Tagged: Carlos Villanueva
Picking on the O’s once again
Colby Rasmus went 0-5 with two strike outs in his Jays debut….trade him! Release him! Burn him at the stake!
At least that’s what they’d say if he were a Yankee or Red Sox…(kidding.)
But in all seriousness it was a half decent game tonight that was neither great nor terrible, but a victory none the less. Carlos Villanueva continues to defy gravity and grind out wins, even though he trailed 1-0 after two pitches tonight. In fact he’d go on to trail 2-0 before the Jays saw their first plate appearance. Luckily for us it was only Baltimore, and a 2-0 lead is nothing against them. He’s now 6-2 on the year with an ERA of 3.60. Not bad at all for a sub.
The offensive charge was lead by E.E. tonight, who blasted his eighth homer of the year and picked up two RBI. If ever there was a time for him to get hot it’s now, with just a few days left before the deadline. Though if he continues to swing a hot bat, I ‘may’ be able to tolerate him until the end of the season.
Eric Thames also added a homer and two RBI as he continues to post great rookie numbers. Is it too early to start thinking he might be able to throw his hat in the ring for ROY consideration? He has however missed a good chunk of the first half.
And while Rasmus’ debut was one to forget, relief pitcher P.J. Walters tossed a scoreless sixth inning to help preserve the lead. To be honest I’d never heard of Walters before yesterday and his 7.20 ERA (in limited action) looks pretty ugly. But maybe he’ll turn a corner under Pat Hentgen’s coaching.
In the mean time let’s just enjoy the fact Toronto once again owns Baltimore to the tune of 6-3 so far this year. Tomorrow we’ll see a rematch of Sunday’s gem as Brett Cecil takes on Alexi Ogando and the Rangers. Can the Jays pull off the upset twice in a row?
Reyes can’t stand the Texas heat
Jo Jo Reyes pitched about as well as you’d expect against the very deep Rangers line up last night. In other words, he got lit up. Mercifully he was designated for assignment after the game, hopefully ending his tenure with Toronto. Sadly I don’t think anyone is going to claim him.
Friday’s dismal start wasn’t a deviation from the norm. In fact for all the publicity he got for not winning at the start of the year, he actually pitched BETTER when he was 0-4 vs. his last 10 games which has seen him go 5-4 with an ERA just over 6.00. Over that span he’s walked 20 and struck out just 27. In his last 58.1 innings he’s given up 75 hits.
Basically he’s been down right horrible. Luckily for him the bats seem to back him up whenever he’s on the mound or else his numbers would have looked a lot worse.
Unfortunately his replacement isn’t all that exciting. The club has chosen to call up Wilfredo Ledezma, who is 1-1 with a 4.63 ERA in 34 games with Las Vegas. He’s 15-25 lifetime with an ERA of 5.26. Fantastic.
The real head scratcher here is why they didn’t call up Jesse Litsch who recently was taken off the DL. They must really have no faith in him what soever, or he’s not fully recovered yet. When he was healthy he was 4-3 with an ERA of 4.66. Kyle Drabek would have probably been their first choice but he left a Triple A game last week with a trapezius injury.
All of this culminates to mean the Jays are replacing one dead weight pitcher with another. Their once proud pitching rotation has really deteriorated over the year making the Shaun Marcum deal look worse every day. Given that Jose Bautista is back at third you have to wonder, would Toronto have been better off signing Marcum long term? Brett Lawrie may be good, but he’s now playing the position of Toronto’s best player, and the outfield is too crowded to move Jose back.
In the mean time the team will try to bounce back against Texas. Carlos Villanueva will have to go deep because the ‘pen was taxed last night.
Francisco’s gotta go
Not since B.J. Ryan was healthy in 2008 have the Jays had a shut down,
no nonsense closer.
Since that time we’ve had to suffer through the likes of Jason Frasor,
Kevin Gregg and now Frank Francisco giving away games that should be
won. While Francisco didn’t get the loss last night, he did enter the
game with a 4-0 lead with just three outs to get. He even had one
extra run than most closers get to work with. Still he couldn’t retire
a single batter, loading the bases before getting pulled.
The outing before that he did get the save in Boston on Monday, but
struggled through that. Even without taking the loss last night he’s
still 1-4 with an era of 5.92. He ruined a masterfully pitched game by
Carlos Villanueva, who should be 6-1 with an era of 2.99. What a great
find he’s blossomed into, once again shutting down a first place team.
But instead of singing his praises, we’re stuck with the memory of
Francisco giving the game away. Even the fact that Jose Bautista cranked number 29, tying a Blue Jays’ record of homers before the break, is lost in the horrible outing by the closer. Most times the closer is a team’s best relief pitcher. In Toronto’s case, it’s their weakest link.
Fortunately they do have some options. The leading candidate would
have to be . Octavio Dotel. He has closer’s experience and sports an
era of 3.70 on the year. He’s also struck out 27 in 24.1 innings, a
great skill to have with the game on the line. Jon Rauch is another
guy who has closed before but he owns an era of 4.08 with two blown
saves in nine attempts and is struggling a bit of late. He doesn’t
strike out batters at the same rate as Dotel, with 23 K’s over 35.1
innings.
Jason Frasor could also be in the mix, but he’s never really seemed
comfortable closing. Plus he’s having success in the set up role, so
no need to mess with that.
Frankly at this point I’d prefer Mike McCoy in the closer’s role over Francisco.
No sweep to be had in Cincy, Yunel gets extended
Carlos Villanueva pitched arguably his best game today since becoming a starter yet ended up with his first loss of the year. Go figure.
The Jays’ bats just couldn’t figure out Bronson Arroyo today who has had an otherwise rough year. A lot was made about how poorly he’s pitched against Toronto in his career but as I mentioned before there has been a lot of turn over since he last faced them.
While the sweep would have been nice, and was certainly obtainable, winning the series on the road isn’t too shabby. The Jays will now face their first good National League team of the year heading to Atlanta for a rematch of the ’92 series. Could be a rough one.
Hopefully the strong pitching keeps up because they’ll certainly going to need it. After the Braves they head to St. Louis to take on the Cards. That’s six games against two really good pitching staffs.
Before the game the Jays announced they’ve extended Yunel Escobar for two more years at 5 million a piece, with two option years. Cynics will say Yunel has shown a pattern of being lazy and unmotivated, at least during his Atlanta years. With 10 million coming his way no matter what, what incentive does he have to put the extra work in? I on the other hand think it’s a good deal for both sides. If he starts to struggle he can still be traded and even if the Jays ate half the contract, in baseball dollars 5 mil is not a lot. If he continues to hit and play the defense he has, it’ll be a VERY good deal. Plus ever since he arrived in Toronto almost a year ago now he’s been nothing but a model citizen.
In the long run I see both sides being happy.
Spot starter Villanueva steals the spot light
Can’t say enough about the job Carlos Villanueva did tonight.
Coming out of the pen to make his first start of the year he limited the Yankees (in Yankee Stadium no less) to just one run over five innings. The bullpen has been outstanding for the Jays all season, but now to step up and make a great spot start like this is taking it to the next level. The team needed a pick me up after losing two of three to the worst team in MLB in the form of the Houston Astros.
A big part of losing that series fell squarely on the shoulders of Aaron Hill who grounded out with the winning run on second base in Sunday’s 9th inning. He stranded runners again in his first at bat tonight but then came up with a huge RBI single in the sixth to break the 1-1 tie.
J.P. Arencebia delivered the knock out punch with a bases clearing double. I must admit I was a bit surprised to see some of Arencebia’s numbers this year. His three RBI give him 19 on the year to go with his .244 average. His eight homers paired with Jose Bautista’s 19 are the second most by a pair of teammates in MLB, just two behind Curtis Granderson and Mark Texiera.
As much as I love beating New York, even better was the fact that Derek Jeter took an 0-fer and didn’t get any closer to 3,000 career hits. I got nothing against Jeter really, and for a Yankee he’s actually an alright guy. I just don’t really want to hear about his success when he’s playing Toronto.
Good chance for the Jays to win the series tomorrow with the red hot Ricky Romero taking the hill. Unfortunately he’s up against C.C. Sabathia who is also dealing lately. Should be a close and probably stressful game.
In happier news, Adam Lind is starting to swing a bat again and is playing in some minor league games. Jays need him back desperately to slot in behind Jose to give opposing managers cause for though when considering how to subdue Jose.
Blue Jays Nest 