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

Over the past two weeks the Blue Jays are 3-8. Our pitchers have a 5.17 ERA.

Hot

Jacob Waguespack: 2 starts, 1-0, 1.46 ERA. in 12.1 innings batters hit .143/.200/.167 with 2 walks and 10 strikeouts.

He really should have had 2 wins. His start against the Mariners (7 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts) was one of our best starts of the season, good for a 79 GameScore. He’s been very good, way better than we could have expected. And if I used him in OOTP he would have been clubbed. I’d say he is our number one starter, but he’s pretty much our only starter.

Ken Giles: Pitched in 4 games, 1 save, 0.00 ERA. In 4 innings batters hit .083/.267/.083 with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts.

He didn’t pitch much, with them being careful because of the inflammation and then the Paternity leave. But, when he has pitched, he’s been good.

Buddy Boshers: Pitched in 6 games, opener in 1, 1 hold, 2.25 ERA. In 4 innings batters hit .143/.294/.286, with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He’s had a pretty good little stretch, which is good because before that he was being beat up pretty bad.

Cold

Sean Reid-Foley: Pitched in 2 games, 1 start, had 2 losses, 14.40 ERA. In 5 innings batters hit .391/.517/.739 against him with 2 homers, 5 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He had a bad start (3.1 innings, 3 earned) and one bad outing as the ‘bulk’ guy (1.2 innings, 5 earned) and he’s back in Buffalo. I’d like to think he could become a good starter, he’s only 23, but he’s going to have to start throwing strikes. But 21 walks in 31.2 innings, for the season, isn’t going to do it.

Trent Thornton: 2 starts, 0-0, 5.40 ERA. In 10 innings batters hit .359/.413/.692 with 3 home runs, 5 walks and 7 strikeouts.

1 of his starts was a ‘Quality Start’ 6 innings, 3 earned. The other wasn’t 4 innings, 3 earned. He has made 5 starts this month, 3 of them quality starts. But he hasn’t been great. We will see how the rest of the season goes, it will be interesting. His velocity has been down a bit in his last few starts, just a click or two, but that might be enough for batters to be able to catch up to his high fastball.

Tim Mayza: Pitched in 6 games, had 2 losses, 1 hold, 4.15 ERA. in 4.1 innings, batters hit .250/.333/.625 with 2 home runs, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He’s having a rough time of it lately. 2 home runs in 4 innings isn’t good. He’s pitched in 61 games, so he should be allowed a bit of a down time.

Sam Gaviglio: Pitched in 3 games, 1 loss, 12.00 ERA. In 3 innings batters hit .182/.357/.545 with 1 home run, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.

Only pitched in 3 games. It seems that Charlie hasn’t been using him much lately, after using him a ton early in the season. I don’t know if there is a reason why they are being careful with him, other than he hasn’t pitched great lately.

Justin Shafer: Pitched in 5 games, 7.50 ERA. In 6 innings batters hit .304/.467/.696 with 2 home runs, 7 walks and 5 strikeouts.

He’s back in Buffalo. 7 walks in 6 innings isn’t what we’d like from our relievers. He had one really bad outing, allowed 3 hits, 3 walks and 4 earned in 1.1 against the Dodgers, but he allowed 2 or more base runners in each of his 5 outings.

Wilmer Font: Pitched in 4 games as the opener, 1 loss, 3.86 ERA. In 7 innings batters hit .259/.375/.519 with 1 home run, 5 walks and 10 strikeouts.

So batters hit him hard, but he didn’t give up many runs....I don’t know if it should be in the cold group or maybe in between. In his 4 games as opener, we won 2 and lost 2. One of the losses was a 2-1 loss. He’s been opener 7 times, this month, and we are 5-2 in those games. He has a 2.03 ERA in those games.

Neil Ramirez: Pitched in 3 games, 10.38 ERA. In 4.1 innings batters hit .294/.429/.765 with 2 home runs, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Charlie uses him in games we are losing other than the 19-4 win over the Rangers. The way he is pitching, that’s a good plan.

Zack Godley: Pitched in 3 games, 5.14 ERA. In 7 innings, batters hit .240/.367/.520, with 1 homer, 5 walks and 5 strikeouts.

I’m thinking I couldn’t pick him out of a police line up.

In between

Derek Law: Pitched in 5 games, 1 save, 1 blown save, 1 hold, 5.06 ERA. In 5.1 innings batters hit .211/.375/.316.

5 games, 4 were good, 1 was very very bad. Last Thursday’s game was the first time he has given up runs since July 18th, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. In his other 4 appearances he’ll allowed only 1 hit, but 4 walks. Since July 18th he has a 1.53 ERA with batters hitting .140/.300/.211. I’m hoping the good pitching isn’t a mirage. It would be nice to be able to count on him next year.

Thomas Pannone: Pitched in 2 games, 1 win, 3.52 ERA. In 7.2 innings batters hit .214/.313/.500 with 2 homers, 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.

Worked in 2 games as the ‘bulk’ guy and was sent back to the minors. He wasn’t bad, wasn’t good. A .500 slugging average against isn’t good, but he didn’t allow many runs. He pitched 4 innings against the Rangers, and did well, just 2 hits, 2 walks and no runs allowed. And then went 3.2 innings against the Mariners, and didn’t do well, 4 hits, 3 earned, 2 walks and 2 home runs.

Also Pitched

Clay Buchholz: 1 start, 1 loss, 3.00 ERA. In 6 innings batters hit .150/.150/.350 with 1 homer, 0 walks and 3 strikeouts.

It hurts my old man status to think that a starter going 6 innings is pretty good, but it was pretty good. Other than the home run it was great. He got through the 6 innings on just 65 pitches. Hopefully he can go 80-85 pitches next time (and go 8 innings).

Brock Stewart: Pitched in 1 game as the bulk game, 1 win, 5.40 ERA. In 5 innings batters hit .318/.348/.591 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts.

Back in Buffalo.

Jason Adam: Pitched in 3 games, 1 hold, 0.00 ERA. In 2.2 innings batters hit .250/.300/.250 with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts.

I think I could pick him out of a police line up.

Jordan Romano: Pitched in 1 game, 1 inning, gave up 2 walks, no runs, no hits.

Good to see him back

Richard Urena: Pitched an inning in that blowout loss to the Mariners. Gave up 4 hits, 4 earned, a home run and a walk. Luke Maile he ain’t.

On the IL

Clayton Richard: Apparently he is throwing, but he won’t be back until September.

Matt Shoemaker: Hoping next year he gets a full season in.

Elvis Luciano: He’ll be recovered on September 1st, or soon after.

Ryan Borucki: Had bone spurs removed from his elbow, we’ll see him next year.

Nick Kingham has been released.