The first place Texas Rangers come into town for a three game series. Given the current state of the Jays, one win would be nice and two would be surprising. The Jays throw JA Happ, Carlos Villanueva and Henderson Alvarez. Texas answers with Yu Darvish, Roy Oswalt and Matt Harrison. None of those Texas pitchers have been lights-out so the Jays are not outmatched on the mound but offensively the Jays have problems.
Brett Lawrie might get a rehab start this weekend and could rejoin the Jays Tuesday. Colby Rasmus is partly back from his groin strain but hasn't played the field yet. Jose Bautista could be a week away from rejoining the team. Edwin Encarnacion is day to day. JP Arencibia is just starting light workouts with a soft cast on, the hard cast has been removed. And Brandon Morrow should be back at the end of next week. (This section brought to you by Best Doctors)
Because of all of these injuries the Jays will continue to use their offensively challenged lineup. Among the "kids" David Cooper and Moises Sierra have been hitting well, Anthony Gose and Adeiny Hechavarria have not.
Among the more senior players Jeff Mathis, Rajai Davis, Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar have had some offensive moments but not enough of them. If you look at Fangraphs batting value, as in runs above replacement where ten runs equals a win, only Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista have been well above average offensive players this season. The Jays have a lot of players around average value while Yunel Escobar is the biggest offensive negative on the team.
Name Batting
Edwin Encarnacion 34.8
Jose Bautista 20.2
Rajai Davis 2.7
Moises Sierra 2.7
Colby Rasmus 2.2
David Cooper 1.7
Brett Lawrie 1.6
Travis Snider 1.3
J.P. Arencibia 0.1
Ben Francisco -1.4
Mike McCoy -1.9
Jeff Mathis -2.6
Adam Lind -2.6
Adeiny Hechavarria -3.2
Kelly Johnson -3.4
Eric Thames -4.6
Anthony Gose -4.7
Yan Gomes -5.1
Omar Vizquel -8.2
Yunel Escobar -15.3
There is a lot of room for improvement there in 2013.
This is likely the toughest part of the season for Blue Jay fans, a decimated lineup playing first place teams. It's not a fair fight! We need the starters back and soon.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20120817155559988