Toronto Blue Jays fielding defense sucks and it is hurting the confidence of the young Jays pitchers

Watching the Blue Jays this season one big thing has smacked me in the face and that is that the Jays defense is completely horrible starting with Cory Patterson in center field who seems to not like to bump into walls and instead he will just turn around and wait for the ball to come off the wall and the hitter gets a hit and maybe even a double while he takes a chance and tries to make the catch he could be helping the pitchers by taken hits away from hitters. Last night he looked like he was in position to make a catch and then he looked back at the wall and when he turned around the ball had changed direction and went over his head for a RBI double and then he made a sliding catch which was amazing except only that he was looking the other way as the ball found the glove which meant if the ball was an inch higher or lower than his glove he would not been able to make the catch.

Jose Molina as the back up catcher is not going all out to help the pitchers as last night he called for a pitch in the dirt and was not able to block it and a strike out victim became a base runner and it created a situation where Brandon Morrow lost him focus and control of his pitches and it helped the Tigers to score 6 runs in the inning and if he had been able to record the strikeout as a out the game at worst would of been tied at 2 instead of 6-2 Tigers. Molina has shown less interest in being a Jays catcher than a Yankees catcher as he looks like a completely different catcher since he joined the Blue Jays.

Then having Edwin Encarnacion @ third base is a disaster and a half and his 7 errors are not good at all and he is a complete a liability in the frame work of the team and the Jays are in holding pattern with third base until Brett Lawerie becomes more patience at the plate and more comfortable playing third base in triple A.

The Jays pitchers need some extra support behind them because they are so young and can be shaking up by the simplest mistake that can be compounded quickly and one mistake can turn into 3 or 4 run innings. Coming into the Red Sox home series the Jays are batting .247 and that is 9th in the American League and are 7th in runs scored and I think the bats will warm up by the all-star break and will get on a soon.

Tom Mehegan