Game of the Week: May 7: TOR @ TEX

[Commissioner Erick]

Toronto Blue Jays (10-15) @ Texas Rangers (17-10)


TOR: J.A. Happ (3-1, 4.03)
TEX: Jake Junis (1-1, 5.34


That the Texas Rangers have an offense firing on every cylinder is a surprise to nobody. That the Toronto Blue Jays' offense is one of the worst in baseball is absolutely shocking.

The high-octane Rangers host the scuffling Blue Jays in a matchup that has lost a bit of the luster it had when the schedule came out.

Texas leads the American League in virtually every offensive category, plus they lead in stolen bases to boot. Despite giving up a ton of assets, it's clear the Rangers have a world class lineup that is nearly impossible to stop. In fact, the Rangers went all of April without scoring fewer than four runs. Frankie Montas, Andrew Triggs, and Oakland's extreme pitcher-friendly run environment finally slowed Texas' offense down last week, but those two games in Oakland are the only times Texas hasn't reached four runs. The team may not have had the most explosive highs, but that level of reliability is staggering.

Carlos Santana has really helped put the team over the top. He's a touch off last season's pace in slugging, but he's getting a ton of hits and drawing a ton of walks. His average is up to .324, his on base percentage is an exemplary .402, and his ability to get on base is a huge boon for a lineup supercharged with sluggers.

One of those sluggers is young Francisco Mejia. Only 22-years old, Mejia was the jewel of a package Cleveland acquired for Martin Perez and Brandon Kintzler. Perez had a good season as a mid-rotation starter last year, and Kintzler has done nice things as a middle reliever. Mejia may be the front runner for MVP though.

Mejia had a league average offensive season as a 22 year old catcher (which is a legitimately amazing accomplishment), and a put up a respectable showing in eight games in winning a World Championship for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. Those accomplishments merely hinted at Mejia laying American League pitching to waste.

Through 21 games, Mejia has a .433 average, which is better than the .403 he produced to win the AL Player of the Month in April. He's slugging .789. He leads the league in home runs, batting average, slugging, OPS, and hits. He's shown good defense in the majors last year, and he's already considered a leader in the locker room with his maturity and communication skills. Mejia has a chance to have a special career, and if he doesn't, few players can produce the special month he put up.

The Rangers offense is so absurd that Paul Goldschmidt leads the league in doubles, is on pace for a 20-20 year, and could put up 5 WAR, and he's been dropped to seventh in the order. The only player who isn't producing offensively is Billy Hamilton, who has a .588 OPS. However, Hamilton has 11 steals, which is tied for the league lead in baseball.

It's just an absurd offense that almost automatically starts off with four runs. With Jake Junis on the mound for Texas, the strategy for Toronto may be to win a slugfest, except their offense has been a disaster.

Toronto's collective average is .222. Their collective on base percentage is .284. Billy Hamilton has almost double their stolen bases, and Nomar Mazara has almost a quarter of their walks. The confounding thing is that it has been the team's high-profile players that have let the team down. Jose Bautista's hitting .167 with four home runs. Josh Donaldson is hitting .178 with two home runs. Ryan Braun has five home runs, but his average is .223, and his OBP is .263. Troy Tulowitzki just came off the DL, and he went .174/.208/.217 last week. Russell Martin is 7-73. His OPS is .360. There have been some injuries, especially to Donaldson, but the malaise has been so severe, it's hard to know what to do to get out of it.

The Blue Jays have the talent to turn this around, and nobody is running away with the division. However, with four teams in the AL East ahead of them, there isn't too much time to keep playing like this and get away with it. They face a pitcher with a career 5.7 strikeouts per nine rate. Now would be a great time to begin to hit.


Questions for the GMs:


For Joe Mazzola, it's been shocking how futile your offense has been? Is there anything you can do to jump start things?

If the offense doesn't turn things around, do you decide to play for next year, or do you sell off your veterans?

The Rangers are a tough beast to face. Is there anything different in the game plan against them?

For Clayton Piper, Yu Darvish should be back on the big league roster soon, if not tonight. Junis, Anthony Bass, and Eddie Gamboa all get starts against Toronto this week. Would you say this series is an open competition for the final two spots as one of these players will have to go when Darvish is back?

Paul Goldschmidt's fans really appreciate the sacrifice he made moving to seventh in the order. He's having a very strong offensive year though. Why did you bump him down?

Rougned Odor has nine home runs to date, and is the PBA career leader for second baseman in runs, home runs, and RBIs. Does he get enough credit for being as good as he is?

[TorontoGM_Joe]

I'm certainly shocked at how pitiful the offense has been to start the season. I don't think there's much to do to jump start things. Guys have to play as they're capable of.

If we continue to play this poorly, it's possible we trade some of the veterans. Our window to compete is relatively short, and trading some of the veteran bats at the deadline may be able to jumpstart a retooling phase.

Against the Ranger we have to try to keep the ball on the ground. The ball flies in Texas, and we need to limit home runs as much as possible.

[friscoranger]

For Clayton Piper, Yu Darvish should be back on the big league roster soon, if not tonight. Junis, Anthony Bass, and Eddie Gamboa all get starts against Toronto this week. Would you say this series is an open competition for the final two spots as one of these players will have to go when Darvish is back?



Yes I would say this series is an open completion for all three of those pitchers to prove what they can do and cement there role in are rotation. And with the way Nick Martinez is pitching as the long man the loser will most likely be sent down.


Paul Goldschmidt’s fans really appreciate the sacrifice he made moving to seventh in the order. He’s having a very strong offensive year though. Why did you bump him down?



Yes the team does as well. He has been bumped up as of today though.. He started off the year very slow hitting .194 but dropping him to 7th seemed to jump start his bat, plus it gave us an opportunity to bump Santana’s hot bat up in the lineup.


Rougned Odor has nine home runs to date, and is the PBA career leader for second baseman in runs, home runs, and RBIs. Does he get enough credit for being as good as he is?



To this point, I don’t believe Odor has gotten enough credit for how good he is. However, with his hot start this year hopefully that will change. We view Rougned as one of the premier Second baseman in the PBA and one of the faces of are franchise and can’t wait to see what’s in store for him in the future.

[Commissioner Erick]

Rangers 6 - Blue Jays 3

WP: J. Junis (2-1)
LP: J.A. Happ (3-2)
SV: I. Krol (3)


You can brush off the Toronto Blue Jays hitting struggles as the result of nagging injuries or good pitching. That excuse gets tougher when they can barely muster two runs in Texas off Jake Junis.

Nomar Mazara had three hits and two runs, Toronto could only score three runs despite eight hits, six walks, and two Texas errors, and Texas Rangers knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3.

Toronto got a fair share of baserunners, but couldn't string things together. Six of their eight hits came with two outs, often with nobody on base. Only one hit went for extra bases and they struck out nine times. To make matters more humiliating, with two outs in the ninth, Toronto had to wait through an hour long rain delay before coming back and quickly making the final out.

After the game, only two players in their lineup were running averages above .256. Despite a hit and an RBI, Josh Donaldson is now hitting only .182 as the Bringer of Rain has brought nothing but tears to Toronto fans. Jose Bautista's 1-5 day raised his average to .168. With a hit, Russell Martin is now hitting .104. Toronto's offense is full of gloomy sights.

Junis, however, pitched well, showing off some of the luster that had him as the 59th best prospect in the PBA in 2017. He missed the fat part of bats as evidenced by only one extra base hit. His sinker had a lot of movement which helped contribute to that. It may have had too much movement at times as he walked four in 6 innings, but he struck out seven and allowed just two runs.

Alex Claudio lowered his ERA to 1.89 with 2 challenging, yet clean slates. Ian Krol came in after the rain delay and retired Russell Martin for his third save.

Texas meanwhile had no issues converting baserunners into points. Billy Hamilton drew a leadoff walk on four pitches to begin the game. Nomar Mazara singled, and Carlos Santana doubled to make it 2-0 three batters in. A long flyout by Rougned Odor and a ground ball by Francisco Mejia made it 3-0. Paul Goldschmidt was stranded after a two-out double, but the Rangers were able to develop a big lead early.

They added to that lead in the third. After Mazara and Odor reached, Francisco Mejia singled in a run to make it 4-1 Texas. Toronto cut it to 4-2 in the fourth, but Texas responded. Mazara picked up his third hit, this one a run scoring single that made it 5-2 and put runners on the corners with one out. Carlos Santana followed with a run scoring sac fly that made it 6-2, more than enough runs for Toronto's offense to catch up.

One thing when noticing the game is impressive baserunning by Texas. Only on a one Rangers hit, a single to left field with a man on first, did a Rangers player not take the opportunity to take an extra base. They advanced on three fly balls, including two sacrifice flies, and also scored on a ground ball. Despite being 0-2 on stolen bases, the Rangers affected the game with their baserunning.

All told, it was a nightmare of an outing for J.A Happ who went 4 innings and allowed six runs on 10 hits. The only saving grace is Toronto's pen continued to perform well. Daniel Coulombe and Kelvin Herrera went two innings each, striking out two and not allowing a run.


Questions for the GMs:


For Joe Mazolla, another day, another poor offensive performance. Will you make any changes going forward?

Kelvin Herrera had another strong game in relief. Is he a trade candidate if your team can't turn it around?

Your outfielders, particularly Braun and Alford, didn't have a great game stopping Texas' baserunners from scampering around. Is that a fluke or something you feel needs to be accounted for?

For Clayton Piper, your guys were demonstrably aggressive on the bases. Is that something you strive for, or just a product of circumstance?

What did you think of Junis' job as he fights for a rotation spot?

Francisco Mejia had another pair of RBI's. Realistically, what did you think he would do this season cause he's blowing away all expectations.

[TorontoGM_Joe]

We are making changes to the lineup. Russel Martin will be getting an extended break as rookie Reese McGuire looks to get his shot as catcher of the future. If the slide continue, expect the changes to be more drastic.

Well, if the team continues to do this poorly, Herrera might find himself on the trade block. This is a veteran team and it's window to win is not very long. If there are moves to be made that will better our chance of building a dynasty in the future, I'll explorer those options.

Braun is not good defensively, but ideally his bat would ideally make up for that. His time in Toronto is not what I had expected. Alford is a sound defensive outfielder overall; I'm not worried about him.

[friscoranger]

your guys were demonstrably aggressive on the bases. Is that something you strive for, or just a product of circumstance?


Yes we were. We do believe being aggressive is a great way to score runs but don't preach it so I would say its a mix of both. 


What did you think of Junis' job as he fights for a rotation spot?


I loved Jake's performance he showed a lot of determination and grit during the start and this bides well for him in keeping his spot in the rotation. 


Francisco Mejia had another pair of RBI's. Realistically, what did you think he would do this season cause he's blowing away all expectations.

We LOVE Mejia here in the great state of Texas.  We had high expectation's for him coming into the season but he has surpassed them. Mejia has been on a tear and is reminding us of another great catcher we used to have the one and only Pudge.