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

This will come as a surprise to you, I’m sure, but over the last two weeks the Blue Jays pitching hasn’t been good. No really, it hasn’t.

The last 13 games, our pitchers have a 4-9 record and a 6.71 ERA. As a group they have allowed almost 7 runs a game. That’s on average. Batters have it .313/.381/.547, with 26 home runs against us. Two homer allowed a game.

Hot

Marcus Stroman: 2 starts, 1-1, 2.08. In 13 innings batters hit .196/.226/.348 with 2 home runs, 2 walks and 9 strikeouts.

Marcus had 2 quality starts. One 6 innings of shutout ball against the Red Sox and the other 7 innings, 3 earned against the Angels. He’s been keeping the ball on the ground, for the most part. He clearly hasn’t been bothered by the trade rumors. In fact, he might be enjoying the trade rumors, which is ok by me. He did tell the Yankees’ media that he would like to pitch in New York one day. I’m ok with that too. I can see him wanting to pitch closer to home. I can also see him being happy to sign a long term deal and enjoying that the Jays are considering him ‘the man’ for the next few years. And, of course, he’s built his brand here. I’d love to keep him, I’ve enjoyed watching him over the years. Good and bad, he is always entertaining.

Daniel Hudson: 4 appearances, 1 hold, 1 blown save, 0.00 ERA. in 4.2 innings batters hit .188/.263/.188 with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He’s been a very nice pickup, much better than I expected. Averaging 96.5 on his fastball.

Cold

Aaron Sanchez: 3 starts, 0-3, 15.75 ERA. In 12 innings, batters hit .407/.471/.712 against him with 5 home runs, 8 walks and 8 strikeouts.

He’s been a whole separate level of awful. I don’t have any answers. He was doing ok at the start of the season. Every now and then there is one of those beautiful curves but not often enough. People talk about wanting to put him in the bullpen, but, when he is pitching this badly, I don’t think it matters. I guess, if I was running things, I’d get a separate pitching coach to talk to him. Obviously nothing Pete Walker is doing with him is working. Maybe someone different could say something different or see something different.

Clayton Richard: 3 starts, 0-2, 6.75 ERA. In 16 innings batters hit .333/.400/.651 with 5 homers, 5 walks and 4 strikeouts.

One of the three starts was a Quality Start. He’s slowed the walk rate, so that’s a positive. And he went 5, 5, and 6 innings in the 3 starts. That’s a step in the right direction. There is a nice progression going. In his last 4 starts he’s allowed 7. 5, 4 and 3 runs. So he should only allow 2 runs next game. Let’s hope his slow start was due to missing spring training and he’s going to be better from here on out.

Derek Law: 2 ‘starts’, 4 relief appearances, 14.40 ERA. In 5 innings batters hit .320/.433/.520, with 1 homer, 4 walks and 8 strikeouts.

His first game as opener went very well, his second didn’t. He’s been all sorts of bd this season. He goes have more than a strikeout an inning, but then he has a walk every 2 innings.

Tim Mayza: 8 appearances, 1 hold, 10.50 ERA. In 6 innings, batters hit .250/.400/.417 with 1 home run, 5 walks and 9 strikeouts.

He pitched in a lot of games. Charlie will use him in different ways, as a LOOGY or as to pitch an inning or occasionally more. He has been good against LHB (.204/.317/.315) but not all that much worse against RHP (.22/.328/.386). He’s given up too many walks, but he he doesn’t get hit hard.

Nick Kingham: 5 appearances, 2 wins, 1 loss, 5.68 ERA. In 6.1 innings batters hit .370/.433/.667 with 2 homers, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He did have a couple of good outings, but the other 3 have were bad. I know they picked him up because a) he was cheap to get and b) they needed someone who could pitch a few innings out of the bullpen, but he’s showing us why he came cheap

David Phelps: 5 appearances, 1 blown save, 3.60 ERA. In 5 innings batters hit .318/.400/.500 with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.

I’m not going to judge a guy in his first few games after coming back from Tommy John. Give him a bit and then we will see.

Sam Gaviglio: 4 appearances, 5.91 ERA. In 10.2 innings batters hit .349/.348/.628 with 2 homers, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.

The OBP being 1 point below the BA is kind of cool. He gave up a walk but also had a couple of sac flies. On May 17th he had a 1.76 ERA. Since that point his ERA is 8.22 and he’s only had 1 appearance without an earned run. I sort of wonder if there is an injury that he’s hiding. Last year he was good early and not so good later too.

Joe Biagini: 7 appearances, 2 holds, 3.18 ERA. In 5.2 innings, batters hit .346/.370/.423 with 0 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He allowed a few inherited runners to start and an unearned run. Gave up 7 singles and 2 doubles. He’s not walking anyone. I’d like Charlie to use him for more than an inning at a time more.

Inbetween

Trent Thornton: 3 starts 1-0, 3.86 ERA. In 16.1 innings, batters hit .313/.365/.448 with 2 home runs, 6 walks and 18 strikeouts.

He’s had a pretty good ERA considering the batting line guys have against him. A .813 OPS, and an ERA under 4? And he hasn’t have an unearned run in those three starts. He’s had some sort of magic with runners on base. Two of the three starts were quality starts. I was tempted to put him in the ‘hot’ grounding but the average batter is hitting like this season’s Gio Urshela again him.

Also pitched

Ken Giles: 2 appearances, 1 save, 4.50 ERA. In 2 innings batters hit .143/.250/.286. 1 walk, 5 k.

Back from the IL he pitched last Thursday and last Saturday. I don’t know, maybe he isn’t 100% healthy. That would explain why he didn’t go into the tie game Wednesday. That’s a nicer explanation than Charlie made a stupid decision. We’ve had enough close games that Ken shouldn’t be pitching just twice in a week.

Sean Reid-Foley: 1 game, 0.00 ERA. 2 innings, 2 hits, 3 walks and 2 strikeouts.

He should get a start this week.

Thomas Pannone: 1 game, 0.2 inning. Allowed 2 hits, 1 earned, 1 homer.

And he’s back in Buffalo.

Justin Shafer: 2 games, 3.2 innings. Batters hit .091/.286/.182 with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.

And back in Buffalo, and he’s be selected for the International League All-Star game. I’d rather have him in Toronto than Law or Kingham or a few of the others.

Jordan Romano: 3 games, 0-1, 6.23 ERA. In 4.1 innings, batters hit .143/.250/.571 with 2 homers, 1 walk and 9 strikeouts.

He’s back in Buffalo too.

On the IL

Elvis Luciano

He’s been ‘injured’ until September.

Matt Shoemaker

Out for the season.

Edwin Jackson

On the IL with Crappy Arm Disease.

Clay Buchholz

On the 60-day. Won’t be back until late July at best.

Ryan Tepera

On the 60-day. We won’t see him until August.

Ryan Borucki

He made his first rehab appearance yesterday. Pitched 3 hitless innings in Bluefield with 6 strikeouts. We might see him mid-July or later.

Jacob Waguespack

He’s made a couple of appearances in Buffalo. I’d imagine we’ll see him again this season.