Comments on: Jays Spring Training Stats and Oddities

By: JayTeam

JayTeam — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:30:24 +0000

Good stuff, Mat. One trend I hope continues,is Aaron Hill doesn’t seem to be swinging for the fences, as evidenced by his 4 doubles in only 17 AB’s. Hopefully he’s abandoned the uppercut swing of last year and gone back to the line drive swing of ’09. The one thing that scares me is Cecil may have Kazmiritis – “my velocity has fallen down and can’t get up”. We need a healthy and effective Cecil going forward if we’re going to be contenders. I’m wishing Brett the best.

By: John Havok

John Havok — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:26:45 +0000

Just a couple points..

#1 The Jays are not all of a sudden going to be this massive base stealing team that takes bags at will. realistically there is only 2 or 3 legit stolen base threats on the club, and 2 (McCoy and Patterson) of the 3 (davis being the 3rd) will reside on the bench for the most part and see limited action in a pinch runner type role and the odd start to rest a regular.

Where I think the base running will be noticed more is the ability to go first to third on singles and scoring from 1st on a double. This club as a whole are better baserunners than in previous years and while we will steal more bases than last year, we arent going to be league leaders by any stretch. The Jays are still going to need a lot of those long balls to hang in games as the team OBP is completely reliant on guys like Lind, Hill, escobar etc getting back to career norms.

#2 in game managing. Farrell has already shown in spring training the ability to use the bunt in certain situations to move runners when it makes sense ( squeeze bunt? what? ), employ the hit and run and other things that our previous manager forgot existed. Couple that with better bullpen management and Farrell is already a vast improvement over the last 2 years skipper. This should translate into a better record in those 1 run ball games.

By: Brendon C

Brendon C — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:19:02 +0000

I liked the analyssi, however I was surprised there was no commentary on Rivera or Snider?

By: Mylegacy

Mylegacy — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:27:13 +0000

On many levels I think the team will surprise this season.

I think the starting pitching will be worse than we were hoping for. The loss of Morrow – if for any length of time will really hurt – he’s our only true Ace potential guy. There looks like 5 or 6 very good relievers – more after the injured return.

Offensively – I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised. We’ve a lot of power – almost as much as last year – a slim possibility we’ve even more! Speed – we’re gonna rock this year with everybody except Molina being given more rope to steal than they’re used to.

The total package of respectable pitching – no real black holes in the starting rotation or bullpen combined with an offense with increased speed, new growth (Snider, Escobar), return to form (Lind, Hill), and a newer more “post steroid era” offensive philosophy and I see a summer of fun watching our guys overachieve and threaten for Glory.

Unfortunately – I see them falling short – again – I’d say – baring a miracle – we’ve a reasonable chance of getting third, more likely fourth and if Baltimore’s young pitching develops – yikes – we could have a very nice and entertaining season and still finish last.

Such is life, as it is lived in the AL East – sigh.