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HangTime wrote:How long until Dalton Pompey is ready to comeback? Another Switch hitter in the lineup would be interesting.

bluerap23 wrote:Still holding out hope for Steve Pearce

Black Watch wrote:I'm still holding out hope that we sell, not buy.

HangTime wrote:How long until Dalton Pompey is ready to comeback? Another Switch hitter in the lineup would be interesting.

dagger wrote:

Black Watch wrote:I'm still holding out hope that we sell, not buy.

When you consider that as things stand, three of the four AL playoff teams could be ahead of us in the AL East standings, we ought to have a pretty good idea of playoff chances come mid-July. If the Jays aren't a few games over .500, playoff odds diminish. The team has about a month to figure out how to close the gap with Baltimore and Boston in particular. It doesn't look like Sanchez in particular is close to returning, Happ hasn't found his form, Liriano is meh, the bullpen is overworked, and Travis might be out indefinitely. So it's going to be a hard slog, in my opinion.

One area of concern is the production from left field. The Jays are ranked 14th in batting average and slugging percetnage and 13th in on-base percentage in the American League at the position. The seven players who have played in left have combined for five homers and 17 RBI. Only three of the seven players have hits while playing the position, led by Ezequiel Carrera (.248/.328/.303).

The defence has also struggled in left. The Jays are ranked 23rd in MLB in defensive runs saved at -5.9. Steve Pearce and Carrera have been particularly bad with their reads and routes.

The plan was to utilize a platoon in left with some combination of Pearce and Carrera. Pearce was recovering from an elbow injury when he signed and has never been completely healthy. He has only played in 27 games as was placed on the disabled list on May 15 with a calf strain. The Jays hoped that Pearce would emerge as the everyday player, freeing Carrera to move between all three outfield positions.

Whenever teams commit to a platoon at a position there is a chance they could get very little production. Players who are part of a platoon typically aren’t good enough to be everyday players. The club hopes to reduce their vulnerability in certain areas by limiting their playing time in those situations. If one or both of the players underachieve, production can be severely compromised.

The Jays haven’t had a true chance to evaluate Pearce, so I expect they’ll wait until he returns from the DL before they look for upgrades. That being said, I don’t think the Jays will go all-in on a starting left fielder, even if Pearce isn’t overly productive.

They may just add a more substantial portion to the platoon. That means a guy like Curtis Granderson from the Mets is more likely than his teammate Jay Bruce. Granderson struggles against lefties but could be a more impactful left-hand hitting option than Carrera. The price for Granderson will be much more affordable. It also likely means a slugger like Tigers’ slugger J.D. Martinez won’t be a Blue Jay. The cost would be too high and his acquisition would significantly diminish the role of Pearce, who they signed to a two-year, $12-miliion deal last off-season.

The_Hater wrote:Phillips makes nice use of sective stats in his article. We're 14th in BA primarily because both Coglan and Pearce have been awful thus far. Carerra has a .329/.382/.464 vs RHP when we count his entire production and this is primary player we're looking to replace? I don't get it. Once Pearce comes back as a platoon partner this should be a positive offensive position for the rest of the season.

The serious question is when does Gibby finally figure out that Pillar and his .305 OBP vs RHP should not be leading off when he has Carerra in the lineup?