2011 report cards

I assume every other Jays writer has done this already, so I may as well too.

Pitchers


Ricky Romero- A+.  Helped by a really low babip, Ricky put up some outrageous numbers this season.  I honestly don't think much needs to be said here other than the fact that this is probably his ceiling.  If he improves as a pitcher, I'd expect him to be right around the same as he was this year, if that makes any sense.  Regression and improvement will cancel each other out, I guess is what I'm saying here.

Brandon Morrow- B.  I'd like to see some more conditioning over the offseason.  He started the year on the DL, and appeared to waiver a bit down the stretch, but he threw a career high in innings for the second straight year, and showed flashes of brilliance, along with flashes of suicide.

Brett Cecil- C.  It was good to see him rebound from a terrible first half, but again, down the stretch, I meh'ed.  He might have a future as a relief pitcher.

Carlos Villanueva- B-.  Was really good as both a reliever and starter in the first half, especially as someone who didn't expect to start.  I assume the innings caught up to him around the 2/3 mark of the season, which is totally reasonable.  He was on pace to shatter his career high in IP before hitting the DL and missing like a month.  I would suggest that, had he known he was going to be starting 13 games, he would have had his arm stretched out a little better before the season.

Henderson Alvarez- A+.  I'm not sure what more we could expect for Hendy.  He made 10 starts, hardly walked anyone, and put up 1.3 rWAR as a 21 year old.  I wouldn't be surprised if he was the ace of this staff in 3 years.

Kyle Drabek- F.  Terrible.  Throw strikes, blow it by people, make hitters look silly.

Dustin Mcgowan- B+.  Fought back, good for you, more work to do, etc.  Still has a 96 MPH fastball, so there's definitely something there.  Probably better suited for the bullpen in the future, but obviously I'm not talent evaluator.

Luis Perez- B.  There's no need to have him in the rotation.  Just be a dominant lefty bullpen guy and we'll all get along.

Frank Frank- B.  Terrible first half, combined with an awesome second half.  Again, probably a conditioning issue in the first parts of the season.  He was injured in spring training, and thus, didn't really have a spring to get back in to game shape.  He was also used fairly poorly (multiple consecutive days when he clearly wasn't ready) early on, but I think Farrell kind of fixed that eventually.  Straight up dominated the last two months of the year, and I'd love to see him come back.  People bitch about the Jays lack of a closer... this is your closer if he'll come back.

Jon Rauch- F-.  If there was anything worse than F-, he'd get it.  This guy was the worst pitcher on the team by a mile, and Brad Mills happened.  I wonder if this was a blip, because his career numbers don't really make any sense of this season.  I'd expect him to bounce back a little next year.  The fact that he has type-B status goes to show how broken this Elias system really is.

Brad Mills- F-.  Really fucking bad, but then again, this guy isn't a major-league calibre pitcher.

Joel Carreno- B.  I was impressed over a small sample.

Shawn Camp- C+.  Somehow fought back to Type-B with a strong showing in the last 6 weeks or so.  Had a couple of really bad outings in May and June which really fucked him hard with regards to ERA and WHIP, but he fought back.

Jesse Litsch- C.  Pitched better after transitioning to the bullpen, but in a small sample.  Seemed to get fatter and fatter every time out there.

Casey Janssen- A.  Awesome year.  Totally blew everyone away for the first couple months.  Not sure if that was just a lucky stretch, or if he's actually that good, but until September, Janssen went out there and dominated folks.

Position Players


Jose Bautista- A+-  MVP.  Bondsian first half, regular all-star second half.  I wish he'd let Colby Rasmus take charge in the outfield.

Edwin Encarnacion- B+.  Start of the year was a laugher, both at the plate and in the field.  Once he was banished from 3B, things seemed to turn around.  From 2 weeks before the allstar break to the end of the season, he was the team's best hitter.

Adam Lind- B-.  Transitioned to 1B, and played it well, and tore the cover off the ball for about a month and a half.  I would have given him a C/C+ had I not heard Gregg Zaun on tv the other day say that Lind was just too exhausted from adjusting to playing the field.  Before hearing that, I was completely ready to give up on Lind and look for another 1B/let Edwin play 1B and find another bat somewhere, but I'm willing to give Lind a short leash for next year if he gets in to better condition.

Brett Lawrie- A+.  Barring a hand injury two days before his scheduled callup, we'd be looking at the AL ROY.  He did absolutely everything very well, and is probably the most exciting baseball player in the league right now, save for Mike Stanton or Jacoby Ellsbury.

Yunel Escobar- A+.  Tough year in terms of injuries, but when he was around, he was quite excellent.  He is an elite fielder, and he gets on base better than almost anybody else on the team.

JP Arencibia- B+.  Lotta taters, and did a good job catching.  I'd like to see him get on base more, obviously, but that probably stems from a really low babip.  He strikes out too much, but I'd expect the walkrate to rise and the K rate to drop over the next couple years.  When Travis d'Arnaud is ready to come up, JP could be a very useful trade chip, or he might have to learn 1B.

Kelly Johnson- B.  I guess.  Really small sample, but he got on base at a pretty good clip.  I've always been a fan, and hope he comes back next year.  2B is really shallow this offseason.  If only Aaron Hill still sucked.

Travis Snider- D.  I'm not ready to drop the F-bomb here, mostly because he didn't really get a chance to succeed.  Still kind of sad panda about this though.

Eric Thames- B.  Pretty good performance out of a rookie.  Probably gives the worst interviews in the history of interviews, and doesn't play very good defense either.  He should probably be on twitter if he wants to be a part of this team's future.

Mike Mccoy- B.  Not sure what else you could ask for.  Played good defense, took way more than his share of walks, and travelled back and forth from Las Vegas like 80 times.  Without McDonald around, I'd expect Mccoy to have himself a permanent bench role.

Jose Molina- A.  A really high babip, plus some clutch hits have helped turn him in to the best backup catcher in baseball.  He still won't be a starter wherever he signs (at least I fucking hope not, for the sake of baseball), but I'm sure there's some value to be had.

Colby Rasmus- B-.  It would be nice to see the bat return, but that glove...  It's really refreshing to see a CF take really good routes to flyballs, much less be able to catch something over his head.  I have no doubt that he's going to recover and become one of the best CF's in the game, but I'm sure there's some mental hurdles that need to be jumped over.  I think it's on the coaching staff for this one.

Mark Teahen- N/A.  Get off my team.

TV


Breaking Bad- A+.  This is the best show on TV right now, and might go down as the best ever when it's all said and done.  If you're not watching this show, fuck you.