Brett Lawrie Goes 2 for 4: Jays Beat Orioles
by Tom Dakers on Aug 5, 2011 11:01 PM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps
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PrintDear John Farrell,
Folks around here will tell you that I'm not a young man (lousy little soon to be banned folks), though I don't feel like I'm old or anything, I don't think my heart/blood pressure/laptop computer can stand Jon Rauch pitching in a 9th inning save situation game. Please find some other arrangement could you.
Thanks,
Tom
Other than the bottom of the 9th, that was a fun game. Brett Lawrie had a hit and a RBI in his first MLB at bat. We had 11 hits in all. Yunel Escobar, Colby Rasmus and Brett had 2 each. All the other starters had 1 except for J.P. Arencibia who took an 0 for 4 but he's been so hot lately, we'll allow him an 0 for. Aaron Hill drove in 2, Yunel, Rasmus and Lawrie drove in 1 each. Edwin Encarncion scored 2 runs and tried for a 3rd on a run on contact play, getting thrown out at the plate.
We could have scored more but we got enough.
Brad Mills had a pretty good start. He seemed to be leaving more pitches up than his first start but got the win with 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 3 earned, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. Not great, not terrible. Adam Jones took him deep after a long at bat where he finally left a pitch up across the middle of the plate.
Our relievers did a good job, if you ignore Rauch. Luis Perez came in with 2 on and 1 out in the 6th and got out of the jam. He gave up a single and made an error before getting a strikeout to start the 7th. The error was on a swinging bunt, the ball stopped near the line, Luis tried to throw past the runner, Robert Andino, who was clearly inside the running lane. 90% of the time he would have been called out for that, but not tonight. John Farrell got ejected from the game in the argument that followed. Jesse Litsch came in, with the 2 on and 1 out and got out of the inning quick. Frank Francisco had a 1, 2, 3 8th inning.
Then Rauch came in for the save in the 9th. He got 2 quick outs, then gave up a single and a run scoring double to worry us. But he got Adam Jones to pop out to end the game. Amazingly enough he didn't give up a home run for a change.
Jays of the Day are Litsch (.188 WPA), Rasmus (.151), EE (.115) and Yunel (.105). Suckage numbers went to JP (-.138), Thames (-.109 despite his first hit in a week) and Mills (-.120).
Lawrie had a nice day with the bat, but not a great day with the glove. He made 1 error and had another hard hit ball go through him, that he could have been given an error on. Also there was a throw to second that wasn't prefect on what could have been a double play. Likely opening night jitters.
Colby Rasmus had his hand stepped on, on a play at the plate. He was thrown out on a prefect throw by Orioles LFer Nolan Reimold. He came out of the game with a cut on his middle finger but should be able to play tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have a night game. Brandon Morrow (8-5, 4.58) gets the start. The Orioles go with Chris Tilman (2-4, 5.16). It would be a pretty tough transition from the soft throwing Mills to Brandon Morrow.
Game thread was fun tonight with everyone excited to see Lawrie. He didn't let us down.
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Dear Tom,
I’m forwarding your letter to Don Wakamatsu.
Thanks for writing,
John
Yes, I am addicted to the bbref play index. @BBBMinorLeaguer
by Minor Leaguer on Aug 5, 2011 11:06 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs
Lawrie replacing Bautista as my wallpaper.
He was great today, minus the errors.
You just have a 3B fetish!
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Aug 5, 2011 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions
It's a little too late for that now!
Ohhhh
Cause he said he was old right?
Am I right guys?
Guys?
A day that will live in infamy: August 4th, 2011
Brett Lawrie: AVG: .500 HR: 0 RBI: 1 OBP: .500 WPA: 0.051
The error was on a swinging bunt, the ball stopped near the line, Luis tried to throw past the runner, Robert Andino, who was clearly inside the running lane.
As Wilner says, pitchers and catchers should be trained not to avoid the baserunner with their throw when the runner is inside the baseline – nail them in the back! That’s how you get the call.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Aug 5, 2011 11:12 PM EDT reply actions
cmon Tom, ppl shouldn't get ban for speaking the truth lol
Anyway it was a good game though i think we all can appreciate an easier 9th inning. Finally the COLBY and LAWRIE Era has come, and its only going to get better. Cant get anymore exciting
It can get more exciting
If Snider ever succeeds at the major league level. I might explode.
potential?
tell alex rios and AJ burnett about this
LET THEM FADE
ever so much as the brightness of the future calls for us to wear shades.
That being said: Screw Burnett and haha to K Williams for “stealing” Rios.
rios and burnett
Combined for about 25 wins in their careers in Toronto
WAR... WAR never changes.
by benk on Aug 6, 2011 11:05 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Awesome picture of Lawrie tweeted by his pal RickyRo
Yes, I am addicted to the bbref play index. @BBBMinorLeaguer
looks like a lion costume
from like a middle school play
Excuse me, do these effectively hide my thunder?
Litsch out of the pen was refreshing
I felt comfortable for the first time in a while once the starters are out.
Mills looked good too in the rotation
Could be...
I still liked the change up and he has a dirty curve. Fun to watch.
I agree he is fun to watch
But man, he throws absolute garbage. It’s fascinating but even today he got by by the skin of his teeth at times. You will almost member feel he had a good game, just a lucky one.
Ball.
by Casusby on Aug 6, 2011 12:05 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Do you think that part of the Lawrie timing...
…was to retain his eligibility for the 2012 Rookie of the Year? Eligibility is based on no more than 130 at bats or 45 days on the ML roster before September 1 in previous seasons. Just a thought.
Hugo thinks I'm a lazy academic
by bluejaysstatsgeek on Aug 5, 2011 11:52 PM EDT reply actions
does anybody other than lawrie, his family, his close friends, and fans care about that?
if management actually made a decision with that in mind I’d freak out.
COLBY RASMUS
by Pikachu on Aug 6, 2011 3:28 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Pikachu, yet again, is quite right.
Really, If ever you hear that’s even a minor consideration for our FO, wouldn’t all of you freak out? I sure will!
"Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking." (J.M Keynes)
Lawrie's just what they said he was...
Brilliant bat – no position to play.
He reminds me of my father, Dad was a semi-professional boxer and a sprinter (almost made the Canadian Olympic team as a youth in Halifax) – however – throw him a ball and he looked pathetic. Lawrie just doesn’t have “soft hands” he muscles catches not caresses them.
Will be become adequate? I think so with JMac and Butter there to help and train him every day – and – him being a great athlete I think he’ll get to adequate -’specially having just a special hit tool.
As his thick trunk fill out – athlete or not – the guys a corner outfielder eventually.
That bat though – that is a special weapon – may the force be with him!
oh come on
It’s his first game in his first season playing 3B… Let’s give him a year or two before we write off his glove, maybe?
WAR... WAR never changes.
by benk on Aug 6, 2011 12:01 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
No, we all remember the failed Adam-Lind-at-1B experiment from last year. No-one wants to repeat that mistake! Move Lawrie to DH!
I've been looking at the sky
by Back In Black on Aug 6, 2011 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
What does Adam Lind have to do with Lawrie?
Because Lind has become a good 1st baseman, anyone can play any position?
it means
that it’s entirely unfair to judge a player based on one bad game, one bad stretch, or even one bad month. give him a season, then an offseason, then another season before we BEGIN to make long-term judgments on his abilities
WAR... WAR never changes.
by benk on Aug 6, 2011 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
You may be right about the muscling catches thing (hard to tell after one game though), but to me it just looked like his fundamentals are lacking – obviously since he only took up the position a few months ago. Thankfully, fundamentals are teachable.
And
we have an excellent Butter to to teach him. Apparently MacDonald has his ear too. He was jacked up on Defencse and it showed.
Remember, this is a 21 year old who is heralded as the saviour of the franchise by the fan base
I think its legit for him to have some first game jitters. Hell, it’ll take him till the rest of the season to adjust to major league defense.
For both him and Rasmus, they should remain plugged into the line up regardless of the results.
Can we start the Gose watch yet?
Never a dull moment, just Rauch moments
Francisco looked stellar and Rauch looked like he could only hurl meatballs.
I sure hope they spend every day working on the kids fielding. Or he is going to be fustraing to watch for the next 10 years.
by Jeremywilhelm on Aug 6, 2011 12:56 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Tough critic
He had an awesome game, errors included
Wow
Your first day at the new job go bad and make you bitter? Be patient. If he’s that bad at third in 1 1/2 yrs, he won’t be playing third in 10 years.
both are not good
but at least Lawrie has both range & arm. Encarnacion’s arm is pretty bad.
COLBY RASMUS
Well heres the thing..
Both have decent range, Edwin has a bad arm, from what I’ve heard, Lawrie has a good arm, Edwin has a good glove, but I haven’t heard anything very great about Lawrie’s are so both are pretty close I’d say.
Colby Rasmus is pretty good at baseball..
Must have been decent as
he used catch and play 2nd. You don’t play second with a steel glove. I thought the early reports were his feet and how he moved them as prime concern.
His foot work is not very good. But it can be fixed. I do believe his glove was because of the jitters. Which is understandable.
by Jeremywilhelm on Aug 6, 2011 2:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
he has good range from what i hear from scouts
he’s just very rough and unrefined. He has all the tools to become an above average defender at 3B, he just has to polish his defence.
COLBY RASMUS
Yes, and I'm sure he could easily become an above average 3B with help from Butters and J-Mac.
Colby Rasmus is pretty good at baseball..
Observations
What stuck out to me last night was that Colby Rasmus is settling in here and showing some savvy. I thought he had a good game last night even though he missed the sign to run on contact when he was at second base. Had he done that he would have been at third for Lawrie’s second hit. Anyway I just thought I saw a new confidence in him and I liked it. Regarding Lawrie, I was impressed by his bat, but his glove was not so good. Obviously we won’t get to cranked over one game. It will be interesting to see him work with Johny Mac to get things in shape. In the back of my mind I was wondering if JBau should play third and Lawrie go to RF. Time will tell.
I'm so fricken lucky!!!
I come home from Greece after three weeks around 12 pm, flip on the game at 7 to see that it’s Lawrie’s debut and then I get to watch a great game for the first game I see in 22 days.
If you can't pay em' trade em' and pay for someone else
Where does our closer come from???
Anyone have thoughts on this. I like Litsch and Perez in the bull pen but I don’t think they are closers. What about Joel Carreno? Some have thought he could be a good reliever, how about as a closer? We have a couple of young guys who aren’t ready like Nestor Molina (looks a little like Rivera), and Drew Hutchison. Could one or both of these guys be our closer of the future? I don’t think you can under estimate the value of having a really good closer and set up guy, especially in the AL East. When would they be ready for the majors? Any thoughts?
Yeah, wouldn't mind seeing him up in the pen in september
Didnt Price pitch from the ’pen before becoming a starter the next season?
Onions Baby Onions
yes
But IIRC that was because they needed an elite arm in the pen for the playoffs. They then reverted to Price as an SP, and I don’t think the Jays would put Alvarez in the pen then make him a starter again (whether or not that’s the right move)
WAR... WAR never changes.
by benk on Aug 6, 2011 11:07 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
So are Neftali Feliz, Chris Sale, and Aroldis Chapman.
The Sox want to move Sale back to SP next year, the Rangers will talk about switching Feliz, I don’t know what the Reds are saying.
and so is Chapman
not that neither one will ever turn it around, but still
WAR... WAR never changes.
Chapman has a 1.35 ERA and 14.9 K/9 in the last 30 days.
Feliz hasn’t been that bad either in that span, although in limited action.
He made his first appearance after his call-up on June 25.
Since then he’s had a 34:6 K:BB ratio and allowed 3 ER, all from 2 HR, in 19.1 IP! Yowza!
Here's the video of the Phillies-Giants brawl I talked about in the GDT
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310805126
A day that will live in infamy: August 4th, 2011
Brett Lawrie: AVG: .500 HR: 0 RBI: 1 OBP: .500 WPA: 0.051
Wai I thought you said you couldn't ban all the people who commented on how ancient you are....
because then you would be all alone here?
37. There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload.'
by IanJ on Aug 6, 2011 9:48 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I love Lawrie in the 9 hole
just because its fun to watch each inning now.
Great game by Lawrie with the bat, such a better feeling watching players that are going to be around for another 10 years than placeholders.
Write more stuff about how Francisco should close and hopefully it ends up on Farrels desk somehow :D
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