Blue Jays Morning Brew: Platoons, Top Hitters & Deja Vu

Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Good Morning. Wipe the sleep from your eyes because we’ve brewed up a fresh pot of Blue Jays goodness to start your day. Here’s your Blue Jays Morning Brew.

Over at Sportsnet.ca, Mike Wilner offers up some defense of platooning players. He says the Blue Jays could benefit from the use of the platoon. He cites the example of Adam Lind who has behemoth struggles against left handed pitchers, but has a sky high average against righties. Danny Valencia is the exact opposite. Personally, I’d be OK with those two alternating at first base. As long as it means we never have to see another Juan Francisco strike out.

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Wilner’s colleague, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca provides an argument that Jose Bautista is indeed one of baseball’s elite hitters. He takes the stance that Bautista deserves to be in the same conversation as Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton, Victor Martinez, etc. What Nicholson-Smith doesn’t mention is the WHY. Why is Bautista not mentioned in the same sentence as those hitters? Is it because he plays in Toronto? I think this explains why Bautista seems to have a chip on his shoulder. He absolutely should be included as one of the top hitters, but he isn’t. What’s more, he should also be in the running for a Gold Glove this year in right field. Whether he wins or not, I think his defense has been under rated; this year in particular.

Over at The Sun,

dissects the 2014 season

to look at why this year has been like Groundhog Day; deja vu all over again. For the past 21 (!) seasons, the Blue Jays will be on their couches watching the post season drama.

Betsided

Elliott points to at bats being given to players who probably should not be getting that many. Should

see so much time? Juan Francisco?

? The list goes on. It highlights the lack of depth the Blue Jays possess. This off season will hopefully be a busy one for Alex Anthopoulos as he should be adding regulars AND quality depth…oh and a starter…and some bullpen depth.

Also at The Sun, Steve Simmons exmaines John Gibbons‘ return to the Blue Jays in 2015. This seems like a non-issue to me. It’s been talked about too much for something that isn’t even debatable. But, if you are interested, here it is.

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a bit of awesome:

AND: