I feel like there would be more to write about if Jose Bautista was in the lineup yesterday, but maybe not. The game yesterday was pretty uneventful from a Jays fan's perspective. Bautista is the best player on this team, and the team can't really compete against good pitching if there isn't a big offensive threat. Yes I realize how well Adam Lind has played over the last 2 weeks, but David Price is an elite lefty, and Lind isn't really all that able to carry an entire offense against a left handed pitcher.
Kyle Drabek was okay, and given that he was on short rest (after not getting out of the third inning in his last start, mind you), pitched about as well as we could have asked for. He's still throwing a lot of pitches, and I'd expect (hope) that he be shut down at some point before the end of the season. Having said that, he threw a lot of innings in AA last year, so he may not have an innings limit. The thing about having an innings limit is that, similar to Brandon Morrow last year, if you go out and dominate, you're going to go deep in to ball games and tally up the innings quickly. But throwing innings doesn't necessarily do the work on the arm, as opposed to the amount of pitches thrown per inning. Drabek is averaging right around 18 pitches in an inning; it's slightly above average, but for a power pitcher who misses a lot of bats, it's nothing wild. But it's not like Drabek is going out there and throwing 18 every inning; his typical path is something like [12, 13, 30, 23, 16, 8] and get pulled in the 6th with a man on first and one out. Throwing 30 in an inning is pretty bad for the arm, especially a young one. (I asked Kyle from Driveline Baseball to try and explain that a little better than I did. I'll post what he writes back if he has the time to get back to me today.)
Ah well. David Price came in yesterday and fucked us. At least Farrell let JP Arencibia play, despite Drabek pitching. And look what Drabek did... the exact same thing he's done with Molina behind the plate. Maybe this means that JP should catch 4 out of 5 now. Gregg Zaun said it best yesterday, when he said that JP is the future catcher of this team, and that he should never ever get back to back days off. Jose Molina isn't going to be around forever, and at some point, preferably soon, they're going to have to let JP take the reigns with this pitching staff and catch them all, at least every now and then. And shit, what if Molina gets hurt? It's not like he isn't 70 years old and fat.
And here's something else: with Bautista and Aaron Hill out of the lineup, there's kind of a need for a power bat in the lineup, even if he is going to bat 6th or 7th or whatever. I mean it's not like Edwin is contributing, and the Juan Rivera party looks kind of over. JP is the 2nd/3rd (Escobar) best hitter on this team if Bautista isn't in the lineup. I'd bat JP 5th behind Lind to be completely honest. Or better yet, put him third so Corey Patterson can go in the 8 hole/bench where he belongs and Escobar can be 1st or 2nd.
Thankfully, the Road trip is over, and they Jays head back home to the
Tomorrow marks the day that both Jose Bautista and Aaron Hill return to the lineup. Definitely woohoo on the Bautista thing. Jury is still out on Aaron Hill, to be perfectly honest.
Around the league:
Harry Leroy Halladay III surprised absolutely nobody by continuing to be good at pitching, going 7 innings, allowing 2 runs and striking out 10 gentlemen.
Boston continued to be the greatest team ever assembled, losing to the Angels 11-0 at home yesterday. LA put up 18 hits, and John Lackey continues to earn that contract.
Looks like Kansas City is giving up on Kila Kaiai'aiae'ah'ue or whatever the fuck his name is. They sent him down and called up Eric Hosmer, forgoing any super-2 implications. But hey, it's an upgrade, and Hosmer was skullfucking AAA (.439/.525/.582) over 118 plate appearances. He makes his debut tonight. KC whooped Baltimore last night 9-1, with former Jay Bruce Chen going 7 strong innings, and then Jeremy Jeffress, a product of the Zack Greinke trade, threw 2 perfect innings in relief. I can't see KC keeping the string of good play up, not with this lineup anyway, but this is going to be a really fun team to watch as early as September, when the rest of their absurd farm system comes up.
Jake Peavy threw over 100 pitches in a rehab start yesterday. Dude's been injured pretty much constantly over the last couple years and a lot of people thought that he might be finished, but it looks like he's on his way back.
And finally, Shin-soo Choo does no favors for asians and the stereotype that they are bad drivers with this video of his DUI arrest.
Lineups
Jays
Davis RF
Patterson CF
Escobar SS
Lind 1B
Rivera LF
Arencibia C
Encarnacion DH
McCoy 3B
McDonald 2B
P: Litsch
Tigers
Jackson CF
Sizemore 2B
Boesch LF
Cabrera 1B
Martinez DH
Ordonez RF
Peralta SS
Avila C
Inge 3B
P: Coke
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