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

The Blue Jays are 9-12 over their last 21 games. The pitchers have a 5.77 ERA over those games. The pitching hasn’t been good.

Hot

Marco Estrada: 2 starts, 4.09 ERA, 1-1. Batters hit .162/.250/.297 with 1 home run, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts in 11 innings.

Marco has made two starts since missing time with his injury. One didn’t go well, one was very good, 7 innings of 1-hit ball. It was a great game to get to watch live. Hard to imagine that batters could have the above batting line and Marco could have an ERA over 4. Another good start and he could be a potential waiver trade piece.

Marcus Stroman: 5 starts, 3.82 ERA. Batters hit .259/.310/.362 in 30.2 innings, with 1 homer, 8 walks and 24 strikeouts.

5 starts, 3 were excellent, 2 were bad. In the 3 good ones he went 20.2 innings allowing 4 earned. In the 2 bad, 10 innings, 11 runs, 10 earned. In the good games he had 43 ground balls and 15 fly balls. In the bad games he had 15 ground balls and 20 fly balls. Since coming back from the DL, he’s had a very Stroman like 3.48 ERA. He, really like all pitchers, is going to have good and bad days, but it is good to see him looking more like he has in the past.

Ryan Borucki: 4 starts, 2-1, 2.16 ERA. Batters hit .258/.284/.381, with 1 home run, 4 walks and 11 strikeouts in 25 innings.

Ryan’s been very good. In the 4 starts, he’s had 3 quality starts. Yesterday’s was the odd one out and I thought he did a pretty good job. Since coming up he’s had 6 quality starts out of 8. He tends to give up singles, doesn’t walk many, gave up his first MLB home run yesterday. He doesn’t get many strikeouts. He’s been one of the brightest lights in a pretty dim season. I hope we get to watch him for years to come.

Cold

Sam Gaviglio: 5 starts, 5.92 ERA, 0-1. Batters hit .314/.381/.529 with 5 home runs, 10 walks and 23 strikeouts in 24.1 innings.

He went 7.2 innings in one of the starts, a 8-7 win against the Orioles. He allowed 4 earned in that game, but had 8 strikeouts with just 1 walk, but 2 home runs. Baseball Reference has him at a 0.1 WAR. I’d rather see Sean Reid-Foley, but the team, for whatever reason doesn’t want to bring him up.

Jaime Garcia: 7 relief appearances, 6.75 ERA, 0-0, 2 holds. Batters hit .200/.333/.400 with 1 home run, 7 walks and 7 strikeouts in 9.1 innings.

7 appearances. 5 were good, 2 were meltdowns, which is a much better ratio than when he was starting. A little unfair to put him in the cold group. The team has a $10,000,000 option on him next year, really an $8,000,000 option, since there is a $2,000,000 buyout. No way they pick up the option, but I’d be ok with them resigning him for the bullpen next year. We’ll need a lefty in the pen.

Tyler Clippard: 9 relief appearances, 8.00 ERA, 0-0, 1 save, 2 blown saves. Batters hit .308/.357/.692 with 4 home runs, 2 walks and 10 strikeouts in 9 innings.

9 appearances, he allowed runs in 4, more than 1 run in 3. 4 times he had a clean inning. Actually 5 times, one game he pitched a good inning and then had trouble the next inning.

Ryan Tepera: 11 games, 8.68 ERA, 0-1, 1 save, 2 blown saves. Batters hit .297/.386/.595, 2 home runs, 3 walks and 9 strikeouts in 9.1 innings.

He gave up 4 runs in 2 of the games, 1 in another. In 4 games he threw a perfect inning. Either he’s good or he’s really really bad. There doesn’t seem to be much in between. I don’t buy the idea that he can’t be a closer, that he only ever could be a setup man. Baseball tells us these little lines, ‘only certain players can be closers’. But then a verified closer blows a save and they save it means nothing, and non-closer blows a save and he can’t ever be a closer. It part of their game to try to tell us that ballplayers aren’t just stronger/faster/better athletes than we are, they are better human beings. And then some, we are told, are gods among men

Joe Biagini: 10 games, 12.00 ERA, 1 loss, 2 holds. Batters hit .405/.432/.905 with 6 home runs, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts in 9 innings.

Just to underline it, Joe faced 44 batters and gave up 6 home runs. He gave up runs in 6 of the 10 games. He’s having a rough time. I don’t know what’s going on with him. And I don’t know what they should do with him. It’s tough to send out a guy who is pitching like this.

Jake Petricka: 9 games, 7.20 ERA, 0-1. Batters hit .270/.357/.622 with 3 home runs, 3 walks and 10 strikeouts, in 10 innings.

He’s not walking guys, he’s getting strikeouts, but he’s also giving up home runs. I’m all for sending him out there a bunch and hope he’ll figure out how to keep the ball in the park.

Inbetween:

Luis Santos: 8 games, 1 start. 4.09 ERA. 1-1. Batters hit .275/.348/.500with 1 home runs, 5 walks and 11 strikeouts in 11 innings.

He’s been okish. Not bad, not good. About the best we could expect from him.

Mike Hauschild: 2 games, 1 start, 4.32 ERA, 1-1. Batters hit .241/.361/.310 with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.

Pitched in 2 games, he was very good in Seattle, when we (and the scoreboard operators) had no idea who he was, he was great. Against the Red Sox he wasn’t good. And now he’s in Buffalo.

Also pitched

Danny Barnes: 2 games, 4.50 ERA. Batters hit .375/.444/.750, 0 home run, 1 walks, 3 in 2 innings.

Back from the DL.

Tim Mayza: 2 games, 12.00 ERA. Batters hit .357/.438/.357 with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 3 innings.

He’s in Buffalo now. I don’t understand why we aren’t keeping him in Toronto and giving him enough work that we can see what we have.

Ken Giles: 4 games, 17.18 ERA, 0-1. Batters hit .444/.500/1.056 with 3 homers, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.

He had 1 really bad outing. Really really bad, but he hasn’t had a ‘clean inning’ yet.

J.A. Happ: 1 start before the trade. 5 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned, 0 walks and 9 strikeouts.

I’m going to miss him.

Seunghwan Oh: 3 games before the trade, 0.00 ERA. Faced 10 batters, allowed no hits, no walks and had 2 strikeouts.

He’s doing a great job for the Rockies since the trade.

Aaron Loup: Pitched in 6 games before the trade. 4.50 ERA. Batters hit .333/.429/.500 with 1 home run, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, 1 hit batter in 4 innings.

Has pitched twice for the Phillies. In 1 game he hit the only batter he faced. The other he gave up 2 hits, and got a strikeout.

John Axford: Pitched in 4 games before the trade, 1 start. 7.11 ERA, got 2 wins. Batters hit .250/.308/.417, with 1 home run 2 walks and 8 strikeouts in 6.1 innings.

He made a start for us, going 3 innings, allowing just 1 hit. He’s appeared in 1 game for the Dodgers, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks and a hit batter, allowing 6 earned, while getting just 1 out.

On the DL

Aaron Sanchez: Pitched in a rehab start. He gave up 5 hits in 3 innings, but I’m not worried about that, just wondering how he feels after.