Here's my monthly Blue Jays report card for May. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
As always, players are graded from A+ ("like unto a god") to F ("make him go away") using my time-honoured method of thinking for a few seconds and then guessing.
Hitters
Stats listed are AVG/OBP/SLG for the month of May.
Dave Berg
.185 .241 .185
Has evolved from invisible man to fan scapegoat. While he hasn't exactly been outstanding out there - "bad" is more like it - you've got to feel sorry for him. It's hard to be called on at short notice to play any of about 38 positions after having rusted on the bench for weeks.
Grade: F
Kevin Cash
.167 .218 .208
At times, I actually looked forward to seeing the opponents get a fast man on first, because I knew that the runner was going to try to steal, and that Cash was going to throw him out. His batting numbers are regressing rapidly after his hot start - he hit .167 in May - but a caught stealing a game is as good as a hit a game, when you think about it. If he can't cut it as a regular, he'll play forever as a backup catcher; if Mike Matheny can get a job as a regular, this guy probably can.
Grade: F for offense, A+ for defense – I guess that's about a C-
Frank Catalanotto
.426 .446 .590
Last month, I wrote that Cat has to hit over .300 to be effective. Mission accomplished: Cat was owning the American League before, yes, getting hurt. The Jays' season is beginning to look one of those grim existential morality plays: any time anything good happens, look over your shoulder, as retribution is coming, and it will be swift and sure. I don't see the Jays trading him, at least until he (a) returns from the disabled list and (b) stops hitting over .400. I'm not an expert at these things, but I believe that the goal is to keep the guys who can hit, and get rid of the other guys.
Grade: A (would have been A+ had he not gotten hurt)
Howie Clark
.053 .143 .053
In his various incarnations, he's 1-for-19 this month. I've always liked Howie, but, erm, that's not very good.
Grade: F
Carlos Delgado
.194 .313 .344
Sometimes we forget exactly how hard it is to play major league baseball, especially to play major league baseball well. And our expectations of Carlos are huge beyond imagining: all we expect of him is that he be among the best half-dozen hitters in the league, if not the very best. Sure, piece of cake! No problem! And he is no doubt aware that his next contract rests on this year's performance: sure, he's said that he has all the money he needs, and is likely sincere, but it must be hard to go to the plate knowing that millions of dollars are at stake. At this point, everybody should just cut Carlos some slack, and not rely on him to carry the entire offense. When he's healthy, he'll bounce back, and baseballs will go flying off the facing of the second deck again. Telling point: even now, his on-base percentage was over 15 points higher in May than that of Josh Phelps.
Grade: C-
Bobby Estalella
.143 .250 .143 (7 at-bats)
Here's how bad the Jays' injury bug has hit: their fourth-string catcher once batted fifth. Estalella can apparently hit a ball a long way, but doesn't do it very often. If he goes down, J.P. will likely be looking to the Cheer Club for replacements - so, guys, practice your squats.
Grade: Incomplete
Chris Gomez
.253 .315 .289
After a hot start, he's gone back to hitting like, well, Chris Gomez, racking up a slugging percentage of .289 for the month. This is Otis Nixon territory. But he's successfully held the fort while Woody's been out, which is what he was signed to do.
Grade: C-
Eric Hinske
.216 .270 .314
A player's career can take some unexpected turns. Hinske is a case in point: he seems lost at the plate at times, but he's drawing raves for his defense. The other night, Jerry Howarth suggested that Hinske was a potential Gold Glove candidate; had Jerry made that suggestion last year, they would have put him in a rubber room and forced him to eat his meals with plastic spoons. Hinske needs to relax, but it was his intensity that got him here, and it's hard to turn that off.
Grade: D+
Orlando Hudson
.273 .333 .494
Like many other Jays, his bat came to life this month. Like many other Jays, he got hurt. Despite missing some games due to injury, he still managed to have the club's second-best extra-base hit total this month.
Grade: B+
Reed Johnson
.357 .385 .520
Reacted to losing his leadoff job by hitting like a house on fire. Sure, he only had four walks all month, but the goal is to reach base, not to reach base in sabermetrically-approved ways, and Sparky reached his goal bigtime this month, racking up a .385 on-base percentage. He also drove in 17 runs, second on the team, thanks to being lower in the order for a time. Won a game with a daring bunt against Troy Percival. An absolute joy to watch.
Grade: A+
Frank Menechino
.316 .469 .605
Donated to the Jays as part of the mutual Jays-A's Sabermetric Lend-Lease Protection Pact, Menechino has been a godsend, filling in when the O-Dog hit the shelf, and hitting like Carlos Delgado normally hits. He led the team in OPS in May. Is it just me, or does Menechino look, and bat, a lot like Reed Johnson? Perhaps that's why he's doing well in a Toronto uniform - the opposing pitcher labours and struggles to try to get Sparky out, and then looks up and sees another guy just like him. "You mean I have to do it all again!? Sigh. Here, hit this."
Grade: A+
Josh Phelps
.245 .296 .368
He's regressing. He drew only six walks this month, had three home runs in
102 at-bats, isn't hitting for average, and isn't playing outstanding defense. If he keeps this up, the Jays might very well consider putting him back behind the plate again - he doesn't have anywhere near enough good numbers to play first base in the major leagues, so they might as well see whether he can catch. Of course, the Jays don't need catchers - they need power hitters.
Grade: D
Simon Pond
.200 .275 .343
Is starting to come around a bit; unfortunately, that means he's moved all the way up to well below average. He's going to have to do a lot better than this if he wants to stick around. His on-base and slugging percentages are almost exactly the same as Phelps's, by the way.
Grade: D-
Alex Rios
.176 .300 .176
Reminds me of a young Dave Winfield; he has roughly the same set of tools, and looks a lot like him at the plate. I don't think he's quite ready yet, though: he's looked overmatched in the outfield at times, and he wasn't exactly setting Syracuse on fire. He looks confident enough to handle being in a bit over his head, and it's not as if the Jays have a lot of better options at the moment. Good sign: he drew a couple of walks.
Grade: Too early to tell
Vernon Wells
.360 .443 .579
His slow start has hidden the fact that he is one of the very best players in the league right now. His power hasn't come all the way back, but everything else has. He's even drawing walks now: he collected 15 walks in May. I predict that this guy is going to win an MVP award some time in his career. Provided he stays healthy, of course; I half-expect to read that he just got attacked by a swarm of bees. Hit 10 doubles in May.
Grade: A+
Chris Woodward
.400 .455 .600 (10 at-bats)
One of the unfortunate truths in baseball is that some players are more injury-prone than others. My guess is that Woody has to overachieve in order to put up quality major league numbers, especially at shortstop - and when he overachieves, he goes beyond his body's natural limits, and gets hurt. Unfortunately, life is not fair.
Grade: Incomplete
Gregg Zaun
.429 .517 .490
Well, let's see: he's hitting .400, he's a switch-hitter with power, and he's been gunning down would-be base stealers as if he had been hired on a pay-per-CS basis. It doesn't get any better than that. Of course, he'll cool down - if he was that good, he wouldn't have been on the waiver wire - but I don't think it's all a fluke. He tends to hit the ball sharply on the ground, and on turf fields those balls are more likely to bounce through for base hits than on grass fields.
Grade: A+
Pitchers
Stats listed are IP, W-L (SV), ERA for May.
Terry Adams
16.2 2-3(3) 5.94
Got a lot of work basically because no one else could. He was like the little girl with the little curl: his K/IP and K/BB ratios, and his two wins and three saves, suggest that when he was good, he was very very good. His three losses and 25 hits allowed (!!) suggest that when he was bad, he was horrid. He throws strikes, which is better than not throwing strikes. (Da Box is the place for sophisticated baseball analysis such as this.)
Grade: C-
Miguel Batista
38.1 3-2 4.46
When all is said and done, his control really wasn't much worse than any of the other Jays starters (and was actually better than Lilly's). It's just that when he loses it, he seems to lose all of it. Not a great month, but Escobar used to receive rave reviews for pitching about this well, and El Artista could very well get better. I look forward to seeing him on one of those days when he has all of his pitches working.
Grade: C
Vinnie Chulk
2.0 0-0 0.00
He arrived. He pitched two innings. He didn't allow any runs. He's happy to be here. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Okay, smart guy, you think of something to say about Vinnie. I'm waiting.
Grade: Incomplete
Valerio de los Santos
4.2 0-0 7.71
Can be relied on to take the ball against a tough left-handed hitter and walk him. Hey, it's better than giving up a grand slam. Has replaced Kershner in the vital Forgotten Man In The Bullpen role.
Grade: F
Jason Frasor
15.0 2-0(3) 0.00
Pitched 15 consecutive scoreless innings in May, collecting two wins, three saves, and three holds. That's a total of 8, which is more than his number of hits allowed (7). Has no fear out there - he just winds up and throws strikes. The Jays are making noises about bullpen by committee in order to keep the pressure off young Jason, and they're saying that any pitcher could be used in any situation. It's just a coincidence that Frasor is appearing in the ninth inning when the team is ahead by one or two runs. He's not the closer. Shhhh. Most likely scenario: he'll pitch great for a while, until one day he wakes up and realizes that he's pitching to, say, Alex Rodriguez.
Grade: A+
Roy Halladay
42.1 3-1 3.61
Uh oh. It could be just a minor owie, but there's a warning sign in his stats: Doc had only 25 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings in May, and that's not that many. If he actually has a major shoulder problem, the worst-case scenario is too scary to even consider. So I won't consider it, other than to mention that a bad shoulder is the absolute worst thing that can go wrong for a pitcher, except perhaps having a large chunk of stadium concrete fall on his head.
Grade: A- (and dear Lord, please, no)
Pat Hentgen
26.1 2-2 5.47
The good news is that his K/IP ratio is improving: he fanned 18 in 26 1/3 innings this month. My general rule is this: if a pitcher doesn't strike out at least one man every other inning, he's toast because he just doesn't have major-league stuff. Let's call this the Michalak Line. Not afraid to compete out there; occasionally, this means that he gets taken deep. Basically, he's Mark Hendrickson with pitching savvy, and I don't mean that as an insult.
Grade: D
Jason Kershner
7.2 0-0 1.17
When Nakamura imploded, the Jays were forced to turn to Kershner to pick up the slack, and he did. Is slowly getting more meaningful work. I hope this doesn't mean that Tosca is going to go back to flip-flopping his bullpen every night; pitching changes are no fun to watch.
Grade: A
Ted Lilly
33.0 2-0 4.91
A generic competent left-handed starter, who gives up more than his share of home runs, but makes up for it by occasionally being totally unhittable. Just think: last year at this time, the Jays were auditioning John Wasdin. Now quit your complaining, all of youse.
Grade: C-
Kerry Ligtenberg
9.2 0-2(1) 8.38
Was lit up like a Christmas tree a couple of times, which makes his ERA look absolutely horrid. But he's striking out a lot of batters, so it's not as though he lacks the stuff. He just has to locate the ball properly. As if it were that easy.
Grade: D-
Aquilino Lopez
8.0 0-0 2.25
Trying to figure out pitchers is like trying to herd cats - it's a meaningless and ultimately counterproductive activity. After stinking up the joint in April, A-Lop was sent to Syracuse to repent. When he returned (after, presumably, repenting), his first 7 2/3 innings were scoreless. I don't know whether he will keep this up - and, to be honest, neither do you.
Grade: B+
Justin Miller
35.2 1-1 4.04
Is starting to find the range with that nasty slider of his, and his K/W ratio sure shows it. He's not out of the woods yet; young pitchers, as you should know by now, will always break your heart. I just hope that he gets it all together in a Blue Jays uniform, and not in the uniform of the team he will join a few years down the road as a free agent. Would Steinbrenner be willing to put a tattooed man in pinstripes? At least his injury is just a bad hamstring, and you don't pitch with your hamstrings.
Grade: B-
Mike Nakamura
13.2 0-2 6.59
Once the hitters figured out his motion, and knew that he was going to just pump in strikes, they started lighting him up. His last outing resembled an extra session of batting practice. Mark Eichhorn's career went like this too, but Ike fooled them for more than an entire season before they figured him out. Is his real name "Micheal"? That's how I've seen it spelled.
Grade: F
Justin Speier
4.1 0-1 2.08
Was starting to come around when he got hurt. I should have saved this sentence and just cut and pasted it in the 18 places in which it applies - it would have saved me a lot of time.
Grade: Incomplete
Overall
They lost their regular shortstop. They lost their regular left fielder. They lost their starting second baseman. They lost both their starting catchers. They lost a key relief pitcher. They lost their starting first baseman. And, worst of all, they just lost one and maybe two starting pitchers. And, to top it all off, they played the Boston Red Sox seven times. Despite all of this, the Toronto Blue Jays still had a winning record for the month of May. I have no idea what will happen after this – probably a downward spiral, alas, as the Jays eventually will have to face the Yankees with their AAA team on the field – but no one can say that the Fighting Jays lack heart.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040602104056999