Fourteen games into the 2011 baseball year, and I have no clue what kind of team the Toronto Blue Jays will be this season. Perhaps I'm exaggerating the point... but am I alone in wondering what the on-field philosophy is with this club, and whether there currently exists the personnel to execute? Focusing on the offence - this year's club was expected to follow (largely) in the footsteps of the 2010 Jays - a team of rakers with power to spare. Standard "sample size" caveats apply (as they do throughout this post - but what else is there?), but more often than not we've seen empty swings where we might otherwise have seen loooooong fly balls. A pedestrian 12 HR through the first 14 is the end result.
"Offsetting" the reduced power is the increased focus on the running game (cringe). Last year's leadfoots now lead the league in swipes with 19. What? And that's without much contribution from expected burner Rajai Davis.
Travis Snider is the living embodiment of whateverthefuck is going on with this offence. Billed by many (guilty!) as a breakout power threat..... he's belted one (1) home run to go with his five (5!) stolen bases. And who's ol' Lunchbox tied for the team lead in stolen bags with? Aaron Hill.... to accompany his zero taters. Well, at least Adam Lind is mashing enough to cover. No he's not, he's got one. Which beats Edwin's longball production by one.
What the what?
This is the point where I correct my own nonsense and say "it's early". Speaking specifically to Snider's slow - let's use "slow", OK? - start, Sportsnet's handy broadcast graphics tell me he seems to be developing a pattern (Vernonesque, perhaps) in opening his seasons poorly, and I still have confidence he'll warm with the weather, as they (?) say. That crazy HR/SB ratio (not an official stat) will work itself out, as will Jose Bautista's timing.... which hasn't reaaaaly seemed to be there since taking the A's series off.
The power strokes will come around. If I can take away one concern from the first two weeks, it's that the promise of increased aggressiveness on the basepaths has gone completely insane. And while it's exciting as all hell to watch, running into outs..... not so much.
So keep running, Blue Jays. But let's be smart about it can we? And feel free to mix in a few home runs while you're at it.
Not so much to ask, is it?
I'm pretty drunk right now, and my incoherence is met by wishful thinking, but: I hope the early aggressiveness on the basepaths is strategic, trading a few outs in April for a kamikaze reputation that hopefully pays dividends over the next few seasons.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Snider. All I've heard about him coming up since being drafted, and Alan Ashby has been very high on him coming into this season, which means a lot, however, he's only ever been hot once... Not to sound negative but I fear we have a Nick Markakis or Alex Rios (in TO, anyway) on our hands. A guy with all the tools to be successful, but just can't put it together...
ReplyDeleteI know RBI's are looked down upon these days, but Snider does have 10 so far...that's not bad at all. Unlike Vernon, he's making the most of his slow start.
ReplyDeleteNice post, Ack. Captures a lot of the confusion amongst the faithful.
ReplyDeleteYou couch everything you say so much, though, that I am going to go ahead and diagnose you as either bi-polar or having dis-associative identity disorder. I can do this because I used to watch a lot of daytime talk shows.
By Snider's "only ever been hot once", do you mean "once" like from the time he was drafted till the time he made his MLB debut? He put up pretty huge numbers for an 18-20 in A-AA.
ReplyDeleteI think the home-run thing has been heavily influenced by park and weather.
ReplyDeleteThe Ack: Its fun to watch. Have some fun! There are no playoffs in sight this year no matter what. Boston is dead last in the MLB, Jays are playing .500 ball under a whole new regime. The future is bright. Relax, quit bitching, it helps noone.
ReplyDeleteThe past week and a half we have run in to a few power pitchers that are hard to get any hits off of. Weaver, Beckett etc...
ReplyDeleteI think our lack of power comes from tough pitching at the moment.
I will never concede that pitchers can shut down good hitting on reputation alone. Yes, sometimes a pitcher has stuff that is simply impossible to hit, but Weaver, Beckett and Lester all had spots in those games where they could have been gotten to, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteThe Jays offense, so far this year, has not been stellar, but its still early.
I think we all know Cito would've had these boys mashing by now.
ReplyDeleteNo more goddamn hashtag jokes on your Twitter feed. Leave them for Yahoo! bloggers, they're all they have in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe only consolation/excuse is that the team hasn't actually fielded its go-north roster since the first game. Davis, EE, Yunel, Morrow, etc. I know injuries are a part of the game, and so on, but seriously. It's been an odd start.
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