Blue Jays Player of the Week: Edwin Encarnacion

The 2015 Blue Jays regular season is in the books and that means the last player of the week as well. Fret not though as you’ll have series MVPs to look forward to throughout the Blue Jays’ postseason. Blue Jays’ postseason is a phrase that will still take some getting used to.

The Blue Jays went 3-4 in their last week of play. It was a very strange seven days with rain delays, division clinching, delayed celebrations for said clinching, backups/callups starting games, and a disastrous pursuit of 200 innings. This week had it all.

This player of the week award will be somewhat hollow as in the last 5 games the Jays weren’t overly concerned with winning games. The first two games against Baltimore were competitive as the division title was being clinched but the next two games were laughers. The 3 game set against the Rays featured regulars but it still had a “let’s just skip to the playoffs” type feel. But we’ll press on with the PoW with the same approach we’ve had all year.

The Blue Jays’ offence scored 5.43 runs/game this week. As an aside, the Jays just missed their all-time mark for runs scored in a season by three runs (891 runs in 2015. 894 runs in 2003). Kevin Pillar had 9 singles, a double, and a walk in 21 ABs. Dalton Pompey, finally receiving some ABs, had 3 singles, a double and a walk in 9 ABs. The playoff ineligible Darwin Barney hit 2 home runs, 2 singles and a walk in 14 ABs. Right now, he would be a much better option than Cliff Pennington as the backup infielder on the playoff roster (if he were eligible). Edwin Encarnacion had another of his huge weeks with 4 home runs, 3 singles and 4 walks.

The Jays’ defence allowed 5.57 runs/game. The starters had a 3.31 ERA/5.17 FIP. RA Dickey had an excellent abbreviated and scoreless 5 inning start allowing 2 walks/hits and striking out 3. Marco Estrada had two starts totalling 14 innings. He allowed 5 runs, 8 walk/hits and struck out 11. Marcus Stroman was sensational once again going 8 innings, allowing 1 run, 7 walks/hits and striking out 8.

The relief corps had an 6.66 ERA/6.42 FIP. Brett Cecil continued his ridiculous streak of no earned runs that dates back to June 24. The streak is now at 31.2 innings. This week Cecil didn’t allow a baserunner and struck out 5 in 2.1 innings. Aaron Sanchez seemed to find his mojo again pitching 2.2 innings with 4 Ks.

Edwin Encarnacion is your last player of the week for 2015. He had a 308 wRC+/1.556 OPS and had big hits in games that were still meaningful.

The Razzie had many candidates but it goes to Drew Hutchison as a fitting end to his nightmarish season.

Here are the PoWs and Razzies for the entire year. Edwin led the way with 5 PoWs and Hutchison had 4 Razzies
[table id=110 /]

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