Toronto Blue Jays Opinions

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

By Tom Dakers@bluebirdbanter May 5, 2016, 5:50pm EDT

The offense still isn't hitting on all cylinders. We've averaged 4 runs per game over the past 12 games. As a group, the batters hit .235/.318/.426.

There are a surprising number of up arrows. Unfortunately all the others are down.

Batters
	Russell Martin	Martin played in 9 of the 12 games, starting 7. He's hitting a little better than he was to start the season. .240/.269/.280 with 1 double, 2 RBI, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts in 26 PA. I'm hoping last night's game winner helps get him going. He's thrown out 2 of 10 base stealers.
	Edwin Encarnacion	Edwin started all 12 games, 3 at first base, the rest as DH. .He's been going through a slump too. .163/.265/.349 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, 7 RBI, 6 walks and 7 strikeouts. Maybe yesterday's homer is a sign that's he's coming around.
	Ryan Goins	Ryan played in 11 of the 12 games, starting 9. He's having a terrible time at the plate, hitting just .063/.091/.156 with 1 home run, 1 RBI, 1 walk and 10 strikeouts. It's getting to the point that I would like Gibby just to hand the second base job over to Barney and let Goins sit for a while. At least his defense has been great.
	Troy Tulowitzki	See above. Well, he's hitting much better than Goins, but still has been pretty bad. .175/.267/.400, with 3 home runs, 5 RBI, 5 walks and 14 strikeouts. It seems strange to think he's just forgotten how to hit. His pitch selection hasn't been good, but even when he swings at a good pitch, he misses it.
	Josh Donaldson	Josh started all 12 games. He's been pretty great .279/.415/.558 with 3 double, 3 home runs, 6 RBI, 9 walks and 9 strikeouts. He's gone a whole 3 games without a home run, but since he's leading the league, I guess we can allow that. He's also leading the league with 26 runs scored.
	Kevin Pillar	Kevin started 11 of the 12 games. He's one of the very few that are hitting. .385/.429/.590 with 5 doubles, 1 home run, 4 RBI, 1 steal, 1 caught, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. He is certainly a streak hitter isn't he. We haven't seen as many spectacular plays as we did last year. Or maybe my standards are higher this year. Saving us that run the other day was pretty impressive though.
	Justin Smoak	Justin played in 10 of the games, starting 8. He's been very good, finally getting consistent at bats. .300/.382/.500 with 2 home runs (both in the same game), 6 RBI, 4 walks and 8 strikeouts. If he can keep up numbers pretty close to this, we'll be very happy.
	Jose Bautista	Jose started all 12 games, 1 at DH. He's been going through his own slump. His timing seems just a little bit off. He hit .146/.275/.341 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 8 RBI, 1 caught stealing, 8 walks and 12 strikeouts. The nice part is that even when he's slumping, he gets his share of walks,but I'd like it if he would get on a hot stretch and carry the team for a couple of weeks.
	Michael Saunders	Michael started 9 of the 12 games. He's been pretty consistent on a team that hasn't been. He's hit .265/.359/.588 with 2 doubles, 3 home runs, 5 RBI, 5 walks and 15 strikeouts. Way too many strikeouts in 34 at bats. I don't know how he can keep up the good numbers while striking out so often. He looks like he's running ok, if making the odd error on the base paths.
	Matt Dominguez	Got called up, played in 3 games, without getting a hit and was sent back down. 0 for 7 with a 1 walk and 3 strikeouts will get you sent back down.
	Ezequiel Carrera	Ezequiel played in 10 games, starting 5. He's played all 3 outfield spots, pinch hit and pinch ran, over the two weeks. He hit .417/.462/.625 with 2 doubles, 1 home run, 1 RBI, 1 steal, 1 caught (I really think it is time he stopped trying to steal) 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Those two very good games counted for 6 of his 10 hits, over the two weeks.
	Darwin Barney	Darwin played in 7 games, starting 4. He hit .333/.368/.556 with 1 double, 1 homer, 3 RBI, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. I'm afraid, if it were my choice, he'd being playing second everyday, at least until he stopped hitting. We have so few guys hitting that I hate having one on the bench that could be starting. Small sample size, but he's hitting RHP better than LHP so far this year.
	Josh Thole	Josh played in 6 games, starting 5. He hit .188/.278/.188 with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. He has thrown out 4 of 10 base stealers.
	Devon Travis	He is taking the first steps towards coming back to play.He's been batting in extend spring games. I was hoping we'd see him by the end of the month, but I think that might be hoping too much.