Opening Day Numbers

Posted Apr 6 2012 by Matthias Koster in , , with 5 Comments

Jays Opening Numbers

What a way to start the season!

My #1 take away from yesterdays game was the demeanour of the Toronto Blue Jays dugout. Even when they were down, getting owned by a ‘Masterful’ (pun intended) pitching performance, the team never seemed to waiver or get down on themselves. 

Here are some numbers from opening day;

Game Stats

  • The game was the longest opening day in MLB history going back to 1901 (1360 games according to STATS inc)
  • Official game time clocked in a 5:14
  • FanGraphs listed the Indians Win Probability as a 97.4% during the bottom of the 8th.

Pitchers

  • Six relief pitchers were used.
  • All six relievers + Romero combined for 280 pitches thrown.
  • Ricky Romero threw 96
  • Relievers Carlos Villanueva & Luis Perez threw a combined 103 pitches
  • Jays pitchers had a 21 – 11 ground ball to fly ball ratio
  • While Justin Masterson recorded 10 K to Romero’s 4, Ricky had nearly as many swing and misses (11 vs Masterson’s 13)

 

Positional Players

  • While Rajia Davis was an 9th inning replacement as a pinch runner, he led the team with 6 LOB in 3 AB.
  • Omar Vizquel has played in 2909 career games. Yesterday was his first ‘official’ appearance in LF and only his second at 1B.
  • Lawrie & Rasmus were at the bottom of pitches seen per AB, both seeing 26 in 7 PA. The two were a combined 0 for 13 with 1 BB
  • Johnson led the team in pitches seen, with 38 in 8 PA (4.75 per PA)
  • The Jays top three in the batting order (Escobar/Johnson/Bautista) forced the Cleveland staff to throw 98 pitches
  • Jose Bautista’s 3 for 4 day with Sac Fly & 2 BB gives him a .835 wOBA and 0.4 WAR after opening day.

 

ESPN

It’s finally official, mopupduty.com is now part of the ESPN Sweet Spot network. I’d like to thank ESPN for taking us on, Drew Fairservice of Getting Blanked for a hook-up, previous partners of Mopupduty.com and of course all of our loyal website visitors.

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About the Author

Matthias Koster has written for mopupduty.com since 2006. Follow Matthias on Twitter, Facebook and . Email at matthias.koster@gmail.comView all posts by Matthias Koster →

  • http://twitter.com/dlbrows Dave B

    Congrats the the ESPN collabo!

    • Matthias

      Thanks Dave!

  • Clark Ross

    I am perplexed as to why Rajai Davis (6 LOB on Thurs.) has a spot on the roster. Yes, he’s speedy, but beyond that, what’s left? Speed is useful once you get on base, but he hasn’t been very good at getting on base (.273 OBP last year). And then there’s the matter of his bunting into a double play in the 15th inning on Thursday… Impossible to say whether Travis Snider would have faired any better, of course, but Snider is also speedy, better defensively, and, as we all know, was leading the club in RBIs when he was sent down this spring.

    Am I missing something about Rajai? Is there a reason, beyond speed (which he apparently forgot about in the 15th inning) that he is considered a better bet for this team than Snider, or any of the other outfielders in the Jays’ organization?

    • Matthias

      Hi Clark, thanks for the question:

      There are a few reasons to keep Rajai over Snider.

      #1 Davis will be a pure backup, thus not requiring AB’s to grow. As we’ve covered in the past, Snider still has some problems with lefties. He also has some problems with sliders from righties, so his time is better spent at AAA getting AB and working things out then as a 4th/5th OF type in Toronto. On the other hand Davis is pretty much a finished product and is best served as a backup type OF in the AL East.

      #2 Davis brings superior speed in late inning situations. He did a great job reading EE’s double in the 9th inning of opening day and scored when many others wouldn’t. Snider has surprising speed due to his frame but he’s still nowhere near the runner Davis is.

      #3 Davis is getting paid $2.75 million, Snider still works around the MLB minimum.

      At this point it’s better to keep Rajai on the roster vs Snider.

      • http://clarkross.blogspot.ca/ Clark Ross

        Thanks for the response Matthias.

        You make good points, in particular the first one. I was swayed by Callum Hughson’s post of 25 March, in which he suggests (as others have, including Gregg Zaun) that the best place for Snider to get the kind of development he needs is the MLB, not back in Vegas. But I think that is usually part of the Snider vs. Thames discussion, and not Snider vs. Davis. In any event, I agree that Snider needs to play every day, I’m just not convinced Las Vegas is the best place for him.

        As for “superior speed in late inning situations,” I’m guessing that you mean (a) Davis is faster (which is my understanding as well, but I have never heard anyone say how much faster), and (b) his speed can be an asset in late innings, which is true, but so can getting on base and driving runners home, neither of which Davis has done very successfully as a Blue Jay. Davis showed good judgement and speed by sprinting home with the tying running in the 9th inning on Encarnacion’s deep fly ball on opening day, but I’m not sure how difficult a read that was … Encarnacion thought he’d hit a home run, and, with a high left field wall in Cleveland, it seems like it wouldn’t have been too hard to read that the ball was either out of the park or would bounce off the wall… tough to say, obviously, but no question that Davis did a fine job there, and kudos to him for that. However, this was followed it by that strange bunt in the 15th when he forgot to run and hit into a double play, and of course those 6 men LOB that you mention in your post.

        Ah well, time will tell how useful Davis is, and here’s hoping he’s more useful this year than he has been in the past for the Jays, and I’m still REALLY hoping Snider sorts out his batting problems soon, and that he’ll be back in the MLB.

        Also, I discovered your blog through the ESPN link, and congrats on that, and I’m really enjoying the intelligent writing you guys do. Good work!