Like us on Facebook here
Follow @mlbreportsThursday May.02/2013
Clik here to view.
The Blue Jays have not done much celebrating this year so far. With a bloated payroll after the Miami Marlins trade, plus the struggles of R.A Dickey, the Jose Reyes injury – and signed FA Melky Cabrera not hitting well, the franchise has gone 10 – 18. Sitting in 5th place in the vaunted AL East, the playoffs would seem impossible to make.
By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024
I am officially throwing the dirt on the Toronto Blue Jays season. You will want to listen to the 2 AND A HOOK Podcast today on this page here (posted tonight about 10 PM EST).
Point blank. The Jays are 10 – 18 – and can’t leapfrog the other clubs in the AL East Division. Last nights Lineup featured J.P. Arencibia leading the team in Batting Average – with a .250 clip. Their Team Batting Average currently sits at .228, they don’t Walk and they never seem to come up with a big hit.
What is worse for the Canadian franchise is that their pitching was supposed to be solid. R.A. Dickey has found that pitching in the AL East is not like pitching in the NL East.
Mark Buehrle is having a tough time missing bats back in the American League too.
Josh Johnson has been bad so far as well. Now he has been placed on the 15 Day Disabled List. Who knows if he will be healthy to pitch even after that.
Like I said in the Weekly Rankings on Monday – this club doesn’t have the chops to play .625 baseball for the rest of the remaining schedule.ESPN currently has them at a 4.4% probability for making the playoffs.
The team will play for John Gibbons job, potentially to break .500 – and respectability the rest of 2013 and nothing more.
Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays last week (Part of a 4 game Sweep)
Clik here to view.
Josh Hamilton resembles the struggling version of himself during the 2012 season. He is not patient enough at the plate – and is suffering from swinging at poor pitches. I stillthink the Angels can take off and make a run with the likes of Albert Pujols and Mike Trout still in your lineup, however they must start playing well now. You have got to start making ground on the Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers immediately.
The Angels are not doing themselves any favors by their slow start either. After last year’s slow start (8 – 17), you figure this club would have come into camp with a major sense of urgency.
Instead, the Josh Hamilton slump has seemed to rub off on the rest of the club. His plate approach smells of a player not doing his due diligence in learning the patterns of the opposing pitchers.
I think that the man was able to flip the switch on raw talent before, however now that he is becoming older, he has not adjusted – while the other teams have the book on him.
Mr. Hamilton has to change his lunging for bad pitches early in his At – Bats. If you are facing him as a Pitcher, why would you even throw a strike to this man? Let Hamilton get himself out.
Has anyone noticed that James Loney is hitting .375 for the Rays? The club always finds a cheap Free Agent like this every season. Casey Kotchman and Jeff Keppinger come to mind as guys that had career years in Tampa in the last couple of years.
It is just like the New York Yankees DH position, they always find washed up players that have a short renaissance. Think of Raul Ibanez, Andruw Jones – while now they are receiving great production out of Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay.
The Cleveland Indians offense is raking the ball. Ryan Raburn is 12 for 14, with back to back 2 HR games, followed up by a 4 – 5 performance last night.
Mark Reynolds was also a brilliant Free Agent singing from the Indians – and is on pace for his 40 HR, 100+ RBI years like he had with Arizona. I can’t believe that the Orioles let this guy walk for a few Million Dollars.
Speaking of the Orioles, their late Inning heroics have run out a little. I also see them hovering around .500 for the rest of their year. Chris Davis is not going to go 9 HRs and 28 RBI every month. This team should have forked over the money for a Free Agent ace.
While Mike Napoli has 32 RBI so far in Boston, the management must be questioning themselves why they were so forceful with Napoli’s injuries being a problem for that 3 YR/$39 Million Contract? The big First Baseman/Catcher/DH will walk after having a Career year this campaign. Teams will line up the Brinks truck for him.
The Atlanta Braves have been Shutout 6 times in 10 Losses this year. The club is also on pace to bring the ALL – Time Strikeout mark. None of these come as surprises.
B.J. Upton hitting .138 has been masked by the teams fast 17 – 10 start. However the club is 5 – 9 over the last 14 games. Don’t worry about having enough money to re-sign players down the road, now that this .240 Hitter over the last 5 years, is collecting $15 Million per season until 2017. Maybe the worst FA signing this past winter!
The Phillies are probably wishing they hadn’t of traded Vance Worley right now with the struggles of Ben Revere. The team could have saved themselves of doing this trade by simply re-signing Juan Pierre. At 12 – 16, their reluctance to spend money on a starting OF may come back to bite them.
Is there a bigger importance to a team having a player in the lineup than Yoenis Cespedes? The A’s are 94 – 50 (.653) with the big man from Cuba in their lineup. For the record, they are only 16 – 31 (.341) without him.
Ryan Braun has played for 6 full years and a month. After going over his entire month to month statistics, he has only ever had two bad months out of 43 months he has played baseball. The man is as consistent as it comes. He heads into play today with a 3 Slash line of .287/.575/.961 – with 7 HRs and 22 RBI in just 23 Games Played during 2013.
Michael Morse should make a nice Trade Deadline chip for the Mariners. If they don’t plan on flipping this guy, the club should work on resigning him right now. He may be one of these guys that will play for you Seattle. Give him a 3 – 4 year offer right now before the salary numbers increase.
The Nationals will come around in time. Having said this, I think the team will be upset in the playoffs at some point – and it will all center around Stephen Strasburg somehow. The ‘baseball gods’ don’t like it when you snub them by sitting a prime asset with a chance to win in the playoffs.
I have changed my mind on the Mets bringing up Zack Wheeler. The young Pitcher is ready to come up now – so why let his confidence be destroyed in the PCL? He needs big league experience to match what Harvey has, so when the club comes around finally, he will have enough experience to be a big time player.
I can’t believe that Robin Ventura continues to hit Adam Dunn in the cleanup spot with Chicago. Hello, the guy has a career .181 Batting Average for your franchise in 2 plus years! I am not saying to DFA the guy, just drop him to 5th even.
Paul Konerko should be hitting 4th with a .282 Lifetime Batting Average – and a guy who has hit .300 for the better part of the last 3 years.
If the Cardinals are sniffing around a playoff spot near the Trade Deadline – boy do they ever have a pile of possibilities to trade for with that stockpiled Minor League System.
The Tigers still need to trade away one of their nice young OF (Andy Dirks, Quintin Berry or Avisail Garcia,) for another middle reliever. Maybe buzz the New York Yankees Detroit.
The Rockies top 6 hitters are all hitting over .300 thus far this season. This should be a year this franchise should trade for a couple of Veteran Starters. The key will be to stay in contention until the ALL – Star Break.
Arizona’s Bullpen is killing them. Fast starts by Gerardo Parra and Paul Goldschmidt have been wasted by the highly touted Relief Core blowing games late.
Clik here to view.
It has not been thumbs up for Adam Dunn in a White Sox uniform. Forget the 41 HRs he hit last year – he still only hit .204 – and now he is not even Walking at a great rate. At a 3 Slash Line of .141/.233/.592 – in 2013 – he has no business hitting cleanup Mr. Ventura!! For the love of god – appease the White Sox fanbase – and at least drop the guy down below White Sox great Paul Konerko to 5th.
*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***
Chuck Booth - Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner and author of the Fastest 30 Ballgames: To learn more about my “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book” and how to purchase it, click here .
You can also follow my Guinness Book of World Record Successful Bid to see all 30 MLB Park in 23 Days - click here. I am happy to be part of such an awesome Magazine-Style Baseball Website and am looking forward to talking to all of the fans of the MLB. You can reach me on Twitter here Follow @mlbreports
Clik here to view.
Ben Fallon (Left) and Chuck booth (Right) at Nats Park (Patriots Day 2012)
Please e-mail me at: mlbreports@gmail.com with any questions and feedback. You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage.
Like us on Facebook here
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
