Wells is without a homer, or even an RBI, in past 10 games

[LittleOzzy]

A little quiz for the seamheads of the world.

Which manager is talking about which player in the following quote: "We need him. He's going to get hot. How hot, I can't wait to find out. That's why I think being patient is really the only thing to do."

If you guessed Cito Gaston talking about slumping centre fielder Vernon Wells you'd be on to something and you'd be right, but you'd also be wrong.

The quote actually was made by Boston manager Terry Francona, talking about -- prior to last night at least -- the disappearing bat of his designated hitter David Ortiz.

It could, however, apply to Gaston and Wells. Even with a 3-for-5 last night against the Red Sox, Wells, the cleanup hitter in the Jays lineup, has gone 7-for-39 (.179) with zero home runs and zero RBIs in his past 10 games. That, folks, is called lack of production.

It is troublesome and slightly mystifying and you can't help but wonder how many RBIs Wells would have (he is stuck at 21) if he had been hot to even lukewarm at the plate, what with the number of times Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill have been on base in front of him.

But that is so much blood under the bridge.

Ask Wells what is wrong and he says his timing is messed up.

Ask hitting coach Gene Tenace and you get a different reply.

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/baseba ... 6-sun.html

[tsherkin]

It's actually 14 games. The last time he scored an RBI was May 6th against the Angels.

EDIT: A game against the Angels, three against the As, three against the Yanks, 4 against the White Sox and three against Boston. He has, in that time, hit 14/56, or .250. Not terrible, but not particularly good, either. He's got 6 strikeouts against 4 walks and has grounded into a double play twice (both in the same game). He does also have 2 stolen bases.

He's lost 8 points off of his batting average from this stretch, 11 off of his OBP% and 56 off of his SLG% (and consequently about 62 points off of his OPS).

EDIT: If you count the game where he grounded into a double-play and the run scored, it's been 6 games since he cashed in a runner and it bears mention that he himself has scored 5 times during this stretch. He's still contributing, but holy toledo, he's got no power or scoring ability right now. Oh, and for the record, of his 14 hits, only 3 of them are extra-base hits (all doubles).

[hyper316]

let's see how many LOBs wells had over that period.... sigh... mr. unclutch

[Marmoset]

How long does Vernon Wells have to be in a "slump" or a "funk" before you come to the conclusion that he's just not all that good? I'd say it's probably been two years of this now. (Edit - by "not that good', I mean for someone in his role on the team and at his salary).

I've always thought that you don't want to panic and bench guys or disrupt their rhythm too soon, but at some point you need to do it. Look what happened when Ron Wilson sent a message to some of the Leafs who under Paul Maurice didn't play their best and also never got benched (e.g. Blake, Stajan to a lesser degree).

I don't know if it would work with Wells or not, but even in his 'good' years we see the same terrible starts to the season. I would just like to see the Jays attempt to do something about the problem instead of simply waiting for it to work itself out, as they seem to do every year.

We're starting to see the rest of the offence cool off as it was bound too, and the Jays need Wells to pick it up if they want to be in the race later in the season.

[J-Roc]

Regular fans know Vernon sucks. Stats hounds are cool with the fact he'll get his 30/100 by the end of the year.

[evilRyu]

i don't know how to feel knowing that Vernon will become #2 in various all-time offensive stats for the Jays (hits, HR's, RBI's, etc)... he's had a couple of monster seasons, but this season has been quite forgetful

[tsherkin]

Good to see him with an 0/4, 0 RBI performance in a 1-0 loss tonight...

[chargerxthirty]

Basically this guy has 5 homers and 21 rbi's

we are getting the same production out of scoots at the top of the lineup. + avg

we are getting very similiar production out of fat rod. +avg

we are getting identical production from overbay.

thats 1-7-8 hitters.

Honestly, this guy needs to get yanked from cleanup... if it lights a fire under his ass.... awesome, if it doesn't and he's a pouty little bitch, good.. **** him. He's got $126 million dollars that hes yet to earn with his play so **** him.

[Alfred]

This situation is looking pretty terrible at the moment. Vernon has been bad this season, and when you factor in his contract, atrocious.

[LLJ]

Count on Vernon to hit well when the team is rolling, but when in a slump, don't hope for him to help get the team out of it.

[tsherkin]

No, no, LLJ... you never say "count on Vernon," that's a bad phrase. You should know better.

:p

He'll eventually come out of this, I mean he had a little stretch just before this horrible streak of suck where he was doing OK. It's a long season and we can expect him to see 5-600 PAs or so, depending on whether or not he's healthy, so there are bound to be slumps. But this is definitely bad.

[ADROCK]

Count on Vernon to hit well when the team is rolling, but when in a slump, don't hope for him to help get the team out of it.

it appears verno is the chris bosh of the blue jays.

[Michael Bradley]

Wells is an .800-.850 OPS player. That is where he will be by the end of the season. Unfortunately, he is being paid to be one of the best players in baseball, which he is not. If he was in a bigger market (NY, LA, etc), he would be considered one of the worst contracts in sports history, but since he is in Toronto it probably does not get any attention. I mean, $20 million a year is elite level money. Only a handful of players have touched that amount in baseball history, and by next year Wells will be one of them. The Jays gave Vernon a huge contract after one of his best seasons, and while it is easy to blame JP, I truly believe that Rogers/Godfrey did not want another "star" leaving Toronto (like Delgado) and ponied up the cash to keep Wells. It was a bad decision.

Wells will look a lot better if/when the Jays add impact talent around him. For example, if Snider becomes a middle of the order hitter and/or the Jays sign Jason Bay this off-season, thus moving Wells down in the order or at least decreasing his importance to the club, that is when he will not be seen as the big liability. Unfortunately, he is/was the best hitter on this team coming into this year, so there is not much Cito can do except wait until Vernon gets hot.

[Bank Shot]

Count on Vernon to hit well when the team is rolling, but when in a slump, don't hope for him to help get the team out of it.

it appears verno is the chris bosh of the blue jays.

I would be ecstatic if everyone keeps playing like they have this year and Wells becomes by far our best player.

[Geddy]

I've always wanted to defend Wells in the past but I can't take it anymore. He needs to get his ass moved down the lineup until he gets his **** together.

[Alfred]

I don't understand how you can say that Wells will be a better player with better players around him when you look at how terrible his numbers are with runners in scoring position.

[youreachiteach]

The truth is,. Vernon would be better in the five or six spot...you know, the guy who comes up and hits a mistake fastball first pitch after all the "real hitters" have already delivered something of consequence.

On the Yankees, Vernon would earn his paycheck. He'd have all these great players getting on base and someone would eventually have to throw him a gimme he could tatoo. Vernon and Rios are mistake hitters, nothing more, nothing less. Rios has a chance to be better, but his mechanics are messed up because he's too lanky and never learned how to hit properly.

Vernon' s plate appearances all go like this:

Curve ball: strike one.
painted outside fastball/second slurve: strike two or just missed
slider
slider/inside outside fastball down and in or up and away
straight change
slider.

He's probably out by the first sequence. If not, he'll surely be out by the second, unless one of those sliders stays up by accident.

It's ridiculous. The man can't lay off a slider no matter how good the count is, how good the pitcher is, or how great the stuff is. Not everything thrown hard is a fastball, Vernon.

Vernon needs to go up the middle and the other way, and try to lay off low pitches. Hopefully the patience he shows will get him some more gimmes.

[Modern_epic]

I don't understand how you can say that Wells will be a better player with better players around him when you look at how terrible his numbers are with runners in scoring position.

Go ahead and look at his career numbers with RISP. We've already been over this once this year; they are not significantly better or worse that his career number in every other situation.

People think this about most baseball players, because you remember the higher leverage at bats more.

[Michael Bradley]

I don't understand how you can say that Wells will be a better player with better players around him when you look at how terrible his numbers are with runners in scoring position.

Career OPS: .812
Career OPS w/RISP: .826
Career OPS w/RISP and 2 outs: .804

There is not much difference between Vernon's career numbers and his "clutch" numbers. That is the case for most/all players. Wells has been bad with runners on base this season, no question about that, but things tend to balance on in baseball over the course of a season.

Let's look at Derek Jeter.

Career OPS: .844
Career OPS w/RISP: .841
Career OPS w/RISP and 2 outs: .878
Career playoff OPS: .846

Jeter is known for being a great playoff performer and clutch with runners on base when in actuality he is as good in those spots as he is in general.

Put better players around Wells and his importance to the lineup decreases. He will hit about the same, but he won't be the best hitter on the team anymore, which is important.

[J-Roc]

All those stats are silly. Wells needs to get a hit when his team is in a tailspin, but they have a chance to pull out a win to get back on track. Not an RBI in the 2nd inning to being the Jays within 5 runs. An RBI with the bases loaded in the 9th, with the Jays trailing 2-1. Other teams are not scared when they see that Vernon Wells is about to come up to bat in a clutch situation.