (.581): 3gms, 2-1

Total v. "Top Teams": 20gms, 7-13 (.350)

5) TOR (.533): 0gms, 0-0
6) NYY (.523): 2gms, 2-0
7) BOS (.500): 3gms, 2-1
8) CHX (.500): 0gms, 0-0
9) OAK (.489): 2gms, 1-1
10) DET (.465): 0gms, 0-0
11) SEA (.457): 3gms, 2-1
12) LAA (.444): 4gms, 2-2

Total v. "Middling Teams": 14gms, 9-5 (.643)

13) KCR (.395): 4gms, 4-0
14) MIN (.349): 4gms, 2-2

Total v. "Bottom Feeders": 8gms, 6-2 (.750)

China fan - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:03 PM EDT (#256911) #

Another issue is how long a team should be patient with under-performing players such as Thames. It's clearly an art, rather than a science, and there's rarely any consensus on how long to wait. Most Bauxites would say that the Jays were too patient with Adam Lind. Some would say that the Jays were too impatient with Travis Snider. Most would agree that the Jays should continue to be patient with Rasmus and Lawrie this season. (And it certainly helps if they're strong defensive players.) So how long do you wait for Thames? If you pull the trigger too fast on a demotion, are you repeating the mistakes that were made with Snider? If you wait too long, are you damaging the team's chances? I don't think there are any obvious answers. The decision would be easier if Snider was healthy and hitting well.

China fan - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:06 PM EDT (#256912) #

One final point: Farrell and Anthopoulos clearly stated at the start of this season that the battle between Thames and Snider would continue for the whole of this season. They certainly never committed themselves to a full season of Thames. If Snider was healthy and hitting well, and if Thames continues at his current pace for another few weeks, I'm sure he'd be demoted and Snider would be up. That's essentially what Farrell and AA have already said.

John Northey - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:08 PM EDT (#256913) #

There is the trick. If you demote Thames who do you put in his place? Snider keeps getting hurt, Francisco is nothing special and hitting very poorly, Davis is at 101 for OPS+ and is likely to drop further based on past experience, and Sierra and Gose aren't doing well enough in Vegas to have earned a promotion.

The options are quite limited and right now Thames 83 OPS+ might be the best we got. Sigh. Hopefully either Thames improves or Snider stays healthy and hits the crap out of the ball.

Mike Green - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:16 PM EDT (#256914) #

You would think that the club would wait at least 2-3 weeks after Snider returns. He was on the DL from April 27-May 8 and again from May 18-ongoing, and the wrist has been a problem for two years now.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:30 PM EDT (#256916) #

I wonder if Thames' offense would be helped by removing him from the field. He's pretty damn awful out there, and it has to bother him quite a bit.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:36 PM EDT (#256918) #

I just noticed with that schedule breakdown that I could have just said this:

Vs. Top-2 Teams: 14gms, 3-11 (.214)
Vs. All The Rest: 31gms, 21-10 (.677)

ouch.

even more painful.

Head to Head Records:

TB v. TOR: 6-2
TOR v. TB: 2-6

Vs. Everyone else:

TB: 21-16
TOR: 22-15

Head to Head Records:

BAL v. TOR: 5-1
TOR v. BAL: 1-5

Vs. Everyone Else:

BAL: 23-16
TOR: 23-16

triple ouch.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 12:53 PM EDT (#256920) #

Now that I look closer, I see that the Jays have only lost series this year to 2 teams.

They've lost 2 series each to BAL and TB.

They haven't lost even one series against anyone else.

ach.

greenfrog - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 01:20 PM EDT (#256925) #

Uglyone, that is a good point, but it should be noted that Baltimore and TB being top-tier teams is in part due to the Jays' sucking against them (i.e., the "hard schedule" is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophesy). For example, had the Jays gone 5-1 against the O's (instead of the reverse), Baltimore would be 24-21 - suddenly a "middling" team according to your three tiers. Similarly, had the Jays gone 6-2 against TB, the Rays would be 23-22.

At this early stage of the season, the Jays' performance against teams they play a lot has a lot to do with determining not only their own record, but also which AL East opponents are "hard" and which ones are "soft." The worse they play against the Rays and O's, the "harder" those teams appear to be (i.e., based on their overall record).

92-93 - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#256932) #

The Blue Jays have had an extremely soft schedule, regardless of what the cumulative record of their opponents thus far has been. Cleveland and Baltimore are nowhere near this good, and Toronto has been very fortunate facing weakened opponents like Oakland, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Tampa, all of whom have had injuries to their best players or chosen to rest some of them on the Skydome's carpet.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 02:56 PM EDT (#256943) #

Their schedule has been nothing remotely close to soft, it has been one of the toughest in all of baseball.

greenfrog - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 04:20 PM EDT (#256945) #

Here's are the SPs the Jays have faced thus far:

Cle: Masterson, Jimenez, Lowe
Bos: Doubront, Bard, Lester
Bal: Hunter, Hammel, Matusz
TB: Niemann, Price, Hellickson
KC: Hochevar, Mendoza, Duffy, Chen
Bal: Hunter, Hammel, Matusz
Sea: Beavan, Millwood, Vargas
Tex: Darvish, Felix, Harrison
LAA: Haren, Santana, Wilson, Williams
Oak: Parker, Ross
Min: Marquis, Blackburn, Walters, Diamond
TB: Niemann, Price
NYY: Kuroda, Hughes
NYM: Niese, Batista, Gee
TB: Hellickson, Moore, Shields

On the whole, that is not a particularly intimidating list of SPs (note who is *not* on that list: Sabathia, Hernandez, Weaver, McCarthy, Santana...the Jays have been fortunate to miss the best starter of a lot of teams to this point).

As has also been noted, the Jays have played many teams dealing with significant injury issues at the time, including Boston, TB, KC, Texas, Minnesota, NYY and the NYM. And Pujols was slumping massively when the Jays were in Anaheim (1 for 11 with a HR; sat out one game).

When you take a closer look, it just doesn't look like an especially tough schedule to date.

hypobole - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 04:58 PM EDT (#256949) #

Simply looking at pitchers names may seem to make the schedule easier than it has been though. Mediocre pitchers are fairly dominant about 25% of the time - even Jo-Jo had a couple of games last year where he had everything working.

IIRC, Lowe, Doubront, Hammel (esp the 2nd series where Hunter and Matusz also pitched about as well as they can), Williams,Walters, Diamond all had their "A" games going the days we faced them. Some of the issues may have been poor hitting on the Jays part, but those pitchers really seemed to be hitting their spots in those games.

eungar - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 05:15 PM EDT (#256950) #

i am, it would seem, one of if not the only Thames fanboys left. i still like Thames a lot and have zero desire to see davis in a full time spot or worse full time in left field. Thames is obviously struggling in HIS 2ND MAJOR LEAGUE SEASON but i have no problem with him or management sticking with him unless they deem snider to be competent enough to be better than Thames. Thames still has enough consistency to be hitting 250 and he doesnt have a crappy approach at the plate. in fact i am really impressed with his 2 strike approach at the plate. he seems to really bear down and swing less freely with 2 strikes and starts to make the pitcher work at that point. therefore i think people should stop hating on Thames.

uglyone - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 07:09 PM EDT (#256959) #

Looking quickly at that list of SP, i'd say loosely that we've faced 7 #1s, 10 #2s, 9 #3s, and 19 #4/5s, which seems like a pretty normal distribution IMO.

greenfrog - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 08:22 PM EDT (#256964) #

So, the Jays have faced a #1 only seven times in 45 games (that is, in 15.6% of games played), with those #1s comprising Price (twice), Darvish, Lester, Masterson, and...Haren? Duffy? Chen? It just doesn't seem especially rough to me, particularly if you take into account the calibre of #1s missed and the opposing players on the DL during these series (including, to name a few, Crawford, Bailey, Gardner, Longoria, Upton, Jennings, Keppinger, Farnsworth, Morneau, Wright).

Of course, this is more my impression than anything (not exactly a rigorous comparison across teams).

scottt - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 09:11 PM EDT (#256966) #

Hard or soft is relative. The other AL team didn't have a harder schedule.

Boston and NY are the easy team in the division.

July is the softest month this year, but as a whole, there is more parity this year than usual. Advantage in the schedule usually comes from interleague play and the Jays have never been able to take advantage anyway.

92-93 - Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 09:56 PM EDT (#256968) #

"Boston and NY are the easy team in the division."

Which is exactly why looking at records now to decide whether a team has faced a tough schedule is ridiculous.

uglyone - Friday, May 25 2012 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#256990) #

73 AL SP have pitched 20+ innings, here's how the jays opposing starters ranks among them, (also split into 5 groups of 14 ranks each):

Diamond: 4gs, 1.78era (#2)
Lowe: 9gs, 2.15era (#4)
Hellickson: 9gs, 2.73era (#11)
Hellickson: 9gs, 2.73era (#11)
Price: 10gs, 2.88era (#13)
Price: 10gs, 2.88era (#13)

Wilson: 10gs, 2.90era (#15)
Walters: 3gs, 2.95era (#17)
Darvish: 9gs, 3.05era (#18)
Hammel: 8gs, 3.12era (#19)
Hammel: 8gs, 3.12era (#19)
Feliz: 8gs, 3.16era (#20)
Niemann: 7gs, 3.38 (#26)
Niemann: 7gs, 3.38 (#26)
Parker: 6gs, 3.38 (#26)
Vargas: 11gs, 3.39 (#27)
Shields: 10gs, 3.63 (#28)

Millwood: 9gs, 3.72 (#29)
Williams: 8gs, 3.74 (#30)
Haren: 10gs, 3.76 (#32)
Duffy: 6gz, 3.83 (#35)
Lester: 9gs, 3.95 (#36)
Doubront: 8gs, 3.86 (#37)
Chen: 9gs, 4.16 (#40)
Santana: 9gs, 4.22 (#41)

Beaven: 9gs, 4.46 (#44)
Kuroda: 9gs, 4.56 (#45)
Masterson: 10gs, 4.62 (#46)
Bard: 9gs, 4.69 (#48)
Harrison: 9gs, 4.72 (#49)
Matusz: 9gs, 4.86 (#51)
Matusz: 9gs, 4.86 (#51)
Hughes: 9gs, 4.94 (#54)
Jimenez: 9gs, 5.02 (#55)
Hunter: 9gs, 5.07 (#56)
Hunter: 9gs, 5.07 (#56)
Moore: 9gs, 5.07 (#56)

Mendoza: 8gs, 5.66 (#60)
Ross: 7gs, 5.73 (#64)
Hochevar: 9gs, 6.61 (#67)
Blackburn: 7gs, 8.37 (#72)
Marquis: 7gs, 8.47 (#73)

scottt - Friday, May 25 2012 @ 06:09 PM EDT (#257029) #

SP ranking reminded me of how much Lincecum has regressed this year.

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