Written by Bennett Brauer, Dave Church, and Gideon Turk
Rebuild Envy
Since acknowledging they were not going to be competitive with their current roster, the White Sox have traded top players Adam Eaton, Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier and David Robertson, as well as key middle relief piece Tommy Kahnle, Dan Jennings, and Anthony Swarzak. With a minor league system that had previously not yielded much depth and a big league team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008, they weren’t exactly breaking up the ’27 Yankees. Through these trades, their system is now receiving rave reviews. They currently have five of the top 50 prospects in baseball, and nine of their top 10 prospects have joined the team in the last nine months, including elite level ones like Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of work to be done and none of the players are locks to be stars, let alone everyday players, but the White Sox seem to be on the right track. Subsequently, there is a renewed excitement around the South Side. They deemed monetizing their veterans while they have value to yield top prospects was better then what they were doing WITH those players.
Enter the envy from some Jays followers.
Some think the Jays should follow Chicago’s template and trade away the likes of Josh Donaldson, Marcus Stroman, and even Roberto Osuna and Justin Smoak, capitalizing on their team friendly contracts and control to maximize their yield and get younger prospects. We won’t get into the fear of a potential decline from the current massive crowds and increasing ticket sales and TV ratings; essentially WHY the Jays might not go that route. That is its own separate topic for another day, and is already well covered and documented. Simply, we want to acknowledge that Jays fans yearning for a rebuild may look at the White Sox lineup a bit longingly, and be a bit jealous of some of the young talent in their lineup.
Playing Pearce
Steve Pearce has had an eventful week, to say the least. Most players don’t get one walkoff grand slam in their career. Pearce had two, with his most recent one on Sunday capping off an incredible comeback against the Angels.
After an awful start to his season, Pearce has rounded into form and is now sporting a .267/.319/.462 slash line for the year. Despite his calling card as a lefty masher, he’s actually been equally effective against both sides in 2017, a nice bonus for a Jays lineup that is primary right-handed. A Blue Jays team that ranks 27th in baseball in runs scored needs to find playing time for Pearce’s bat.
The thinking coming into the season was Pearce would find ample time in left field and first base, spots occupied by Ezequiel Carrera and Justin Smoak. Smoak’s ascension has been well covered and Carrera has himself had a quietly effective offensive season with a very solid line of .299/.365/.445. Both players have the advantage of being much better defenders than Pearce at those positions as well.
With Kendrys Morales entrenched as the DH, Pearce is a man without a position. He has played second base in the past, though manager John Gibbons dismissed that possibility earlier this season (though watching Pearce in the outfield, one wonders how bad he could be playing second).
Pearce’s name hasn’t come up a lot in trade rumors, which is something of a surprise when we consider how solid he’s been this year. As a man without a position on a reasonable contract, he might actually have some value, which isn’t something the Jays can say about a lot of their veterans right now.
Assuming that doesn’t happen, look for the Jays to find ways to get Pearce into the lineup, like they did yesterday. The occasional day off for Kevin Pillar and Kendrys Morales (and Bautista, as happened yesterday) might help a scuffling Jays offense against a shaky White Sox rotation.
Walk Like a (Stro)Man
In order to keep the opposing team from scoring in baseball, one needs to keep them off of the bases as much as possible. Logically, that also means that giving the opposing batters free bases via the walk is something pitchers don’t want to do. For some reason, the Blue Jays don’t seem to be following that advice this season. In 2016, the Blue Jays starters were already the fifth worst team in the American League according to BB%. They haven’t done themselves any favours to improve that this year, raising their 7.9% mark from a year ago by 1.5 percentage points up to 9.4%, and can now brag that they are fifth worst in MLB, just not the AL. So what happened?
The first two pitchers for the Blue Jays in this series against the White Sox can share some of the blame. Monday night, Marco Estrada is scheduled to take the hill and when he does, he will come in with a BB% up nine tenths of a percentage point over his 2016 numbers. The next night, Marcus Stroman will start and will be up 1.7 percentage points from last season.
While each pitcher has had even more problems recently – Stroman has walked 11 batters in his past two starts, Estrada 30 in his past seven – the White Sox are the perfect team to end these troubles on. At just 3.88 pitches seen per plate appearance, they rank in the middle of the pack in MLB. Their 6.7% BB% is the second to worst in the game, and their 31.8% o-swing%, fifth highest in the league, shows that they are willing to chase pitches the rest of the league is not. If Estrada and Stroman can use this to their advantage, they won’t try to be so fine, instead hoping that if they miss the zone a bit, the lowly White Sox will do what they have been doing all season long, and not do any damage.
Lead Photo: © Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports