108: Blue Jays Bats Giving Off Foul Odour
The Blue Jays and their struggling offence flew West Wednesday night. Will Josh Donaldson be able to play after missing three games? Will he get a hit? Will he go off as he did last August in Anaheim when a series against Mike Trout basically won him the MVP.
14 Sept. 2016
By Tyler King
Canadian Baseball Network
Alright Blue Jays fans, the last thing you probably need right now is yet another “the offence stinks” article. After all, everybody knows their bats currently reek worse than a Rogers Centre mens room after the seventh inning.
But the truth is, however bad you think they’ve been over the past few weeks, they’ve probably been worse.
Which is exactly why you’re getting yet another “the offence stinks” article ...
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In 12 September games, the Jays have averaged just 3.5 runs per game, putting them on pace to score 95 runs for the entire month (a span of 27 games).
The last time they came close to being this odious was in April, when they scored 100 runs in 25 games. You might recall they went 11-14 in that first month of the season. And now in September, when it really counts, they are 3-9 and have coughed up what was once a slim division lead.
Last season, the worst run total the Jays had in a single month was 122, but even that was somewhat impressive considering it was over a mere 23 games in April.
But this obviously isn’t 2015. If it was then I’d be using a lot less cuss words on a daily basis and probably wouldn’t have cracked my TV in half.
Perhaps broken TVs (and hearts) are why most fans gave up comparing this Blue Jays offence to the one from last year some time ago, even though roster-wise it’s basically the same.
Still, the complete disparity between the two seasons remains more than puzzling.
It’s completely infuriating.
Last year the Blue Jays seemed to out hit the world, mashing 232 home runs and scoring 891 total runs. They’re likely going to score somewhere close to 100 runs less this year.
(Strangely they may actually surpass last season’s home run total, although all that does is show how tough a time they’ve had manufacturing runs.)
So far in 2016, as a team they’ve slashed .249 / .327 / .432.
I hate to do this to you, but last year they hit .269 / .340 / .457.
As big of a dip as those numbers are, the drop-off in September has been simply astonishing, with the Jays bats essentially morphing into ... well, I don’t know, the Atlanta Braves? - which is a much bigger insult than it sounds.
For the month of September the Blue Jays have hit .229 / .313 / .341, with an OPS of .654.
(Please excuse me while a bang my head against the desk for a while ...)
When you see those numbers, it feels somewhat miraculous they’ve managed to win three games.
This level of “slump” - if that’s even the right word - is unprecedented for this Blue Jays team. Over the past two seasons they’ve never finished a month hitting below .230. They’ve also never had a month with a team OPS below .700 (but they’ve had three months with an OPS over .800).
You may have also noticed that the Jays strikeout “a lot” this year. Like more than a dude wearing Ed Hardy at the bar “a lot”.
Having struck out 1,219 times prior to Wednesday’s game, they now hold the fourth most strikeouts in the American League. For comparison, they struck out only 1,151 times all of last season.
They’ve been K’d nearly 172 more times than the Boston Red Sox, and 87 more times than the league average.
Now strikeouts alone clearly don’t make or break a season. Just ask the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who have the fewest strikeouts in the AL by far (880) but haven’t won a damn thing.
Where those strikeouts really hurt the Jays is how they’ve translated (or rather not translated) into hitting with runners in scoring position; something they couldn’t do, then kind of did, and now can’t do at all again.
Jays hitters have the fourth most strikeouts in the AL with runners in scoring position, and the third most with runners in scoring position and two outs. They also happen have the fourth worst average in scoring situations, at .252.
In September, however, the Blue Jays have struggled in just about every situation. They have the second fewest hits, fewest extra-base hits, second lowest team average, and have scored the second fewest runs.
On the bright side, at least you can’t point your finger and blame any one guy in the lineup. It’s as if, in some twisted display of camaraderie, the entire team decided to slump at the same time.
In recent days it seems like Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki are the lone hitters who are conscious when they step into the batters box. They’re actually the only two Blue Jays currently hitting at or above their career average this month.
In fact, Kevin Pillar, Edwin Encarnacion, Travis and Tulowitzki are the only Blue Jays HITTING OVER .200 IN SEPTEMBER.
No, I’m not kidding. Thirteen of the 17 Jays with an at-bat this month are hitting under .200. And nowhere is that more glaring than Josh Donaldson’s .097, although you can cut him some slack if it does turn out his hip injury is serious.
(Seeing as he has a relatively impressive nine walks, which would seem to indicate he’s seeing the ball fine, you might not be wrong to brace yourself for the worst.)
Of course, if it turns out Donaldson’s hip injury is serious I would recommend promptly locking yourself in your home and not coming out until November, on account of the mass hysteria and panic that will ensue in the streets of Toronto -
That and the very scary possibility of missing the postseason.
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Follow Tyler and #Section108 on Twitter: @TylerJoseph108