Dwayne Murphy has been the hitting coach since the past two seasons where last season the Jays hit 257 homers and the Jays had the third worst American League batting average with a .247 batting average and then so far this season in 133 games the Jays has hit 152 homers and is batting .252 which is in the middle of American League in batting.
It is nice to see home runs and keep the fans are excited about 409 homers in 295 games but if the Jays do not hit better they will not be able to get more runs and win more games and get into the playoff race with maybe another playoff spot in the works for next season. The thing about the Blue Jays is that almost all the Jays are sluggers but if they do not hit it and out then they are not getting on base as there are only two players and maybe three who can get on base. The two players are Jose Bautista is hitting .312 and when he does not hit he still gets on base as has 106 walks along with Brett Lawrie even though it is a small sample size he is still 26 for 77 with four doubles and four triples to go with his five homers and he has a very good eye even if he has only walked 5 times. The third player is lead off hitter Yunel Escobar who is hitting .282 (134 for 475) and with his 54 walks helps his on base percentage of .359 and if Eric Thames still has more patience he will get better than his 15 walks and his 266 batting average and on base percentage 310. Adam Lind has 20% of hits being homers so that if he does not get a homer then he hits into an out as he has a batting average 257 and with his 26 walks in 105 games and then they have hot and cold DH in Edwin Encaracion as he is hitting 316 (49 for 155) and 12 doubles and his 8 homers is 17% of his hits since the all-star break but before that he hit 239 (59 for 247) so U really do not know what kind of hitter U will get and that is his major league history. Kelly Johnson and Colby Rasmus still has not hit their stride as Rasmus is hitting 218 with more strike outs (22) to hits (19) in 23 games and then there is J.P. who is about to break the record for homers as a catcher and a couple off the all time rookie record for homers but he is hitting 212 (76 for 359) and his 20 homers is 26% of his hits.
So the thing is that the Jays need to find themselves a hitting coach and not just a homer coach and that means that Dwayne Murphy needs to go and someone else who can work with the younger hitters to make them better and if the Jays homers go down to like 125-30 homers a season while the batting average jumps up to 265-270 team batting average. This would get more runners on base and with combined hits it would help the Jays score more runs which would hopefully lead to more wins especially at home because winning 50 - 60 games at home like the Brewers will do this season instead of being around 500 at home like the Jays which look like they are going to do this season.
Jays are awesome but need more runners on base
Tom Mehegan
No comments:
Post a Comment