Jays 2011 Opening Day Stat Review
The Jays spank the Twins in the 2011 opener, winning 13-3. Here are some interesting stats & facts from the first game of the season.Note: Needless to say, this (and any stat for the first few months) will suffer from sample size issues.
Interesting Stats:
JP Arencibia
Arencibia was very selective during his at-bats. He ended up seeing a total of 21 pitches over 4 PA (5.3 per PA).
Last season JPA averaged just 3.40 pitches per PA.
Even though JPA hit only .161 during the spring, his overall walk rate was 11.3%. In AAA last season he walked at an 8.3% clip.
Romero
Ricky Romero had a great opening game, striking out 7 (6 swinging), and closing out 91% of two-strike counts with outs.
He induced a total of 13 groundballs, and walked none. In-fact, only three plate appearances went to three ball counts.
Romero used his trademark fastball/change-up combo all night long, throwing 82 FB or CH on 97 overall pitches.
Villanueva
The only downside from a pitching standpoint was Carlos Vill velocity. He failed to touch 90 MPH all night, with his high FB being 89.4 (and his other being 86). To be fair he went with his curve for the majority of his 11 pitches.
What’s coming up:
Slider specialist Francisco Liriano. Toronto counters with Kyle Drabek.
It will be interesting to see how the Jays adjust to a slider heavy diet dealt from the left side of the rubber. How will Drabek’s cutter look this early in the season? We’ll find out at 1:05 pm et
Please leave any comments, suggestions, etc in the comments section below.
(Images via Google Images, Stats via Box Scores, Inside Edge, Pitch F/X, Fan Graphs, World Wide Web)
