©Eric P. Mull-US PRESSWIRE 4/7/2012

Deja-vu jokes aside, the visiting Blue Jays again triumphed over the Indians 7-4, in a game where neither team’s offense distinguished itself. Here are a few things your humble writer noticed while watching this contest.

This game featured the first start of the season of soon-to-be-suspended Cleveland starter Ubaldo Jimenez, who was locating his pitches well early on, and sinking them in the zone — something we saw a lot of in the first game from Justin Masterson, and seems to be a feature of this Cleveland starting staff. Jimenez took a perfect game into the sixth, until Colby Rasmus forced a walk.

Brandon Morrow had an odd line (as he often does) at the end of the game: he’d allowed one hit and two unearned runs to go with three walks and three strikeouts. He, like Jimenez, was moving the ball around, and doing a good job keeping an admittedly weak Indians lineup off balance until exiting after seven innings. He didn’t get flustered when J.P. Arencibia‘s error ended up prolonging an inning early.

It’s early, but I do like how Rasmus is looking at the plate; the numbers aren’t there, but he’s staying patient, and has hit the ball hard a few times. In the same vein of preemptive judgement, I’d be a little concerned about Eric Thames, who doesn’t seem to have progressed now that the games have started. It doesn’t seem like he has an approach at the plate, and that it’s still a bit of an adventure for him in the outfield.

Brett Lawrie‘s pretty good, you guys. In a game where few players distinguished themselves offensively (a nod to Kelly Johnson as well, who did alright), Lawrie went 3-for-5, with a few well hit balls, and still entirely unable to contain his manic energy, much to the delight of anyone who watches him. He had an aggressive fist bump with Jose Bautista after scoring in the 12th, and Bautista was shaking his hand out after. So great.

The in-game analysis seemed sharper than I remember: Pat Tabler made some good points about Jimenez losing velocity, and showed some love to a young Tampa Bay rotation, saying that rookie Matt Moore may be the best of them very soon. Gregg Zaun was off: He seemed to think the Jays were struggling against Jimenez because they were “window shopping” (looking at pitches), and then used Brett Lawrie‘s RBI single to make hit point- when Lawrie waited until 2-1 to take his cut.  Buck Martinez startled me when he talked about Jays bench coach Don Wakamatsu taking notes on Arencibia blocking balls (something he’s done well this year).

Apr 5, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Toronto Blue Jays catcher

The shot of the retro Martinez and Tabler jerseys in the crowd was great. Also on the subject of jerseys, how great is it to have blue jerseys back?

Sergio Santos blew the save, but it was one mistake pitch up that Asdrubal Cabrera took advantage of.  The Blue Jays bullpen as a whole has been very good so far this season, having survived two extra inning games. I bet they were glad for the extra day before the first and second game, and that Morrow went a little deeper than Ricky Romero did in the first game. The Indians’ bullpen, so good last year, has had a few hiccups so far, with Chris Perez blowing the save in the opener, and Tony Sipp‘s hiccup last night leading to the Jays’ win. Though there’s not many bullpens that would take as many innings as these two teams have in the first two games without a few hitches here and there. To me, it illustrates the volatility of relief pitchers, not just from year to year, but even game to game- Alex Anthopoulos’ strategy of building them cheaply appears to be the right move.

Additional non-game related note: Watching on Sportsnet West, they cut from the Jays game in the 12th inning with the Jays leading 5-3 (right after Rajai Davis‘ steal), to go the opening of Ducks/Flames. And here, we have the downside of living in a hockey crazed nation, where they’ll go from an extra-inning baseball game to the first period of the last game of a season for a team well out of the NHL playoff race.

After the first couple of games, we have to be encouraged by what we’ve seen from this Blue Jays team. Despite getting behind to the Indians’ starters, they were able to scratch out wins against a bullpen that was quite good last year. That resilience will help while some of the offensive pieces they’re counting on find their way, and the pitching staff settles down.

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Ricky Romero didn't have his best stuff on Thursday. (David Richard-US PRESSWIRE)

Pitch tracking is an aspect of advanced scouting that every team uses in preparation for starting pitchers in an upcoming series. On Thursday’s broadcast, Buck Martinez mentioned how former Blue Jays catcher Kevin Cash was an offseason addition to the advanced scouting department and that he had been helping prepare the team for the Cleveland series.

The PitchFX system has taken away from pitch tracking a little bit, but there’s something to be said for having human eyes watching a pitcher as opposed to relying entirely upon a computer algorithm. Computers can’t think for themselves, which can cause problems on occasion, including an issue I encountered during today’s game, which I’ll touch on later.

The first step in my preparation was to use the PitchFX data from FanGraphs to get a better idea of the specific velocity and movement of Romero’s pitches. As a Blue Jays fan I know what kind of an arsenal he has, but I wanted to have some actual numbers on my page that I could reference throughout the start for pitch classification. The data (from the 2011 season) was as follows:

47.5% | Four-seam fastball | 92.0 mph
23.4% | Two-seam fastball | 91.5 mph
18.7% | Changeup | 84.9 mph
9.1% | Curveball | 77.1 mph
1.2% | Slider | 84.5 mph

As you can immediately see, he’s heavily reliant upon his two fastballs, totaling 70.9% of pitches thrown. Romero’s changeup and curveball -– both excellent offerings -– were also thrown with significant frequency. The slider, however, was seldom used. To further that point, Romero threw 0 sliders in Thursday’s start against Cleveland. Now that we have some background information, onto the game.

The first inning was arguably Romero’s best of the day, as he efficiently set the Indians down in order while throwing only 11 pitches (seven strikes). He worked almost exclusively with the fastball — 10 of the 11 pitches were heaters ranging between 90 and 92 mph. The 11th pitch, and last of the inning, was a 79 mph curveball that Indians right fielder Shin-Soo Choo pounded into the dirt in front of Romero for an easy groundout. (Disclaimer: I found it extremely difficult to differentiate between a left handed pitcher’s two-seam and four-seam fastballs (particularly with such a small velocity difference) from a center field camera, so outside of pitches I was able to be definitive with, I’ll refer to them simply as fastballs)

The second inning was a completely different story. Romero allowed two walks, two doubles and gave up a huge three-run home run to Jack Hannahan while throwing a staggering 43 pitches (23 strikes). That insane pitch count took an immediate toll on Romero’s arm, as after sitting 91-92 with the fastball in the first (and peaking as high as 94 mph on a four-seamer to Jason Kipnis in the second), the velocity fell to 88-90 mph in the latter half of the inning. The inning did see Romero throw his first changeups of the afternoon, as he tossed seven in the frame. Romero was effective with the pitch, as five of the seven changeups went for strikes and the other two fell safely down below the strike zone. His one miss was a hanging changeup to Shelley Duncan which went for a double to left field, and the curveball had a similar fate. Romero threw the breaking ball seven times in the inning, with the one mistake being the curveball that split the plate, thigh-high to Jack Hannahan. The other six went for three balls and three strikes, with the balls being inside or in the dirt and the three strikes resulting in a swinging strike, groundout, and strikeout.

The third inning was where PitchFX began to show some of its inadequacies. Romero’s fastball velocity continued to drop, plummeting as low as 86 mph on a 2-0 pitch to Carlos Santana, and touching 90 mph on only two of the 13 fastballs thrown in the inning. The 86 mph pitch was wrongly classified as a changeup, as its velocity was far more similar to Romero’s 84.9 mph average changeup velocity than to his two-seam fastball average velocity of 91.5 mph. The issue continued to occur with more frequency in the fourth and fifth innings. PitchFX does not account for excruciatingly long innings wearing an arm out, which once again is why human eyes will always be superior to computer algorithms in terms of scouting. When fastball velocity drops 4-5 mph in a start, you must adjust expected off-speed velocity accordingly. The curveball showed up only once this inning -– the ball in dirt tagout play that ended the third –- while also showing a drop in velocity at 75 mph. Two changeups were thrown, both bounced in the dirt for balls.

Romero faced only three batters in the fourth, throwing 13 pitches (nine strikes) in the bounce-back inning. He once again worked almost exclusively off the fastball, with 11 thrown between 85 and 89 mph. I counted five misclassified fastballs this inning, as Romero’s velocity drop continued to terrorize the PitchFX software. The two off-speed pitches he threw were very impressive, both coming in the at-bat against Casey Kotchman. The first was an 0-2 changeup in the dirt that the batter wisely held back on. The curveball was the very next offering, clipping the inner part of the plate on its way to Arencibia’s glove. The pitch was wrongfully declared a ball instead of strike three by the home plate umpire, but Romero managed to induce a ground ball to short only two pitches later to get the out.

In his fifth and final inning, Romero once again retired Cleveland in order. Learning from his earlier mistake, Romero fed Hannahan nothing but fastballs, with the plate appearance ending on a spectacular diving catch in center field by Colby Rasmus. Michael Brantley saw the only off-speed pitch of the inning, taking the 76 mph curveball in the dirt for a ball. He grounded out to second base on the next pitch. Asdrubal Cabrera was Romero’s last batter of the game, and he was punched out on four fastballs. Of the 13 pitches (9 strikes) thrown, 12 were fastballs, ranging between 85 and 90 mph.

I was really hoping to see Romero be at his best -– and throw more than five innings -– but today’s game was perhaps even more interesting for two reasons. Prior to this exercise, I had never really put too much thought into the classification scheme of the PitchFX system. I knew how it worked (the basics, at least), but I never considered how one agonizing inning that causes a temporary velocity drop could throw the system off so much. For me, this only further emphasizes the need to inspect data for outliers when using statistical sites like FanGraphs to make an argument. It was also interesting to closely examine a start in which the pitcher didn’t have his best stuff, and see how he adapted to the situation. Romero failed to establish first pitch strikes early on in the game, and it cost him in the long run. With far too much frequency he fell behind 1-0, immediately giving the hitter the advantage. Furthermore, the constant two and three-ball counts forced Romero to try and locate his off-speed pitches within the strike zone to avoid the walk. Romero is a much better pitcher when he’s able to establish the fastball early in the count and then work the changeup and curveball into 0-2 and 1-2 situations, where he can target swinging strikes or weak contact outside the strike zone. In Thursday’s game, after seeing his off-speed pitches get lit up in the second inning, Romero threw 85.7% fastballs (36/42) over the final three innings, recovering both his command and confidence.

For anyone interested in the general data from Romero’s start:

Total pitches: 96 (55 strikes, 41 balls)
Fastballs: 75 (78.1%) –- 45 strikes, 30 balls -– 85-94 mph, averaged 89.2 mph
Curveballs: 11 (11.5%) –- 5 strikes, 6 balls (5 in dirt) –- 75-80 mph, averaged 77.1 mph
Changeups: 10 (10.4%) –- 5 strikes, 5 balls (4 in dirt) –- 80-85 mph, averaged 82.0 mph
Sliders: 0 (0.0%) –- N/A
First pitch: 11 strikes, 10 balls –- (20 fastballs, 1 changeup)

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March 2, 2012; Dunedin, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher

The Cleveland Indians have claimed right-handed reliever Rick VandenHurk off waivers from the Blue Jays, according to MLB Trade Rumors. He was signed by the Jays in February after being released by the Orioles.

The 6-foot-5 native of Eindhoven, Netherlands spent most of last season pitching for the Norfolk Tides, the Orioles’ Triple-A club. There he tossed over 150 innings and went 9-13 with a 4.43 ERA while also earning a major league call-up, appearing in four games.

Despite making a total of 28 starts last season, the 26-year-old was competing for a spot in the Jays’ crowded bullpen and was ultimately expendable. He didn’t have the strongest spring, as he allowed at least one earned run in each of his five outings and finished with a 9.95 ERA in 6 1/3 innings, including six walks.

- JM

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The news shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, considering it was well known that the 11-year veteran was hoping to re-establish his value on a one-year deal, likely with a contender. While Oswalt’s certainly not the 6 WAR pitcher now that he was early in his career with the Astros, he pitched well at times this past season and could turn out to be a steal for a club next season.

The question is, would one year of Oswalt in Toronto — blocking Brett Cecil, Dustin McGowan or Kyle Drabek in the process — have benefited the Blue Jays in the long run?

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Acquired by the Jays from the Cleveland Indians in a three player trade after the 1978 season, Griffin went on to win the 1979 Rookie of the Year award in what was the best season of his career.

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