MVN - Most Valuable Network

Not Hopeless After All: Jays Sweep Twins

If you are anything like me, you spent the past week trying to figure what prominent sluggers will be hitting the free agent market this winter (to save you time, Mark Teixeira, Adam Dunn and Milton Bradley are the most viable). This is usually my favorite pastime around mid-summer. The time when the Jays start to slow down, all the other teams in the AL hit their stride and a long, painful, drawn-out process begins.

Like all seasons, I expected the Birds to stay close enough in the East to keep me watching, but far enough out for them not to be taken seriously.

However, this team has a newfound life after a 3 game sweep of the Twins at the Metrodome. With Vernon Wells out of the lineup until the All Star break, the Jays still managed to squeak out enough offense to show their pitchers some appreciation.

Matt Stairs is starting to entrench himself as the most reliable hitter on the Jays roster. He clubbed two homers in the series, making all Toronto fans beg the question: how does Shannon Stewart deserve at-bats in the DH spot? Forget Lefty/Righty match-ups, the Jays came in to the series batting an MLB worst .209 with runners in scoring position. Are they really in any position to take their best bat out of the lineup in favor of a guy hitting .235?

On another note, Alex Rios has been lackluster at best since taking over for Wells in center and batting in the 3-hole. He is batting .133 over his last ten, and has not found the power stroke that made him a stud last season. In fact, the last time someone not named Matt Stairs hit a home run for the Blue Jays was one week ago today, when Vernon Wells went deep, that is borderline embarrassing.

While it may be a little excessive to split hairs in the midst of a 4-game winning streak, the Jays will head to the City of Brotherly Love next to face the Phillies, who are not the type of team that can be beat by a mediocre offense.

The Jays will call up David Purcey to face off against Jamie Moyer tomorrow night and side note to John Gibbons: I know Matt Stairs and Jamie Moyer are both lefties but that does not make Shannon Stewart a better hitter. That is all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm and is filed under Matt Stairs, John Gibbons, JP Ricciardi, Jesse Litsch, Marco Scutaro, Joe Inglett, Rod Barajas, Shaun Marcum, BJ Ryan, Gregg Zaun, Scott Rolen, Frank Thomas, 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.