BY LEN NUNES – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
Twelve games into the season and the Toronto Blue Jays have already had to hold Jose Bautista out of a series, lost Jose Reyes until around the All-Star Break and J. A. Happ has been their most consistent starter. When you look at it that way, a 5-7 record is pretty serviceable.
Here’s a look back at the cheers and jeers of the Blue Jays/Royals series.
THREE CHEERS
1. Bullpen: The ‘pen pitched nine innings during the series and gave up a total of one extra-base hit. If I can type that line again in four days, the Jays will be at a .500 record.
2. Rebound starts: My previous article predicted Brandon Morrow going 6.2 innings scattering seven hits and giving up one run. Pretty close guess as Morrow went six innings, scattered six hits against and gave up two runs. R. A. Dickey also turned in a workmanlike performance managing to keep the ball in the yard during his 6.1 innings of one run ball. If the rebound starts trend continues with Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, I repeat “the Jays will be at .500” come my next article.
3. The Brett Lawrie ripple effect: Yes, I know in my last article this was a jeer but, with news that the Blue Jays are experimenting with Lawrie at second base during his rehab, comes a silver lining on the loss of Jose Reyes. I am not suggesting moving Jose Bautista to third base for the duration of Reyes’ injury but am frothing at the mouth over all the lineup possibilities Lawrie playing second gives manager John Gibbons. Gibbons has shown he likes to play his hitter matchups, Lawrie playing multiple positions is akin to a golden ticket in Gibbons’ game of sabermetrics.
Honourable Mention – Jays Defence in series opener post-Reyes: After watching a teammate being carted off, the Blue Jays infield saw three players switch positions mid-game. Needing twelve more outs to end the game, six were groundball outs and all six were handled cleanly.
THREE JEERS
1. Jose Reyes injury: Nothing can be said here that has not been said a trillion times already so I simply re-route to #3 of the Three Cheers section for a cushion to the blow of losing Reyes.
2. Bonifacio as leadoff hitter: Originally I wanted to argue having Rajai Davis back at leadoff hitter. Last year he batted only .209 in 177 at-bats but in 2010 he .291 in 258 at-bats. Bonifacio last year batted .194 in 62 leadoff at-bats but in 2011, he batted .310 in 397 at-bats. Looking at that comparison and reading how Gibbons wants to use Davis against left handers only poked giant holes in my argument. So my new argument is what has Bonifacio done to keep getting the benefit of a doubt and stay in the leadoff hitter position? He has failed to connect on his numerous bunt attempts, and going back to the game when he batted second in Detroit, Bonifacio has gone one for 12 with one walk and five strikeouts when at the top of the lineup sheet. Some hitters simply just hit better when they are at the bottom of the order, Bonifacio’s eight for 31 so far this season when batting in the bottom third of the lineup. I suggest go off the charts, give mini-Ichiro Munenori Kawasaki a game at leadoff (he went 1 for 3 in the leadoff position with Seattle last season).
3. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion: NFL commentator John Madden once said, “Winning is the best deodorant.” Bautista and Encarnacion are using the home run as their deodorant to cover up what has been a smelly start. During this past series the two combined to go three for 21 with six strikeouts. That’s just sickening until I mention they each hit a home run.
Honourable Mention – Adam Lind’s sunglasses: Lind batted .365 during spring training wearing sunglasses to most of his at-bats. When he donned the shades during this past series, I was hoping to see a return of the spring magic. Nope, he went 1 for 4.