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

Over the past 12 games the Jays are 4-8. After a pretty good July, August has been terrible.

Our bats have been pretty cold, on the whole, hitting .244/.296/.392, averaging just 3.4 runs per game, way off the 4.7 they have averaged on the season.

Hot

Vladimir Guerrero: Started all 12 games. Hit .289/.327/.539 with 3 home runs, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts.

Played 9 games at first, 3 at DH. So maybe he hasn't been Vlad hot the last two weeks, but then over his last 21 games, he hit .337/.394/.581. And, of course, he's just off a 22 game hitting streak, where he had a .374/.424/.582 line.

Bo Bichette: Started 11 of the 12 games. Hit .272/.289/.546 with 3 home runs, 1 walk and 12 strikeouts.

Played all 11 games at short. I'm glad John is giving him a day off now and then. It would be nice if he would take more than one walk a week, but this is the player he is. But, with his speed, getting on base a little more would be nice. On defense? He's made an error in each of his last two games. Yesterday's was a tough one, he got a bad hop and rushed the throw, but it was a very costly error. It seems like his errors come in bunches.

Teoscar Hernandez: Played in 12 games, starting 11. Hit .262/.326/.571 with 3 home runs, 4 walks, 12 strikeouts with 1 steal.

DHed once. Kind of warm, not hot, but we need some guys in this grouping. He had his own little 9-game hitting streak going, but has just 2 hits in his last 14 at bats (but one was a home run and one was a double).

Cold

Alejandro Kirk: Played in 11 games, starting 10. Hit .200/.317/.200 with 0 home run, 6 walks and 6 strikeouts.

Started 6 of the games as catcher, and 4 as DH. Everyone will have a down part of the seasons, but Kirk has to come out of it now. He hasn't had an extra-base hit in the last two weeks. Being far, he's had a few hard-hit balls that found gloves. Sooner or later, those are going to start to fall in again. Aleandro isn't striking out a lot, but his BABIP is just .241 over the last two weeks. I'm sure things will turn around for him, but soon would be nice.

Santiago Espinal: Played in 9 games, starting 7. Hit .231/.259/.346 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

He started 8 games at second and 1 at short. Santiago has been hitting .229 since the All-Star game. With his glove, I think he can still be valuable hitting under .250, but Merrifield isn't bad at second, so Espinal is losing at-bats. He did the Pillar thing of starting very hot and, of course, we were slow to notice that he wasn't hitting as well as the season went on. I'm sure there is another hot stretch to come.

Matt Chapman: Started all 12 games. Hit .167/.255/.381 with 3 home runs, 5 walks and 18 strikeouts.

Matt had a 1.095 OPS in July, .636, so far in August. We knew he wouldn't continue to hit as he did in July for the rest of the season, but the month changed, and the batting average drops in half. His BABIP was .383 in July and is .191 in August. Baseball is weird.

Raimel Tapia: Played in 10 games, starting 9. Hit .226/.250/.258 with 0 home runs, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

Started 6 games in CF, 2 in LF and 1 in right. Much like Chapman, Raimel was great in July (.357/.368/.554) but is not hitting at all in August. When your team has added two guys who can play your position, it is the wrong time to go into a slump.

Danny Jansen: Played in 8 games, starting 7. Hit .130/.222/.130 with 0 home runs, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.

I'd imagine it is tough to play about half-time, but if he was hitting better, he'd force his way into more games.

Whit Merrifield: Played in 9 games, starting 8. Hit .250/.273/.250 with 0 home runs, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts and 1 steal.

It would be nice if one of the guys playing second and fourth outfielder spots could hit a bit. He seems fine defensively at second and in the outfield.

Inbetween

Lourdes Gurriel: Started 11 games. Hit .311/.340/.378 with no home runs, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.

DHed in one game. Hitting .311 is good, but it is a very empty .311, 21 singles and 4 doubles. I'm not going to complain too much. His arm hasn't impressed me as much as it did in the past (maybe teams aren't running on his as much?), but he does seem better at getting to balls. I wonder if he'll get Gold Glove votes again this year?

Cavan Biggio: Played 8 games, starting 7. Hit .227/.280/.455 1 home run, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.

Played 3 games at second, 3 at first and 1 in right. I thought Cavan was walking less this year, but he's walked 13.5% of the time this year, 14.8% career. His walk, strikeout and BABIP are right around his career numbers. And his hard hit % is right at his career number too. But it seems to me that his season has been a bit of a disappointment. His wRC+ is 101, so right at league average, but when you don't play great defense at any of the positions you play, I'd like a little better. There is a value to having someone who can play any position on the field.

Also Played

George Springer: Played in just 2 games. He had 3 hits in 8 at-bats in those 2 games. Glad he is back playing, in part because we won't get told he's as valuable on the bench as he is on the field (which seems like an insult to me).

Bradley Zimmer: Played in 5 games but just got 1 at-bat. And he's gone, a nation mourns.

Jackie Bradley, Jr.: Played in 4 games, starting 1. Had 3 at-bats, with 1 single and 2 strikeouts.

I haven't seen enough of his defense to make a judgement, but he didn't impress by throwing to the wrong base.

Otto Lopez: went into 2 games as a pinch runner.