Collective KTE: Blue Gays

[Fman99]

"You know, John, Russell Martin has left the Bronx and gone 'North of the Border' to Toronto, where he's putting up solid numbers for them, a .285 BA with 10 HRs and 34 ribbies. I'll tell you, that guy can also go 'South of the Border' too, he went all the way to my own personal Tropic of Capricorn, if you catch my meaning."



"It is high, it is far, it is gone! OH MY! THE BACKSTOP HAS MADE A CRACK STOP!"

[Edgy MD]

Justin Smoak. Came up at 23 and has been a replacement-level first baseman for five years. Now, at 28, is having the season of his career � a career that might have turned him into journeyman by now had he come up in many other organizations. But he came up with a punchless Seattle outfit, and just when the journeying started, he might have found an immediate home in Canada. He's batting, reaching, and slugging well above his career rates.

He's a switch-hitting Gamecock whose made it much further than his college teammate Reese Havens. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Kristin Bevacqua, who may or may not be related to Kurt. He almost never plays against lefties, yielding to Edwin Encarnacion, whose numbers don't look so great, but is currently hot and steamy.

[Frayed Knot]

27 y/o lefty-swinging Ryan Goins (rhymes with Coins) filled in at SS when Jose Reyes was on the shelf earlier in the year then took over the starting 2B job about three weeks ago after an injury to rookie starter Devon Travis so he's racked up mostly full time ABs this season while also appearing briefly at 3B and in LF/RF.
With the bat, his line of .235/.270/.353 [12 XBH in 153 ABs] qualifies him as the weak link in this otherwise outrageous Toronto lineup.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm going out of turn here and also skipping around, but while looking into this squad it's tough to go position by position because they don't have a lot of guys who have had set positions since the start of the season.
Only Martin at catcher (51 starts) and Josh Donaldson at 3B (60) have started at one position more than 45 times in Toronto's 64 games this year.

So considering all that, WTF is up with LF/RF/1B Chris Colabello?
The 31 y/o was plucked off waivers by the Jays over the winter after playing part-time over the last two seasons for the Twins who had signed him as an un-drafted FA in 2012 at the age of 29! Prior to that his �career� had consisted of playing for mighty Assumption College in Worcester, MASS and then for Worcester & Nashua in the independent Canadian-American Association for Seven Seasons!! (2005-2011)
And now he�s hitting .343/.382/.490 in the major leagues!!!! (after .214/.284/.364 in spot duty w/the Twins)

Nice pickup by the Jays, but I�m calling Bullshit if they try to claim that they knew what they were getting when they put in the waiver claim last winter.

[MFS62]

Jose Bautista was a Met for about 12 nanoseconds. He was acquired for Justin Huber, then same-day traded for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. (there may have been other players involved)
In his career against the Mets, he has been a .218 hitter.

Later

[Ceetar]

Josh Donaldson, 3B, is beating the tar out of the ball. Slugging .575 with 17 HR. 52 runs leads the league and 47 RBI. wRC+ of 161 which is 8th in baseball.

Was traded by Oakland last winter for Franklin Barreto (minors), Kendall Graveman, Brett Lawrie and Sean Nolin.

Good trade for the Jays.

[Edgy MD]

When you get a chance to trade for a guy named "Kendall Graveman," you do it.

This is really going to be a test, isn't it? They're as close to full strength as they've been in months. (Still down Wright and Murphy on offense and Wheeler and a bunch of relievers on the staff, but this is probably as close to full strength as they'll be for the rest of the year.) And they're playing four games against a good team that's red in hot weather. Rooting for a sweep, but breaking even would be a minor victory.

Syndergaard, Harvey, Niese, and Colon scheduled to start, all rested for an extra day. The Mets won't be sending their hottest pitcher (deGrom) to the mound, but their coldest (Gee) won't be starting either, so that may be a wash.

[ashie62]

Rookie OF Kevin Pillar.

AB HR AVG RBI R SB
235 4 .251 29 38 9

[Frayed Knot]

Ashie62 wrote: Rookie OF Kevin Pillar. AB HR AVG RBI R SB 235 4 .251 29 38 9

Pillar (not to be confused with former Red Sock Kevin Millar) also seems to be a regular on highlight fielding videos.

[Frayed Knot]

Overall Jays offense:

1st in RS/G - [u:6o9k69g9]by nearly a full run[/u:6o9k69g9] over the teams just behind them. 5.56/G vs 4.63 for 2nd place MFYs; 4.12 for MLB Avg; or the NYM pace of 3.86/G
3rd in HRs (behind HOU & LAD)
1st in 2Bs
2nd in BA = .275
2nd in OBA
1st in SLG
1st in OPS
40 SB vs only 7 CS

Edited June 15, 2015 by Guest

[G-Fafif]

In 18 games since returning from the DL, erstwhile local heartthrob Jose Reyes is slashing .338/.376/.488, having hit in his last 11 and 17 of 18 overall. He's also swiped six of seven bags attempted, Papi.

[Gwreck]

Speaking of former Mets, R.A. Dickey will pitch Thursday in Toronto against Jon Niese.
Credit for signing Dickey goes to Omar Minaya's regime, but the trade of Dickey to Toronto easily looks like Sandy Alderson's best move as Mets GM to date.

Dickey is having a tough year, with a 5.29 ERA in 13 starts so far. He was 14-13 with a 3.71 ERA last year.
Josh Thole, who also went to Toronto in that deal, is in the minors.
Mike Nickeas has retired from professional baseball.

The Mets' haul from that deal was D'Arnaud and Syndergaard (plus the $6M we paid John Buck to keep a spot on the roster warm for most of 2013).

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Syndy and d'Arnaud plus minor league OF Wuilmer Beccera who has a chance to be better than Wuilmer Flores.

[Frayed Knot]

And yet for all of Toronto's offensive prowess, their current 11 game winning streak has been just enough to get them to an identical record 34-30 to ours (even if with a much better +/-).

The bottom line on them is that they're winning a bunch of blowouts [15 of their 34 wins are by 5 or more runs) while losing a bunch of close ones [6-12 in one run games]. Sometimes that's bad luck but sometimes it's a bad pitching staff in general and a bullpen in particular. Their staff ERA is 23rd in MLB and their relievers have 11 losses (NYM relievers = 5 losses) and only 8 saves: 4 each for LH Brett Cecil and RH Miguel Castro who isn't even on the roster at the moment.
Among their starters, only Aaron Sanchez has a sub-4.00 (and he's on the DL) while Dickey and Drew Hutchinson sit north of 5.00

You'd hate to get into a slug-fest with these guys but it's possible that this series will resemble Sunday's game more than it'll be like the low-scoring nail-biters we've become accustomed to this year.

[Lefty Specialist]

High-scoring slugfests are not a core competency of this Mets team.