RealGM

When you take a look @ the middle of the blue jays order, you see Wells, Glaus and Thomas. Although Wells has been taking some heat, there is significant talk about Glaus and Thomas' low averages, etc.

What seems to be missed is, these guys get on base a significant amount of time due to patience @ the plate. When comparing the OBPs and AVGs of Wells Thomas and Glaus, you come to these numbers:

OBP
Glaus - .376
Thomas - .358
Wells - .316

AVG
Glaus - .263
Wells - .256
Thomas - .217

When you look @ averages, they can be very, very decieving. With all the bitching about how bad Thomas is, he in fact gets on base a respectable amount of the time, while Wells, the newly extended, also high paid player is putting up horrible averages and isn't showing patience @ the plate at all.

After writing all this, I'm not sure if my point is that Wells is significantly underproducing, more than I even realized, or that although Glaus and Thomas' power numbers haven't been what I'd like to see, @ least they are getting on base to make things happen, unlike their counterpart 3 hitter, Wells.

In fact, Glaus is having one of his better years in terms of getting on base.

Actually, Glaus's power numbers have been pretty good also (check his slugging percentage), he's just not hitting singles.

Thomas, on the other hand, has been really disappointing with his power numbers.

If you want a good measure to see how poor Vernon is playing this year, check out the guys OPSs (you can find it at ESPN). Rios, Glaus and Stairs (!) are the only guys above .900. Wells is down at .726, below average on our team.

Yeah Glaus has been probably our best hitter when not injured - unfortunately he has been injured a heck of a lot.

When Wells hit that PH broken bat single on Saturday I said it would break him out of his slump, I hope I was right.

Frank has been doing a better job lately of taking pitches, he was trying to force the issue too much to start the season.

Glaus has been fantastic, it's the other two that are the problem. Wells has never shown patience, so if his average ever falls below the .280 range like is is now he becomes a merely above average hitter for his position (and that's assuming his power is there, which it isn't right now).