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

Over the past four weeks the Jays are 12-13. Our batters have hit .261/.328/.460 and have averaged 4.72 runs a game, up from our season average.

Hot

Randal Grichuk: .316/.361/.605 with 5 home runs, 8 RBI, 5 walks and 22 strikeouts.

Yeah if he could put up that batting line for a season we would be very happy. I’ve liked his defense. I get the feeling he is the type who can have hot and cold streaks, but he’s over 20 homers, even with missing a month of playing time and having one awful month to start the season. He’s 27, I could see him making an All-Star team, one day. I hope he doesn’t miss too much time after yesterday’s injury.

Kendrys Morales: .338/.425/.691 with 8 home runs, 19 RBI, 10 walks and 15 strikeouts.

Played in 22 of the 25 games, starting 18. After an awful start, he’s really had a decent season. Hitting home runs in 7 straight game is pretty amazing. If he had just an ok start to the season, we could have traded him at the deadline. As always, if you are a baseball player, and you are going to have hot and cold streaks, you should have the hot streak at the start of the season. If he started the season the way he’s played the last month, we’d all love him. He’s seen a drop in his playing time with the September call ups. His OPS is .797, Hernandez is .783. If you would have offered to bet me that Kendrys would end up with the higher OPS back on May 1, you could have gotten pretty good odds.

Billy McKinney: .354/.427/.631 with 4 home runs, 11 RBI, 8 walks and 15 strikeouts.

Played in 19 games, starting 18 since being brought up to the Jays. I liked that the Jays got McKinney in the trade, but I didn’t expect him to hit like this. He’s got a 9 game hitting streak going. His defense has looked good to me. He seems to have a good eye at the plate. I know it is a hot streak and I know he’ll have cold stretches, but he is looking really good at the moment.

Curtis Granderson: .375/.444/.625 with 1 home run, 4 RBI, 3 walks and 1 strikeout.

Played in 10 games, starting 7, for the Blue Jays in the 25 games we are looking at, and had the numbers above. Since the trade he’s hit .333/.636/.833 with 1 homer, 2 RBI, 5 walks and 3 strikeouts in 6 games for the Brewers. Can only wish the best for him.

Luke Maile: .316/.381/.474 with 1 RBI, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts.

Played in 7 games, starting 6. Playing time is way down and but he’s been hitting great in his limited time. He’s had a decent season, especially considering how bad he was last year. We could keep him for next year, and have him the backup catcher, if Martin can be moved. He can be optioned, so there is little downside to keeping him.

Danny Jansen: .245/.356/.429 with 1 home run, 3 RBI, 6 walks and 9 strikeouts.

Kind of a marginal up arrow. He started off great, but he’s not hit as well in his last few games. I’m not going to worry too much about it. He’s thrown out 4 of 18 base stealers, 22%, of a small sample. I think he’s looked fine behind the plate. I’m all for giving him the starting job and letting him run with it next year. I hope they won’t yoyo him up and down next year. Give him the job and give him 350 at bats and see what happens. Don’t make him worried that a bad game or a bad week will have him back in the minors.

Rowdy Tellez: .444/.474/.944 with 6 doubles, 1 homer, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

19 PA, so a very small sample. I’m not thinking this is who he is, but I’m enjoying it. Seems like a great guy. I’m looking forward to him getting a lot of playing time over the last 19 games of the season. His defense has looked ok to me.

Cold

Russell Martin: .158/.304/.184 with no home runs, 1 RBI, 6 walks and 9 strikeouts.

Russell hasn’t been in a game since September 3rd. He played in 12 of the 25 games over the last four weeks. 3 of those games he started at catcher, 9 at third base. It must be tough on him to sit so much. I’m wondering how hard the Jays will work to move him this winter? I think he would have value as a mentor, but not $20 million in value as a mentor.

Justin Smoak: .203/.306/.456 with 6 home runs, 15 RBI, 11 walks and 27 strikeouts.

Kind of a marginal down arrow, but his numbers are down from what he’s been doing all season. He’s going to be playing a little less the last few weeks of the season. The off-season is going to be interesting. I don’t see the point of having both Smoak and Morales. I think the team would like having one of those spots to rest players. Smoak has more trade value, but he has more value to the team too.

Devon Travis: .195/.225/.338 with 2 home runs, 8 RBI, 3 walks and 11 strikeouts.

He’s been sitting more of late, since Gurriel’s return. His fielding has been poor, -10.8 UZR/150. I have been thinking that it has been improving, as the season has gone on, and he’s been more confident about his knees, but maybe that’s hopeful thinking. He needs 6 more games to set a career high in games played and 78 more at bats for a career high. I’m sure he’ll get the former, but the later looks like a stretch. We have a ton of infielders coming up this year, next year and the year after. I’m wondering what Devon’s future is with the team. It is good he’s had a relatively injury free season.

Teoscar Hernandez: .246/.317/.404 with 2 home runs. 10 RBI, 6 walks and 26 strikeouts.

Played in 20 of the 25 games, starting 14. He’s lost a bit of playing time with the September callups. It’s a fair marginal down arrow, he’s not been terrible, but not as good as he’s been most of the season. He’s still just 25, so his prime years are ahead of him. A little bump in his numbers would make him a good MLB player. His defense? He might be able to get better, but he’s been play outfield, in professional ball, for 8 years. If he hasn’t figured it out in 8 years, I don’t know why we should think he will now. I’m not sure I would like him as a DH.

Lourdes Gurriel: .196/.266/.232 with 4 RBI, 5 walks and 15 strikeouts.

He’s started 14 games since coming back from the DL. Before the injury, he had at least one hit in every game he started in July (16 games). And, of course, he had the multi-hit streak right before he was injured. I wonder if his leg isn't 100% yet. But it is just as likely that he’s had a hot streak and now he’s in a cold streak.

Richard Urena: .242/.324/.364 with 2 RBI, 4 walks and 9 strikeouts.

Fairly marginal down arrow. Played in 12 games, starting 10. 6 games at SS, 5 at second. I’ve liked his defense. He’s going to make some errors. I’m hoping his range is enough to make up for it. I think he could be a reasonable utility player, but we have many many infielders, I don’t know how it will all shake out. I think he has a little power that will show up in time. He’s just 22, he has time to improve.

Inbetween

Aledmys Diaz: .250/.295/.400 with 2 home runs, 13 RBI, 5 walks and 19 strikeouts.

Played in 24 of the last 25 games. He’s hit right at his season numbers. He looks very good defensively at third base. UZR of 5.5 per 150, but that’s only 151 innings played. Short his UZR is -4.5. He doesn't hit well enough that I’d like him as a full time third baseman, but I’m guessing he’ll be our full time 3B for about 2 weeks at the start of next season.

Kevin Pillar: .261/.278/.455 with 3 homers, 11 RBI, 2 walks and 11 strikeouts.

Played in 23 games, starting 21. Maybe should be a marginal up arrow. I don’t know. Not a hot streak in the way we normally see his hot streaks, but he’s been ok. I can see trading him or non-tendering him, but he is the one sure thing in the outfield. We know what he’s going to hit. He’s going to be 30 next year, I don’t know that I want to watch his decline into his 30s. UZR of 4.2 per 150 is the lowest of his career.

Also played

Reese McGuire: 7 PA. Hit .333/.429/.500. 2 hits, 1 double, 1 walk and 1 strikeout. He’s thrown out 1 of base stealers.

Yangervis Solarte: Played in yesterday’s game, finally off of the DL. Add to the list of guys I don’t think has a future with the team.

Jonathan Davis: He’s had 3 PA, played in 5 games. Pinch ran twice.

Dwight Smith Jr.: Had a at bat in the past 25 games.

On the DL

Brandon Drury: Might be back near the end of the month.

Troy Tulowitzki: Well.....you know.