Toronto Blue Jays Analysis

Who's up, Who's down: Blue Jays pitchers

By Tom Dakers@bluebirdbanter Apr 19, 2016, 2:16pm EDT

We've made it through the first couple of weeks of the season. 14 games in, we are sitting at 7-7. Could be worse, should be better.

Our starting pitchers have been very good, if you ignore Dickey's starts. Even with R.A.'s starts, the starter's numbers are pretty good: 7-3, with a 3.27 ERA. They've averaged 6.3 innings a game. Starters have 7.2 strikeouts per 9 innings and a 2.41 strikeout to walk rate. Batters are hitting .229/.294/.358 against them.

The bullpen has had a bit more trouble. 0-4 with a 4.24 ERA and 5 saves. They are getting strikeouts, 10.1 per 9 innings and a 4.75 strikeout to walk rate. Batters have hit .244/.293/374. Most of their problems have been from grouping the bad moments.

Pitchers
	Marcus Stroman	Marcus has had 3 starts, 2 were very good, 1 wasn't great but then the bullpen allowed his 3 'inherited runs' to score. He has a 2-0 record with a 4.22 ERA, but the ERA looks much worse than he's actually pitched. He's been pretty amazing. Batters hit just .190/.256/.291 against him, with 6 walks and 12 strikeouts in 21.1 innings. The ground balls have been the great thing. FanGraphs has him at a 65.2%. And in his 2 very good starts, he allowed 35 ground ball with just 15 fly balls. And most of the ground balls have been very softly hit.
	Aaron Sanchez	Aaron has had 3 very good starts, but the team hasn't been scoring for him so he's only 1-0. He has a 1.35 ERA. Batters are hitting .145/.224/.261 against him with 7 walks and 20 strikeouts in 20 innings. I was hoping he'd have a good start to the season, just to put an end to the 'he should be a reliever' talk, but I didn't think he would look this good. He's going to have some bad starts, I imagine he'll have days when his control leaves him, but I'm happily thinking that he's going to stay a starter.
	Marco Estrada	2 starts, 1 that was very good and 1 that was good, except for one poor inning. The second start was going well, until he took the ground ball off the back of his leg. He looked like he was in pain, so I'm going to give him a mulligan for that inning. I'm a big fan of pulling players when they look like they are hurting, but he pitched a couple of good innings after that. Over the 2 games, he has a 2.77 ERA and a 1-1 record. Batters have hit .260/.302/.380, with 3 walks and 11 strikeouts in 13 innings. He sees to be the master of getting weak contact.
	J.A. Happ	Happ's had 3 starts,he has a 2-0 record with a 1.89 ERA. .He's allowed 2, 1 and 1 runs in his 3 starts. He seems to be the one starter that our offense has been supporting, he's had 14 runs of support in 3 starts. Batters are hitting .257/.316/.371 against him, with 5 walks and 12 strikeouts in 19 innings. He still seems to have that thing where he has to go to a full count on each batter, but he's been effective.
	R.A. Dickey	R.A. has had 3 pretty poor starts. He has a 6.75 ERA with a 1-2 record. Batters are hitting .313/.384/.516 with 8 walks and 15 strikeouts in 14.2 innings. It is strange, he's getting a lot of swings and misses, getting a lot of strikeouts. His knuckleball seems to be moving a lot. He's throwing the hard knuckleball. But they seem to either swing and miss or hit the ball hard, he's given up 10 extra base hits out of 22 total hits. I guess the good news is, he's started slow in each of his seasons with the Jays, and has finished great in each. I'm just ready for him to start having the good starts.
	Brett Cecil	Brett has appeared in 7 games. He's allowed runs in 2 of them. He's had 2 blow saves, 2 losses and 3 holds. He seems to have righted the ship, his last 3 times out there have been good, after 3 bad appearances. In all he has a 4.76 ERA, batters have hit .333/.409/.742 with 1 walks and 6 strikeouts in 5.2 innings.
	Roberto Osuna	Roberto pitched in 6 games. He allowed runs in one, but he had a 4 run lead at the time, so it didn't matter (other than scaring me a bit). In 3 of the games he pitched a clean inning. He has a 3 ERA and has 4 saves. Batters hit .182/.182/.318 against him, with no walks, 8 strikeouts and 1 home run.
	Drew Storen	Drew appeared in 6 games, He's had 5 holds and 1 save (one that likely cost me a year off my life), and a loss (he had a hold and a loss in the same game). He gave up runs in 4 of his 6 appearances. He had one clean inning in those games. He has a 8.44 ERA. Batters are hitting .348/.375/.522 with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Even when he's been getting outs, it seems to be on hard hit balls.
	Jesse Chavez	Jesse's pitched in 5 games. He's only given up 1 runs, but then it was a big run, it was a home run that scored the 3 inherited runners he had. Of course, he came into the game because Franklin Morales couldn't get loose. He's had 2 holds. Has a 2.08 ERA in 4.1 innings. Batters are hitting .278/.316/.444 with 1 walks and 8 strikeouts. Gotta like an 8 to 1 strikeout to walk rate.
	Gavin Floyd	Gavin pitched in 4 games, he allowed 2 runs in one of them, both runs scored after he left the game. Two of his appearances were clean innings of work. He had a hold and a loss (both in the same game). He has a 4.15 ERA. Batters are hitting .133/.188/.133, with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. He's been very good.
	Joe Biagini	Joe has only appeared in 3 games, I've pretty much forgot about him, I think Gibby as too. He's pitched 4 innings, without giving up a run. Batters hit .154/.313/.154 against him, with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. I don't understand why we need an 8 man pen when we don't use some of the guys in it. 8 relievers, but just one extra infielder and one extra outfielder. Seems a waste.
	Arnold Leon	Arnold pitched in 2 games, neither went very well and he was DFAed. I think he's still in DFA limbo. Batters hit .300/.364/.700 off him, with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts.
	Pat Venditte	Pat has pitched twice, one clean inning, one bad appearance. He's faced 6 batters and allowed 2 singles.
	Franklin Morales	Franklin pitched in 2 games, face and retired one batter in both games (pretty much defining the LOOGY thing). Now he's on the DL.

Who's up, Who's down: Blue Jays pitchers

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