Let's start with the bats. For arguments sake I'm going to use what I imagine our Opening Day lineup might look like with each batters hitting direction. I've also added extra players in case of injuries and such, so bear with me.
Catchers - Arencibia/Mathis - R/R
1st - Lind - L
2nd - Johnson - L
SS - Escobar - R
3rd - Lawrie - R
RF - Bautista - R
CF - Rasmus/Davis - L/R
LF - Thames/Snider - L/L
Bench/DH
Encarnacion - R
McCoy/Valbuena - R/R
An idea I want to toy with here is the thought of both Snider and Thames making the team out of Spring Training, even though Farrell and AA have said otherwise. The reason I want to run with this idea is because it would in theory give us the opportunity to throw an extra left handed bat in at DH. Now I know that most of us assume that this spot will be mostly filled by Encarnacion, but I'm not his biggest supporter. Even having the option of going to a guy like Thames or Snider off the bench could be huge in the later innings, and could easily be the difference between a handful of wins vs losses.
Rasmus and Johnson were good pick ups defensively, but both batted for shit when they came to Toronto. I think we'll see some solid improvements this season, and working with Murphy almost guarantees an increase in power. Take into account that Johnson is a right handed throwing, left handed batting second baseman, and you've got a rare commodity. Reminds me of a guy that plays for the Yankees, won the Home Run Derby last year, I think his name was Robertson something or other ...
Ok, so here's how a potential lineup against a right hander could look:
Rasmus - L
Johnson - L
Bautista - R
Lind - L
Lawrie - R
Snider - L
Arencibia - R
Thames - L
Escobar - R
And now a left hander:
Davis - R
Valbuena/McCoy - R
Bautista - R
Lind - L
Lawrie - R
Encarnacion - R
Arencibia - R
Thames/Snider - L
Escobar - R
Now the lefty lineup isn't very likely, but you get the idea. We can be a very diverse team depending on who's pitching against us. That's something I like, as not many teams in the AL have that ability.
*Sidenote* I didn't include Vizquel, who is a switch hitter, but is older than Mr. Burns.
Now onto pitching. As I mentioned before, our rotation is looking nice and balanced with lefties and righties, but our bullpen is right handed heavy. I'll start with my projected rotation.
Romero - L
Morrow - R
Cecil - L
McGowan - R
Alvarez - R
3 righties vs 2 lefties, pretty standard. Romero is our ace, and YES HE IS AN ACE!!! If you don't think so, go play in oncoming traffic wearing a blindfold! Morrow is only getting better and is a strikeout machine! Dude just needs to get his control shored up and he'll be lights out. I'm very happy we signed him to an extension! Cecil is in the same boat as Snider, this is most likely his last shot to prove he can be a consistent player in The Bigs. If he doesn't pan out as starter, or somebody else steals his spot, I'm comfortable to see him come out of the pen, as it'll give us another lefty, but I'll get to that. McGowan is FINALLY healthy and is looking in fine form this spring. He lacks the potential of Morrow, but the two are similar pitchers. Look for them to be conversing in the dugout frequently I imagine. As with Cecil, I'm fine with him coming out of the pen if needs be. Alvarez could go either way. If there's one guy in danger of losing a starter role, it's him. He pitched very well last year and was a pleasant surprise, so he has big potential. I'd much rather see him get starts than Litsch or Drabek, as he needs to log innings to get experience. However, if he's not up to caliber, he may be making a trip or two to Vegas, time will tell. All in all, I'm liking our rotation if this is what is ends being.
Now onto the weakest portion of my right vs left argument, our bullpen. Now before you get all defensive and start to yell at me, I want to clarify that our bullpen overall looks very strong this year. The pickups of Cordero and Santos are hopefully going to be the sexy one-two punch that we've been lacking. My argument is that I think we're only going to have one lefty out of the pen to start the season. Here's my prediction of our Opening Day bullpen, if everybody is healthy.
*Litsch - R
*Drabek - R
Janssen - R
Oliver - L
Frasor - R
Cordero - R
Santos - R
* These guys are our long relief men and are subject to movement within our rotation and AAA.
If this was our bullpen today, Oliver would be our only left hander out of the pen. While this may not present a huge problem as Janssen, Frasor, Cordero, and Santos are all solid, I would like to see at least one more lefty available. The reason I propose this is that the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays all have good left handed batting threats in the top of their order. As I said, our bullpen should be reliable enough most games to handle these guys, but every advantage could help us wins games. I would love to be able to bring in a "Left-Handed Specialist" to deal with guys that can hurt us like Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Robinson Cano, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, David Ortiz, Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Sam Fuld. I left out Texiera, Swisher, and Zobrist as they are switch hitters, but any of the guys I've just listed has the ability to screw over the Jays at any point in the game, but especially the late innings. To have a guy who's only responsibility is to deal with guys like this could prove to be invaluable.
Two guys that could fill this role are Luis Perez and Aaron Laffey. Perez we've seen briefly last year, and Laffey has been with a few major league clubs and needs a fresh start with the Jays. I don't know much about either, but they are the only 2 guys on our roster who have had major league experience, have put up good numbers so far this spring, and are lefties.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents on a very specific topic. I know it's random, but anything to help get us some wins right?
Let's hear your thoughts.
Rasmus and Johnson were good pick ups defensively, but both batted for shit when they came to Toronto. I think we'll see some solid improvements this season, and working with Murphy almost guarantees an increase in power. Take into account that Johnson is a right handed throwing, left handed batting second baseman, and you've got a rare commodity. Reminds me of a guy that plays for the Yankees, won the Home Run Derby last year, I think his name was Robertson something or other ...
Ok, so here's how a potential lineup against a right hander could look:
Rasmus - L
Johnson - L
Bautista - R
Lind - L
Lawrie - R
Snider - L
Arencibia - R
Thames - L
Escobar - R
And now a left hander:
Davis - R
Valbuena/McCoy - R
Bautista - R
Lind - L
Lawrie - R
Encarnacion - R
Arencibia - R
Thames/Snider - L
Escobar - R
Now the lefty lineup isn't very likely, but you get the idea. We can be a very diverse team depending on who's pitching against us. That's something I like, as not many teams in the AL have that ability.
*Sidenote* I didn't include Vizquel, who is a switch hitter, but is older than Mr. Burns.
Now onto pitching. As I mentioned before, our rotation is looking nice and balanced with lefties and righties, but our bullpen is right handed heavy. I'll start with my projected rotation.
Romero - L
Morrow - R
Cecil - L
McGowan - R
Alvarez - R
3 righties vs 2 lefties, pretty standard. Romero is our ace, and YES HE IS AN ACE!!! If you don't think so, go play in oncoming traffic wearing a blindfold! Morrow is only getting better and is a strikeout machine! Dude just needs to get his control shored up and he'll be lights out. I'm very happy we signed him to an extension! Cecil is in the same boat as Snider, this is most likely his last shot to prove he can be a consistent player in The Bigs. If he doesn't pan out as starter, or somebody else steals his spot, I'm comfortable to see him come out of the pen, as it'll give us another lefty, but I'll get to that. McGowan is FINALLY healthy and is looking in fine form this spring. He lacks the potential of Morrow, but the two are similar pitchers. Look for them to be conversing in the dugout frequently I imagine. As with Cecil, I'm fine with him coming out of the pen if needs be. Alvarez could go either way. If there's one guy in danger of losing a starter role, it's him. He pitched very well last year and was a pleasant surprise, so he has big potential. I'd much rather see him get starts than Litsch or Drabek, as he needs to log innings to get experience. However, if he's not up to caliber, he may be making a trip or two to Vegas, time will tell. All in all, I'm liking our rotation if this is what is ends being.
Now onto the weakest portion of my right vs left argument, our bullpen. Now before you get all defensive and start to yell at me, I want to clarify that our bullpen overall looks very strong this year. The pickups of Cordero and Santos are hopefully going to be the sexy one-two punch that we've been lacking. My argument is that I think we're only going to have one lefty out of the pen to start the season. Here's my prediction of our Opening Day bullpen, if everybody is healthy.
*Litsch - R
*Drabek - R
Janssen - R
Oliver - L
Frasor - R
Cordero - R
Santos - R
* These guys are our long relief men and are subject to movement within our rotation and AAA.
If this was our bullpen today, Oliver would be our only left hander out of the pen. While this may not present a huge problem as Janssen, Frasor, Cordero, and Santos are all solid, I would like to see at least one more lefty available. The reason I propose this is that the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays all have good left handed batting threats in the top of their order. As I said, our bullpen should be reliable enough most games to handle these guys, but every advantage could help us wins games. I would love to be able to bring in a "Left-Handed Specialist" to deal with guys that can hurt us like Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Robinson Cano, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, David Ortiz, Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Sam Fuld. I left out Texiera, Swisher, and Zobrist as they are switch hitters, but any of the guys I've just listed has the ability to screw over the Jays at any point in the game, but especially the late innings. To have a guy who's only responsibility is to deal with guys like this could prove to be invaluable.
Two guys that could fill this role are Luis Perez and Aaron Laffey. Perez we've seen briefly last year, and Laffey has been with a few major league clubs and needs a fresh start with the Jays. I don't know much about either, but they are the only 2 guys on our roster who have had major league experience, have put up good numbers so far this spring, and are lefties.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents on a very specific topic. I know it's random, but anything to help get us some wins right?
Let's hear your thoughts.
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