Ricky Romeros Throws a Shutout, Jose Bautista Hits 2 Home Runs.
by Tom Dakers on May 15, 2010 3:56 PM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps
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Ricky Romero did just what we needed today. After the bullpen pitched 7 yesterday, a day off today for the relievers is a good thing. He had to go deep into the game and he did. Complete game shutout. 5 hits, just the one walk and 12 strikeouts. Just a great performance. Halladay couldn't have done better.
Our offense didn't have to do much. Jose Bautista did enough by himself. 3 for 4, 2 homers and 5 RBI. He even made a couple of nice plays in the field. Everyone else in the lineup had 1 hit, except for Randy Ruiz, 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. I'm thinking it is time to pull the plug on him. He's hitting a big .139 at the moment and doesn't seem to have a clue at the plate. I would think that when Encarnacion is ready to play, Randy will be leaving us.
Jays of the Day? You guessed it, Romero (.456 WPA) and Bautista (.171). No suckage Jays. Overbay had the worst number (-.070), a strikeout with the bases loaded in the first didn't help.
Not much more to say about that one. Tomorrow we go for the sweep with Brandon Morrow (2-3, 6.69) starting. Hope someone points out where home plate is for him. Colby Lewis (3-1, 3.15) starts for the Rangers.
The game thread was a lot of fun today. Join in with us tomorrow.
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RR was just as dominant as he was in the Sox game
That was fun to watch. I couldn’t agree more on Ruiz, he doesn’t have a clue at the plate and has some of the ugliest swings I’ve seen in a while. When E5 does come back, where does he go? He hasn’t done anything (IMO) to take JoBau or Lewis out of the lineup fulltime.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.
by craig in calgary on May 15, 2010 4:03 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
E5 can take Ruiz spot for now
Ruiz to minors.
E5 platooning.
I doubt E5 will platoon right off the bat.
Bautista continues to start until he gets cold. Yup, Ruiz will be sent to the minors. With no options, he could get picked up by a team needing some hitting off the bench.
Could E5 play 1st?
From "Dandy Randy" to..
Send the bum down.
We’re all in love with this guy rakin’ at AAA, we take him up – sit him on the bench until his ass grows roots – then get on his case when he can’t hit in his bi-weekly token appearance.
I love you all – but this is pissing me off.
Cito (whom I also love) CONTROLS Ruiz’s at bats – he’s let Overbay stink at first all season and now we’re getting on Ruiz’s back?
Count me off this which hunt. We’ve fu*ked this guy over big time. Randy – I still love you. Pity we never gave you an honest shot – I apologize on behalf of the team. when E5 comes back Randy will go back down – I’ll be watching his results at AAA with interest – hopefully he’ll be so good he gets a second chance – IF he does – I hope he gets a few bats.
Most people are not blame Ruiz for his current woes
But he has to go down, sitting on the bench is doing nothing to help him or the team.
Point of order – Overbay hasn’t “stunk” regularly in over 3 weeks (.841 OPS in last 23 games)
As for Ruiz, it’s true Cito didn’t give him a fair shake but I’m not for screwing over lewis (or even Bautista of whom I’m no particular fan) to try to fix it.
Ruiz isn’t the future. Send him down or, if you want to be nice, send him to Seattle for a bag of donuts and hope he gets in a groove out there. Doesn’t mean i have anything against Ruiz. Nor that I have anything for Cito.
it’s just that as the franchise is currently constructed, a successful Ruiz is basically just a nice short feel-good story at it’s very best.
Not something I’m going to pull my hair out over.
There's that...
and also the fact that any production that we’d get out of Ruiz would be equal or less than what we’re already getting at those positions (1B and DH).
It's all what you make of the opportunity you get
I like Randy and love his story, but if it’s about to end (for now anyway), he’d have to take responsibility for his performance. The guy’s not a young prospect who’s going to get all kinds of chances to succeed. He’s an old guy who’s been waiting a long time and finally got to make a team out of spring training. Sure he hasn’t been given a lot of ABs, at least early on, but tough, that’s the business – in his position you’ve got to make the most of any chance you get. And he hasn’t been able to do that. So it’s on him really, not the manager or the playing time.
One other thought
Here’s another way of looking at it before bemoaning Ruiz’s lack of playing time or what not. Take another hard luck Jays story this year – Jeremy Reed – I bet he’d love to have had the opportunity Randy’s had so far this year, even if that means riding the bench and inconsistent playing time. There is no shortage of players in the minors who’d love to have the chance of being the 25th man on a major league roster no matter how much playing time they got. They’d make the best of that opportunity and be grateful for it. And I bet that’s Randy’s attitude too, but unfortunately he just hasn’t been able to put it together.
And Mylegacy
Someone has to get sent down when E5 is back. I think the logical choice is RUiz.
Even though he has no future in this organization
a good performance by him can net us some prospects, and thats what we need right now.
HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM, I PRESS DOWN MAH GUNS!
No it can't...
no one is trading anything for Ruiz. There are 20 guys like him you could have for free in the minors.
He is a nice guy, nice story, but now that teams have had a moment to scout him they know he chases everything thrown outside.
If he had his power stroke from last year
I think he can be a Matt Stairs kind-of-guy for an NL contender. And you have to look at the difference between Ruiz who can do it in the major league level (IF he actually did), than someone in the minors who hasn’t.
HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM, I PRESS DOWN MAH GUNS!
Ruiz
Its too bad for Ruiz, but he’s had a long enough look now to hang himself. EE will come back and give more option in the field at any rate.
Romero was lights out again, when his changeup is working, he becomes dominant.
The good news for Jays is the bats are not going through week long slumps, they are doing enough through lineup that one single bat doesn’t have to carry the whole team
PHing???
As for Ruiz – I can’t see any reason to keeping him up if Lind is healthy. He can only DH, or at best, PH.
Even when I’m ignoring his recent cluelessness with the bat, I can’t see such a need for a pure PH (I don’t think we had such a position since the last year of Tony Ferandez). We’ll soon need that spot for EE anyway.
I’d rather that Wallace take that spot if he can platoon at 1B. But we can give him time (until Lyle is traded…)
Festina Lente
Some interesting minor league starts
Alvarez, Drabek, and Mills all pitch tonight
Hechavarria also plays his second game
Does anyone know why Snider didn't play?
He was also pulled late in yesterday’s game. Anything to be concerned about?
Wrist injury apparently.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.
by craig in calgary on May 15, 2010 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Not saying I disagree with send Ruiz to Vegas, but...
It’s not really a gamebreaking decision. Essentially, it’s between Ruiz and McCoy. Who’s more valuable?
Well, McCoy can pinch run, and can play outfield. If Hill, Gonzalez and McDonald are healthy, he won’t get a chance to play infield much. Funny how at the beginning of the season, everybody (including myself) was saying that McCoy might replace Gonzalez at SS by end of season.
Ruiz can hit. Yes, he’s very cold right now, but he’s always hit the ball well. Given the opportunity, he would hit eventually I’m sure. Not at a 50 HR rate like last season, but still probably above average. He can’t really defend well though, and with E5 coming back, there won’t be much room for Ruiz to get AB’s. Even for pinch hitting, I’m pretty sure Cito will opt to use E5 or Bautista (whoever is on the bench), in the rare instances that he would use a pinch hitter.
So yeah, I think for this team, McCoy (primarily as a pinch runner) is slightly more useful than Ruiz. However, where do send Ruiz. In Vegas, he takes AB’s away from Wallace, Arencibia (who DH’s on occasion) and Dopirak (who regularly DH’s). So maybe Ruiz stays simply for that reason.
Or maybe they send them both down to take a look at another player (i.e. Hoffpauir?). Who knows? We shall see…
People were saying McCoy was going to replace Agon? Really? I don’t remember that.
If anything I remember people saying McCoy was the new Inglett and I was thinking that be nice but I doubt it.
Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...
Not everybody, but I do remember some people (including Mike Wilner) saying that
McCoy might be able to prove to be a better option than Gonzalez, and that he could possibly be the team’s leadoff hitter.
If I have time, I’ll try to find some posts to that effect.
Yes
I shared that opinion – not that he’d send Gonzo to the bench but that he’d prove useful enough to make the Jays willing to deal Gonzo at some point – but the whole thought process arose from the lack of a lead-off hitter…a problem which Lewis solved.
Absent Fred Lewis, I’d still be saying that McCoy should platoon with JB if in fact Bautista was still leading off.
But, like Ruiz (and this is true of Wilner too) the idea was not “this guy could be a stud” so much as “what do we have to lose by finding out?”
Oh, and Gonzalez? He’s hitting .192 with a .679 OPS in May, just sayin’
Great day at the dome.
The best game I attended this year.
Ricky is becoming an idol for the fans.
Festina Lente
Ricky is starting to put up Halladay like numbers
It is great to see we still have a workhorse with the team. Hopefully some fans will see the excitement and come out. You are pretty much guaranteed to see a homer every game and a lot of K’s. I think every pitcher we have has a decent K/9.
Great game by both Romero And Bautista
Playa said:
Romero was lights out again, when his changeup is working, he becomes dominant.
That’s absolutely correct; and this time he did it against one of the American Leagues best hitting clubs. I caught some of the game on the radio, and in the post game show Ashby said Romero worked that great change off the fastball all game. I took that to mean he used his fastball more early in the count to get ahead of hitters. If true, could this mean that Romero’s struggles of late had to do with the fact he became too secondary pitch happy, especially early in the count? We’ve seen a lot of that the prior 2-3 games. Just a thought.
And as for Bautista, I don’t think there should be any debate about the fate of his starting job, for the foreseeable future at least. He’s earning the right to play everyday with his performance on the field, both offensively and defensively. Some people were justifiably talking about his lack of career hitting against RHP before the season, but he’s silencing his critics in that regard. In fact, basically all of his power numbers have been against RHP so far, and off pretty good pitchers mostly. His updated OPS number is .852 and over .910 against RHP. Now, I’m not ready tp declare JBau the intermediate term solution at 3B just yet, but he’s at least earned a long look (All-Star break) to play basically everyday IMO. The Marco Scutaro step-up possibility looks more and more in play as we go along. EE is going to have to platoon, getting time between an occasional JBau.Lewis/DH day off (Ling plays LF).
At best I think he has been mediocre. He has hit for decent power, but thats about it. He has an all or nothing swing so on days when he hits and hits Home Runs everyone praises the guy.
I don’t think his defense is anything to write home about, He hasn’t sailed any throws to first like EE does but in my personal opinion (And I am by far no scout) he doesn’t seem to get good enough jumps while playing the hot corner. He plays a lot of grounders off to the side on the back hand and just plain misses them.
Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...
Agree to disagree
I think he’s playing solid major league average defense at worst; and with the bat, he’s been one of the better hitters amongst AL third basemen. Just take a look around the AL Johnny – Bautista makes the grade. And the fact is, he’s eclipsing his prior career average into a higher threshold.
I’d be happy to move him if we can get Evan Longoria over there at third. Edwin Encarnacion? Not a freaking chance.
I thin Zeus is right on this one
I’m no scout, and got no eye for potential, but I got an eye for the bearing of a guy, and his seeming confidence.
Today, at the dome, and not only today, you can see that Bautista has that inner calm, that allows him to step up and deliver better than you would have expected of him.
Maybe we hit the mark with the Jedi nickname…
He definitely has his limitations, and I agree with JohnnyG that his positioning at 3B can be better, but he has that sure arm, and he has definitely exceeded my expectations.
I have, yet again, to grudgingly give kudos to Cito here, as well, as he seems to give (some of) his players that confidence – that security of their spot. It worked last year with Scoot and Lind, It works this year with the Jedi and Trevor, and we might still have some hope for 0-fer-Bay… (to build up his value before he’s traded…)
Festina Lente
Mediocre?
Sure his average isn’t fantastic, but its a lot better than E5 has ever done in toronto. And to say, all he has is power is a weird argument. He has arguably the best power numbers on the team who has the best power numbers in baseball. I’m suprised there is still people questioning his production, especially after today.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.
by craig in calgary on May 15, 2010 8:07 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Well, he may be a mediocre player, but it's hard to say he's been mediocre so far, in terms of production
9 HR
28 RBI
.852 OPS
He’s 5th in the AL in both HR and RBI.
Definitely a pleasant surprise. Whether it continues remains to be seen.
JoBau kind of reminds me of Ed Sprague during the glory years of the Jays. Kind of underappreciated because he doesn’t get the job done quite to the extent his teammates, therefore they always feel they can do better at that position. I don’t think JoBau is a long term solution to anything but he’s a good stopgap unitl something better comes along.
whoa whoa whoa
I’m not ready to compare Jobau to sprague until we get a good look at his wife. Kirsten Babb-Sprague set a pretty high bar.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.
by craig in calgary on May 15, 2010 8:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I think if we are well out of the race by the all-star break
Bautista should be shopped around. A bunch of teams could use a decent power hitting utility guy.
Onions Baby Onions
Agreed
I think a few teams might be interested. He could actually play third for the twins too, wouldn’t that be a nice deal JBau, Downs and an extra arm say Mills for Wilson Ramos?
Never Happen
Unless the Twins are completely desperate, they won’t move Ramos for a borderline back end lefty starter, a 34 year old lefty reliever and a career .240 utility man.
I Almost forgot
Someone used/coined the word “Doctastic” in the Game thread today. We should add that to the Definitions.
the change is trending
First it was the two-seamer that everybody seemed to be adopting (after Doc)….then it was the cutter (after Doc)….and now, the sucess of staff seems to be linked to the change-up.
I don’t know that you can link the success of the staff to any single pitch. I think its just a combination of mixing the pitches well, working both sides of the plate, and keeping it down in the zone.
There is also the intangible of confidence…Like today, I knew when Romero came out for the ninth he was getting the complete game, he carried himself like a man who was going to run the rangers over.
His changeup is so much better than it was from last year
but I still think Cecil’s best pitch is his slider.
HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM, I PRESS DOWN MAH GUNS!
Cecil has to go back to using the slider more. To me, its his best pitch and a pitch he doesn’t use enough because he fell in love with his changeup.
well he got a one hitter because of the change
so you can see how he might have fallen in love with it for the next start.
Bautista has had two 12 game hot streaks this year, good on him.
But I’m gonna hold off a bit longer before joining the BAS. His OPS coming into today was roughly where Rolen’s was when everyone was disappointed in him in 2008.
This is entierly a function of “chicks dig the long ball” – fine, if Bautista finishes the year with more than 30 homers i’ll sing his praises (he’s on a pace for almost 40) but for now, I’m not ready to pat Cito on the head for developing him or Bautista for turning it around – it’s far too early in the year for that.
All that said – Scutaro re-invented himself so it’s NOT impossible.
Still, I have to agree with the notion that any of these vets who create the impression they have value should be dealt. Forget coveting the Twins best prospect, if JB can get you any player who’s a legit prospect he should be dealt. Same for EE, Overbay, Downs, Frasor, Tallet, Gregg, Buck (when/if a youngster is ready) or Molina, and so forth.
Heck, someone (Sandler I think) wrote a piece the other day about Wells recovering some of his value. I’ve been thinking all along that once we got past the opt-out that you might could eat some of (say 7-8 a year) of his deal (or trade for a player making that much) and move him if you wanted. Sandler (?) made a good comparison to what Jason Bay was paid and their relative value.
You gotta remember though...
that the expectations for Rolen were a lot higher than those for JoBau.
Bautista's development is an interesting case study
I encourage you to check his seasonal lines at the Baseball Cube
He was definitely rushed to the Bigs. He OPS’d .872 as a 21 year-old in A ball. The next season he spent mostly in A+, but only 50 games (injury). He OPS’d .783. After that brief stint in high A, he was deemed ready for the majors. The next season, at age 23, he spent no time in the minors. He played limitedly in the majors for FOUR teams. In his age 22 and 23 seasons, he received just 277 at bats!!
In his age 24 season, he was sent back to the minors and saw his first season of 500+ ABs, mostly at AA, where he OPS’d .867.
His age 25 and 26 seasons were spent between AAA and Pittsburg, where he received 900+ AB’s and OPS’d .754.
Then last year he was dealt to Toronto for Robinson Diaz.
I guess my thoughts when I look at the line is that he had a fairly bright prospect star at one point, but was really messed around in his development. I think a .755 OPS is probably his floor through his prime. That’s pretty good for a utility guy. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a couple of .800-.850 seasons in him, given a full-time role.
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