After 4 innings tonight, Dickey's ERA at home is now 6.01. He has given up 18 homeruns in 73 innings.

Is Dickey hurt, or still pitching less than 100%, because...? Or is because his ball doesn't break enough!?

I don't know why a new post for this series, just update the old one with new info and continue using.

Losing to this Team should be humiliating, if not, trade whoever?

Okay then... moving on...

Colby is one of the better base runners I've seen on the Jays in a longtime. Very smart on the base paths.

So what does it take to get Colby locked in long-term? $55M over 5 years?

Rasmus' baserunning is a joy to watch.  I really started realizing it earlier this year, thinking back I can't remember any mistakes.  Always gets great reads out there.

2 wins down, 20 to go. Enjoy the ride.

To wear a negative nelly hat -- I wonder if Rasmus' baserunning is noticed this year because of how bad some on this team are at baserunning. I'm willing to admit that it may just be in my head but does this team not believe in the old saw of "don't make the first or third out at 3rd base"? Frustrating.

Even more frustrating is that the best option for this team, as currently put together, is just to stay the course and hope things click next year.

Moving Brett Lawrie to 2nd Base might make it easier to acquire a 3rd Baseman. I 'm just wondering if that's the best idea. When Lawrie plays 3rd Base, with his range, doesn't he make Jose Reyes better defensively?

Josh Johnson's getting worse, 4 Runs in less than one full inning is Rookie level stuff. As soon as Happ returns, Johnson's waived, DFA'd, released.

One advantage for the Jays is if Lawrie can handle 2B as well as 3B then they can pick and choose from either position for another player.  Izturis clearly isn't the answer as his defense has been very poor, his offense poor, and his prospects of being more than a backup poor.

Ideally the Jays find someone who is very strong defensively at either 3B or 2B, put Lawrie at the other and make it so Reyes has as little ground to cover as possible at SS.  Perfect world you trade either Lind or Encarnacion and get a strong defensive 1B as well.  Improve at 2 positions defensively and get Lawrie to be healthy (yes, a dream) then things get a lot better.  Ideally sign a defense first SS/2B to a AAA deal in the winter who can be called up in event of injury.  Now, the one issue is you still need strong offense so you cannot punt that completely but if Rasmus is sticking at this level and if a solid LF can be found either by Cabrera returning to form or Pillar or Gose or Sierra coming up then you can live with poor offense at 2B or 3B and 1B.  Need Lawrie to get back to a 100 OPS+ or better though for it to work I think.

As soon as Happ returns, Johnson's waived, DFA'd, released.

"This stock I own dropped! Oh no! Give it away for nothing!" - Nobody

"I dunno Honey, I think Nortel will rebound."

I am not sure which troubled company Josh Johnson most resembles; but sometimes it is good to buy, sometimes to sell.

Izturis clearly isn't the answer as his defense has been very poor, his offense poor, and his prospects of being more than a backup poor.

Izturis has one less plate appearance that he had in 2012 and his OPS is 5 points higher. He was likely signed with the idea that he'd get about 350 plate appearances over the year and would hopefully put up numbers a little bit better than 2012. He's played more than expected because of Bonifacio's incompetence, but Izturis is coming close to meeting expectations offensively (although he's been a little worse than I expected defensively), particularly if he continues to swing the bat like he has the last six weeks to two months, rather than how he did in April.

I am not sure which troubled company Josh Johnson most resembles; but sometimes it is good to buy, sometimes to sell.

When an investor sells a plummeting stock, at least they are guaranteeing they will recoup some money and avoid the risk of losing their entire investment.

I have no idea what the Jays are supposed to gain by releasing Johnson. Maybe a couple of million dollars if he were to get a claimed? Is losing an additional 3 or 4 games in any way harmful for this team?

Of course, it's not like the club has a fungible warm body filling one of the rotation spots right now. I can understand why Richard would want to release Johnson given how well everyone else is pitching and how important they all are to the team's plans in 2014.

Now, I just have to consult my schedule to see who the team is starting tomorrow.....

Johnson is probably the biggest of the disappointments this year.  Romero is a mess, but lands under the 'total train wreck' category where it seems nothing was going to work.  Johnson though was thought to be a potential Cy Young contender on the high side and a solid mid-rotation guy on the down side.  Instead he has been a near total flop.

14 starts total
7 times allowing 4+ earned runs
4 times allowing fewer than 3 runs and the Jays went 1-3 in those games (sheesh)
The team is 3-10 in his starts before today.  Remove those games and the Jays are 44-45

That is NOT what the Jays expected.  At this point I'd be shocked if they offered him a 'qualifying offer' this winter.

I am not sure which troubled company Josh Johnson most resembles; but sometimes it is good to buy, sometimes to sell.

He didn't say sell, he said give away, for nothing.

Also, Romero's failure was forseeable. Josh Johnson's injury was relatively predictable. His performance when healthy wasn't.

Unless Johnson isn't really healthy?

I haven't been this wrong about a Jays player in a long time.  I thought JJ would be borderline dominant, or at worst very solid. 

It looks to me like Josh Johnson is going through The Change of Life. It seems to happen quite often to hard-throwing RH pitchers around age 29-30. I suppose what happens is their stuff begins to change, with age and use and (all too often) assorted injuries. And while the pitcher often has good stuff still, it's different from what he's had all his life, and he doesn't know how to pitch with it. It can take him a year or two to adjust, figure out what he has left, and how to work with it. The obvious Blue Jay version is Dave Stieb in 1986, but you might also refer to Tim Hudson 2006, Jim Bunning in 1963, Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer in 1974 and countless others.

The Jays now have the 9th-worst record in baseball. The Mets (sans Cy Young winner) currently have a better record than Toronto.

Never seen anything quite like this Jays' offense.

5 guys over .830ops. Competing with the best top-5 Jays hitters in club history.

4 guys below .680ops. Competing with the worst bottom-4 Jays hitters in club history.

Reyes 145ops+
Encarncion 143ops+
Lind 131ops+
Bautista 127ops+
Rasmus 122ops+

Cabrera 85ops+
Arencibia 80ops+
Lawrie 78ops+
Izturis 74ops+


Actually, funnily enough, the closest comparison I can find to this is the '92 Jays, except the current top-5 is better than that one.

Winfield 138ops+
Alomar 130ops+
Olerud 127ops+
Maldonado 125ops+
Carter 120ops+

White 90ops+
Borders 85ops+
Lee 83ops+
Gruber 72ops+


the '93 Jays improved on that by replacing Lee with Fernandez. (White had a better year but Rickey/Coles were a downgrade from Maldonado.

Olerud 186ops+
Molitor 143ops+
Alomar 141ops+
Fernandez 115ops+
Carter 112ops+
White 108ops+

Sprague 86ops+
Henderson 83ops+
Borders 75ops+

and hey, I just realized for the first time that the Jays actually had two different WAMCOs.

Winfield
Alomar
Maldonado
Carter
Olerud

White
Alomar
Molitor
Carter
Olerud

Only the latter was truly WAMCO, as they batted in that order often enough for the name to be apparent.

It looks to me like Josh Johnson is going through The Change of Life

Pitchopause? HRT is, alas, not an option.