MVN - Most Valuable Network

Toronto’s Pitching Lights Out, Now About That Offense…

The Jays most recent series against the Red Sox was a tale of offensive letdown as their top three pitchers were fantastic, only to be thanked by next to nothing in terms of offensive output. In a series where the Jays held the Red Sox to three total runs, they dropped two games.

The Jays starting pitching has been awesome, giving up the second lowest ERA in the AL. Their rotation from 1-4 rivals any in the majors, and #5 Jesse Litsch is no slouch either. But it is a serious problem when the Jays cannot muster one measly run against Jon Lester to give their ace some semblance of support while he pitches like Cy Young himself.

The offense has been abysmal aside from the rare decent performance. The Jays have the fourth worst batting average in the AL and are scoring just about four runs per game. Gibbons has tried to shake up the lineup, but it has not helped all that much. Alex Rios has seen some personal success in the leadoff spot, but with David Eckstein hitting behind him, they don’t exactly present an immediate scoring threat once Rios gets on base.

Would it make too much sense to put Eckstein in the 9 spot and bat Aaron Hill 2nd?

Scott Rolen has been earning his spot in the 3-hole, notching a hit in every game he has played with the Jays thus far, but we have to assume it’s up to Vernon Wells to prove that it’s his spot in the lineup to take away from Rolen. In an ideal world, this team’s lineup would have a productive Vernon Wells and Matt Stairs hitting 3 and 4 with Rolen hitting 5th and Gregg Zaun permanently planted on the bench.

The good news for Jays fans to hang their hat on is the fact that starting pitching is not something that comes and goes, either its a team’s asset or a liability, and so far it looks like the Jays’ arms will carry them. Offense on the other hand is a game of streaks…and we just need to hope that the Jays are in a slump instead of the possibility that they just aren’t as good as we thought they were.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 12:30 am and is filed under BJ Ryan, AJ Burnett, Roy Halladay, John Gibbons, Matt Stairs, Brian Tallet, Rod Barajas, Jesse Litsch, Gregg Zaun, Adam Lind, Scott Rolen, Jon Lester, Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Aaron Hill, Shannon Stewart, Alex Rios, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.