Jul 25, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Mark Buehrle (56) during their game against the Houston Astros at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays beat the Astros 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
With the Toronto Blue Jays out of contention the September recruitments that come to the big leagues as part of roster expansion start to steal the attention from the players that have been on the big league team “all” season.
(I put all in quotations because this is the Jays after all, they can’t stay healthy.)
Yes, the players that have been on the team all season still exist and because they’ve been around all season some of them have a chance to reach certain milestones before the season ends.
Let’s start with today’s starting pitcher Mark Buehrle, the man, the legend, the phenom.
As you’ve probably heard about 200 times Buehrle has thrown 200 innings for 12 straight seasons.
Well now he sits at 179 innings so he has about 5 starts to pitch at least 21 innings to get to 200 innings for the 13th straight year!
21 innings in 5 starts should be a piece of cake.
Buehrle’s also made at least 30 starts in 12 straight years. He’s at 28 right now so that streak will continue to.
Buehrle also has 11 wins right now. If he can win 13 it’ll be the 6th straight year he’s won 13 games.
R.A. Dickey has also pitched 190 innings so far this season so he’s just 10 innings away from getting to 200 for the 3rd straight season.
Then there’s Edwin Encarnacion.
Edwin has 36 homeruns with 23 games left so you’ve got to love his chances of getting to 40 homeruns. He might even be able to tie and pass his career high of 42 homeruns from last season.
Hell, with the amount of homeruns he’s hit in Arizona and Minnesota in his career it wouldn’t be crazy to think he could pass 42 this week!
Edwin’s also sitting at 195 career homeruns right now so assuming he hits 5 more this season he’ll have 200 career.
Edwin also set a career high last season with 110 RBI’s. He’s already got 102 RBI’s this season so he should shatter the f**k out of his old record.
Adam Lind has 17 homeruns so he could get to 20.
J.P. Arencibia’s career high in homeruns is 23. He’s sitting on 20 right now so tying or passing his old career high is very possible. Arencibia’s career high in RBI’s is 78. He has 51 RBI’s so far so it’s possible he beats his old record. But he’s a catcher so we already know he’s not going to play every game the rest of the season so it’ll be harder for him than others.
Brett Lawrie has 10 homeruns, 38 RBI’s and 7 stolen bases right now. His career highs are 11 homeruns, 48 RBI’s and 13 stolen bases so he could pass all those. Passing his old homerun and RBI totals is probably the more realistic career highs he’ll pass unless he starts going nuts on the base paths. Lawrie’s career high in triples is 4 and he’s got 3 this season so there’s that to.
Jose Reyes has a mere 13 stolen bases because he’s been too conservative on the base paths since coming back from his injury. But he could get to 20 stolen bases easy IF he starts running again. But that’s a big if.
Reyes also has 9 homeruns so he just needs one more to get into the double digits.
Rajai Davis is sitting on 40 stolen bases right now. His career high is 50 which should be very attainable if he gets enough playing time or is on the base paths enough. He also has 3 homeruns, his career high is 8 but him tying or passing that seems unlikely.
Anthony Gose has 3 stolen bases, his career high is 15 from last season. Like Rajai he could tie or pass his career high with playing time and getting on base. He also needs just 1 homerun to tie his career high of 1 homerun last season.
Mark Derosa is sitting on 7 homeruns. If he gets enough playing time, he could get to 10.
Moises Sierra has 1 homerun in 13 games this season. He hit 6 in 49 games last year so it might be crazy to think he could tie his record but crazier things have happened.
Esmil Rogers career high in strikeouts is 83, he’s got 81 right now so he should pass that record with no problem.
Casey Janssen has 27 saves which is already a career high. If my math’s right that means he’s 3 saves away from 30. The only thing that could stop Janssen from getting 30 saves is not getting 3 more save opportunities. If he gets enough opportunities he should be a safe bet for 30+ saves.
And you can kiss my rear end if you think I’m looking up stats for all the relievers! If you want to follow any of their milestones you’ve got to figure them out for yourself.
To be fair to the healthy players I’m talking about the injured guys that may come back last because these guys would definitely have gotten an earlier mention if they were on the field right now.
Jose Bautista has 28 homeruns. I don’t care if he only comes back for the last game of the season 30 homeruns will still be within his reach because he’s Jose Bautista.
Colby Rasmus has 18 homeruns so if he comes back he could get to 20 or maybe even pass his old career high of 23 if he goes on a homerun spree, which he’s shown he’s capable of before. Rasmus is also just 12 hits away from 600 career hits, although that may not be realistic by the time he gets back, if he gets back.
The Jays may not be in contention but they still have a lot of players that are chasing milestones.