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

Since the All-Star break, the Blue Jays are 7-5. I don’t know if it is a sign that they are a good team that it could have easily been 9-3 over that period.

The offense averaged 4.9 runs per game, a step up from their season average of 4.6.

Hot

Whit Merrifield: Played in 12 games, started 11. Hit .395/.404/.558 with 1 double, 2 homers, 1 steal, 1 caught, 2 walks and 10 strikeouts.

He started 5 games at second base, 6 in left field. He hasn’t been doing well stealing bases lately, with just 2 steals (with 2 caught) this month and 6 steals (with 6 caught since June 1). A 50% success rate isn’t good. But he’s hitting just better than I expected from him. He reached base in all but one game he started.

Alejandro Kirk: Played in 9 games, starting 6. Hit .385/.448/.539 with 1 home run, 1 double, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.

5 of the starts were at Catcher, 1 as DH. I was surprised to see his average, I didn’t think he was hitting much lately, but he had a 4-hit game and a 3-hit game. And, of course, he hit 2 double plays at the worst moments. He gets more hate on Twitter (or whatever they call it this week) than he deserves. There is a section of our fanbase who are weight watchers, and whatever he does will be viewed through his body type.

Kevin Kiermaier: Played in 11 games, starting 9 games. Hit .321/.412/.500 with 2 doubles, 1 homer, 1 steal, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts.

He’s been great since the break, coming off a cold stretch before the break. He doesn’t have much of a platoon split. On the season, Kevin has a .773 OPS vs. RHB and .754 vs. LHB, but I think it is a good idea to sit him against lefties to give him a break and keep him healthy. He’s been much better than I expected on offense and defense.

Matt Chapman: Started all 12 games. Hit .286/.423/.452 with 4 doubles, 1 home run, 9 walks and 10 strikeouts.

Played every game at third base. He seems to have the ‘doubles’ swing down pat lately. He’s on a six-game hitting streak. He is a lot of fun to watch when he’s hitting well.

Vladimir Guerrero: Started all 12 games. He hit .255/.333/.553 with 4 home runs, 2 doubles, 6 walks and 12 strikeouts.

Dhed 4 times, first base 8 games. A kind of lite beer version of ‘hot’ for him, but 100 points better on his OPS than he’s been doing this year. He reached base in 11 of the 12 games. One of the few guys hitting at all with RISP, .302/.360/.448. And he’s been great in what Baseball Reference calls high leverage spots, .344/.403/.500 (but poor in low leverage spots, .244/.325/.438). It would be nice if he revved up in the second half.

Bo Bichette: Played in 12 games, started 11 games. Hit .306/.359/.449 with 1 double, 2 home runs, 4 walks, 12 strikeouts.

Again a kind of lite beer hot. The 4 walks are 21% of his total for the season. He had his little four-game hitless streak in that period. But he is 7 for 11 after his ‘day off’ (when he still got into the game as a pinch hitter). A mental health day is good. Before the day off, he was hitting .211 after the break.

Brandon Belt: Started 10 games. Hit.250/.349/.472 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 6 walks and 12 strikeouts.

Played 4 games at first base, 6 as DH. Again not hot hot, but consistently good (if you forget the first few weeks of the season). Never start the season cold. People won’t forget. I’d be okay if he hit more than a home run a week, but that’s the way things have gone.

Danny Jansen: Played in 9 games, starting 7. Hit ..261/.370/.609 with 2 double, 2 home runs, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts.

All the starts were as catchers. His high leverage numbers are great, .273/.333/.614, with 4 home runs. Late and close games, he’s hitting .220/.273/.488. Both our catchers have been having trouble with base stealers lately. Danny’s had 5 steals against, with one caught in the two weeks.

Cavan Biggio: Played in 8 games, starting 4. Hit ..500/.667/.500 with 3 walks and 1 strikeout, and 1 steal.

It’s only 15 PA but he has been hitting pretty great for a while now. In his last 36 games, he’s hitting .273/.366/.489 with 5 home runs. But he isn’t getting playing time because he started so the season so poor. Someone tell John he’s hitting.

Cold

Daulton Varsho: Played in 12 games, starting 9. Hit .206/.270/.235 with 1 doubles, 1 steal, 1 caught, 2 walks and 14 strikeouts.

Started 3 games in CF, 6 in left. Yeah, it isn’t going well.

George Springer: Played in 12 games, starting 11. Hit .170/.304/.213 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 7 walks, 12 strikeouts, and 2 caught stealing.

Coming off an 8 game hitting streak, he’s just had 1 hit in his last 26 at-bats. He’s been walking some, so his on-base average hasn’t dropped. I wonder what is going on with him. I guess down stretches happen to us all, but he’s going to have to get things going.

In Between

Santiago Espinal: Played in 9 games, starting 4. Hit .300/.333/.350 with 1 double, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts.

He started 3 games at second, 1 at short. 6 hits in 20 at-bats. But just the one extra-base hit, one walk. The .300 BA seems good, the .683 OPS doesn’t. He had the bad moment on defense. He really should have had a teammate telling him that the runner was going home. He’s on the team to hit lefties and he isn’t (.217/.288/.283). I don’t know, he has options left.

Also Played

Jordan Luplow: Started 2 games. Hit .429/.556/.429 with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.

I’m hoping he gets more playing time.

Nathan Lukes: Got one at-bat before being sent down.