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

Over the past two weeks, the Jays went 9-5. The pitchers had a 3.06 ERA.

Hot

Kevin Gausman: 3 starts, 2-0, 1.29 ERA. Batters hit .224/.221/.276, 0 walks, 27 strikeouts in 21 innings.

0 walks so far this season. 0. He also hasn’t allowed a home run yet. Yeah, he’s been great. You know things are going well when you have a 33.6% strikeout rate and a 0% walk rate.

Alek Manoah: 2 starts, 2-0, 1.38 ERA. Batters hit .204/.220/.286, 1 walk, 12 strikeouts in 13 innings.

Four starts into the season, he is 4-0 and has only hit one batter. That latter part won’t last, but a 32-0 season? Why not? The strikeout rate is 25.8%, walk rate 7.2%.

Jose Berrios: 3 starts, 2-0, 1.93 ERA. Batters hit .263/.309/.368 with 4 walks, 15 strikeouts in 18.2 innings.

You know things are going well when your top three starters all have ERAs under 2 for a two-week period. His first couple of starts weren’t great, but since then, he’s been pretty terrific.

Jordan Romano: 7 games, 2.84 ERA, 5 saves, 1 win, 1 blown save/loss. In 6.1 innings, batters hit .240/.269/.440 with 1 walk, 8 strikeouts, 1 home runs.

Really not hot for him, but pretty decent. He won reliever of the month in the AL. He’s striking out 29.8% of batters and walking 4.3%. But he is giving up a lot of hard contact so far. 45.2% hard contact (25.4% last year), 45.2% medium contact, and 9.7% soft (18.3% last year). I’d imagine those numbers will improve as the season goes on.

Adam Cimber: 6 games, 0.00 ERA, 1 save, 2 holds, 1 blown save/win. Batters hit .118/.111/.118 with 0 walks and 3 strikeouts in 6 innings.

You know things are going well when your OBP allowed is lower than your BA allowed. He is a lot of fun to watch.

David Phelps: 6 games, 3.00 ERA, 1 hold, 1 blown save. Batters hit .227/.261/.318 with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts in 6 innings.

He gave up a run in 2 of the outings. Hard to understand how with a .579 OPS against.

Tim Mayza: 5 games, 0.00 ERA, 1-0, 2 holds. Batters hit .250/.286/.300 with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts in 5 innings.

He has been very good.

Cold

Yusei Kikuchi: 3 starts, 0-0, 5.56 ERA. Batters hit .233/.382/.488 with 11 walks, 11 strikeouts, 2 home runs in 11.1 innings.

When you walk a batter an inning, it isn’t good. He has good moments, and I’m curious to see how things go as the season continues. Pete Walker can often get the best out of a pitcher, but it looks like he has a fair bit of work to go here.

Trevor Richards: 7 games, 1 hold, 5.87 ERA. Batters hit .179/.281/.464 with 2 home runs, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts in 7.2 innings.

He only had one bad outing, but it was really bad, 5 earned in 1.1. in an outing. If you ignore that one bad outing, he was pretty good. This is where the Titanic joke goes.

Yimi Garcia: 5 games, 10.38 ERA, 0-2, 1 blow save, 1 hold. Batters hit .389/.350/.556 with 0 walks, 3 strikeouts in 4.1 innings.

He has not looked good. He’s throwing hard, 94.4 MPH on the fastball, but he’s getting hit hard too, though his hard contact rate is only 17.2% this year (34.8 last year).

Trent Thornton: 4 games, 5.06 ERA, 0-2. Batters hit .316/.318/.368 with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts in 5.1 innings.

He really hasn't pitched enough to deserve to be in the Cold pile, but such is life as a long reliever.

In Between

Ross Stripling: 3 starts, 0-0, 4.15 ERA. Batters hit .273/.286/.382 with 1 walk and 12 strikeouts in 13 innings.

There hasn’t been much to complain about with Ross. You couldn’t ask from much more from a spot starter.

Julian Merryweather: 5 games, 3.60 ERA. Batters hit .235/.263/.412 with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts, in 5.0 innings.

He’s been ok this season. The best part is he hasn’t been on the IL yet. He has a 28.2% strikeouts rate and a 2.6% walk rate. He’s throwing hard, averaging 97.2 MPH on his fastball. There have just been moments when he’s getting hit hard.

Also Played

Andrew Vasquez: Pitched in two games. 13.50 ERA, batters hit .429/.556/.429 in 1.1 innings. He’s on the active roster now.

Bowden Francis: Pitched to 3 batters, giving up 1 hit. He’s back in Buffalo.

IL

Hyun Jin Ryu: Will make a rehab start in Buffalo on Saturday. I don’t know if they will want him to make more than one rehab start, it likely depends on how the first one goes.

Tayler Saucedo: On the IL with ‘right hip discomfort’. No word on how long he’ll be out.

Ryan Borucki: Pitched twice in the last two weeks, getting four outs, walking 2, striking out 2. Now he is on the IL with a blister on his middle finger. No word on how long he might be out.

Anthony Kay: On the 7-day IL.