You're Leaping from the Windows, Saying . . . : Jays Beat Indians 11-7
by jessef on Jul 8, 2011 11:05 PM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps
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The Blue Jays got back to their winning ways tonight, defeating the Indians in a slugfest tonight 11-7.
Starting pitcher Jo-jo Reyes didn't exactly pitch well (5 2/3 IP, 0 K, 3 BB, 8 H, 3 R (0 ER), but he pitched -- as is so often said -- "well enough to win." Well, show me someone who doesn't pitch well enough to win when your offence puts up 11 runs. Of course, after some of the losses and no decisions he took this season, it is nice to get him an easy win.
While the bullpen didn't cough up the lead (it's tough to cough it up when you score 8 runs in the first six innings), as a unit, they didn't exactly look great. Octavio Dotel came on in relief of Jojo in the sixth and pitched well, getting the last out (to strand two baserunners) and then pitched a perfect seventh. For the eighth inning, Shawn Camp came in and then the wheels fell off. Camp pitched to four batters, recording zero outs before being lifted for Jason Frasor with the bases loaded. Frasor gave up a hit, allowing two runners to score but got out of the inning without any further damage, managing to preserve the three run lead. After the Jays added a couple more insurance runs, Jon Rauch came in to close it out in the ninth and helped himself out of trouble with two strikeouts.
Well, obviously the bats were alive tonight against Mitch Talbot. All the starters had at least one hit, except Jose Bautista (who walked twice) and Aaron Hill (who walked once). Travis Snider (3-5, HR, 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI), Edwin Encarnacion (4-5, 2B, 4 R), and Rajai Davis (3-4, 2B. 2 R, 4 RBI) all had great days at the dish and Yunel Escobar (2-5, 2B, RBI) and Eric Thames (2-5) added two hits apiece.
Jays of the Day go to the Maharajai (.269), EE (.158), Yunel (.105), and Moonraker (.102)
I'm going to give an honourable mention to Dotel for stranding the two baserunners and Frasor for stopping the bleeding in the eighth.
J.P. Arencibia gets the Hinske and Camp gets the Batista
Tomorrow's another night game -- Brandon Morrow for the Jays and Josh Tomlin for the Tribe.
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Nice to see some production from the bottom of the order...
…Except JPA. I know he’s had wrist/hand issues, so if that’s it, sit him down and heal. He’s been hitting about .170 since June 1 and looks like a whiter, handsomer Rajai against breaking balls.
Oh well, good win.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
by craig in calgary on Jul 8, 2011 11:14 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I dont think having a bad thumb hurts your pitch recognition.
Hes been throwna steadily increasing number of sliders down and away as the season has progressed and has shown that he will continue to swing at them. he needs to learn to take that pitch.
Onions Baby Onions
according to fangraphs
he’s actually above-average against sliders. Though he is below-average against cutters, so it’s possible that pitches are getting mislabeled.
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
Or it could be part of the problem. He likes hitting sliders so he swings at ones that are out of reach.
I've been looking at the sky
by Back In Black on Jul 9, 2011 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions
that may be true
but that wouldn’t be a pitch recognition problem
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
The Creeper-stache (Moonraker) strikes again!
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct."
- Niels Bohr
6 feet, 235 pounds?
He’s friggin huge…
I'm thinking that when the Leafs win the Cup, I'll lose my drinking problem.
by leafsfan4life94 on Jul 8, 2011 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't think he is 235 anymore.
The guy has lost a lot of weight. I’d be shocked if he was over 215 atm.
I’d say he probably weighs in around 220…
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Davis
Earlier in the season, benk and I had an exchange regarding Rajai Davis. I thought he was a below-average player (based on OPS+), while benk thought he was okay (based on wRC+). We looked a bit closer at the stats, and we found that we were both right: over the recent past, Davis has indeed been a below-average hitter. However, he makes up for it on the basepaths, and since wRC+ takes stolen bases into account, he ends up being about average overall. This behavior is roughly what we have seen up to now. But I have to admit: Davis is exciting. He may not get on base all that often, but when he does, things happen! It’s a delight to watch.
Advanced Baseball stats 101:
If a stat doesn’t fit your hypothesis, find another one that does. Just kidding, please don’t jump down my throat.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
by craig in calgary on Jul 8, 2011 11:53 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 2 recs
like the Disraeli line
lies, damned lies, and statistics
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
I resent that
(I teach statistics)
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Jul 9, 2011 12:58 AM EDT up reply actions
What program do you use?
I’ve been trying to figure out R but I don’t know any programming, so it’s a bit confusing
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
heh
don’t get me started, in econometrics we used a completely made-for-our-class language called Ox, based on some derivative of C++ I believe… probably the most useless language in the entire world (except that it’s OO, so is at least kind of transferable)
WAR... WAR never changes.
I teach undergrad Business stats
…so we just use Excel – it’s what the students will have access to and be expected to use for simple analysis in their career. If I was teaching stats in Econ, I’d probably use R, but I’m not really a programmer.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Jul 9, 2011 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions
econ uses STATA for the most part
though R can probably be used for econometrics too
WAR... WAR never changes.
I’ve heard my econ talking about R, but I’ve known some to use others as well.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Jul 10, 2011 2:58 AM EDT up reply actions
I use SAS as of right now
with sigmaplot for figures and regression. Though I think R would probably suit the purposes better
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
I think the wave-particle duality nature of Rajai Davis actually allows him to be both below-average and okay at the same time
@BBBMinorLeaguer
by Minor Leaguer on Jul 9, 2011 3:16 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Whatta ya got there, numbers?
I've been looking at the sky
by Back In Black on Jul 9, 2011 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions
I just woke up
And first thing I see is this…..my head hurts now :p
by dchoubak on Jul 9, 2011 1:38 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Snider
I know, small sample size and all that, but Snider is clearly not the same batter as he was earlier in the year. We’ll have to see how things develop, but right now it really looks as if he has turned a corner. Personally, I don’t think that he could have made the appropriate adjustments in the majors, and so I was in favor of him being sent to Vegas. In particular, as I have mentioned before, I don’t think that Murphy would have suggested the necessary changes. His philosophy is “grip it and rip it,” and I question whether he is clever enough to modify this for a particular player. However, we’ll never know one way or the other, and I’m just happy that Snider is hitting the way he has.
yes it's a small sample
but that doesn’t mean the results are encouraging (even if they lack statistically significant predictive ability). Snider’s hitting lots of flyballs and not striking out too much (though he could stand to take a walk), which is exactly what we want to see from a power hitter
WAR... WAR never changes.
I don't understand why you keep saying this
Everything I have read about Dwayne Murphy’s “approach” is to go up to the plate with a plan, knowing what pitch you are looking for, and when you get it, swing hard. Be aggressive until you have 2 strikes, and then bat defensively. Sounds clever enough for me.
Really though, he’s not there to teach hitters how to hit. He’s there to help them get ready for games by going over opposing pitching staffs, and being a second set of eyes on how the hitter is doing. Minor league hitting coaches would be more appropriate for teaching a player how to rework their swing since that is a big part of their jobs.
by Playoffs!!!!1 on Jul 9, 2011 9:17 AM EDT up reply actions
Right, I didn’t get a chance to answer you in the other thread. I thought about what you said, and, on the whole, I accept it. So this means that it’s not that Murphy is not clever enough to figure out how to modify Snider’s approach. Rather, it’s simply not his job. Note: there were others who objected to Snider being sent down to Vegas, they wanted him to work things out in the majors. But I think that you and I agree that Vegas was a better place for him to do this.
Regarding his approach: I have also heard what you wrote. But I’m also influenced (perhaps unduly) by something that Cito said. He said that OBP is overrated, that he’d rather have a 40-HR, 100-RBI player. And the suggestion was that Murphy agreed with this point of view. Now, I don’t know if this is true — he walked a lot during his career, and had a good OBP. But it’s my impression that not a whole lot of emphasis is placed on not swinging at bad pitches. (OTOH, this may be a function of the hitters that are on the team, rather than Murphy.)
Its silly to suggest that a hitting coach can just tell guys to not swing at pitches out of the zone
by the time a player has made it to the majors, it is unlikely that they will drastically improve/decline in their pitch recognition abilities and plate awareness.
Our team has a low OBP with Murphy because our team was/is made up of players who have never had good OBPs.
Do you think Murphy goes out and says “only swing at sliders down and away Rajai!”
Onions Baby Onions
by the time a player has made it to the majors, it is unlikely that they will drastically improve/decline in their pitch recognition abilities and plate awareness.
I’m not sure about this. We know a AAA player has to improve by, say, 25% to succeed in the majors. For a hitter, what does this mean? Does he improve only his BA and SLG? Does his BB% stay constant? This doesn’t make sense to me. If a player improves, this means that all aspects of his game are subject to improvement. And this includes walks (i.e. pitch recognition abilities). How this happens, I don’t know. But I’d imagine that the hitting coach can play a role.
Well, show me someone who doesn’t pitch well enough to win when your offence puts up 11 runs.
by neilrqm on Jul 8, 2011 11:52 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
+1
I'm thinking that when the Leafs win the Cup, I'll lose my drinking problem.
by leafsfan4life94 on Jul 8, 2011 11:53 PM EDT up reply actions
Holy, early in the morning..is the absolute worse time in the day to watch TV…
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
Frankie should do one of these with our latin players..
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8366405
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
wow
snider should’ve totally had two homers this game. smoked that ball in the ninth.
Choose me, Ash!
One of my buddys (who is a fan of the Tigers) tried to tell me that Al Alburquerque is ‘brutal’…
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
Off topic but I would totally pay for In The Action seats for a Rauch-Ortiz fight
I would wanna get in the way when Big Papi gets pissed.
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
Ridiculous
None of those pitches was anywhere close to his head. Three inside pitches that were belt-high. Ortiz should be suspended several games.
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
Remember how Gregg could never hit the strike zone when he closed for us, and usually that made most of us pretty frustrated and not even a second after he’d pitch there’d be a big line of comments say things such as: “OMG Gregg”, “Wow pitch a strike” “OMG hit the strikezone”…well in this case, think of Ortiz has the strikezone, it was his target but…Gregg failed.
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions
how did Gregg fail?
I thought it was a dinger from Ortiz’s reaction but it was a popfly into shallow right-centre
WAR... WAR never changes.
agreed
it looked more like “i’ll pitch inside if I want to pitch inside” after Ortiz’ first pitch reaction.
Yep, I don't get Ortiz's reaction at all
Maybe there’s been bad blood there before or something? I don’t recall Ortiz getting into it with Gregg any deeper than any of the other Jays pitchers . . . I remember Halladay plunking him the day after the Red Sox hit three (I think?) Jays batters, including Lind in the head.
Ortiz crowds the plate, you have to bust him in, I really don’t see what was wrong on Gregg’s side
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
It looked like a NBA fight
Big punches being thrown that don’t come anywhere near connecting. Just as well – Gregg broke the Bull Durham rule and threw a punch with his pitching hand…
I've been looking at the sky
by Back In Black on Jul 9, 2011 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I NEED TO WATCH THAT MOVIE.
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Both hands on the bat Snider!
I didn’t get to see last nights game, but I watched the highlights on the Jays site. The big difference I noticed last night in Snider’s swing is that on the homerun and the double is that he kept his left hand on the bat both times instead of the one handed flick he had used on his other doubles since being called up. I understand that sometimes you need to use the flick to reach a pitch, but the seeing Travis drive both of his hands through the zone was impressive.
by Al Bundy is my hero on Jul 9, 2011 8:46 AM EDT reply actions
Hes always used both hands when he is balanced through the zone and hits a ball well
its just a matter of hit being consistent. When he gets out in front of a breaking ball, he resorts to using his hands to flick at the pitch and makes weak contact. Obviously he is strong enough to do something with it, but he needs to be able to stay back on breaking pitches mroe effectively so he can drive them with power.
Remember that game winning double he hit after breaking the bat over his knee? Good pitch, down and out of the zone, and he just flicked his wrists and hit it to the wall…
Onions Baby Onions
Aha...crazy Bostonian's in the background..
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
D-Jays Report..
Defeated West Michigan 2-1..
Michael Crouse: 0-4, 4 K’s…ouch.
Carlos Perez: 2-4, 2 R, 2B, a nice game for Carlos, bumping his AVG up to .259
Jake Marisnick: 2-4, 2B, RBI, a solid game for Jake, driving in a run.
Marcus Knecht: 1-3, 2B, RBI, BB, nice game for Marcus, driving the other run in the game in.
Matt Nuzzo and Bryce Namba collected the other two hits in the game for the D-Jays, while KC Dobson also reached base via a base on balls.
Marcus Walden:
5.2 IP | 4 H | 1 R | 1 ER | 1 BB | 1 SO |
Dustin Antolin:
1.1 IP | 2 H | 0 R | 0 ER | 0 BB | 1 SO |
Dannys Barnes:
2.0 IP | 1 H | 0 R | 0 ER | 0 BB | 3 SO |
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
Yeah, my bad there.
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Las Vegas Report...
Lossed 11-4 to Sacarmento..
Darin Mastroianni: 0-3, 1 R, 2 BB, .264
Ricardo Nanita: 1-5, .429
David Cooper: 0-3, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 SO, .369
Adam Loewen: 2-4, 2B, RBI, BB, 2 SO, .314
Kevin Howard: 2-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SO, .329
Chris Woodward: 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SO, .284
Manny Mayorson and Brian Jeroloman also pitched in with some offense as both went 1-4.
Brad Mills:
7.0 IP | 10 H | 7 R | 7 ER | 1 BB | 3 SO | 3 HR | yikes…not a very pretty line.
Winston Abreu:
1.0 IP | 0 H | 0 R | 0 ER | 3 BB | 1 SO | a very odd outing here for Abreu to say the least..
Rommie Lewis:
1.0 IP | 5 H | 4 R | 4 ER | 1 BB | 2 SO | 2 HR | ..and Lewis also got shelled..
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
Loss*
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions
Wow
Jeter just hit #3,000. A no-brainer into the LF stands.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
by craig in calgary on Jul 9, 2011 2:01 PM EDT reply actions
Ok, give the man his due.
He was one of the best for many years.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
by craig in calgary on Jul 9, 2011 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm sure there was no sarcasm in your comment.
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
by craig in calgary on Jul 9, 2011 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions
there was
but it didn’t have anything to do with him actually being great for several years.
Choose me, Ash!
I liked the YES guys talking about him
saying he is the same in spring training as World Series at bats, that’s the type of clutch I believe in. Though I think hitting a homer on your 3000th hit is clutch too. Big run in a close, fairly important game.
Nickname for Gose
Anyone like Gose-buster. He’s so fast, noone can see him.
BEAUTY PIKACHU.
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
by Joseph Kirby on Jul 9, 2011 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions
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