As the Jays offence continues to struggle, why Frank Thomas is continually slotted into the five-hole is becoming a big question.
One-tenth into the 2008 season and, if the first 16 games are any indication, the Blue Jays appear to be on course for six months of hovering around the water line.
Hard team to figure so far; battle the Yankees tough to start the road portion of the season, come home and sweep the tuckered out Red Sox, and then get swept by the young and evolving Athletics. Back on the road, where they flat out stunk last season, they take four of five from the beatable Rangers and Orioles - brothers from the same mother that can hit plenty but pitch little - and return home on a high. Not so fast boys. The Rangers basically cancel last weekend's sweep by the Jays in Arlington by taking both games of a two-game mini-series back at the Rogers Centre. To date: eight wins thanks mostly to their pitching and eight losses that fall at the feet of the hitters.
Clearly the Blue Jays have the pitching to challenge for the Wild Card. Roy Halladay's gutsy complete game loss on Thursday after they were forced to use the entire bullpen plus A.J. Burnett the night before was the type of performance that defines the staff as a whole. Doc didn't have close to his best stuff but he kept his team in yet another game. Of the eight losses to date, they have yet to be blown out with already five one-run losses and an average margin of defeat of 1.63 runs. This staff, both rotation and bullpen is deep and good with no real weak link, especially now that the 'Wild Hawaiian' Brandon League has returned to triple-A to rediscover the strike zone. And the sudden wealth of left-handers in the pen, with B.J. Ryan, Scott Downs, Brian Tallet and Jesse Carlson combining to allow just three earned runs in 24 2/3 innings (1.09 ERA) over 21 total appearances, gives the Jays a deep bullpen to shut down the David Ortiz's, J.D. Drew's and Travis Hafner's of the American League.
Now, we'll get to take a first-hand look at the Major League debut of 2004 first round pick David Purcey, who many thought should have arrived already. Also left-handed, he's not going to be facing the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who didn't feature a .300 hitter or anyone with more than 85 RBI, but the 2008 version that many thought, before their A.L-worst 5-11 start, was going to challenge the Red Sox for the A.L. pennant. I'm thinking that it will just be a one-start visit for the 25 year old to give Burnett a couple extra days after his emergency relief appearance earlier in the week. But it will be a very good indicator of how close Purcey is to full-time major league service. Nothing wrong with any of the five current inhabitants of the rotation, but they are all right-handed which has to give opponents some sort of advantage, and someone is going to miss a couple of starts during the season.
If Purcey can dip his toe on the water and take, hopefully, a positive experience with him back to Syracuse, it will strengthen the staff even more, if that's possible. Based on stats alone, and having never actually seen him pitch in person, it appears that Purcey is on the verge. Since the end of last season, where he went an unimpressive 3-5, 5.37 ERA in just 11 starts with New Hampshire (AA), Purcey dazzled the Arizona Fall League (just 13 hits allowed over 22 innings with 25 punch outs) and then gave up just four earned runs over his first three triple-A starts this spring while striking out 21 over 19 innings. Numbers like those lead to Major League auditions. It will be very interesting to see how he fares against the likes of Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera.
His success might also depend on whether the team can restart their offensive engine. Like I stated earlier, the losses to date have been by the slimmest of margins and can be blamed on a .167 average (13-for-78) with runners in scoring position in those defeats, especially in the last games against the Rangers where they went 2-for-21 while stranding 23 runners. Only 14 of the 70 hits during these games have been for extra-bases and, more than the lack of clutch hitting, the disappearance of their power strokes as a group has to be very disconcerting to new hitting coach Gary Denbo. The biggest culprit continues to be Frank Thomas, a notoriously slow starter, who drove in 10 runs over a four-game streak but has hit just .125 with a mere five singles over 40 at-bats in all other games. Why Thomas is continually slotted into the five-hole is becoming a bigger question? The opposition is starting to pitch around Alex Rios and Vernon Wells knowing that an easy out sits right behind them. Perhaps dropping Thomas down in the order until he finds his stroke might be the best move.
And one has to wonder what has become of the extra-base hitting stroke of Lyle Overbay. We all know he's still coming back from his broken hand from a year ago, but he hasn't hit a home run in his last 37 games and 113 at-bats and has only three doubles over that span. These are hardly the type of power numbers that are expected from a corner infielder, especially with the power at the other corner, Scott Rolen, likely weeks away from returning from his broken finger.
All this talk of the bats costing them games is familiar refrain and is starting to sound like a broken record. Unless they can reverse this course soon, these losses of winnable games will come back to haunt them, yet again, come September.
