As Blue Jays struggle to hit the long ball, embracing small ball may be more advantageous

When light hitting shortstop Andrés Giménez hit as many home runs in one game as the teams' top slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has 40+ games into the season, there's a problem. That's the scenario the Toronto Blue Jays are facing as they fell to 18-23 despite getting two home runs and five RBIs from Giménez in their 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday (May 12). Just like last season, the Blue Jays are struggled in the power department out of the gate, having hit just 39 home runs as team, ranking them tied for 20th overall.

Going into Tuesday night's game their team slug is sitting at .380, which is 19th in the league, tied with the Baltimore Orioles. Behind both of them, though, are the AL East division leading Rays sitting at .376, which ranks 21. The Milwaukee Brewers, are also behind them, slugging .353, but they sit second in the NL Central at 22-16.

One thing the Rays and the Brewers are doing to make up for that lack of slug though, is their ability to bring back the bunt. As illustrated by Pete Dwyer on FanSided.com these two teams are finding major success by playing "small ball." You can throw the Athletics in there as well. While the Athletics have the sixth best slugging percentage in the league (.400) they also have the best sacrifice bunt success rate. They've attempted 13 sac bunts, and have been successful ten times (76.9%) and are currently leading the AL West at 21-19.

Could the Blue Jays embrace more small ball to get over their offensive woes?

The Rays are executing this tactic at 73.7% and the Brewers at 58.1%. Meantime, both the Rays and the Brewers have been among the leagues best in converting bunts into hits. The Rays have eight bunt hits, while the Brewers have 13. While these numbers don't prove that bunts directly lead to runs, what it does is move guys over, and allows contact heavy lineups to keep the chains moving.

The Rays, the Athletics and the Brewers all have less hits overall than the Blue Jays, but they've all manufactured runs at a better pace than Toronto. As indicated, the Athletics are getting it done with a combination of utilizing bunts, and hitting home runs, though they are only five home runs ahead of Toronto. This shows that by effectively utilizing the bunt, these teams have managed to give themselves more opportunities to score runs, and then they are converting on those chances.

Almost a third of the Brewers total hits have come with men in scoring position. They have 305 hits overall, and 106 of them have come when there's an opportunity to drive in a run, giving them a .290/.394/.452 slash line. Tampa is hitting .283/.362/.391 in those same situations and the Athletics are slashing .258/.358/.432.

The Blue Jays are sporting a .253/.322/.356 slash line, even though they have the leagues lowest strikeout rate overall (18.2%) and the leagues lowest strikeout rate with RISP at 17.2%, they have just a .293 BABIP. Compare that to the Brewers (.342), Rays (.332) and Athletics (.300) and these are three teams that are effectively hitting their best, when it counts.

Last season, the Blue Jays managed to turn things around in the power department. They finished tied for 11th in the league with 191 home runs, but also managed to execute a league leading 1461 hits. They also lead the league with 400 hits with runners in scoring position, tied with the Brewers (go figure). At their current rate, the Blue Jays are desperate to find anything that works on a consistent basis. Perhaps, utilizing the bunt a little more would give them more chances to cash in.

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