What are the expectations of Brett Lawrie this season?

[COY0607]

regardless of numbers he should be trying to hit for power this year... i think that was one of the reasons he struggled last year, he had to completely alter his game/natural instinct

[premedfailure]

Sorry a bit off topic but how many years do we have him under control until hes a free agent?

[BigLeagueChew]

Sorry a bit off topic but how many years do we have him under control until hes a free agent?

Arbitration eligible in 2015, free agent in 2018

[mini]

Sorry a bit off topic but how many years do we have him under control until hes a free agent?

Arbitration eligible in 2015, free agent in 2018

So I guess AA should look to deal him for someone that offers more years of controllability

[BigLeagueChew]

Brian Butterfield defends Brett Lawrie, says he’ll ‘get it’ By Richard Griffin

Blue Jays fans are jazzed. The Jays are not done dealing and there is more money available to be spent on payroll, according to team president Paul Beeston. In reality, look for final ’13 payroll to settle in at around $125 million, which would break the previous franchise high by $27 million.

New manager, new coaches and new players. It’s time to turn the page on 2012. In truth, there were so many issues on and off the field that scuttled the past Jays season that it’s hard to say which were most important. Two obvious problems were bad baserunning, over-aggressiveness by the young players, running into ill-advised outs in ridiculous situations and the additional perception of a dysfunctional clubhouse late in the year, a belief perpetuated by infielder Omar Vizquel.

The fact is that the retiring 45-year-old veteran Vizquel, for those that were around the club a lot, seemed to spend more time with his video biographers working on his personal legacy than he did with his younger teammates, the reason he was brought on board. Vizquel is a Hall of Famer but 2012 is not a year that many will talk about, other than passing Babe Ruth on the all-time hit list.

Both those issues were addressed by former Jays and current Red Sox coach Brian Butterfield, who offered his opinions in a far-ranging interview from his home in Maine earlier in the week. Butterfield could believe he was tarred with both brushes as both a clubhouse mentor and the traffic cop at third base.

Butterfield reacted calmly to the scathing criticism describing a clubhouse that was said to be unsupervised where mistakes were not corrected and teaching and supervision were at a minimum.

“It didn’t bother me for long just because I know that one of the things that was said was spoken out of school, because some guys (i.e. Vizquel) don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Butterfield said.

“Out of all the coaching staffs that I’ve been on, this coaching staff did an outstanding job at teaching and staying on things and being detailed. It was as good as any staff I’ve ever been on. But when you have a very young club — at the end of July we were even younger — you’re going to have mistakes at the big-league level. A lot of those kids really should have been still in the minor leagues.”

Butterfield then reacted to the idea that the baserunners in general and Brett Lawrie in particular did not know what they were doing on the basepaths and that Jays’ in-game strategy was a joke.

“You have some young players that are aggressive anyway,” he said. “You’re going to have mistakes made. But repetition at the big-league level, making those mistakes, they will get better. They will get better. You’ll see a definite difference in the approach of Brett Lawrie this year.

“One of the things that has made him successful is because he is a high-energy, very aggressive by nature kid. He’ll get it. His heart-rate will slow down. He will understand when he doesn’t have to go an extra base. He will understand when he doesn’t have to try and make a throw when it’s not there. It’s all part of the learning process, but we were at a point in July where these kids were learning at the highest level in the world, rather than in the minor leagues.”

Butterfield believes that teams have a better chance trying to train players who have in their heads the next 90 feet, rather than those who assume and are satisfied with one base at a time.

“I would much rather pull the reins on a players than always be putting my hands behind his back and pushing him forward, saying ‘Come on, come on,’ ” Butterfield said.

“Those guys you’re prodding and pushing forward, they’re going to be like that forever. Those kids that are ultra-aggressive and learning at the big-league level, you start pulling the reins on them and they start understanding situations better. Then you’ve got yourself a player. We said that a lot in the advance meetings. ‘We’re going to keep talking. We’re going to tell you when to slow down, but until then, keep trying to think situations and don’t worry about it. You’ve got a split second. You try to have well-laid plans before the pitcher even steps on the rubber, but once that ball is put in play, your eyes may tell you something different. You may end up too aggressive.’ ”

It’s now up to Dwayne Murphy and Luis Rivera to get the same message of controlled aggressiveness across to this new group. Good luck to them and on to the mailbag.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb/article/1295811--blue-jays-mailbag-brian-butterfield-defends-brett-lawrie-says-he-ll-get-it

[RyanW]

14 HR, 80 RBI, .285 AVG

[LBJSeizedMyID]

regardless of numbers he should be trying to hit for power this year... i think that was one of the reasons he struggled last year, he had to completely alter his game/natural instinct

Well yeah, every pitcher was throwing him more off speed stuff so yes, he had to alter his game. Add on that he was the batting leadoff most of the season and you're game plan totally changes to get on base rather than hit for power.

[torontoaces04]

22 HR, 95 RBI, .270 BA, .350 OBP, .475 SLG, .825 OPS

[satyr9]

I see .330/.450 as his base even though his slugging was far off that last year. I could see him staying closer to .850 than .800 in the long run, but I'd be surprised to see too many projections fall far below .330/.450, although I'd be less inclined to give him credit to say he'll likely be far above that either just yet.

[flatjacket1]

Well, last year I projected .250/.330/.480 with 20 HR in 450 PA. It's crazy to see how highly some of you guys regarded him last season.

100 million x 15 years = $6.66 million per year

The mark of the Beast

Lawrie is the chosen one

I'm willing to bet Lawrie's slash line next year is around .250/.330/.480 with 20 home runs in 450 PA. That's being optimistic in my mind, he could easily have a much worse season.

I don't think that's worth 6.66M a year when hes in his crappy contract years. I'm fine with signing him through Arbies but it doesn't make sense now.

I would never sign a guy 150 at bats into his MLB career for 15 years.

Are you **** mental? This has to be the absolute worst post I've seen in 6 years on this site. Congrats.

Go away troll.

When more than one person tells you it's up there in the worst posts they've seen in 5+, and 10+ years, maybe you should TAKE A **** HINT!

Nobody was implying that Lawrie should be given a 100mill contract after 150 AB's. Only a troll such as yourself would actually think that this was an option.

You obviously have very little knowledge of the Jays, or baseball in general. So please do everyone a favour and STFU.

It's a good read...

This year, I say .275/.330/.460 24 HR. I think he starts to find the power.

[agk47]

s

Nobody was implying that Lawrie should be given a 100mill contract after 150 AB's. Only a troll such as yourself would actually think that this was an option.

You obviously have very little knowledge of the Jays, or baseball in general. So please do everyone a favour and STFU.

It's a good read...

This year, I say .275/.330/.460 24 HR. I think he starts to find the power.[/quote]


this!


he's 2 years away from his true breakout.... maybe 285 with 27 hrs, but thats pretty much his range, 22 - 28 hrs, 270 - 285 with an obp around 340

[flatjacket1]

he's 2 years away from his true breakout.... maybe 285 with 27 hrs, but thats pretty much his range, 22 - 28 hrs, 270 - 285 with an obp around 340

Yeah I think there will be a trade off, BA for SLG but I believe it will be worth it (aka lose .015 BA for like .050 SLG). I don't see him being able to maintain both, but I do not believe his current power output is accurate.