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

The last couple of weeks haven’t been great (maybe you didn’t notice). The Blue Jays are 2-9 in the past two weeks. The pitching hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been all of the problem. In the past two weeks the team ERA is 4.84 (of course there has been 10 unearned runs), close to the season ERA of 4.75

Hot

Sam Gaviglio: 4 games, 2.16 ERA. In 8.1 innings, batters hit .111/.143/.222 with 1 home run, 0 walks and 9 strikeouts.

He’s pitching like he did early in the season again. Charlie has been using him more too. Pitching well gets the manager to use you. He’s one of the few in the pitching staff who we can be sure will be back next year.

Clay Buchholz: 2 starts, 1-1, 3.86 ERA. In 11.2 innings, batters hit .263/.341/.395 with 1 home run, 5 walks and 6 strikeouts.

One was a quality start, the other was an out short of a quality start. A few more good starts and he’ll make a case to get a contract for next year. The Sportsnet has been selling us on him being a great teammate. If I was a cynic, I’d think that they are setting us up for him getting another contract from us. But then I am a cynic.

Trent Thornton: 2 starts, 0-1, with a 3.72 ERA. In 9.2 innings batters hit .256/.333/.436 with 1 home run, 3 walks and 10 strikeouts.

So....not really hot, but he’s not been terrible. The .769 OPS against is better than his season numbers and the ERA is better than his season number.

Cold

Jacob Waguespack: 3 starts, 0-3, 8.74 ERA. In 11.1 innings, batters hit .280/.390/.620 with 3 home runs, 9 walks and 8 strikeouts.

Hit hard the last 3 starts. Actually, one of them he only allowed one hit, but 5 walks and a bad error led to 4 runs against (2 earned). He might be tiring at the end of a long season. Or maybe it is just a slump. Up until this little stretch he was very good.

Tim Mayza: 5 games, 1 hold, 19.29 ERA. In 2.1 innings, batters hit .417/.563/.667 with 4 walks and 2 strikeouts.

He was having a pretty good season. He had a 3.09 ERA on June 12th. But lately he can’t seem to get anyone out.

Jason Adam: 6 games, 1 hold, 1 blown save, 10.80 ERA. In 5 innings, batters hit .350/.462/.550, with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts.

He looked pretty good for most of August, but the last two weeks....well....you or I could hardly do worse.

Buddy Boshers: 5 games, 1 loss, 1 hold, 8.10 ERA. In 3.1 innings, batters hit .400/.438/1.000 with 3 home runs, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

Why is he still on the team?

Wilmer Font: 4 games, 3 ‘starts’, 0-1, 3.18. In 5.2 innings, batters hit .318/.333/.591 with 1 walk and 9 strikeouts.

Funny, good ERA, but he was hit pretty hard. Kind of a fine line....the job of a pitcher is to keep the other team from scoring and he’s done that ok, but he’s being hit hard and he’s been pretty lucky. but he’s getting a lot of strikeouts.

In between

Ken Giles: 4 games, 0-1, 4.50 ERA, 2 saves. In 4 innings batters hit .200/.200/.467 with 1 home run, 0 walks and 6 strikeouts.

He gave up that home run. Other than that he’s been very good.

Derek Law: 4 games, 2 holds, 4.15 ERA. In 4.1 innings, batters hit .235/.435/.353 with 6 walks and 4 strikeouts.

Walks way too many but doesn’t give up many hard hit balls. IF they could get him in the strike zone a bit more, he might be a useful reliever. Putting 44% of batters on base is not normally the way to success.

Ryan Tepera: Pitched in 3 games, 3.38 ERA. In 2.2 innings batters hit .300/.333/.400 with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

He hasn’t really looked his old self since coming back from the IL, but he really hasn’t been as bad as I thought.

Also Pitched

Anthony Kay: 1 start. It was good. 5.2 innings, 3.18 ERA. Batters hit .200/.333/.200, 3 walks and 8 strikeouts.. If he can keep pitching like that, we are going to like him a lot.

T.J. Zeuch: 1 bulk guy game. It was good. 4.0 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. 4.50 ERA. Batters hit .200/.294/.267. He had the one hard hit ball, a Josh Donaldson double. Josh has hit a lot pf pitchers hard.

Thomas Pannone: Pitched in 1 game, faced 3 batters, getting all 3 out with 1 strikeout.

Justin Shafer: Pitched in 1 game, faced 6 batters, allowed 2 singles and had 2 strikeouts.

Brock Stewart: Pitched in 1 game, faced 5 batters, allowed 1 triple and struck out 1 batter.

On the IL

Ryan Borucki: Won’t be back this year, but should be good for next spring.

Elvis Luciano: I figured he’d be on the roster by now.

Matt Shoemaker: Another who should be healthy by spring. If he is, it will be interesting to see how the rotation shakes out. With him, maybe Buchholz, Borucki, Kay, Zeuch, maybe Waguespack. Pearson? Perhaps a signing. After that Murphy, Diaz, Perez. Maybe Thomas Hatch.