First of all, those four A marks are truly deserved: Hill (team-best 104 hits), Scutaro (89 hits), Rolen (85 hits) and Lind (95 hits) have to lead this offence on a consistent basis to get past the end of September.

Rios (83 hits) and Wells (80 hits) have a decent hits total but there hasn’t been from any of those two the consistency we absolutely need from both. Especially given their large contracts. After all Wells has had as many games (80) as Scutaro to put up much better numbers while Rios has had 78 games full of chances so far.

Moreover Rios is tied for third (with Scutaro at 319 total AB) on the club this year with Hill leading the team at 345 at bats and Vernon Wells being second with 322 at bats! There hasn’t been a lack of opportunities but VW’s home-road split is certainly extreme.

Wells has a team-best 2 triples and is fourth with 20 doubles but where has the power gone, since there are just 7 long balls to write back home about? Also, being sixth on the club in RBI with 36 in 80 games can’t be forgiven, given how much he is earning.

Something I really like: we don’t have just one player (Scutaro) with more walks (53) than strikeouts (40) but we have two such player with the other being Lyle Overbay (41 walks, 35 strikeouts). Lyle is also third on the team with 41 RBI and a better average against lefties would be a beautiful gift to all of us, certainly.

The one aspect in which Rios and Wells are thankfully delivering as usual is the stolen bases (Wells 12 for 12, Rios 13 for 15) but I believe that, like in every part of life, there’s room to improve anyhow. Yet, Wells only has 1 dinger and 3 RBI against lefthanders.

Position by position, I think we all agree that having a catcher who has hit well against righthanders would be very welcome as our catchers are doing just fine when facing southpaws. Also, some more patience at the plate by our catchers would produce a few more baserunners that our “top of the order” batters could turn into pur gold for us all.

I would argue with you that yes Overbay hasn’t hit against lefties but so far we can say that his very good patience at the plate has made up for that LHP-RHP split. I do hope Overbay keeps showing patience and taking precious walks. By the way, our defence is obviously worthy of a big praise thus far in pretty much all positions.

About Kevin Millar: let’s keep him only to face lefthanders and if things don’t get better well perhaps he can find a place in the broadcast booth. Turning to great news, I’m very pleased by Aaron Hill’s power numbers. Yes, a few more walks would be fantastic and of course we need him to make more contact steadily than his June average suggests. Overall, beautiful first half by him. We can only hope he keeps this exact pace up.

Hopefully Scutaro will bring his average back to where it stood before his June with yet another fine month. What you can say? He’s played all 80 games, he leads the club with 58 runs and with 53 walks. He’s one of 6 Jays with an average of 1 hit per game played. He’s tied with Rolen for 2nd on the team with 23 doubles. He has a triple, one homer and 3 RBI less than Wells! Scutaro is 7 for 11 in steals, good but it can always improve.

I guess one or more of those A marks could already be higher but we need to hope that at the very least all of them stay like that. Adding any more A marks could mean going past the end of September. The next series and the games before the break are crucial.

I have always had high hopes for Scott Rolen in a Toronto uniform. So far, I love what he is doing this year. His month of June was exactly what I hoped for from him. Yes, his RBI seem bigger to me as well but frankly if he can raise that total and homers number, it’s the only way for us to get even more pleased. If he can do so, we have a good chance.

We surely need a good July from Rios (and Wells, clearly) since it may very well be the decisive month. The number of hits is there, we would like to see a few more runs scored but especially some more doubles and more long balls. Which means more RBI (he has 37 for now) and that would bring him closer to Hill (56) and Lind (53). That must be the expectation as far as Rios and Wells: at least 30% more RBI and if not twice as many homers (Rios has 9), certainly those two should hit 20 apiece overall.

I completely agree on the fact that mental mistakes and an unpleasant road batting average are issues about Alex Rios that must be solved rapidly. Same story with Wells, who hasn’t delivered after the first month and after May 6 has gone 160 at bats without a long ball (worst drought ever for him). As with Rios, we should expect 20 long balls and something close to 100 RBI with the tasty appetizer of some 25 or more steals included.

Adam Lind, well, is not leaving me many ways to describe his steadily remarkable play so far. His 95 hits rank second on the team, his 25 doubles are unmatched and he has only Hill ahead of him in long balls (16 to Hill’s 19 which is the best number for a Jays’ second baseman ever). Not only is Lind second to Hill in RBI with 53 (three less than Aaron Hill) but it’s great to see that Lind’s 34 walks are third on the club!

Only Scutaro and Overbay have so far drawn more walks than Lind. That’s a really nice surprise. Lind hitting .360 and Rolen batting .384 in June? If in one of the coming 3 months (in July, it would be better!) one other bat (I would speculate Hill, of course) can put up such a set of numbers, well we can make up for the lost ground and who knows?

Another worrisome sign about Rios: he tops the club with 55 strikeouts, more patience is badly needed, especially away from home. Also, he is 1 for 17 in the last 5 games and has 2 hits in his last 27 at bats over the last 8 games. Rios went 3 for 31 on the last 9-game homestand in which the Jays went a suicidial 4-5 overall losing each of the last two series 2 games to 1! Ouch!

The problem is that Scutaro also went just 4 for 36 on the homestand. Wells instead has 2 hits in his last 19 at bats. Basically, we can’t think that Rolen’s career-best 19-game hitting streak is always enough. Scott is hitting a huge .423 (33 for 78) over the course of his great run. In my next post, I’ll deal with the Jays’ general offensive issues.

After a 15-9 April, Toronto went 14-15 in May (including those 9 straight road losses since being 3 1/2 up on top of the division May 18 with a 27-14 mark) and then 12-14 in June. Instead of improving, it got worse. The consecutive losing months were luckily the first since it happened in July and August of 2006.

Still, Ricky Romero has thrown 20 consecutive scoreless innings. He’s 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA in his last six starts. The only loss was that 1-0 stinker at Texas June 11. He’s gone 7 innings or more in five of his last six starts, totaling 42 1/3 IP with 40 strikeouts and just nine earned runs allowed. He’s yielded just 1 long balls in his last five starts. True, the Jays have won 5 of his last 6 starts by scoring 37 runs in all, that’s how it must be!

We won the last 3 games played after an off day (we are 3-1 overall). Ahead of us, it’s a 10-game road trip and then the All-Star Game. It can’t get any more pivotal than that. First the damn yankees, then Tampa Bay and then Baltimore. Right after the break, we have 3 at SkyDome against Boston to start a 9-game homestand. Fate in our own hands eh?

Despite going 1-3 in the last four games, Toronto allowed only 13 runs in that stretch so we should have done much better. We can’t ignore the team’s 2-5 record in the last 7 games of course. Or the 4-8 mark in the last 12 home games. Big problem: Toronto is 1-7 in its last 8 road games decided by 2 or fewer runs. More clutch hitting please!

Here’s an even more stinking statistic: on the road, Toronto is 0-17 this year when it’s scored 3 or fewer runs! Yikes! We need to start winning those games to contend, folks. However, when playing on the road against clubs with a winning record, the Jays own an 11-7 mark this year. Within that record, we can see that Toronto won 6 of the first 8 such games played, then lost 4 straight (all in May) before going 5-1 in June.

The next seven games are all on the road and against 2 winning clubs. On the road, it seems like the offence is the key: Toronto is 11-0 this year on the road against clubs with a winning record when scoring four runs or more but 0-7 against such foes when scoring three or fewer runs. Yet, winning close low-scoring games is also important!

the Wells and Rios problems are really getting severe … you can pull these guys out of the lineup and they would not be missed at all.

Although it sounds a bit radical, I really think it is time to put Wells on the 15-day DL and send him to the minors for some remedial work. What? you think the Jays cannot replace his numbers in the lineup? Coats, Matthews, could Philips play OF with little to no impact on team numbers. As such, it is a riskless transaction with a potential positive outcome with no downside risk (since Wells is performing so poorly). Something has to be done.

After this is done with Wells, I recommend Rios.

This is not punishment, it is just a chance to get them out of the limelight where they can experiment with their swing and stance a little bit without being second guessed by the mainstream press for every little adjustment they make. Then, when they pull it back together, get them back up and performing inline with expectations again.

No question about it. However, there are some statistics about the entire team that makes me fear that perhaps some opponents aren’t taken totally seriously. I mean: for example, Toronto is 0-10 when playing road against a team under .500 and when it’s scored 3 runs or less. That must change! Overall, the team is 6-13 on the road against sub-par teams and before winning the last game of the series in DC, the Jays had won just 2 of their previous 13 road games against sub-.500 clubs. Can you play in October with these numbers, although we are 17-11 on the road if you take out the 9-game road losing streak of May? I do believe they must improve especially against “bad” teams.