Who’s Hot, Who’s Cold: Blue Jays Batters

The last two weeks weren’t quite as good for the Blue Jays as the first couple of weeks. The last two weeks, the Jays are 6-7.

Our batters have hit .234/.321/.426 with 18 home runs over the last 13 games. They have averaged 5.4 run per game.

Hot

Teoscar Hernandez: .308/.390/.692 with 4 doubles, 2 triples, 4 homers, 9 RBI, 7 walks and 14 strikeouts.

He’s been great. He is striking out less than last year (23.4%, down from 37.9) and walking more (10.9%, up from 6.3). He’s been seeing a lot of pitches. Teoscar’s had some bad moments on defense, but yesterday, in the 9th inning, he made a couple of good plays. I’m going to take it that the bad moments were just a just a defensive slump and he’ll be fine in the long run.

Kevin Pillar: .313/.382/.667 with 6 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homers, 9 RBI, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts and 1 steal.

He’s been terrific. He is making good contact almost every time up. His strikeout rate is up (19.3% from 15.0 last year) but as long as he keeps hitting the ball hard, I’m not going to worry about it.

Curtis Granderson: .304/.448/.652, with 2 doubles, 2 homers, 8 RBI, 6 walks and 8 strikeouts. He played in 10 games, starting 5.

I really didn’t expect him to be this good. Playing just against RHP should work well.

Steve Pearce: .303/.361/.394, with 3 doubles, 6 RBI, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He played in 10 games, starting 9.

Pearce has a .877 OPS vs LHP, .729 vs RHP, but that’s a pretty small sample size. Last year he had slight reverse splits.

Devon Travis: .261/.320/.478, with 1 triple, 1 homer, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Played in 7 of the 13 games, before being sent down.

It seems funny to list a guy who was sent down to the minors in the ‘hot’ list, but he was actually hitting pretty well over the last couple of weeks.

Luke Maile: .318/.375/.364, 1 double, 5 RBI, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. He played in 6 games, starting 5.

He is 1 for 8 in his last couple of games. I’m not expecting him to continue to hit like this, but he’s got to be better than last year.

Cold

Russell Martin: .145/.343/.222 with 2 doubles, 8 walks and 6 strikeouts. He played 8 of 13 games.

Russell is having a slow start to the season. At least he’s been taking some walks. He’s throw out 4 of 11 base steals.

Aledmys Diaz: .125/.205/.125, with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He played in 12 of the 13 games, starting 11.

He really isn’t hitting at all. I’m hoping the Jays decide to move Gurriel to short and have Solarte play second when Donaldson comes back. I haven’t been overly impressed with his defense either. He has 3 errors, but Smoak has saved him a couple of times, digging balls out of the dirt. Aledmys is a an example of how first impressions last, he started the season hot and it has colored the team’s impression of him.

Kendrys Morales: .120/.214/.160, with 1 double, 2 RBI, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He played in 8 games, starting 6.

I didn’t expect him to be this bad. I mean I wasn’t expecting him to be good, but there is no reason he should be this bad.

Randal Grichuk: .167/.300/.333, with 1 double, 1 homer, 5 RBI, 3 walks and 8 strikeouts. He played in 11 games, starting 7.

I don’t know what’s going on with him. The .119 BABIP has to get better, right?

Inbetween

Justin Smoak: .244/.340/.378, with 3 doubles, 1 home run, 6 walks and 10 strikeouts. He played 12 of the 13 games, 1 at DH.

Justin wasn’t terrible, but we’d like to see a little better. His last few games have gone better. He’s hit .333 in the last 6 games.

Yangervis Solarte: .184/.255/.490, with 5 home runs, 10 RBI, 4 walks and 11 strikeouts. He started all 13 games.

He hasn’t hit much, but with he does hit, he hits it a long way. He hit 9 hits, but 5 of them were homers.

Lourdes Gurriel: .240/.269/.360, 1 homer, 4 RBI, 1 steal, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. He’s played in 8 games, starting 7.

He’s been hitting the ball hard, but finding gloves.

On the DL

Josh Donaldson should be back on the weekend.