Jays batters during the 28 games in 27 days

The Blue Jays finally made it to the end of a stretch of 28 games in 27 days. Going 18-10 is far better than we could have expected.

We have a pretty good chance of making the playoffs. From FanGraphs:

When I play OOTP Baseball and it gives me odds of making that playoff that are that good, I think ‘we’ll show them’.

The bad news:

• Rowdy Tellez is out for the season with a tendon injury in his knee.
• Teoscar Hernandez is out for, well they aren’t saying for how long, with an oblique injury. I don’t know if he’ll be back before the end of the season.
• Jordan Romano is out with a finger sprain. They haven’t said much about when he might be back.

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Let’s look at some of the batters:

• Cavan Biggio: Played in all 28 game, starting 26. He hit .277/.411/.436. 2 home runs, 3 hit by pitch, 2 steals.

It seems like Cavan hits about the same all the time.

• Danny Jansen: Played in 21 games, starting 18. Hit .118/.274/.255 with 2 home runs. 6 hits, 10 walks. 7 steals against, 4 caught.

I’m not sure if I should be thinking he’s in a slump, or is this is him. He is throwing better than he was, but his defense can’t make up for that batting line. I think we’ll see a fair bit of Joseph the rest of the way.

• Lourdes Gurriel: Played in 27 games, starting 23. Hit .319/.381/.553 with 5 home runs, 3 steals.

One of those guys who is either very hot or very cold. He is fun to watch when he’s hot. And he’s had 10 walks in those 27 games, which is nice to see. Let’s not put him at first again.

• Vladimir Guerrero: Played in all 28, starting 26. Hit .250/.348/.430 with 4 home runs, 1 steal.

He had a nice hot streak in there but the last 8 games he’s hit just .143.

• Travis Shaw: Played in all 28 games, starting 23. .242/.303/.374 with 2 home runs.

He’s having a little bit of bad luck. His 41.2% hard contact rate is the best of his career. 11.8 soft contact is also the best of his career. And he has the best line drive rate of his career at 23.5%. Finding gloves too much, but he isn’t hitting home runs. We could think his number should be better, and also think that it still wouldn’t be good enough.

• Randal Grichuk: Started 27 games. Hit .265/.293/.564 with 9 home runs.

I refuse to believe when they tell us that hitters have changed their hitting philosophy. Randal has hot and cold streaks. When he’s hot, you can tell me he is doing things different and better, but I’m not going to buy it.

• Teoscar Hernandez: Played in 24 games, started 22. Hit .337/.406/.674 with 9 home runs, 3 steals.

Hitting great and, after a rather poor start with the glove, he’s been much better, throwing to where he should, not making bad decisions. I don’t think he’ll ever win a Gold Glove, but just not throwing to the wrong spot is a big step up.

• Rowdy Tellez: Played in 24 games, started 18. Hit .329/.383/.603 with 6 home runs.

Went from ‘he’s going to be traded’ to ‘he’s an All-Star’ in about five minutes. I’ve always believed you give as many chances as you can to guys who can hit the ball 450 feet.

I’ve always hated parks with the bullpen in foul ground. But then I don’t remember seeing someone get hurt on one before. But it has happened:

Corner outfielders and infielders who range back on fly balls, of course, have injury-related gripes. Over the past four seasons, former Giants outfielder Mac Williamson experienced a career-altering concussion, outfielder Steven Duggar suffered a wrist injury, and Evan Gattis and Marcell Ozuna took hard falls that sent them tumbling into danger.

I can’t imagine a worse moment for an injury

• Santiago Espinal: Played in 17 games, started 13. Hit .282/.326/.359 with 3 doubles.

It might be an empty .282, but still it is much better than I would have hoped we could see from him. I don’t think anyone would argue if I said he was our best defensive infielder.

• Joe Panik: Played in 20 games, started 15. Hit .305/.414/.390 with 5 doubles.

I owe him and Charlie an apology. I don’t think I’d want to go into a 162 game season with Joe playing short, but he hasn’t been as bad as I though he might be.

• Derek Fisher: Played in 8 games, started 6. Hit .267/.368/.533 with 1 home run.

Arbitrary end points, but I don’t think it is impossible that he could keep this up.

• Jonathan Villar: Played in 9 games, started 8. Hit .194/.306/.194.

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone make so many bad throws in the infield before. Between that and not hitting, he hasn’t made us happy with the trade.