Blue Jays statistics that are somewhat perplexing from 2017

Many Toronto Blue Jays insiders, bloggers, and prognosticators will be attempting to dissect the Blue Jays season that wasn’t and where they should look right the ship in 2018. Here are are few interesting statistics from the 2017 campaign that make you go hmmmmmm.

Triple Troubles

A triple can be one of the most exciting offensive plays in the game and can literally put a dagger in the opposition when a player can get to third base in one fell swoop. The Blue Jays lacked dearly in this department in 2017 managing to muster only 5 triples all season. The Baltimore Orioles are in second last in the majors with 12. The Cincinnati Reds and the Arizona Diamondbacks share the lead with 38 triples throughout the 2017 campaign.

To put this unflattering statistic into perspective the major league triples leader is the Rockies Charlie Blackmon with 14 followed by Billy Hamilton with 11 and Nick Castellanos with 10. Nobody on the Jays squad has more than 1 triple in 2017. (Pillar, Goins, Pearce, Smoak, and Carrera)

Sputtering Speed

The Blue Jays are an aging team built for power and often lack the ability to get runners into scoring position via the stolen base. Kevin Pillar leads the team with 15 stolen bases while Exequiel Carrera is second to Pillar with 9 swipes of his own.

The Jays have 52 stolen bases on the season as a team in 2017, that ranks them good enough for 2nd last in the majors with only the Orioles having less at 32 thefts. The Los Angeles Angels are top of the class when it comes to burners as they sit atop the rankings with 133 successful swipes.

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Twin Killings

The lack of team speed continues to be the Achilles Heel of the Blue Jays season as they also sit near the top of the leaderboard in grounding into double plays. As a team, the Jays have hit into 150 double plays good enough for second worst in the MLB trailing only the Kansas City Royals who have hit into 6 more than the Jays on the season.

The team leader responsible for the most twin killings is the slow afoot Kendrys Morales who owns 22 on his own. On a positive note, Josh Donaldson has only been responsible for 5 double plays all season long.

Late Inning Lapses

Although there were many positives from the Blue Jays bullpen this season the one issue was their relievers inability to slam the door on their opposition late in games. The Jays are tied for the league lead with 25 blown saves in 2017, in the top spot with them are also the Seattle Mariners Oakland Athletics. The Cleveland Indians have the fewest with only 10 blown saves toward their run to the postseason.

Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna leads the majors with 10 of his slamming the door at a 79.2% save conversion rate.

Final Eulogy

If the Blue Jays are going to compete and challenge for another postseason berth in 2018 they will need to become more athletic and faster as a group. September call-up Teoscar Hernandez profiles as a power hitter with also above average speed swiping 16 bags in the minors this season, his insertion into the lineup could assist becoming more athletic.

Obviously, bullpens will blow games those extra 15 compared to that of the Indians and others are the difference between the AL East basement and the playoffs. The emergence of Ryan Tepera, Dominic Leone, and Carlos Ramirez bode well for 2018 but as a group, the relievers need to lock it down better in the final innings.

Next: Blue Jays: The Donaldson rumours are already starting

Bet your bottom dollar the Blue Jays will be back in 2018 but they definitely have a few areas to address before then.