Toronto Blue Jays

For a team so very unfamiliar with long winning streaks (they haven't won more than six in a row since 2008) the current seven gamer must be very satisfying for the Toronto Blue Jays. Not only that, but they've posted a combine score of 41-11 in those games. Indeed, these are heady days for the Jays. Of course, it behooves us to heed Mike Wilner's oft-repeated observation: a team is never as good as it looks at it's best, nor as bad as it looks at it's worst. Still, in may ways this team is preforming now in a manner consistent with pre-season expectations (shaddup Adam!) and they are finally seeing the results.Since May 5, when the team inexplicably found it's footing, the Blue Jays are 24-15 (a .615 winning %) for the second best record in the AL in that span (one game behind Oakland and WTF is up out there anyhow?) which is a pace which, were it maintained the rest of the season, would result in 91 wins - that puts you right in the thick of the wild-card race. On the other hand, it's a pace that over a full season would get you 100 wins and certainly it's debatable whether this team is of that caliber. On the third hand, Jose Reyes is imminently ready to return, one assumes Brett Lawrie will be back at some point and step up his game, and Josh Thole is already an upgrade on Henry Blanco (and more besides, if Gibby will give him some of JP's mostly empty at-bats). And the best part is that, apart from Adam Lind, the horses of the offense are not performing at an unsustainable rate.Here are the teams top six offensive producers over the last 38 games (and the rest have been no great shakes):Cabrera - .312 - .356 - .446 - .802Bautista - .285 - .370 - .487 - .857Encarnacion - .297 - .387 - .561 - .948Lind - .388 - .417 - .642 - 1.059Rasmus - .250 - .320 - .508 - .827DeRosa - .266 - .329 - .484 - .813Yes, DeRosa is doing more than he's done since his peak years five years ago, but it's not insane and it's in half as many at bats as the others so it's not like the team is being driven by it. Lind is the obvious outlier but going forward, a regression is easily balanced by the presence of Reyes. It's reasonable to assume the offense IS this good.On the mound, the bullpen has been, frankly, insanely good.Janssen - 3.55, 1.11Cecil - 1.40, 0.52Delenbar - 1.50, 1.11Loup - 0.90, 0.65Oliver - 2.25, 1.13Perez - 0.00, 0.50Wagner - 0.96, 0.96 (when does THAT ever happen?)The Starters?Dickey - 4.53, 1.45Buehrle - 3.46, 1.19Johnson - 1.86, 1.14 (only 3 starts)Rogers - (as Starter) 1.77, 0.98 (4 starts)Wang - (tiny sample) 3.14, 1.53 (2 starts)Morrow - 6.14, 1.36 (4 starts)Jenkins - 3.60, 1.47 (3 starts)Ortiz - 3.77, 1.60 (3 starts)Happ - one start, irrelevantRomero - dittoOrtiz is probably gone for the duration, Jenkins has been flailing at Buffalo for some unknown reason, so lets ignore them looking forward. Over the last 13 games the staff as a whole has an ERA of 1.98 and they have piled up a 10-3 record in a not unrelated result. obviously that won't last but it's this kind of run that playoff teams occasionally have.Morrow was reported today to have suffered a setback last night and it seems clear he'll not be back before the ASB. IF he gets and stays healthy, those numbers surely get better and one would think that Rogers would regress some, but the two should balance out (in theory, anything could happen in real time). Buehrle is back consistent with his career numbers, and Dickey while disappointingly inconsistent, is in a range where it's reasonable to assume he is more likely to improve than to regress further. That means that in a rough-and-dirty look ahead, your rotation success largely turns on whether Josh Johnson is finally in his groove or not. This is still a group that can be above average enough to support the offense, particularly as long as the bullpen is so VERY good.In terms of the playoffs, at the end of play on May 4, the Jays were 8.5 back of the wild card with nine teams to overcome in order to qualify. Now, 38

TORONTO, Ont. — The Toronto Blue Jays kept the good times going by taking down the Colorado Rockies once again at Rogers Centre, as the waves of positivity continue to splash through Blue Jays nation. Here are three things that stood out to me about Tuesday night’s win: Blue Jays Talk: June 18 LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN The Blue Jays scored early and often, and rolled to yet another easy victory — their seventh in a row. Over the course of this longest win streak in almost five years, the Blue Jays have barely had to break a sweat in five of the victories. They’ve outscored the opposition by a ridiculous 41-11 count over the seven games, allowing a total of six runs over the last six. Since Chien-Ming Wang’s Blue Jays debut, a 7-5 win over the White Sox that started this streak, Toronto starters have allowed a grand total of four earned runs in 40.2 innings, which is pretty impressive to say the least and which has gone an awfully long way towards helping the team win seven straight. What was once set to be a long, slow climb back to the .500 mark has turned out to be anything but, as the Blue Jays have closed to within two games of the break-even mark and, insanely enough, just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. They’ve gone 11-4 so far in June. NAME THE BUILDING AFTER HIM Esmil Rogers made his fourth start as a Blue Jay and dominated the team that signed him, developed him and brought him to the big leagues with his best outing yet. Rogers showed off a filthy sinker and used it to great effect, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and allowing two earned runs on four hits over 6.2 frames with just one walk against five strikeouts. It had to feel good for Rogers, who posted an ugly 6.77 ERA and even scarier 1.819 WHIP while bouncing from the rotation to the bullpen and back over parts of four seasons with Colorado, to come out and stick it up the Rockies’, ummm, rockies the way he did. To do it while flirting with a no-hitter must have made it even better. Especially given the bad news on Brandon Morrow, who suffered a setback in his rehab start in Dunedin Monday night, it would be nice if the Blue Jays have really found something in Rogers. MIGHTY MAICER Maicer Izturis didn’t make a terrific first impression on Blue Jays fans — or even a marginally good one — but he really seems to have turned things around as the Jays have heated up in June. Izturis homered back-to-back with J.P. Arencibia in the sixth inning, putting the finishing touches on the win, as part of a 1-for-4 day. It hasn’t really been a long resurgence, but over the last eight games, Izturis has started to dig out of it, having hit .333/.333/.485, raising his overall batting average 22 points. He’s also picked up his defensive game as well, and has looked good with the glove (until his brain cramp boot in the seventh inning Tuesday) despite getting a lot of time at shortstop lately. It’s a far cry from the train wreck-style glovework he was providing on many occasions in April. Izturis has come as advertised as a handler of the bat, though, having struck out just 17 times in 196 at-bats for a sterling 8.2 per cent strikeout rate. Amazingly (as we delve deeper into the nerd stats), Izturis has managed just a .229 batting average on balls in play this season — which is well below-average — despite a career-high line drive rate of 23 per cent. That’s not supposed to happen, and those things are likely to even out over time. Maybe they’re starting to. The post Wilner: Jays speeding away from early struggles appeared first on Sportsnet.ca.

The feeling in Toronto is completely different. Not long ago, Blue Jays fans were convinced that a game was lost after a starter gives up a couple of runs in the second, but today, many of us were convinced that the Blue Jays were going to win after the batters started the game with four runs in the first. The batters are hitting and the pitchers are dominating. Winning is fun... but it is a bit weird! After an 8-3 win over the Rockies, the blue birds of Toronto have now won seven straight games, the 21st time in franchise history that they have done so. The Blue Jays are still in last place in the American League East, but are now two games under .500 at 34-36 (.486). And no, you're still not allowed to watch the standings yet, GatorJay. Starter Esmil Rogers was fantastic. He was no-hitting the Rockies through one out in the sixth inning before Jonathan Herrera broke it up with a clean single up the middle. He had 1-2-3 innings in the first, third, fourth, and fifth. Rogers allowed three straight hits to start the seventh leading to a couple of runs before he was relieved to a standing ovation from the 22,852 fans at the park. The final line for Rogers looks good, but he pitched better: 6.2 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 H, 5 K, 1 BB, 89 pitches, 55 strikes. I must admit I was very skeptical when the club announced that the were going to convert Rogers into a starter to fill in for all the holes in the rotation, but he now has had two very good starts in a row. Rogers, Aaron Loup, Darren Oliver, and Steve Delabar combined to limit the Rockies to just four hits. Overall the pitching during this winning streak has been stupendous, giving up just 12 runs in the 64 innings good for a 1.69 ERA. And the shutdown pitching has led to some short games: tonight's went 2:20, and all but the first win of the streak were played in three hours or less (and that first game was a 10-inning affair). Mark Buehrle takes the mound tomorrow night, so it looks like it just might be another short one. The Blue Jays weren't shabby at the plate either! As mentioned above, the Jays jumped to an early lead off of Canadian Jeff Francis. Melky Cabrera led off with a single, Jose Bautista grounded out, then the Jays strung together five straight base hits (Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind, Mark DeRosa, Rajai Davis, and J.P. Arencibia) and scored four runs without a homer. That first inning featured a curious play: when Davis singled to Rockies left fielder Carlos Gonzalez, DeRosa rounded third to try to score from second but then stopped and tried to run back to first when he saw that Gonzalez had gotten to the ball and was going to throw him out. It didn't look like he should have even tried to score, but interim third base coach DeMarlo Hale waved him in all the way (usual coach Luis Rivera is off at his son's graduation). It didn't end up mattering, but it gave Cargo his major league-leading ninth outfield assist. After the four-run first, the very hittable Jeff Francis disappeared and the crafty Jeff Francis took the mound to shut down 10-straight Blue Jays until Cabrera singled in the fifth. A batter later, Encarnacion hit a homer that left the park rather quickly. Toronto tacked on a couple more runs on back-to-back homers by Arencibia and Maicer Izturis in the sixth. It was Arencibia's 15th and Izturis's fourth. Surprisingly, that was the first back-to-back homer for the 2013 Blue Jays. Jose Bautista and Emilio Bonifacio were the only starters without a hit. Jays of the Day! Rogers (+.200), Encarnacion (+.138) Suckage Jays: None.

The Esmil Rogers experiment in the Jays’ starting rotation continues tonight against his former team, the Colorado Rockies. And while, with a 1.26 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and .270 wOBA against in his 14.1 innings as a starter so far, it can’t possibly continue, what this post presupposes is… maybe it can? After all, Esmil is a new man! Earlier today @James_In_TO tweeted out a link to Rogers’ Brooks Baseball player card, which shows how he has ramped up usage of a sinker that maybe he should have been turning to all along. Rogers’ four-seamer and slider accounted for over 85% of his pitches thrown back in April, but for June the number has been less than 60%, with his sinker usage rising from 3.86% in April to 28.13% this month– which has been, by far, his best month of the season. Obviously he couldn’t just throw like a reliever if he expected to turn lineups over multiple times after his slide into the rotation, but he was a starter in his previous life back in Colorado, and never had his repertoire looked quite like this. Maybe he’s onto something! I mean… maybe the league just hasn’t caught up with the explosion of sinker usage from him, but… maybe he’s onto something! Let the good times roll, amiright? Scuttlebutt Rogers would do well to continue being sharp, as the Jays are going to need him. As I wrote about earlier, Brandon Morrow suffered a bit of a setback in his rehab start last night, and while J.A. Happ threw a side session today, according to a Shi Davidi tweet, and is getting closer to health, it still looks like it’s going to be Rogers and Chien-Ming Wang in the rotation for a while. Know what I couldn’t possibly care less about? Jeff Francis’s passport. Uh… yeah. TV: Sportsnet And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with theScore app… Toronto Blue Jays LF Melky Cabrera (S) RF Jose Bautista (R) 1B Edwin Encarnacion (R) DH Adam Lind (L) 3B Mark DeRosa (R) CF Rajai Davis (R) C J.P. Arencibia (R) SS Maicer Izturis (S) 2B Emilio Bonifacio (S) RHP Esmil Rogers Colorado Rockies 2B Josh Rutledge (R) DH Jordan Pacheco (R) LF Carlos Gonzalez (L) RF Michael Cuddyer (R) C Willin Rosario (R) 1B Todd Helton (L) 3B Nolan Arenado (R) CF Tyler Colvin (L) SS Jonathan Herrera (S) LHP Jeff Francis

Good news for those who were worried about how the Toronto Blue Jays would deal with having "too many pitchers" once they start to come back from the disabled list: both Brandon Morrow and Luis Perez have suffered setbacks during rehab, according to tweets by Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB), Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) and others after they spoke with John Gibbons Tuesday afternoon. Morrow, who was placed on the disabled list on June 1 retroactive to May 29 with a right forearm strain, made his first minor league rehab start Monday night in Dunedin. The major leaguer did not fare well, giving up three runs on five hits and a walk in just two innings of work. He allowed a solo homer to Tampa Yankees first baseman Saxon Butler (great name for a Saxon butler), who probably asked to save the ball for his collection. He was removed from the game due to forearm tenderness. Gibbons stated that that they won't have a timeline for the righty until results come in from the tests they are performing. Perez, who has been on the 60-day disabled list all year recovering from Tommy John surgery, started his rehab recently but has been shut down due to a setback. Gibbons said that he was unsure of the actual injury, but believes that it is "minor." Perez has not pitched since his rehab debut on June 10. In actual good news from the injury front: Jose Reyes did not leave Monday night's game with an injury, contrary to a false report via Twitter. Gibbons believes he will be able to make it up to either New Hampshire or Buffalo by the weekend. Jose Bautista, who had a leg cramp Monday night, will be back in the outfield tonight. Poll How many starts will Brandon Morrow end up having in 2013? 10 11-15 16-20 21-25 25+ Wait. Do you count playoff starts? 70 votes | Results

Because apparently it can’t all be good news, word from the reporters speaking with John Gibbons down at Rogers Centre today tells us of a setback for Brandon Morrow… Morrow suffered a setback in last night’s rehab. He will be reevaluated for his sore sorearm. #BlueJays — Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) June 18, 2013 Ugh. Gregor elaborates: No timeline for Morrow. More won’t be known until #BlueJays get results back from another series of tests. — Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) June 18, 2013 According to a tweet from Brendan Kennedy, Gibbons called the issue forearm “tenderness,” which… doesn’t exactly sound catastrophic, but clearly isn’t good. Especially with the club probably already flying too close to the sun on wings of pastrami when it comes to Chien-Ming Wang and Esmil Rogers. I don’t know… Some other injury news coming out of the Rogers Centre this afternoon, as well: Gregor tweets that Luis Perez has had a minor setback in his recovery from last year’s Tommy John surgery, and his rehab has been stopped, for the time being. On the good side of the ledger, though, Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News writes about Jose Reyes, who may be joining the Bisons on a rehab assignment by the end of the week, with most reporters now seeming to figure he’ll be making his big league return on Monday. Brendan Kennedy tweets that Gibbers says Reyes could go to New Hampshire instead of Buffalo, so don’t go getting too excited in the Queen City just yet. Either way, Reyes is close at least. Better news than this latest bummer about Morrow, eh?

Leading off, as always (or usual), it’s today’s edition of the Getting Blanked Podcast– which for the duration of the season will be coming at you daily! We’re not double posting this year, but I’ll be sure to include the link in the first Daily Duce or Game Threat that follows the post going up over at Getting Blanked. Otherwise, you can find the podcast at Getting Blanked on iTunes, get it via the RSS feed we have setup, or like Getting Blanked on Facebook in order to get each day’s podcast straight into your news feed (if we bother to post it). While you’re at it, go ahead and like DJF on Facebook, too. Drew Sheppard looks at R.A. Dickey’s knuckleball over at FanGraphs, and says he sees a subtle difference in arm speed and more violence in the delivery when comparing the way Dickey throws his 80+ mph knuckler and the slower one he’s primarily relied on this season. “And given his back and neck issues, it appears that he’s less willing to inflict that motion on his body this season,” he says, concluding that the best may still yet be to come. Elsewhere at FanGraphs, Jeff Sullivan looks at how it has gone so abysmally bad, so quickly for April’s Yankee hero, Vernon Wells. Great stuff from Drew over at Getting Blanked, as he scouts Munenori Kawasaki (for the home run derby). Muni doesn’t have a whole lotta power, you see… At Sportsnet, Ben Nicholson-Smith looks at some of the options available for the Jays when Jose Reyes comes back and somebody– presumably Kawasaki– has to be removed from the roster. “I could feel it in that first inning. I was just letting it go, and not trying to force my slider to move, just trusting it,” said Josh Johnson following last night’s pitchers’ duel with Jorge De La Rosa, according to John Lott of the National Post. “We’re winning,” he added. “That’s the fun part and the key thing.” In the Globe and Mail, Jeff Blair starts coming around on Maicer Izturis, who finally had himself a big game last night. In another piece, Blair looks at the resurgent Adam Lind. Elsewhere in the Globe, Tom Maloney tells us about Emil Rogers’ baseball career coming full circle, as the former Rockies starter gets set to face his old team tonight– and the starter, Jeff Francis, whose return from the DL last year bumped Esmil from Colorado’s roster. Rogers is, of course, now a reborn starter with the Jays, after spending the last two seasons in relief. In the Toronto Star, Brendan Kennedy looks at Francis, who starts tonight for just the second time in his country of birth, here 1200 innings, nine seasons, and a number of DL trips into his career. Kennedy also speaks to Joe Carter, whose advice to the current crop of Blue Jays is to keep on taking things one game at a time. Elsewhere, Richard Griffin had an excellent, wide-ranging chat with readers at the Toronto Star this afternoon, in which, among other things, he actually brought up the possibility that the Jays could try to make a play for Chase Utley. Welcome back, old pipe dream. It’s been a while. Griff also says he thinks J.P. Arencibia has looked better after doing some work with roving catching instructor Sal Fasano last week. Hmm… MLBTR passes on a piece from Jon Morosi at Fox Sports, who in a video clip at the top of the post suggests that the Jays are “right on the fence” when it comes to whether to sell or to buy when this year’s non-waiver trade deadline arrives on July 31st. I suppose this next six weeks will make clear what they need to do. In a notebook post at BlueJays.com, Evan Peaslee and Teddy Cahill talk to John Gibbons, who sounds like he’s taking Joe Carter’s advice, and– among other things– look at the slow return to health of top Jays prospects Aaron Sanchez, Roberto Osuna and Daniel Norris. Lastly, Jays Prospects tells us a thing or two about the four players the Lansing Lugnuts are sending to

Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat, playin' it play by play. Another game, another lefty goes against the Jays in the form of North Delta, BC native Jeff Francis (2-4, 5.87). Former Rockie Esmil Rogers (2-2, 3.21) hopes to show the way for the Jays, starting at 7:07 pm Eastern.

Jose Bautista is on Vine, it turns out, and apparently that means he now has the capability of posting an oddly lewd and lascivious, yet hypnotic, montage of pre-game routine moves in the Jays’ clubhouse, featuring him and shortstop Munenori Kawasaki. Because that’s what he did last night. It’s… uh… it’s somethin’ else. Check the clip after the jump. Who says ballplayers have too much time on their hands? Crotch grab in the direction of @The_Liberator_ for the clip.

Esmil Rogers takes on Canadian left hander Jeff Francis tonight as the Blue Jays go for their seventh straight win. In 10 starts this year Francis has a 5.87 ERA, 4,71 FIP, and a 3.79 xFIP with a near 20% HR/FB rate in Colorado really damaging his numbers. His career-high K/9 of 8.02 is counteracted by his 3.33 BB/9 this season. Francis throws a four-seam, sinker, cutter, changeup, and a slow curve that comes in around the high 60's. His hard stuff is only sitting mid to high 80's so he has had to pitch smart this year. His curveball has been getting close to 50% whiffs per swing this season so the Blue Jays will have to look out for the loopy breaking pitch. Against right handers, Francis runs his sinker off the plate against righties trying to induce weak contact: via www.fangraphs.com As you can see, his changeup is located in the exact same spot against opposite handed batters, so identifying which pitch if which will be key. via www.fangraphs.com Should Lind Play: Sure Adam Lind went 0-3 last night against another left hander, but it'd be silly to make these sit or play decision based one bad night. Francis has allowed a .304 wOBA against him by lefties and a .355 wOBA against him by righties and this year lefties are only 6-44 against Francis. I'd imagine Lind gets 5-10 games against lefties and then the Blue Jays will decide whether he will go back to a strict platoon or not. My lineup for today: Cabrera LF Bautista RF Encarnacion 3B Lind 1B DeRosa 2B Izturis SS Rasmus CF Arencibia C Davis DH For "Find the Link" today: Find the link between Jeff Francis and Larry "Chipper" Jones. Let's go streaking!