Jays Journal » Jon Rauch

The Future of the Jays Pen: Jonathan Papelbon and Ryan Madson?

Mat Germain — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:26:53 +0000

As questions about the bullpen and its makeup, particularly for next season, begin to build, I thought it was important to take a tour of the historical aspects of the Jays pen under their newest GM. If there’s one thing that has been constant in the ERA of Alex Anthopoulos, it has been the use of bullpen pitchers to get what he wants on the trade market, or in the draft. You don’t have to look any further than the evidence at hand, the transactions, to see what I mean. Here’s a rundown of significant pen events since he has taken over as the GM of the Jays:

Using Pen Pieces to Acquire Key Pieces (more…)

Jose Bautista Heroic in Cleveland

Mat Germain — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:40:54 +0000

Although the Jays did suffer their 15th blown save of the season after Jon Rauch allowed the Indians to tie this game in the 9th inning, their fearless leader came through with 2 big knocks that solidified his pre-All-Star record at a solid 31 HRs, just 8 short of what Barry Bonds accomplished when he set the MLB HR record. To put it into today’s language, not only does he have the same number of HRs as Joey Votto and Mike Stanton combined, but he is also doing it with a much better line .332/.468/.702. In short, Jose Bautista is having an MVP caliber season. (more…)

Jays Get Pronked, The Jays Pen Just Isn’t “Right”

Mat Germain — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:38:00 +0000

I went to bed after a long hard day believing that the Jays had this one in the bag. But, knowing that things happen quickly sometimes, I changed the channel on my TV, brought it back to the game (so it wouldn’t add 2 hours of baseball I had watched to the DVR) and set it to record the last inning. What I saw when I watched it this morning was about as horrible a game-ending as one could imagine. (more…)

Jays Loss Hurts: Jo-Jo Reyes Now Winless in 24 Consecutive Starts

Mat Germain — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:08:24 +0000

This is the first time in a while that the Jays lose the first game of a series. Maybe that’s a good thing since they’ve also gone on to lose the remainder of the series after winning the first game, so a flip of that scenario would have the Jays winning the rest of the games vs the Rays in this series. It was evident that the Jays missed Jose Bautista‘s bat in the lineup, or JBeasta as I like to call him, and a couple of 2011 Jays additions had a hard time taking up the slack.

Juan Rivera, Rajai Davis, and David Cooper (more…)

Jays Win Despite Lack of Output From Key Players, New Strategy Working

Mat Germain — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:47:25 +0000

The Jays are not by any means beating up on the AL as they currently sit at .500, but to have achieved that level of performance despite all of the losses the key players they were missing is both impressive and possibly unexpected. To beat up on the Rangers as they did, winning 3 of 4, and to beat the Yankees in the opener of this series is impressive on its own. They have the chance to be 1.5 games back of the Yankees if they win today’s game as April ends, and could begin to improve on that in May as key players return to the fold and fresh blood from the minors begins to make its impact felt.

Why is it impressive and unexpected? (more…)

A.L. East Week-in-Review: (3/31 – 4/10)

Mat Germain — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:07:38 +0000

The following is a review of prominent events that have taken place during the past week in the A.L. East, as compiled by Fansided’s writers from each club in the division. This “Week-in-Review” series is one which will run all season long and will be posted each Monday to recap the previous week (Monday through Sunday). To add a little gloating rights to this series, the teams will be posted in an order that replicates the actual standings as of the day of the post, giving a chance for the writers to rub some salt in the wounds of the other team writers. However, the post will be made on each site in a rotational basis, meaning that each team will provide a link to the post, but only 1 site will actually have the compilation posted.

Here is the A.L. East Week-in-Review for the week of: March 31st through April 10th:

1st Place: Baltimore Orioles (more…)

Game Recap, 3 Apr: Jays Lose Close One

Mat Germain — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:33:27 +0000

If you attended this game or watched it on TV, you got your money’s/time’s worth and were very well entertained. There was a little bit of everything in this game. Great pitching (Blackburn), great hitting (Bautista), bad fielding (E5), great fielding (Snider – Outfield assist/Arencibia – threw out a runner and kept others honest), and hard running for infield hits (Encarnacion). Hey, a fan even saved the life of a cop about to get beaned by a foul ball, so you know there was a little bit of everything in there.

The BoxScore is available here.

Brett Cecil wasn’t overly sharp in this game, but I have to admit that the umpire behind the plate wasn’t giving him much help. The zone was very tight today, and it hurt Cecil on very important counts and you could tell that it got to him a little. Maybe a catcher that Jose Molina would have walked up there to calm him down a little, but the result was a little more wildness from Cecil and a little more trouble on the scoreboard. It wasn’t a horrible start by any means, but you could tell that he was still looking for location throughout the game. (more…)

2011 Blue Jays: Bullpen

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:27:05 +0000

For all of the experience that the Jays rotation lacks, the bullpen has it in spades. This includes four pitchers with over 400 innings pitched in the Majors, and three with significant experience closing games. On paper, it looks to be stronger than the Jays pen’ in 2010. The loss of Scott Downs to free [...]

2011 Blue Jays: Bullpen - Jays Journal - Jays Journal - A Toronto Blue Jays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Jays Spring Training Stats and Oddities

Mat Germain — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:52:50 +0000

As we wind down to the final few games of spring training and finally head towards the beginning of the 2011 season, I thought it would be fun to sift through some of the stats from this spring training and to see what looks right, and what looks odd. I want to stress that I don’t put any stock into spring training stats, other than to say that one hitter or pitcher seems to be “right” and healthy, but it’s still a fun excercise that can sometimes point to guys that could surprise during the upcoming season.

Here’s a run down of what I’ve noticed to this point: (more…)

Jays Journal: Leonys Martin, Richard Thon, Spring Notes, and Links

Mat Germain — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:53:59 +0000

I recently broke down the argument for the Jays to sign Leonys Martin out of Cuba (actually, he is currently in Mexico), and heard a lot of feedback from fans who were apprehensive about spending so much money on a light-hitting, good speed and good defensive ability center-fielder. So, I asked John Manuel of Baseball America, a professional who actually has the scouting breakdown on Martin, the following question on Twitter in order to get a sense for how Martin would fare amongst Jays prospects:

“@johnmanuelba Would Leonys Martin be within the top 15 Jays prospects if signed?“

And he answered as follows: (more…)