He’s a few years away, but one Tiger pitching prospect is starting to open a lot of eyes. The prospect I am talking about is none other than current West Michigan Whitecap Jake Thompson. If you read Jordan’s scouting report from West Michigan, you will notice that he wrote a blurp on him in his scouting notes. For the most part, this report reinforces his blurp.

Thompson is a 19 year old right hander out of Heath, Texas and like most Texas pitchers, he is a big bodied guy with a big arm. Drafted in the second round at pick #91, he was the Tigers first pick in the 2012 draft as Detroit forfeited their first round pick due to the free agent acquisition of Prince Fielder. Signing for just over $500,000 according to Baseball America, Thompson chose to sign over a commitment to TCU and currently ranks #6 according to our own Tiger Prospect Report midseason rankings. I have had a chance to see Thompson’s last two starts and thankfully (in my mind at least) they were against the same team so I could see how both sides adjusted. Here are my observations.

The Good

Thompson features a fastball, slider, change up and a developing curve ball. His fastball is something that he typically works in the 90-92 mph range but he can add 1 to 2 mph on it when he needs to. From what I can tell, he tends to get good arm side run and is a potential plus pitch.

What Thompson is best known for however is his slider. The first time I saw him throw, he did not have command of his slider and it hurt him. The second time I saw him, I was able to see what has made everyone drool. The slider had good sharp bite and he was able to throw it in the low to mid 80’s. He worked off his fastball more than he did the first time and the Lansing hitters were not able to sit on his breaking ball the way they had in the initial meeting I had observed which made the slider all the more effective.

In conversation with West Michigan pitching coach Mike Henneman, he was been with Jake Thompson since the age of 12. He stated that his slider has always been a nasty pitch.

Thompson works with a good downward plane and as he develops, I anticipate his fastball velocity will increase a little bit and his slider to become even more nasty. The fact that his slider is so good could also help him ultimately improve his curveball and the potential is there for it to develop an MLB average to a slightly above average pitch.

What needs development

The first thing and the most important thing that Thompson needs to work on is fastball command. He has a tendency to fall in love with his breaking pitches and that was quite evident in my first observation of him. Lansing hitters would routinely lay off of his fastball and wait on his breaking stuff. When he threw it, they did not miss it and they were able to knock him out after only 4.2 innings giving up 5 runs with 5 walks and only striking out three.

My second observation was much better of Thompson as he went 5.0 IP, allowing 1 run on three hits while striking out 8 but he did still walk three over that time frame and a big part of that was lack of fastball command.

The other alarming thing that I have noticed is his time to the plate out of the stretch. I have timed Thompson’s time to home out of the stretch consistently at 1.6 seconds and that is too slow. Tim Raines, who serves as a minor league base running instructor for the Blue Jays happened to be in town during my first observation of Jake and I was able to talk with Mr. Raines for roughly 45 minutes prior to the game (I really need to transcribe the talk that me and a couple other reporters had with him, it was phenomenal). One thing that Raines indicated that he has stressed to his top of the order guys in the Toronto system is to pay attention to the times to the plate. He stated that if a guy is 1.2 to 1.3 to the plate, he tells guys basically to stay put. If they are 1.4 or greater though, he tells them to run at will. Lansing was able to do this during my first observation as they swiped five bases on Thompson. Thompson was able to keep the top of the order guys for Lansing off the base paths during my second view of him, which obviously is the best way to keep guys from stealing on you.

Projection

Thompson obviously is going to go one of two ways, he is either going to be a reliever or a starter (duh). The path he follows will depend heavily on the development of that all important third pitch. His change up shows flashes of being Major League average as does his curve ball. Couple that with a projected plus fastball with a plus slider and he is most likely a #3 or a #4 starter. If he is not able to develop a third pitch, he will most likely become a back end of the bullpen guy. Only time will tell.

Grading

The grades of his pitches below are my opinion only, but I did take some scout feedback that was forwarded to me into consideration while writing this.

Fastball: Project a future 55 grade

Slider: Project a future 60-65 grade

Curveball: Project a future 40-45 grade

Change up: Project a future 45-50 grade

Let's play a little game I like to call "So You Think You Can Be an MLB General Manager?" Just as a thought experiment, imagine you're in charge of a team that's good but not great. The offense is fine, but the starting rotation has been bad for a while now, and there's no immediate help on the horizon. You've painstakingly built a top-10 farm system, but it's filled with a bunch of position players who play largely redundant positions.

Oh, and you happen to general manage a team in a market that consistently punches under its weight and isn't a free agent destination. Also, you play in one of the best divisions in baseball, so "good but not great" doesn't get you anywhere. What's your plan for the offseason?

A.) Trade your veterans for more prospects, stick the prospects you already have out there, and wait patiently for 2017.

B.) Spend money on the bullpen, and augment the offense with two-year deals for veterans.

C.) Trade Upton for bullpen pieces, regardless of whether your team currently employs an Upton.

D.) Fleece stupid and/or desperate teams out of their front-line pitchers by dangling your redundant prospects in a trade.

Unless you're Jeffrey Loria, a probably-unfair caricature of Kevin Towers, or a definitely-unfair caricature of an AZ Central commenter, you probably chose Option D. I know this because I specifically set up this example to get you to choose Option D. But it does show that there's nothing all that irrational about what Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos did to build his team. Which is worth keeping in mind, because everything that's happened since then has been a tire fire.

What the Stats Say (Courtesy of Fangraphs):

It's probably not fair to say that the offseason moves that the Blue Jays made didn't help the pitching staff. Last year, the Jays had a team ERA- of 110. So they turned around and added Josh Johnson and R.A. Dickey, two starters who pitched like aces relatively recently.

They now have an ERA- of 107, which technically counts as progress! Of course, Dickey and Johnson have combined for an ERA- of about 125, so the marginal improvement really isn't coming from them at all, but rather from an improved bullpen and throw-in Mark Buehrle.

Starting Lineups:

Arizona Diamondbacks

1. Adam Eaton, LF
2. A.J. Pollock, CF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Aaron Hill, 2B
5. Martin Prado, 3B
6. Gerardo Parra, RF
7. Miguel Montero, C
8. Didi Gregorius, SS

Esmil Rogers RHP, 3-7, 5.03

Brandon McCarthy RHP, 3-8, 5.03 ERA

Diamondbacks line-up

1. Tony Campana, CF
2. Adam Eaton, LF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Eric Chavez, 3B
5. Martin Prado, 2B
6. Gerardo Parra, RF
7. Wil Nieves, C
8. Cliff Pennington, CF
9. Brandon McCarthy, P

Labor Day sees Kirk Gibson ringing the changes, with a number of differences from the team which, let's be honest, looked pretty unimpressive against Yusmeiro Petit yesterday. There are days off for Aaron Hill, Miguel Montero, Willie Bloomquist and A.J. Pollock, replaced in the line-up (if not necessarily in the same on the field) by Chavez, Nieves, Pennington and Campana respectively.

Interesting to note the almost identical records for the two starting pitchers today. You don't see that often, this late in the season: same number of wins, same ERA and just one more loss for McCarthy. After a series of disappointing appearances, McCarthy pronounced that he had found a mechanical issue - a claim that was greeted with some skepticism, except he then backed it up with seven innings against the Padres, allowing only an unearned run. One swallow doesn't make a summer (though that probably depends who's doing the swallowing....), but if McCarthy can finish the year strong, that'll give me more confidence for 2014. When we're paying him over $10 million.

As ZM already noted, the Blue Jays have had a disappointing kinda season, considering they were expected to contend this season, and made the moves to do so this winter. Instead, they find themselves occupying last place in the AL East - admittedly, a pretty tough division - somewhere they haven't occupied since 2004. They haven't enjoyed post-season action since 1993, and if the Pirates get there this year, it'll leave the Blue Jays up there with the Royals, as the teams with the longest playoff droughts. That's a shame, personally, as I kinda like the concept of them as the only non-American team.

Diamondbacks: I feel I should warn you that there is an all-day marathon of shark movies on SyFy. We've already been amused by Land Sharks and Jersey Shore Shark Attack, so please be aware that you need to provide and maintain a certain level of entertainment value, in order to retain our interest and prevents us hopping the channels. Otherwise... Well, let's just say that Sharktopus starts at 3pm. You have been warned.

Because it's a day game, the fantasy baseball round-up will be appearing post-game at some point this evening. I've also got to knock up the 'Place Your Best', since this game marks our entrance into the last sixth of the 2013 schedule.

Esmil Rogers RHP, 3-7, 5.03

Brandon McCarthy RHP, 3-8, 5.03 ERA

Diamondbacks line-up

1. Tony Campana, CF
2. Adam Eaton, LF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Eric Chavez, 3B
5. Martin Prado, 2B
6. Gerardo Parra, RF
7. Wil Nieves, C
8. Cliff Pennington, CF
9. Brandon McCarthy, P

Labor Day sees Kirk Gibson ringing the changes, with a number of differences from the team which, let's be honest, looked pretty unimpressive against Yusmeiro Petit yesterday. There are days off for Aaron Hill, Miguel Montero, Willie Bloomquist and A.J. Pollock, replaced in the line-up (if not necessarily in the same on the field) by Chavez, Nieves, Pennington and Campana respectively.

Interesting to note the almost identical records for the two starting pitchers today. You don't see that often, this late in the season: same number of wins, same ERA and just one more loss for McCarthy. After a series of disappointing appearances, McCarthy pronounced that he had found a mechanical issue - a claim that was greeted with some skepticism, except he then backed it up with seven innings against the Padres, allowing only an unearned run. One swallow doesn't make a summer (though that probably depends who's doing the swallowing....), but if McCarthy can finish the year strong, that'll give me more confidence for 2014. When we're paying him over $10 million.

As ZM already noted, the Blue Jays have had a disappointing kinda season, considering they were expected to contend this season, and made the moves to do so this winter. Instead, they find themselves occupying last place in the AL East - admittedly, a pretty tough division - somewhere they haven't occupied since 2004. They haven't enjoyed post-season action since 1993, and if the Pirates get there this year, it'll leave the Blue Jays up there with the Royals, as the teams with the longest playoff droughts. That's a shame, personally, as I kinda like the concept of them as the only non-American team.

Diamondbacks: I feel I should warn you that there is an all-day marathon of shark movies on SyFy. We've already been amused by Land Sharks and Jersey Shore Shark Attack, so please be aware that you need to provide and maintain a certain level of entertainment value, in order to retain our interest and prevents us hopping the channels. Otherwise... Well, let's just say that Sharktopus starts at 3pm. You have been warned.

Because it's a day game, the fantasy baseball round-up will be appearing post-game at some point this evening. I've also got to knock up the 'Place Your Best', since this game marks our entrance into the last sixth of the 2013 schedule.

Here's another Brandon McCarthy game in which he didn't deserve the loss. McCarthy gave up two runs on three hits in the 2nd inning, and after a hit-by-pitch in the 3rd inning, retired 16 Blue Jays in a row until the 9th inning.

But the Diamondbacks did their typical Diamondbacks thing, where they make an opposing pitcher look like Cy Young. Rogers had an ERA of 7.66 for the month of August, but faced the minimum through the 6th inning and at one point retired 13 Diamondbacks in a row. Martin Prado had a single in the 2nd inning and was retired on a double play, and that was it until the 7th inning.

The 7th inning saw the Diamondbacks' first scoring chance of the game. Tony Campana walked to break up the streak of 13 in a row sat down by Rogers, and promptly stole second base. Paul Goldschmidt walked with one out, but Eric Chavez ground into a double play to end the threat.

Arizona did score in the bottom of the 9th inning when Cliff Pennington doubled to lead off the inning, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on a single by Willie Bloomquist. Unfortunately, in the top half of the 9th McCarthy had given up a two-run home run, so by then, it was too little too late. The Diamondbacks drop the opening game of the series 4 to 1.

Under the protective dome of Chase Field, neither Esmil Rogers nor Brandon McCarthy laboured much as they SSSlocked in a classic pitchers' duel as the Blue Jays beat the Diamondbacks 4-1 in a quick two-hour 17-minute Labour / Labor Day affair.

McCarthy looked great, limiting the Blue Jays to three hits going into the ninth. The Blue Jays only touched him in two innings: the second and the ninth. In the second, the Blue Jays grabbed an early lead when Kevin Pillar singled in a Moises Sierra double, then Anthony Gose followed with a triple to right field, scoring Pillar to put the blue birds up 2-0. The Blue Jays have had three triples in the last four days, with Gose contributing two of them and Rajai Davis the other. McCarthy carved through the lineup and was perfect from the fourth through the eighth. Hewas helped by his defense: Ryan Goins was robbed by a terrific diving catch by Gerardo Parra in the top of the sixth.

But Ryan Goins started the ninth with a single that dropped right in front of Adam Eaton. Up stepped Edwin Encarnacion who crushed a bad sinker to the left field stands for his 35th homer of the season, and recording his 100th and 101st runs batted in. McCarthy was saddled with a loss in his second complete-game outing of the season.

Esmil Rogers allowed no runs and just a single hit in his outing (a Martin Prado single) while striking out five. He retired 13 batters in a row after that Prado single before leading off the seventh with a walk. He struck out the next batter, but John Gibbons took him out of the game in favour of Sergio Santos with Paul Goldschmidt coming up to bat. Goldschmidt recorded a very loud foul into deep left field in the bottom of the fourth. After allowing homers in each of his previous five outings, Rogers kept the ball on the ground this time out, allowing only three fair balls to leave the infield. He probably tuned in to the pre-game segment when Gregg Zaun reminded him to re-discover his sinker.

Santos promptly walked Goldschmidt but got Eric Chavez to hit into a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning. Unexpectedly, Gibbons allowed Santos to come up to bat for himself in the top of the eighth in a close 2-0 game even though he had plans to bring in Steve Delabar in the eighth. In Santos's first major league plate appearance, he grounded out 5-3 (Esmil Rogers also grounded out 5-3 in his two at bats). Santos was once a shortstop in the minor leagues, but his last professional plate appearance came five years ago on August 31, 2008 when he was a Rochester Red Wing.

Delabar gave up a single but that was promptly erased by an inning-ending double play, so he ended up throwing just six pitches in his return from the disabled list, hitting 94-96 mph on his fastball.

After Encarnacion extended the lead to 4-0, Aaron Loup was brought in to replace Delabar and was ineffective, allowing a Cliff Pennington double and allowing pinch hitter Willie Bloomquist to single Pennington home after a wild pitch. With the righty pinch hitter A.J. Pollock announced and the save situation restored, Gibbons brought in Casey Janssen.

Unfortunately, Janssen continued his recent struggles, not being able to find the strikezone, walking Pollock on five pitches. He got Adam Eaton to fly out to bring up Goldschmidt, who had an NL-leading +6.941 WPA coming into the game. Janssen shoudl've fallen behind 3-1 to the slugger but home plate umpire Alan Porter gave him a huge gift call for strike two before Goldschmidt grounded out to a game-ending double play.

The Diamondbacks hit into four inning-ending double plays this game (second, seventh, eighth, ninth), making it the 13th time a Blue Jays opponent have done so in franchise history.

Jays of the Day! Esmil Rogers (+.345 WPA), Sergio Santos (+.113), Steve Delabar (+.095), and Casey Janssen (+.094) but I am tempted to take half of the JoD award from Janssen for another heart attack inducing outing.

No suckage Jays today, but Aaron Loup (-.074) got the low number.

Before the game the Blue Jays awarded Brett Lawrie with Player of the Month honours for his sizzling .346/.397/.495 line and his eye-popping defensive gems in August.

Record: 69-67. Pace: 82-80. NL West: NL Wild Card: Meh.

The Diamondbacks opened the series against the Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon, their last non-NL West opponent until the last series of the season. Esmil Rogers, today's starter, had a 7.66 ERA in the month of August, so of course the D'backs offense would make him look like Cy Young. As Kirk Gibson said post-game, "Sometimes you have to beat Cy Young," but today was not this day.

Martin Prado's one-out single to left in the 2nd inning was the first hit of the game. He was promptly erased when Gerardo Parra hit a weak grounder to second for the inning ending double play. Esmil Rogers faced the minimum through the 6th inning, getting weak grounders and five strikeouts.

Outside of two runs in the 2nd inning by way of a one-out double, an RBI single by Kevin Pillar, and a triple by Anthony Gose that scored Pillar, Brandon McCarthy was pitching just as well. He hit a batter in the 3rd inning and then retired 16 Blue Jays in a row, all the way to the start of the 9th inning. I don't have all of the stats, but the numbers for McCarthy were great - at one point, there were 19 of 22 first pitch strikes, and I believe 15 or 21 outs were recorded with three or fewer pitches. It was an excellent outing. Until the 9th. But we'll get to that.

The Diamondbacks' first chance to score came in the 7th inning. Tony Campana worked a leadoff walk and promptly stole second base. After striking out Adam Eaton and though only 83 pitches, John Gibbons pulled Rogers. The hope of "Anybody But Rogers" was briefly raised, especially when the reliever walked Paul Goldschmidt, but Eric Chavez ground into a double play to end the threat.

In the top of the 9th inning, McCarthy gave up a single to Ryan Goins that was just over the head of Cliff Pennington. The very next pitch was over everybody's head as Edwin Encarnacion hit a no-doubt home run to deep left field, his 35th homer of the year. As Clefo kind of said in the Gameday Thread, it is a little hard to be mad when the home run was that impressive. McCarthy quickly got two groundouts to third (nine of McCarthy's 18 groundouts were to Chavez at third) and a flyout to end the inning, but Arizona was down 4-0 going to the bottom of the 9th.

Pennington led off the bottom of the 9th with a double just off the glove of Brett Lowrie. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by pinch hitter Willie Bloomquist. Pinch hitter A.J. Pollock walked to put two on and there was still nobody out. But after a flyout by Eaton, Paul Goldschmidt ground into a game-ending double play (the fourth DP of the game) to end all our hopes and dreams of a comeback victory. At least it was quick - at 2:17, today's game ties for the second shortest game of the season (and for a long while, it sure felt like we'd be done in under two hours).

Source: FanGraphs

Head of the Class: B McCarthy, +7.3% pitching
Teacher's Pet: A. Pollock, +9.7%, for a walk in his only plate appearance in the 9th
Class Bully: E. Chavez, -21.8%

A do-nothing game during the day on a holiday featured a similarly slow gameday thread of 28 people and about 350 comments. Clefo took the gold medal for the day with just 41 posts, with onedotfive and Jim tied for second. All present were AzDbackfanInDc, AzRattler, BulldogsNotZags, CaptainCanuck, Clefo, Dbacks4eva10101, Diamondhacks, Fangdango, FatBoysEatMeat, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, RobbieFVK, Rockkstarr12, The so-called Beautiful, Zavada's Moustache, azshadowwalker, blank_38, catbat, cheese1213, hotclaws, kishi, melliemacker, onedotfive, preston.salisbury, snakecharmer, and soco.

Bob Brenly gets an assist for the Comment of the Day for his and Steve Berthiaume's complimentary discussion about the Snakepit.

"If you're a D-backs fan, that's the place to be"

— Bob Brenly.

Wow. Pullquote for the next SnakePit T-shirt. :)

by Jim McLennan on Sep 2, 2013 | 2:18 PMreply rec (7) flagactions

Back to the standard 6:40 start time tomorrow here at Chase Field!

With the Buffalo Bisons' season over, the Blue Jaysannounced that Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Jeffress, Ricky Romero, Luis Perez, and Mike Nickeas will be added to the active roster as September callups. The Blue Jays will announce the corresponding moves tomorrow as Jeffress, Romero, Perez, and Nickeas all have to be added to the 40-man roster.

Two spots can be created by moving Melky Cabrera and Josh Johnson to the 60-day disabled list, and perhaps the club will say good bye to Mickey Storey and Thad Weber. Or perhaps Jose Bautista's injuries would prompt him to also be moved to the 60-day DL. It was revealed today that he paid a visit to an orthopedic surgeon to look at his hip. Bautista has been out since August 20 with a left hip bone bruise.

It was expected that Kyle Drabek and Luis Perez would be called up to complete their rehab process, but interestingly Drew Hutchison was left off of this round of callups.

Catcher Mike Nickeas was probably not going to be called up but A.J. Jimenez got hurt with nerve damage and the Jays wanted to carry three catchers this month. Nickeas hit just .166/.255/.251 with the Bisons with just one home run, but the one he hit was of the dramatic walk-off variety.

Jeremy Jeffress had one appearance with the Blue Jays back in April before he was designated for assignment and outrighted to Buffalo. Jeffress can light up the radar gun but had been battling his wildness the past couple of seasons. He has recently had a string of great outings for Buffalo. In 27 innings there, he recorded a 1.65 ERA and struck out 28. He had walked 13 but none in his last seven games. Those last few appearances probably got him his call-up.

Out of all the names, Ricky Romero is one that will cause the biggest debate. He has looked pedestrian-to-dreadful in his season with the Bisons, but I don't see what the club has to lose by bringing him back for a month. He hasn't really "earned" the promotion but the Blue Jays have to see how the guy who they owe $15.6 million to look against major league batters. If he sucks, they will drop him off the roster again hoping someone would take him. If he does well, then they keep him on the roster and leave him with something positive to go into next spring with.

One notable name that was not part of the bunch of callups was Bisons slugger and MVP Mauro Gomez. Gomez hit .249/.323/.521 with 29 homers in triple-A and I thought that would merit a trip to the majors. He doesn't really have a future with the Blue Jays as a poor-fielding first baseman, so perhaps the organization decided that his spot on the 40-man would be better suited if someone else occupied it. Another name on the 40-man roster not called up is Brad Lincoln.

The Best

So I’ve watched every start of Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison since they’ve joined the Buffalo Bisons and I would say after their last starts Drabek seems to be ahead of Hutchison at this point, which might be why Drabek was promoted and Hutch was left off of the list of September call-ups. In Drabek’s start on August 30 he went four innings giving up four hits while allowing one earned run, but here’s the best part: he issued no walks while striking out six.

In this start Drabek pitched ahead with his fastball sitting 91-93 mph and the Rochester broadcast mentioned that Drabek said he feels the best he ever has. What jumped out at me the most was how much he was using his curveball, and it was excellent on this night, with the Rochester broadcast making a point several times of mentioning how sharp his curveball looked.

Drabek was mostly using his curve when he was ahead in the count, getting the hitters to chase it out of the zone, while I don’t recall Drabek having used the curve that often in Toronto. I wonder now if that’s because he was pitching behind so often. The use of his curve along with his command will be something to keep an eye on this September.

Marcus Stroman is going to get the honour of being mentioned in two sections today, but first with what may have been his best start of the year, which coincidentally was also his final start of the year in AA, and the final game for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats as well on September 2. Stroman was sitting around 92-94 mph, topping out at 96 mph and he was dealing. Stroman’s pitching line was eight innings, two hits, one earned run, zero walks, 11 strikeouts, no home runs and eight ground outs to four fly outs. His control was spot-on in this game; he needed only 103 pitches to go eight innings, and as always with Stroman it’s important to note no that he gave up no home runs. Stroman pitched so well it prompted him to tweet this after the game:

Can he be a starter though? No chance. He's way too small and can't handle that workload. Lol #HDMH

— Marcus Stroman (@MStrooo7) September 2, 2013

Just a quick note on Bluefield Blue Jays starter Alberto Tirado. Unfortunately Bluefield was eliminated from the playoffs but I did listen the final game, and according to the broadcast Tirado was up to 97 mph on the fastball and had a great changeup coming in at around 87 mph, so yeah I’ll take more of that.

After a slow start Blue Jays 30th round draft pick Rowdy Tellez finished really strong in the Gulf Coast League with that natural power that I’ve read so much about since being drafted finally starting to show up. Due to this surge Tellez made the "In the Team Photo" section of Baseball America’s Prospect Hot Sheet for August 30th:

"Tellez, 18, went 10-for-24 with five extra-base hits this week in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, where he’s shown a patient approach"

The Worst

Unlike Stroman’s start on September 2 where he showed excellent command, Stroman was close to the opposite of that for his start on August 27. Stroman was throwing 94-96 mph with his changeup coming in at around 86 mph, but between what sounded like an extremely tight strike zone and Stroman not commanding his pitches it led to his early exit after only three innings, giving up five runs (four earned) while walking three and striking out just one. But hey, no home runs!

Drew Hutchison struggled in his last outing, but the final pitching line of 3.2 innings with seven hits, five runs (three earned), one walk and five strikeouts looks far worse than it really was. Hutch suffered a fair amount of bad luck this start with lots of weakly hit balls finding holes. In his last two starts Hutch has been consistently sitting in the low 90’s with his fastball.

The Rest

I noticed a couple of interesting Blue Jays related tweets from this past week I thought I’d put in this section, the first comes from the injury expert Will Carroll:

Josh Johnson and the Jays were a match that I never though would work. Can't play to your weaknesses.

— Will Carroll (@injuryexpert) August 28, 2013

Johnson and his agent would be smart to talk to teams like Rays, Giants, Mariners that are great at keeping pitchers healthy.

— Will Carroll (@injuryexpert) August 28, 2013

I’m guessing this is not the kind of reputation a team would want. And one from Maury Brown from the bizofbaseball.com on what the Jays can expect attendance wise next year:

@Jay_bluejaysfan 10% drop, minimum. Bookmark this tweet now. 15%-20% is possible. #BlueJays

— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) August 27, 2013

Finally just to cement home how bad the offseason trade with the Mets is being viewed by some Zach Mortimer of Baseball Prospectus gave us this:

Just got a quote from a person in the industry I trust about the Dickey trade, "Worst trade ever. It's an absolute joke!" #Mets#bluejays

— Zach Mortimer (@ZachMort) August 30, 2013

Mark Eichhorn was a bad ass.

Somehow, I had forgotten about this. And apparently, his greatness has diminished over time in the memories of Jays fans. As evidence, Eichhorn somehow dropped from being the 29th best Jay of all time in 2006 to 41st in 2012.

Part of the so-called sabermetric movement has also worked to devalue the contributions of relief pitchers. It makes sense, as relievers generally pitch fewer innings and thus even a dominant reliever has far less of an impact than a good starter. That’s all fair, but it shouldn’t make us less appreciative of terrific relief performances.

So the other night when my FanGraphs/Beyond the Box Score pal Matt Hunter tweeted about the best relief pitcher seasons of the past 40 years, it took me a second to recall Eichhorn’s submarine delivery and come to his defense.

@MRHBaseball Nope. Eichorn 86 Jays bro. Legend.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) August 30, 2013

In an article at FanGraphs, Matt suggested David Robertson’s 2011 was the best recent reliever season in rate terms. Of course, having read my tweet and looked into it, he also showed that Eichhorn’s 1986 season was the best reliever season by a metric called RE24. Nobody could hit this bad boy right here:



In fact, Eichhorn blows away all reliever seasons since 1974 with an RE24 of 52.88. Doug Corbett’s 1980 season is second at 43.81, and B.J. Ryan’s 2006 is 10th at 35.13. The gap between Eichhorn and everyone else should jump out at you.

If it doesn’t, it’s likely because you’re unfamiliar with the RE24 statistic. In really brief terms, RE24 is short for "runs above average by the 24 base/out states." What that means is that the stat calculates the expected runs for a given situation and compares it to the expected runs after the play.

As an example, in 1986 a team with runners on the corners and nobody out would have a run expectancy of 1.7075 runs. If Eichhorn entered the game and immediately got a strikeout, the batting team’s new run expectancy would be 1.1574. That difference of 0.5501 runs is credited to Eichhorn, because he lowered the opposing team’s run expectancy by making their hitting situation less favorable.

RE24 adds up that change in run expectancy for every single play a pitcher or hitter is involved in. It’s a nice stat for relievers because it accounts for situations in which a reliever enters in a jam (inherited runners) and also when they make a situation worse but perhaps are yanked for another reliever to clean up. The pitcher isn’t hurt by the situation he came into, and he can’t be saved by the reliever after him.

But you don’t need fancy stats to appreciate what Eichhorn did in 1986. Let’s have a look at some standard and more advanced metrics:

Notes: ERA- adjusts for league / ERA context; WAR = Wins Above Replacement; K% = K / PA, note that strike outs have gone way up since 1986; WPA = Win Probability Added.

What those rankings suggest is that not only was Eichhorn very good in 1986, that season holds up as very good even when league context is adjusted for. It’s one of the greatest reliever seasons any of us have seen in our lifetime (and I wasn’t even alive for the first five weeks of it!).

So what’s the point? There isn’t one really, it’s just nice to look back and appreciate a great Jays performance from the past. There’s not exactly a ton to be excited about in the present. If you really want to stretch for something positive in the present, Brett Cecil ranks 26th in RE24 among relievers for 2013. Woo-hoo?

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Wade Miley faces Todd Redmond tonight in the second game of a three set for the Blue Jays against Aaron Hill and his friends. Miley had a breakout year last year finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting behind Bryce Harper. The 26-year-old left hander from California has dropped off slightly from his 2012 form, but still has a 3.55 ERA and 4.08 FIP. The difference between the two seasons has come from an increase of more than one walk per nine innings (from 1.71 to 2.92 BB/9) as well as a more realistic 1.01 HR/9 instead of his great 0.65 HR/9 last year.

Miley throws a fastball or sinker 70% of the time and they sit in the low 90's with changeups and sliders making up the rest of his repertoire. Against right handers, Miley is heavily fastball/sinker and changeup, while left handers get a heavy dose of sliders alongside his hard stuff. His slider gets a good amount of whiffs and is a solid put away pitch. You can see how his changeup heavily mimics his sinker:

Not much more to Miley. He should be at the front of the Diamondbacks rotation for years to come beside Trevor Cahill, Archie Bradley, and Trevor Cahill. That's an imposing possible rotation that matches up well with many of the other teams involved in the arms race taking place in the minors right now.

TankFest 2013

Too much winning for these Blue Jays if they want a protected pick:

For the "Find the Link":

Find the link between Wade Miley and the Chicago Cubs pitcher born in Germany and raised later on in Georgia.

Enjoy!

Todd Redmond RHP, 2-2, 4.30

Wade Miley LHP, 9-9, 3.55 ERA

Diamondbacks line-up

1. Adam Eaton, LF
2. A.J. Pollock, CF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Martin Prado, 3B
5. Aaron Hill, 2B
6. Miguel Montero, C
7. Gerardo Parra, RF
8. Didi Gregorius, SS
9. Wade Miley, P

Seems like Gibson was kinda miffed by the offense's recent struggles after last night, continuing a recent trend where we've made journeymen pitchers look almost unhittable - first Yusmeiro Petit, then Esmil Rogers.

"Everybody is that damn good? C'mon. Everybody isn't Cy Young. And you know what, sometimes you have to beat Cy Young. You have to figure out a way to do it. That part is disappointing. Not to say they didn't make some good pitches. Not to say if you do everything you are not going to lose. But overall, we're not happy with the way it has been coming out. You have to grind a little harder, make it a little tougher on them."

It's something Nick Piecoro wrote a bit more about, pointing out that with the offensive roster apparently largely set for next season, there may be limited opportunity for improvement in this area. I can kinda see where he's coming from, but as I was discussing with shoe in the Fanposts recently, I think that full seasons of good production from a healthy Hill and settled Prado, combined with a rebound from Montero, will be significant helps. Eaton, too, should give us better production, and simply not having Kubel around is addition by subtraction.

But what I think the 2013 team has shown, is that lower strikeouts do not necessarily mean more offense. Our K-rate has decreased from 20.6% to 18.2%, but the Diamondbacks are scoring about a quarter of a run per game less than they did last season. That's because the decrease in strikeouts has, unsurprisingly, been accompanied by a decrease in extra-base hit rate, where the team has dropped from 4th to 10th this season, and our walks are also down, even as Goldschmidt heads towards a likely franchise record in the department. And, of course, the twin-killings have seen a sharp jump, proving that good things do not always happen when you put the ball in play.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a statistical basis for the team apparently struggling, against starting pitchers they would normally be expected to hit well. Not sure quite how I'd do it. Maybe plot opponent's Game Score achieved versus us, against seasonal ERA+? There doesn't seem to be a nice split available, like there is for "left-handed pitchers", say. What I did find is that the team does fairly well against pitchers classified as both power and finesse, coming in fourth by OPS; it's the ones in the middle that give us problems, were we were 11th. The same goes for flyball/groundball. The extremes, we handle well. The middle-ground? Not so much.

Anyway, Miley tries to reach double digits and get a winning record, both rarities achieved pretty much only by Patrick Corbin otherwise. We're now only half a game in front of the Nationals, and falling behind them would really be the final nail in any hopes of the wild-card.

Todd Redmond RHP, 2-2, 4.30

Wade Miley LHP, 9-9, 3.55 ERA

Diamondbacks line-up

1. Adam Eaton, LF
2. A.J. Pollock, CF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Martin Prado, 3B
5. Aaron Hill, 2B
6. Miguel Montero, C
7. Gerardo Parra, RF
8. Didi Gregorius, SS
9. Wade Miley, P

Seems like Gibson was kinda miffed by the offense's recent struggles after last night, continuing a recent trend where we've made journeymen pitchers look almost unhittable - first Yusmeiro Petit, then Esmil Rogers.

"Everybody is that damn good? C'mon. Everybody isn't Cy Young. And you know what, sometimes you have to beat Cy Young. You have to figure out a way to do it. That part is disappointing. Not to say they didn't make some good pitches. Not to say if you do everything you are not going to lose. But overall, we're not happy with the way it has been coming out. You have to grind a little harder, make it a little tougher on them."

It's something Nick Piecoro wrote a bit more about, pointing out that with the offensive roster apparently largely set for next season, there may be limited opportunity for improvement in this area. I can kinda see where he's coming from, but as I was discussing with shoe in the Fanposts recently, I think that full seasons of good production from a healthy Hill and settled Prado, combined with a rebound from Montero, will be significant helps. Eaton, too, should give us better production, and simply not having Kubel around is addition by subtraction.

But what I think the 2013 team has shown, is that lower strikeouts do not necessarily mean more offense. Our K-rate has decreased from 20.6% to 18.2%, but the Diamondbacks are scoring about a quarter of a run per game less than they did last season. That's because the decrease in strikeouts has, unsurprisingly, been accompanied by a decrease in extra-base hit rate, where the team has dropped from 4th to 10th this season, and our walks are also down, even as Goldschmidt heads towards a likely franchise record in the department. And, of course, the twin-killings have seen a sharp jump, proving that good things do not always happen when you put the ball in play.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a statistical basis for the team apparently struggling, against starting pitchers they would normally be expected to hit well. Not sure quite how I'd do it. Maybe plot opponent's Game Score achieved versus us, against seasonal ERA+? There doesn't seem to be a nice split available, like there is for "left-handed pitchers", say. What I did find is that the team does fairly well against pitchers classified as both power and finesse, coming in fourth by OPS; it's the ones in the middle that give us problems, were we were 11th. The same goes for flyball/groundball. The extremes, we handle well. The middle-ground? Not so much.

Anyway, Miley tries to reach double digits and get a winning record, both rarities achieved pretty much only by Patrick Corbin otherwise. We're now only half a game in front of the Nationals, and falling behind them would really be the final nail in any hopes of the wild-card.

Things didn't start out so well for the Diamondbacks tonight, and really didn't get any better after that. Wade Miley started, but was only able to go 1 2/3 inning after giving up 5 runs on 8 hits and a home run. Josh Collmenter came in after that, and, other than an unearned run in the fifth, did a good job keeping the game manageable. We also got a very solid inning each from Chaz Roe and David Hernandez, who was making his first appearance after getting called back up from Reno today. Will Harris pitched in the 8th, giving up a home run. Not to be out done, Eury De La Rosa came in and gave up two of them, for a total of three runs. That gave the Blue Jays their insurmountable final score of 10 runs.

That didn't stop the offense from having a decent night. Adam Eaton, Didi Gregorius, and Miguel Montero all had home runs, and Aaron Hill was the only starter to fail to reach base. In the end, though, they only managed to scratch across four runs, which wasn't anywhere near enough to undo the damage done by Miley and the pitching staff.

Blue Jays 10 Diamondbacks 4

Winning is a lot more fun than losing, isn't it.

The Jays got home runs from Rajai Davis, Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Moises Sierra . Edwin has homered in his last 5 games at Chase Field. It really looks like the park for him.

We had 15 hits in all. 3 each for Jose Reyes, Sierra and Encarnacion (with 2 walks). The only Jay starter not to have a hit was J.P. Arencibia (0 for 4, but he did take a walk). Todd Redmond didn't get a hit either, but he did take a 4-pitch walk and did a nice job going first to third. Rajai had an interesting day, getting struck out 4 times, but hitting a home run in his other at bat.

We also stole a couple of bases, Brett Lawrie and Reyes each stole second.

I thought the most impressive part of tonight's game was the Jays' defense. We turned 3 doubles plays. Rajai made a great catch in CF. Brett had a highlight reel catch again. Even  Mark DeRosa made a great play and throw from second base. Reyes made a nice play and then threw to first base from his knees. Course, Reyes also made 2 errors, but we'll forgive him, since we won.

Todd Redmond looked good for 4 innings, then gave up a couple of runs in the 5th inning. In all, he allowed just 4 hits, 3 earned, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts, 2 home runs.

Neil Wagner pitched a good inning of relief, but then Gibby sent him out for a second inning and he gave up a Miguel Montero home run and a single before coming out of the game. I'm not sure why, with 13 guys in the bullpen, Gibbons would feel the need to use anyone for 2 innings. Darren Oliver came in and got a double play and a fly out. Oliver's performance was pretty important, we were only up 6-4 when he came into the game.

Dustin McGowan and Aaron Loup pitched a scoreless inning each to close out the game. I didn't understand using Loup in the 9th, with a 6 run lead, I would have liked to see one of the call ups, but they don't let me manage.

Jays of the Day are Edwin (.161), Reyes (.120) and Oliver (.154).

Wagner had the suckage number at -.103, but only because Gibby put him out there for a second inning.

The Jays have now won 3 series in a row. Nice work. Yeah, we could have used this earlier in the season, but beggars can't be choosers. Enjoy the wins, we haven't had many of them this year.

Nice GameThread tonight, especially for a late night game for you easterners. 35 of us put up 763 comments. Kraemer_17 lapped us with 129 comments. Great work.

It really didn't take long for it to become pretty clear that this really wasn't the Diamondbacks' night. Before they even got a chance to hit, Wade Miley gave up three hits, one of which was an RBI single to Brett Lawrie, to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Not good, but also not the worst inning ever. But the Canadian team wasn't done yet. They came right back in the second. They sent nine men to the plate, got five hits, one walk, and four runs, with Jose Reyes and Lawrie (again) getting RBI singles, and Rajai Davis getting a two run home run. Miley was pulled with two outs in the inning in favor of Josh Collmenter. Collmenter promptly got the final out to end the inning.

The offense really did not seem up to the task of keeping up with the Blue Jays early. The first nine batters that went to the plate went straight back to the dug out. It wasn't until Adam Eaton lead off the fourth inning with a home run that they managed to get a hit. I must say, though, if you're going to go multiple innings to start a game without getting a hit, a home run is a good way to break that up. Still, it was 5 - 1 Blue Jays.

Meanwhile, in the top halves of innings three through five, Josh Collmenter was just doing his normal thing. In the third, he sat down the side in order, and in the fourth, the only blemish was a two out walk that didn't amount to anything. In the fifth, there was a spot of trouble, when Collmenter gave up a lead off single to Mark De Rosa, who was allowed to move to third after Eaton caught a fly out and then threw it into the dugout, trying to get the runner at first. De Rosa then scored on an double by Moises Sierra to make the score 6 - 1. Collmenter then finished the inning and his night with a fly out to center and a ground ball to second.

For the Dbacks, the bottom of the fifth went even better than the bottom of the fourth. Miguel Montero lead the inning off, and got a single to right field. Parra flew out to center, but then Didi Gregorious hit a home run to bring home Montero and to cut Toronto's lead to only three.

In the seventh, Montero cut the deficit to only two runs with a lead off home run, but sadly, that was as close as they were to get. Despite Chaz Roe and David Hernandez, marking his return from banishment to Reno, throwing solid innings in the 6th and 7th respectively, Will Harris and Eury De La Rosa gave up three home runs and four runs on the board to give us the final score of 10 - 4 Blue Jays.

Source: FanGraphs

Angry Bird: Miguel Montero, 11.2%

Green Pig: Wade Miley, 33.2%

Comment of the night goes to...!

I suppose when you are tired of treading water

You might as well take a really big mouthful and just die.

by ford.williams.10 on Sep 3, 2013 | 9:14 PM

Yeah, that sums up how it felt like they were playing tonight.

Cole8865 lead the way in the GameDay Thread this evening, with 45 comments. Following behind were onedotfive and Clefo. All present were:

4 Corners Fan, AzRattler, CaptainCanuck, Clefo, Dbacks4eva10101, Diamondhacks, FatBoysEatMeat, GODSCHMIDT, GuruB, Husk, Jim McLennan, JoeCB1991, Rockkstarr12, Scrbl, asteroid, azshadowwalker, blank_38, cheese1213, cole8865, ford.williams.10, hotclaws, imstillhungry95, kishi, melliemacker, onedotfive, piratedan7, rd33, soco.

Join us again tomorrow for another game against the Blue Jays, this time at 12:40 PM Arizona time. Goodnight, everyone.

It would be an understatement to say that the 2013 season has not been what Blue Jays fans had expected going in. Furthermore, and perhaps most interestingly, it has not been what expert prognosticators thought it would be either. There are a myriad of reasons why the Blue Jays have not lived up to expectations, most of them relating to pitching. From Josh Johnson's mysterious inability to pitch to Brandon Morrow's injury struggles to R.A Dickey's difficulty avoiding the long ball it has been a tough season for Blue Jays starters. The Opening Day rotation of Dickey-Morrow-Buehrle-Johnson-Happ looked like a very promising one but this group has spearheaded a rotation that ranks 29^th in the league in ERA, 28^th in FIP, 25^th in K/BB and 29^th in HR/9. What was expected to be a solid group at the very least has been a complete and utter mess.

As far as failing to live up to their billing it's pretty obvious as to who the culprits are, (Spoiler Alert: It's everyone except Buehrle), but I thought I would look into who defied expectation the most in this rotation. Under normal circumstances I would have to say "in a bad way" but there really aren't any big positive surprises here. I decided to dig up projections for the 2013 rotation to see which Blue Jays have been farthest from their expected performance. To see who had fallen the short of expectations by the greatest margin I ranked the five pitchers by their 2013 FIP compared to a projected FIP averaged from the 5 projection systems that Fangraphs uses on each of the pitchers' player pages (RotoChamp, Steamer, Oliver, Bill James and ZIP). Along the way we'll also see which projection systems did the best job of predicting this nightmare. Going from least disappointing to most disappointing we start with Mark Buehrle:

Mark Buehrle (FIP 0.18 below average projection)

None of these projection systems predicted Buehrle's uptick in strikeouts, which probably explains why they were on the conservative side in general. That being said, when you average together their projections for Buehrle they were pretty accurate in the scheme of things. Projection hat tip goes to RotoChamp, while Steamer gets a stern shake of the head for the unsubstantiated pessimism.

J.A. Happ (FIP 0.25 above average projection)

Happ's season has been a relatively small sample given his injury troubles but he has produced approximately what one would expect in terms of fielding independent pitching. He does have a bloated ERA though, and rising walks with shrinking strikeouts is not a good look. Happ may be signed through 2014 but I don't think he's a sure thing to make the rotation if a couple of the Stroman/Nolin/Drabek/Hutchison quartet can step up. ZIPS did the best job here of capturing Happ's inability to maintain his strikeout rate from 2012 and predicting an ugly ERA and in doing so earns the projection hat tip. Oliver was far too optimistic, especially where home runs allowed were concerned.

R.A. Dickey (FIP 0.89 above average projection)

R.A. Dickey is very difficult pitcher to project, but it's fair to say no one say this year's struggles coming. His gopheritis seems heavily related to the Rogers Centre, a place where it was predicted he might pitch especially well. ZIPS was closer to Dickey's FIP but Steamer was closer to his ERA and is the only system to pick up a possible rise in walks giving them the hat tip. RotoChamp's projections fare the worst due to a level of optimism that sadly seems laughable now and was a best case scenario at the time.

Josh Johnson (FIP 1.29 above average projection)

Of course if I had decided to measure by ERA rather than FIP Johnson would be by far the most disappointing pitcher due to his larger than life 6.20 mark. No system projected home runs to be a problem for the big right hander and even though they underestimated his strikeout total by a fair margin they were all far too optimistic.

Brandon Morrow (FIP 1.82 above average projection)

It's easy to forget the extent of Morrow's struggles when he did pitch in 2013. Whether you want to chalk his poor pitching up to injury or not, the numbers are concerning. Even if Morrow can get healthy his velocity and strikeout ability seem to be on the downturn and he is unlikely to be the top of the rotation presence he once appeared on track to be going forward. Morrow turns 30 next year so patiently waiting for more just won't do. Steamer was the only system that predicted any serious decline for Morrow while Oliver was far too optimistic, especially in terms of predicting his strikeout rate.

Trying to predict the future is a very difficult business, possibly the most difficult business around. This season Blue Jays pitchers, when healthy, have defied projection. Some of the samples here may be small but alternatively it's not as if Morrow, Johnson or Happ seemed likely to reach the lofty heights projected for them even if they hadn't missed a game.

The purpose of this post is not to criticize projection systems as they have proven to be very useful in the past. If anything looking at the way the 2013 season has played out for the Blue Jays rotation shows how this season is the perfect demonstration of Murphy's Law. The projections listed above represent reasonable expectations for this quintet made by well informed and objective sources. If those projections had been accurate, or even close to accurate, this might have been quite the season for the Blue Jays. In fact, there was a pretty good reason to believe that it would be, if one remembers correctly. 2013 seems like a doomed experiment now but there were logical and well founded reasons to believe that it would work. Many, many smart people inside and outside the Blue Jays organization believed that it would. Unfortunately, it hasn't played out that way. That's just how it goes sometimes. It feels unjust when it happens to your favorite team, one that hasn't tasted the postseason in decades, but the baseball gods work in mysterious ways. If you could run the entire season through a computer simulation and know the result with absolute certainty baseball would cease to be interesting. Unfortunately, the unpredictability that makes this sport compelling bit the Blue Jays pretty hard in the rear end this year. At some point in the future the Blue Jays will have a season where they end up a far better team than they had any reason to expect they would be. Here's hoping that season in 2014. The Blue Jays probably need it to be.

August was our worst offensive month of the season, which with all the injuries, shouldn't surprise us. We hit .248/.322/.367 for the month and averaged 3.79 runs a game.

Here is how our batters hit in August:

• J.P. Arencibia played in 23 of 29 games, starting 18 of them. He hit .179/.214/.358, with 3 home runs, 7 RBI, 2 walks and 20 strikeouts. Surprisingly, not his worst month of the season, he hit just .175/.230/.313 in June. I get told that we are too rough on the guy, but he really has been terrible and there is no sign he is going to improve. He has thrown out 24% of base stealers, just short of the league average 26%, which is about the end of the good news. I really can't help thinking that there is a good ballplayer somewhere in there, but I'm tired of waiting for him to show. At least he's stopped throwing from his knees.
• Josh Thole played in 13 games, starting 11. Josh isn't hitting any better than JP, .184/.244/.342 with 1 home run, 1 triple, 4 RBI, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. I guess it is pretty telling that he had 1 more walk than JP in 28 less plate appearances. On the season, Josh has thrown out 25% of base stealers. If I was Gibby, I'd likely move to a straight platoon for JP and Josh. I wish A.J. Jimenez wasn't hurt.
• Edwin Encarnacion played and started in all 29 games this month even with the sore leg. He hit .265/.392/.471 with 5 home runs, 15 RBI, 22 walks, 9 strikeouts and 1 stolen base in 2 tries. That's his fewest home runs and RBI of any month this season, but his most walks. With the line up we are putting out there, I'm surprised anyone would pitch to him.
• Jose Reyes played in 27 games, starting 26. He hit .264/.305/.364 with 3 home runs, 11 RBI, 1 stolen base in 4 tries. He seems to be running better.
• Brett Lawrie started all 29 games. Our player of the month hit .346/.397/.495 with 2 home runs, 1 triple, 8 doubles, 7 walks, 7 strikeouts, 4 steals in 7 tries. Nice to see him hitting the ball hard. Now the question is can he keep it up? He is my favorite player to watch on defense. As good as Scott Rolen was, Lawrie's even better.
• Adam Lind played in 28 games and started 25. He hit .253/.356/.379, 3 home runs, 2 doubles, 7 RBI, 14 walks and 17 strikeouts. That's the most walks he's had any month this year. After an awful July, this was a improvement, but we really need more out of Lind.
• Rajai Davis played in 22 games, starting 18. He hit .227/.298/.307, 6 doubles, 5 RBI, 7 walks, 14 strikeouts, 9 stolen bases in 10 tries. I like him as a part time player, but I like him far less as a full time player.
• Jose Bautista started 18 games before going on the DL. He hit .288/.405/.485 with 6 home runs, 7 RBI, 11 walks, 7 strikeouts.
• Maicer Izturis played in 16 games, starting 15. He hit .193/.254/.193, his worst numbers of any month, in a pretty awful year. 10 RBI, 0 steals, 3 times caught, 11 walks and 8 strikeouts. Izturis has the worst WAR of any player in baseball this year, at -2.2. Much of that from his less than great defense. If he has a full time job next year, then we haven't learned anything.
• Mark DeRosa played in 17 games, starting 8. He hit .152/.256/.242 with 3 doubles, 4 RBI, 5 walks and 13 strikeouts. I would like DeRosa much more if Pat and Buck didn't tell us what a 'professional' he was and how he's come through in the clutch so much this year. I keep wanting to scream at the TV "have you watched any games this year". It seems like Buck and Pat started the season with a handful of talking points and haven't let any anything that has happened on the field influence what they say.
• Kevin Pillar played in 15 games, starting 13. He hit .163/.250/.256, 1 home run, 6 RBI, 3 walks, 15 strikeouts and 1 caught stealing. I'm just happy to see someone that can play defense in left. I hope they give him enough at bats so we can see if he can learn how to hit major league pitching.
• Anthony Gose played in 14 games, starting 11. He hit .220/.238/.268, 1 triple, 2 RBI, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, 3 steals in 4 tries.
• Colby Rasmus started 10 games before going on the DL. He hit .231/.286/.359 with 1 home run, 5 RBI, 3 walks and 14 strikeouts.
• Munenori Kawasaki played in 9 games, starting 5. He hit .286/.318/.381 with 1 triple, 2 RBI, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. He's magic.
• Ryan Goins started 8 games. He hit .400/.419/.467 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. In reality, he'll struggle to hit .250, but, considering he's the first guy we've had that can play good defense at second, I'm happy using him. Play him all of September, let's see what we've got.
• Moises Sierra played in 10 games, starting 8. He hit .200/.323/.240, with 1 double, 2 RBI, 5 walks and 6 strikeouts. I really wouldn't mind having him on the bench next season. He still runs the bases like he doesn't understand the other team could tag him out.
• Emilio Bonifacio played in 9 games, starting 8 before being traded to the Royals. He hit.241/.290/.310 with 2 doubles, 4 RBI, 2 walks, 10 k, 1 steal in 2 tries. As a Royal, he is hitting .286/.363/.386 with 12 stolen bases, 0 times caught. He had 12 stolen bases with us (caught 6 times) in 94 games, he has 12 steals with the Royals, in 20 games. And that pretty much describes the season we've had.

For the second season in a row, Jose Bautista has been shut down well before the Blue Jays finish their campaign. It was announced today that the 32-year-old right fielder will sit out the rest of the season with his femur injury, which was originally thought to be a hip issue. It seems most fans assumed the Blue Jays would make this move as there is nothing to be gained from rehabbing Bautista and getting him back for the last few games of the season.

Bautista clarifies - his injury is not to the hip flexor. It's a bone bruise at "the neck of the femur". #Bluejays#Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) September 4, 2013

Obviously he'll be fine for spring training next March and the Blue Jays confirmed that fact on Twitter:

Bautista shut down for rest of season with femur bone bruise. Will be 100 pct for spring training

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) September 4, 2013

Bautista's slash line this season will go in the books as .259/.358/.498 with 28 home runs, which is one more homer than he had last year. While his 2013 season was better than his 2012 campaign, it comes nowhere close to the level he was playing at in 2010 and 2011. His contract has two more years remaining on it, each with a $14 million annual value (as was his yearly salary for the past two years) along with a 2016 option worth the same amount. Bautista will be 33 at the beginning of next season as he begins to approach the downside of his career most likely.

If that news isn't bad enough, TankFest 2013 might hit a whole new level as Colby Rasmus may also be shut down for the rest of the 2013 season:

John Gibbons also says that the clock may run out on Colby Rasmus, as well. #Bluejays#Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) September 4, 2013

It's unfortunate news for the fans in Toronto who plan to go to games in September as they will see an almost completely AAA squad on the field (especially the outfield) with very few actual prospects to brighten things up.

The Blue Jays came out swinging against Randall Delgado in Wednesday's game, striking fast in the first inning and racking up a quick 3-0 lead before the Diamondbacks had even come to the plate. But Delgado and the bullpen buckled down against Toronto and kept them off the board and mostly off the base paths for the rest of his outing, holding them to only a pair of singles over the next nine innings, each of which was followed by a ground ball double play to end the threat.

RBI doubles from Matt Davidson and Miguel Montero in the second inning cut the deficit to one, and Arizona tied the game up in the seventh when Tony Campana scored on a sacrifice fly from Eric Chavez. The game went to extra innings, where a Willie Bloomquist single scored Adam Eaton from third base to give Arizona another walk-off win on getaway day.