Over the next week, West Collier Street will be previewing the upcoming Toronto Blue Jays season in a feature called "Five Thoughts On..."
This, the second installment, looks at some of the hitters:
1. Jose Bautista
Man, hurting your wrist must suck. Seriously. If the injury is to your dominant hand, it would hurt to use a pen or play guitar or high five someone, or after you've looked at pictures in a magazine to... uh yes, back to baseball!
There's no denying the offensive force that Jose Bautista has been the past few seasons, but there is doubt about his future excellence because of the wrist injury he suffered last season. The wrist is a very delicate part of the body, with many fragile bones that once damaged may never heal properly. A good sign though is that Jose has been belting home runs again this spring. Sure, these might not be bombs off of the likes of Sabathia or Verlander but what's important is that the strength in his swing is still there to hit a pitched baseball that far. Even minor league pitchers still throw in the 80s and 90s, and for Jose to still have enough quickness (and hands are a huge part of that) to turn on these balls is a tremendously positive sign.
One more point I'd like to make is about what a smart baserunner Bautista is. He might not have speed like Reyes or even Melky Cabrera, but if you're a pitcher and you forget about him out there he will take that base from you. A great mix of aggressiveness and awareness.
2. Anthony Gose versus Colby Rasmus
Both players are enormous talents with perhaps larger flaws. Rasmus is incredibly inconsistent as we saw last year, going through stretches where he seems like the game's next great outfielder and other stretches where you wonder if he should seriously try curling instead. Gose is an electric player, possessing such incredible speed that once he gets on base you stop what you're doing, because you're likely going to see something amazing. Anthony's major flaw though is his difficulty making contact, and really at this stage if you gave him a full major league season he'd likely set the major league record for batter strikeouts, and it would be a very secure record. Yet many fans of the team prefer Gose over Rasmus and it's easy to see why: Gose still has that shiny prospect status that tends to cloud our judgement now and again, and he's such a dynamite defensive outfielder that people argue, correctly, he can help the big team now that way. With Rasmus, we think we know what he is and what he will be, but for Crying Out Lind the guy is only 26 years old, and many hitters haven't completely figured themselves out by then (see Bautista, J. and Encarnacion, E.) At this point in time I prefer Rasmus, though I do love Go-Go. (I really hope that nickname catches on) Both players have incredible potential, but Colby is more likely to fully unleash that potential (and thus help the team more) this season than Gose. Besides, the kid is only 22. What's the rush?
3. Adam Lind
I dunno. He had a great spring, but it's spring. He seems healthy, but he's seemed healthy at the start of every season. He can't hit a left-hander to save his life, but you know he's going to have to face more than a few this year. I'm probably wrong, but I think his back issues has been the poison to his swing. The team put the poor guy at a position he had never played professionally (First Base), and wanting to prove himself he pushed himself too hard to learn it. First base can be surprisingly harsh on the back, as you're constantly having to quickly bend down and stretch yourself out as far as you can. I've got no problem with him being on the team as long as they aren't throwing him out there against C.C. Sabathia in August.
4. Speed
Consider this possibility: the 2013 Blue Jays could have three 40+ base stealers this year. With good health, you have to assume Reyes and Bonifacio get there, the rest depends on how much Rajai Davis plays. Oh and that Gose guy will probably swipe a few bags at some point. As a pitcher in a hardball league I can tell you if given a choice between surrendering a home run to a slugger, or surrendering a station-to-station run to a speedster, I'll take the home run. A home run is quick and efficient: you have to stand around like an idiot while some jerk runs happily around you (I don't like giving up home runs), but it's over quickly and you move on to the next batter. With a speedster, once they get on base your whole approach to pitching changes. You start overthinking your delivery, knowing you've got to be quicker to home plate to try stopping this guy. Sometimes it's just an inevitability: the runner is so fast and so smart that he's going to find a way to get to second base and there's nothing you or your catcher can do about it. Speed is an invaluable distraction, at any level of baseball, and boy is it fun to watch if you're not the one on the pitcher's mound.
5. The Melkman
Melky Cabrera was the talk of baseball last season, for better or worse. His breakout season with the Giants was cut short and tainted by his positive elevated testosterone test and suddenly so much skepticism surrounded him. There were questions of whether his improvements the past couple of seasons were natural or enhanced by performance enhancing drugs. Once in line for a hefty payday, now any team that signed Cabrera would surely be in store for an unwanted media firestorm of questions upon questions and questions about the questions. Fortunately for Cabrera, the team he signed with happened to be the Blue Jays, who this passing offseason added so many high profile players that Melky wasn't the main focus of media attention. I feel like Cabrera has been the "Where's Waldo" of the 2013 Blue Jays offseason: he's there somewhere, and if you're looking for him you'll probably find him eventually, but there's so much else going on that it's easy to lose sight of him. As to what I think he'll do this year, I have no clue, (what am I, a psychic?) I will say though, performance enhancing drugs seem to give players a greater chance to succeed, without automatically guaranteeing success. The player must be the one to put the advantage to good use, for what that's worth.
That covers the hitters. In the last upcoming installment, the competition!
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