Every now and then there is a line in a story that make you say 'you've got to be kidding me'. A couple of days ago (this was to go up the other day but the network was down), our pal Shi Davidi wrote that the Blue Jays might be content to 'stand pat' with the starting pitching they have. In the middle of it was this:
The Blue Jays are taking the same approach at second base, and for now appear content to take Ryan Goins and his plus-defence in some sort of job-share arrangement with Maicer Izturis. They talked to the Rangers about Ian Kinsler before Texas shifted gears and traded him to the Detroit Tigers for Prince Fielder, and kept tabs on Omar Infante and Mark Ellis, both of whom would likely have needed a premium on what they signed for to head north.
Now, I can sort of understand that the Jays might want to delude themselves into thinking that they have enough starting pitching. I mean, they are wrong about that, but you can understand the delusion. But to think they can compete with Ryan Goins and Maicer Izturis at second base? That's beyond delusion.
Ryan, we can all agree, was a breath of fresh air, at least on the defensive side, after the clown show of Izturis and Bonifacio. But, he aspires to be the hitter John McDonald was, and Mac's glove couldn't carry his bat, even playing shortstop. Goins didn't even hit RHP particularly well, going .263/.273/.355 against them and that includes a hot streak for his first few games. He hit .400/.419/.467 over his first 8 games. The rest of the ways he hit .202/.211/.303. I really don't see him as someone that I'd want to see get the lion's share of the starts in a platoon pairing.
Izturis, according to Fangraphs, has the worst WAR in baseball at -2.1. He hit roughly as poorly as Goins, 236/.288/.310. He wasn't all that much better versus left-handed pitchers (who he'd be playing against if he was platooning with Goins), hitting a big .259/.287/.319. On defense, I honestly don't think I've seen a second baseman with less range. It wasn't just the eye test that didn't like his defense, Fangraphs has him at a -26.7 UZR/150. I don't know if it was because of the fast turf or if he just got old in a hurry, but I can't imagine him improving enough to be anywhere close to average next year.
I have to hope that Alex is saying that he'd be happy with Goins and Izturis just to not tip his hand, but if that's what he's up to, I wish he would hurry up and find us our second baseman,