Time and patience is running out in the curious case of Edwin Encarnacion.
A funny thing happened before Wednesday night's series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays: I made a rare trip down to the field.
It's not that it is no longer a thrill to climb up the steps into the dugout and onto the artificial surface at Rogers Centre. In fact, it is far from it. There is something to be said about standing close to the batting cage and seeing first-hand just how far and hard a major league player can hit a baseball.
But on this occasion I was not there to take in batting practice, but rather to track down Pat Tabler and get the Rays batting lineup loaded into my stats software so I could get everything down to the television mobile before taking our daily meal break two hours before first pitch.
It's a daily routine that is essential to the job.
But while I was talking to Tabby in front of the Blue Jays dugout, he was watching Jays coach Brian Butterfield hit ground balls to Edwin Encarnacion, slotted in the lineup Wednesday and playing first base. Pat shook his head after the first couple and said to me that he didn't like Encarnacion's body language during the whole drill.
Didn't like his footwork or the way he was swiping at balls with his glove.
Boy was he right.
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That evening's 6-5 loss was flat-out doomed from the beginning. On a night where Jesse Litsch brought nothing better, arguably, than No. 5 starter stuff, he sure didn't get any help from the defence. When the lights finally went on yet another one-run loss, the boxscore was ugly: The Jays made five errors, just one short of the club record set and equalled by the 1981 & '82.
Litsch and Encarnacion made two each; although Edwin was saved by some questionable scoring and could have been charged with two -- maybe three -- more. It was as sloppy a game as I can remember the Jays playing during my tenure. Couple it with the fact that the Jays continue to have trouble hitting with runners in scoring position - 2 for 12 on the night, and 11 for its last 53 - and the team really let one slip away.
I wouldn't go as far as saying that I started feeling sorry for Encarnacion, but his performance at first base, a position he was originally going to share with Adam Lind when spring training started this year, was brutal. Every ball hit his way was an absolute adventure. And with every failure in the field, coupled with the 0-for-4 performance at the plate where he failed to hit a ball out of the infield, the grumbling and the boos started getting louder.
One leather lung even bellowed out: "You suck!"; a sentiment normally reserved for the opposition.
So now the bigger question becomes: What do the Jays do with Edwin?'
If he can't play the field and with prospect Eric Thames up from triple-A and looking like his stay might be for more than just until Lind returns from the disabled list, there is no room for a DH in with zero home runs. Plus with the ticket buyers clamouring for Canadian Brett Lawrie to be called-up from Las Vegas to take over at third base, sure seems like the sand in EE's hour glass has almost siphoned out. David Cooper arrived from triple-A and, while he didn't hit for average, he didn't look out of place. Thames has the look and confidence of a solid player, and we now wait for Lawrie. Behind them is the next wave of prospects, led by Anthony Gose, no more than a year and a half away, if that. So, why not start getting bodies out of the way and expedite the remodelling if this franchise into a sleeker, leaner machine.
Putting a younger, more athletic team on the field may certainly cause more fans to leave their TV sets and bring their friends and wallets to Rogers Centre. Something tells me that it doesn't bode well for Encarnacion's short-term future in Toronto.
INTERLEAGUE ... PART XV
It will be interesting to see how John Farrell's edition of the Blue Jays handle the return of play against the National League, something that has been a terrible experience for the club in the past.
For whatever reason, the Jays have always played, for the most part, very poorly during the Interleague portion of the schedule. After winning just seven of their 18 games against the N.L. in 2010 despite leading the Majors with 27 IL home runs, the Jays overall record fell to an underwhelming 115-132 (.466) all-time. The fact that Cito Gaston refused to play small ball, especially when he lost the DH on the road, proved to be troublesome, something that I'm thinking won't be as much of problem for Farrell. Not that the Jays play anything close to National League-style at the plate, but they do run substantially more than a year ago and they aren't afraid to bunt. I would expect most Jays' fans are more confident about Interleague this season.
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Its opponents are a mixed bag. They start with the Houston Astros this weekend, making their first ever visit to Rogers Centre. It will be a chance to get a firsthand look at Brett Wallace, whose career in the Blue Jays system last slightly less than four months after they acquired him from the Phillies in the Roy Halladay trade. Then in June, the Jays will travel to Cincinnati, Atlanta and St. Louis before returning home to host Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Halladay's return a year removed from riots in the streets, caused, of course, by the G-20 Summit, not the trade.
As I've stated in the past, the old statsman is not a big fan of Interleague. Unless we were making stops in San Diego, Los Angeles or Chicago, the varying degrees of schedule strength has made my feelings ambivalent towards the process. Perhaps if John Farrell is able to get his team to win more often my feelings might change.
