Monday Bantering: Scott Diamond, Edwin Encarnacion and starting pitching

Update: The Jays just announced the Scott Diamond move, and it works out just the way we thought it would. Diamond up, Venditte down and Morales to the 60-day DL.

Little bits of Blue Jays stuff after a fun weekend of baseball. I was missing the team that won games 11-6 and 10-9 and they came back.

Ben Nicholson-Smith tells us that the Jays will be calling up Canadian lefty Scott Diamond will be called up today to bring a fresh arm to a tired bullpen. Diamond is out of options, so they would have to put him on waivers to send him back down, when/if they decide he isn’t the answer.

Diamond has a 3.16 ERA in Buffalo, in 12 starts. He has allowed 72 hits, 4 home runs, 14 walks with 37 strikeouts in 74 innings. I guess pitches to contact would be the way to describe him.

No word on who they are shipping out to make room for Diamond, I’d imagine it will be Pat Venditte. The team will also have to remove someone from the 40-man to make space. I’d think they would move Franklin Morales from the 15-day to the 60-day DL to free up a space, but we will find that out later.

We have been waiting for one of the ‘big three’ to go on a tear and carry the team for a while. And it finally happened. Edwin Encarnacion had 20 PA in the four games against the Orioles. He had 6 hits, 3 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 RBI, 3 walks, 1 hit by pitch and 1 sac fly.

Edwin always has been one of my favorites, maybe because he gets ripped, far too much. He’s lazy, he only cares about his stats, he was E5.

And yet, he’s 10th all-time on the team, among position players, in bWAR. 6th in offensive WAR. 4th all-time in slugging. 4th in home runs (he should pass Vernon Wells for 3rd sometime this season). 8th in RBI, he’ll likely be 6th by season’s end. And 6th in walks.

You would think he’d have earned a break by now. But, if he’s in a slump, he still gets more than his share of grief. We know he’s a streaky hitter (who isn’t), but he doesn’t seem to get the benefit of the doubt.

June hasn’t been great for our starting pitchers. They have a 4.68 ERA, in the first 11 games of the month, more than a run worse than their May ERA of 3.44. And the relievers are having a rough time too. They have a 4.91 ERA, almost a run and a half worst than their May 3.54 ERA.

I guess we knew there would be some regression. And, thankfully the bats have more than made up the difference.

Jays starting pitchers in June:

R.A. Dickey: 1.20 ERA in 2 starts, 12 innings.

Marco Estrada: 3.21 ERA, in 2 starts, 14 innings.

Aaron Sanchez: 3.66 ERA, in 3 starts, 19.2 innings.

J.A. Happ: 7.40 ERA, in 2 starts, 12 innings.

Marcus Stroman: 8.18 ERA, in 2 starts, 11 innings.

Maybe it is time to slot in a Drew Hutchison start, to give everyone an extra day off, since we are in the middle of a 17 game stretch without a day off.

The Jays are 16-7 in their last 23 games. They’ve moved up from 7 games back, on May 25, to 2.5 games back, this morning.

They tell us Jose Bautista will be back in the lineup today, as DH, but I won’t believe it until I see it.

So you want to be baseball player? Juan Uribe took a “106 MHP shot to the groin”.

Cuban player Yulieski Gurriel has been ‘declared a free agent. Gurriel is said to be MLB ready. He’s 32 years old. Played third base in Cuba. He doesn’t seemlike a fit for the Jays, unless they want to replace Justin Smoak. He has power He’s hit .335/.417/.580 with 250 home runs in 5391 PA in 15 seasons, playing in Cuba and Japan.