The Price is Wrong

David Price continued his successful ways, getting the win in a 12-2 Rays win over the Blue Jays. The wicked defeat erases all good will the Jays had built up in starting the season 6-4. The offense wasn’t working, the pitching was disastrous, and they couldn’t even keep it close. Morrow gave up 6 runs, but at least he went 6 innings. After two perfect innings of relief (I love you Luis Perez, I really do), Villanueva came in and gave up 6 runs. In the ninth. The Blue Jays did manage 12 hits, but 11 were singles, and they only scored twice. As a team they saw fewer than 4 pitches per at bat, down from where they were against Cleveland in the season opening series.

Tonight, Alvarez pitches against Hellickson, in a battle of young up-and-coming finesse pitchers. Hellickson is the type of pitcher that the Jays have trouble with. He doesn’t rack up the strikeouts but doesn’t give up a lot of hard hit balls either. The key for the Jays offense is going to be getting fly balls instead of ground balls against Hellickson, as Boston did against the young right-hander in his second start of the season. For Alvarez, he’s going to have to maintain his control and not walk any of the Rays, who are good at getting long at-bats and making you work. Alvarez has actually been much better against left-handers this year than right-handers, so he might be able to get past some of the Rays lefties like Pena, Joyce, and Scott without too many problems. The bullpen will also need to be solid.

Around the league, the Rangers continued to look like one of the best teams in baseball, beating the Red Sox to improve to 10-2. With their combination of hitting (averaging around 6 runs a game) and pitching (solid starting staff & bullpen and Darvish hasn’t even really contributed yet) they look like the class of the AL. The Nationals also managed to win again, improving to 10-3, good for first in the NL East. They’ve used timely hitting and absolutely ridiculous pitching to get off to this fast start. They’ve only given up 4 or more runs 3 times in 13 games this season. Strasburg looks like one of the favorites for the Cy Young and guys like Zimmerman and Gio Gonzalez are consistently shutting teams down. Their first real test will be at the start of May, when they face the Diamondbacks and Phillies in back-to-back series.

Fireworks Fly & Drabek Delivers

This is what we’ve been waiting for. An offensive explosion (9 runs) and a dominant outing from Drabek, the key incoming trade piece in the Roy Halladay deal. Drabek built on a good first start to the season with 7.1IP, 6H, 2R (1ER), 1BB, 6K. He looks like a completely different pitcher this year than last year. He isn’t getting flustered on the mound, his release is way more consistent, and he’s barely walking anyone. The offense was just as good, putting up 7 runs in the 6th inning. They had 8 extra-base hits in the game, including Lawrie’s first home-run.

With Lawrie’s 2 of 4 day, his batting average is now up to .306 on the season, and he’s definitely locked into the middle of the batting order for the forseeable future. Rookie pitcher Evan Crawford also made his MLB debut pitching mop-up duty, going 1IP with 1H and 1K. The win takes the Jays up to 5-4 on the season, tied for the division lead with the Yankees and Orioles.

Around the league, the Marlins walked off in the 11th, Hamels struck out 10 in the Phillies win, the Rangers improved to 8-2, and the Dodgers walked off with a 5-4 win against the Padres behind the strength of Matt Kemp’s 6th home run and a controversial triple-play turned by the Dodgers defense. A Padres batter went to bunt with men on 1st and 2nd with no outs, and made contact. The home plate umpire initially ruled it was a foul ball, resulting in no play, and then signalled fair, allowing the Dodgers to get the triple play since the Padres runners were not running, as they thought the play was dead. Upon video review, the ball was in fact fair, but the umpire’s initial call was to stop the play, so the Dodgers got lucky. The Padres manager came out to argue to no avail and was ejected. The Dodgers now stand at 9-1, with the best record in the major leagues and the leading-home run hitter.

Bullpen Blues

The Blue Jays opened their series against the Orioles with a call back to their 2011 woes, their bullpen blew the game. Morrow came out after 7 gutsy innings with a 5-4 lead, and then the bullpen gave up 3 runs in the 8th + 9th innings to blow it. It was a see-saw battle until that point, with each team hitting home runs left right and center. Rasmus and Yunel got their first home runs of the year which is encouraging, even if the end result was not good. Hopefully this game can just be chalked up as an off-day for the pen, but they’ll need to be consistently good for the Jays to have a shot this year. And of course they weren’t helped by Santos’ absence due to paternity leave.

It is also important to note that at this point, the third highest batting average on the Blue Jays belongs to Brett Lawrie, at .241. That just won’t cut it this season, they’re going to have to become more consistent, especially Bautista who’s taking a decent number of walks but batting below .200.

Around the league, the Red Sox won 12-2 over the Rays, scoring 8 in the 8th inning, the Nationals walked off in the 12th inning to improve to 6-2 with 2 walk-off wins, the Giants shut down the Pirates on the strength of a complete game 1-hitter by Matt Cain, and Aaron Harang struck out 13 batters for the Dodgers. Also of note is the fact that Washington and the New York Mets lead the NL East a 6-2 and 5-2 respectively, and the Dodgers have the best record in baseball at 7-1. Try to figure that out..

Santos Saves!

After a rocky start to the season that included a couple of blown saves and booing from the home fans, Sergio Santos excised his demons and delivered a clutch save for the Jays in a 3-1 win over Boston. He came into the game with 1 out and men on 2nd and 3rd and got out of the jam with a strikeout and a ground out. He looked locked in, much moreso than in his last game, flashing his high heat and devastating slider. It was the perfect end to a game in which Romero pitched very well (8.1IP, 3H, 1R, 2BB, 5K) and the offense scrapped out 3 runs on the strength of a Rajai Davis triple and 2 runs. The Jays now stand at 4-2 on the season, with two 2-1 series wins, and look ahead to a 3-game series at home against Baltimore.

Around the league, there was a lot of excitement. The Padres handed Arizona their first loss of the season with a late rally, the Reds walked off against the Cardinals, the Rays blew up Verlander in the 9th inning, the Rockies scored 17 runs, the Rangers blew a save to Seattle, and the Athletics won on a walk-off hit by pitch. The batter who was hit was Jonny Gomes, and this was the first walk-off hbp since Gomes got hit last season. But, the most interesting game in my opinion was the Nationals’ 4-0 victory over the Mets. Strasburg and Santana combined for 11IP, 7H, 1R, 6BB, and 17K. Strasburg now has a 0.69 ERA with 14Ks in 13IP and leads the resurgent Nationals on their quest for the playoffs. Also, the Pittsburgh Pirates STILL have the best team ERA in major league baseball, at 2.05.

The Comeback Kid

Although nobody is going to confuse Kyle Drabek with Roy Halladay (yet), they won’t be confusing him with Dontrelle Willis either. He managed to have pretty good control, finishing with a line of 5.1IP, 3H, 1R, 3BB, 4K, which is perfectly acceptable against a lineup like Boston’s. He did work himself into trouble in the 6th, but other than that he was downright dominant at times. His 2-seam fastball had so much late movement on it that his own catcher had trouble catching it.

It also helped that the offense finally woke up. 7 runs on 11 hits, including contributions from the entire lineup. The top third of the lineup had 3 hits and 3 runs, the middle third had six hits, 3 runs, and 3 RBI, and the bottom third had 2 hits, 1 run, and 3 RBI. Notable was Edwin Encarnacion, who finished with two stolen bases, a home run, and his team leading 6th RBI. The win moves the Jays up to 3-2 on the season, tied with Baltimore for 2nd in the AL East.

Around the league, the Diamondbacks and Tigers improved to 4-0, the Cardinals improved to 5-1, the Dodgers and Rangers improved to 4-1, and Neftali Feliz of the Rangers impressed in his first career start, throwing seven shutout innings against the Mariners in a 1-0 Rangers win. Fun fact, the Tigers are undefeated with 4 wins this season, but their starting pitchers are still winless. They’re winning games late, and they won’t be able to keep that up all year.

Cy Young Power Rankings: Week 1

Cy Young Power Rankings is a weekly article where I will briefly cover the leading contenders for the AL and NL Cy Young races. I am a bigger fan of pitching than hitting, which is why I will focus on pitching instead of hitting.

American League:

1. Jered Weaver

  • Record: 1-0
  • Last Start: 8IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 10K
  • Season: 8IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 10K

Weaver completely shut down a young and hyped-up Royals lineup in his first start, using all his pitches well and demonstrating excellent control (no walks). He has a very good offense and defense behind him, and he should be one of the season’s top pitchers all season long.

2. Justin Verlander

  • Record: 0-0
  • Last Start: 8IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 7K
  • Season: 8IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 7K

Verlander is neck and neck with Weaver right now, and one could argue Verlander deserves top billing because he shut down the Red Sox, but Boston’s offense is not as good as some people think, and Verlander didn’t look like he was in control as much. Still, he’s the reigning Cy Young winner and MVP, and he’s got a great chance of repeating this season.

3. Justin Masterson

  • Record: 0-0
  • Last Start: 8IP, 2H, 1R, 1BB, 10K
  • Season: 8IP, 2H, 1R, 1BB, 10K

Masterson has always had the stuff, specifically a fantastic sinker, but before last season had never put it all together. However, since being traded to Cleveland from Boston, he’s figured it out, and has a tremendous mix of strikeouts and ground balls. In his first start this season he absolutely dominated the Blue Jays, striking out 10 and keeping their potent offense to only one run. He carried a 4-1 lead into the 9th, but the bullpen couldn’t close the game. To me, nobody looked more dominant than Masterson, but he doesn’t have the track record right now to think he can keep up this level of dominance all season.

Just Missed/Keep An Eye On: Brandon Morrow, Jon Lester, David Price, Colby Lewis.

National League:

1. Chad Billingsley

  • Record: 1-0
  • Last Start: 8.1IP, 3H, 0R, 1BB, 11K
  • Season: 8.1IP, 3H, 0R, 1BB, 11K

Nobody expected Billingsley to do this well in his first start, not even Billingsley himself. That said, he has to be applauded for his performance. 11K is the single-game high for strikeouts so far this season, and he went remarkably deep into the game. It was against the Padres, but the Padres have hit decently well so far this year, and it’s not easy to shut down any offense at this level.

2. Barry Zito

  • Record: 1-0
  • Last Start: 9IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 4K
  • Season: 9IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 4K

Zito, like Billingsley, doesn’t really have the skills anymore, or any good season in recent history, but he did manage to throw the season’s first complete game shutout. Although he didn’t strike a lot out, he didn’t give much up either (only 4 baserunners). Don’t expect this to continue, but right now he’s near the top of the list.

3. Roy Halladay

  • Record: 1-0
  • Last Start: 8IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 5K
  • Season: 8IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 5K

Halladay, as usual, put up a really solid start, including the typical no walks and many innings. The special part is that the last hit he gave up in the game was against the second batter in the game. In other words he completely shut down Pittsburgh after those two hits, carrying the offensively challenged Phillies to a 1-0 win.

Just Missed/Keep An Eye On: Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto, Lucas Harrell, Ryan Dempster, Erik Bedard, Jordan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, Lance Lynn, Cliff Lee.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: April 4-8

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a weekly article where I highlight some of the good, bad, and ugly individual or team performances of the past week. It will typically cover a Monday to Sunday period, with an exception this week because of when the season started.

The Good:

Get Out Your Brooms: Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Detroit, New York Mets, and Arizona all opened their seasons 3-0 with sweeps. In the case of Baltimore and the Mets, they probably won’t sustain this success, but it’s nice for their fanbases to win some games early. For the other teams, it could be a sign that they’re going to run away with their divisions. If you remember my preseason previews, I had Detroit and Arizona winning their divisions, and Arizona making the world series.

Extra Innings & Walk-Offs: The Blue Jays won two games in extra innings against Cleveland, one in 16, the other in 12. The Pirates had two walk-off wins against the offensively challenged Phillies. The Tigers blew a save in game 1, then walked off in the 9th. In game 3, they forced a blown save, went into extras, and then forced another blown save and walked off on a 2-run blast by Avila.

This is How We Hit Home Runs in Cuba: The hot free-agent Cuban import surprisingly signed by the Athletics, Yoenis Cespedes, has opened the season in a big way with 3 home runs and a double (no singles or triples), and 7 RBI. Of note, two of these came in the cavernous pitchers park in Oakland. Also of note, one of them looked like this.

Dominant Pitching: 12 MLB starting pitchers managed to make it through their starts this week without allowing a run. The best of the best include Halladay (8IP, 2H, 0BB, 5K), Greinke (7IP, 4H, 0BB, 7K), Billingsley (8.1IP, 3H, 1BB, 11K), Verlander (8IP, 2H, 1BB, 7K), and Weaver (8IP, 4H, 0BB, 10K). Four of these five (sorry Billingsley) should be in the Cy Young races for the rest of the season.

The Bad:

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Offense: The Cubs, Braves, Pirates, White Sox, Phillies, and Twins have each scored fewer than 10 runs in their first 3 games of the season. The Cubs are the only team without a home run this season, and those 6 teams have as many combined home runs as the Tigers have by themselves. Heck, the Padres have scored as many runs as any of the two teams above combined.

Saves? Don’t You Mean Blown Saves?: There have already been 13 blown saves across the league by major league bullpens, and many of those by actual closers as well. Specifically, the Indians, Red Sox, Cubs, Marlins, and Yankees have lost games because of it. However, there is still hope. Last year’s world series champs, the Cardinals, blew 26 saves last season, second most in the league.

The Ugly:

East Coast Bias?: Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse than Fried Chicken and Beer, the Red Sox manage to lose two walk-off games and get shut out 10-0 within a four day span. As a consolation prize, they get to go on the road to 2-1 Toronto and rely on Doubront and Bard to stop the bleeding. Good luck. The Yankees aren’t in great shakes either, with Mariano blowing a save on a Sabathia start and an ineffective Kuroda in his Yankee debut. After being swept 0-3, the Yankees and Red Sox find themselves at the bottom of the division, looking up at 2-1 Toronto, 3-0 Tampa Bay, and 3-0 Baltimore (wait, what?)

Practice? We Talkin’ Bout Practice?: On Sunday, the Giants and Diamondbacks combined for 8 errors, apparently they never really took to heart the whole concept of Spring Training as a warmup for the regular season. On the plus side, Gerardo Parra did manage to throw a ball 20 feet over the catcher’s head from 300 feet deep in the outfield.

Hits Are Overrated: 7 MLB players have yet to record a hit. Notably, Jason Werth is 0-10 (with 3 walks), Ike Davis is 0-11, James Loney is 0-12, and Alex Gordon is 0-13.

You Won How?: The Toronto Blue Jays are 2-1 with a team OPS of .591. Pittsburgh is 2-1 with a team OPS of .535. Tampa Bay, Arizona, and Detroit are all 3-0, but have team ERAs of 4 or higher, ranking 20th, 22nd, and 23rd respectively. And lastly, the Diamondbacks won 7-6 on Sunday, despite yanking their starting pitcher after 3 innings, trailing 6-0 in the 3rd, committing 5 errors, and batting 1-13 with runners in scoring position.

Who Says Less is More?

For the second game in a row, the Jays decided 9 innings wasn’t enough baseball. However, the end result was the same, a gutsy 7-4 win. This time around, Morrow played exceptionally well, pitching 7 one-hit innings with two unearned runs on a Kipnis home-run. We can thank Arencibia for making the error prior to that play. We can also thank new closer Sergio Santos for serving up the game-tying home run in the bottom of the 9th, but at least it didn’t get worse than that. The Indians never threatened in extra innings, barring a one-run rally in the 12th when they were already down 4. And, thankfully for Santos, his potential replacement, Cordero, was shaky in the 12th, giving up the run on three hits. Offensively, it was Johnson, Lawrie, Davis, and Rasmus coming up big. For the game, the Jays batters averaged just over 4 pitches per at bat, almost exactly in line with their first game. It’s a solid number, and if they can keep that up they’ll wear out a lot of pitching staffs, like the Yankees and Red Sox have done so well in years past. Lastly, I know it’s early, but I’m concerned about Thames. His defense is not good, and so far he’s 0/7 with a walk. It could open the door for more playing time for Davis, who hit a big double and stole a base this game, or open the door for Snider, if he starts the year out well in the minors.

Around the league, the biggest outcome was the Tigers 10-0 win over the Red Sox, featuring two homers each from Cabrera and Fielder. If both of these guys get hot at the same time, it makes it extremely difficult to pitch to that lineup, and their 5-6 hitters in Young and Avila are solid middle of the order bats as well. Unfortunately for them, Fister had some type of oblique/rib injury and had to come out of the game early and he is now on the 15-day DL. Without Fister they don’t go deep at starting pitcher, but it shouldn’t be an issue to win their weak weak division even without him for an extended period of time. Lastly, to illustrate the folly of small sample sizes, the Pittsbugh Pirates lead the MLB with a team ERA of 0.95 (2ER in 19 IP).

Hello Offense, Goodbye Pitching

For those of you who like high scoring games with lots of offense, yesterday was a good day of baseball. 8 different teams scored at least 5 runs in their game, including 11 put up by the Cardinals and a crazy exciting 7-6 Tampa Bay walk-off win over the Yankees. With the exception of a few notable performances (Colby Lewis 9K, Jake Arrieta 7IP 0ER, Jered Weaver 8IP 0ER 10K, and Billingsley 8.1IP 0ER 11K), the pitching wasn’t good either. Most notably, Mariano Rivera gave up a 1 run lead in the ninth against the Rays, loading the bases with no outs, getting a strikeout, and then giving up the walk-off single to Carlos Pena (which was actually hit almost 400 feet into the outfield).

Two days into the season and we’ve seen two very different kinds of games. Opening day was mostly a duel between pitchers, and day two was bombs away. Personally, I prefer low-scoring pitching duels, because I like the pace of play and the stress of knowing that whichever team manages to scrape out a couple of runs will probably win. But, from time to time, it’s fun to see a 7-6 game, where neither team is ever out of the game and you’re left wondering if anyone can come in and shut the other team down. Even Robertson, who ended up with 3Ks in 1IP for the Yankees, put men on the corners with no outs.

Although the first two days of the season have been extremely exciting (16 inning Blue Jays win and two walk-off games), today should be even better. All 30 teams play today, with three 1PM games and four 4PM games, so it’s going to be baseball for almost 12 straight hours! My AL game to watch is the Blue Jays (Morrow) @ Indians (Jimenez), featuring two pitchers who are capable of striking out everybody, or give up 5 runs in 3 innings. And my NL game to watch is the Nationals (Gonzalez) @ Cubs (Garza), again featuring two strikeout pitchers who aren’t too consistent.

16 Innings, 7 Runs, 5 Hours, 1 Statement

For the Cleveland Indians, yesterday’s game was a disappointing loss where they gave up a three-run lead in the 9th inning and missed a couple chances to win in extra innings. For the Blue Jays, it was more than just a win. It was a statement. A statement to the rest of the league that they would continue to fight, for each at bat, each run, each inning. Thus, it was fitting that the hero of the game was J.P. Arencibia, who, after playing 15 innings at catcher and going 0-6 at the plate, struck a three-run homer in the top of the 16th to put the Jays up for good.

This never say die attitude was also alive and well in the bullpen. The combined efforts of Frasor, Oliver, Janssen, Cordero, Villanueva, Perez, and Santos yielded 11 scoreless innings. The other Blue Jays hero of the game was Luis Perez, who came into the game as their last reliever other than their closer, Santos. He responded by going 4 scoreless, hitless innings and getting the win. By contrast, the fifth Indians reliever out of their bullpen gave up the three-run homer to Arencibia and lost the game.

Having your eight hitter score the decisive runs in the game and having your last bullpen option keep you in the game, even working through a bases-loaded 1 out situation, means you have depth and a will to win. So this game was a statement from the Jays to the rest of the league that you had better watch out, because we’re good and we know it.