Post Game Thoughts - Seriously, Why Are You Pitching to Jose Bautista...?

Just finished reading a biography of George Steinbrenner before turning on the game. It's got a lot of insight into how he ran the Yankees. Not knowing a lot of the back-story, I was surprised how many Managers and General Managers and employees in general that he fired and re-hired again. Spoiler Alert: It ended with the Yankees winning the World Series in 2009 while Steinbrenner was still alive, but with his health declining. It would almost seem fitting to add an epilogue after his passing, but even so, it was a fascinating read. If you're in Ottawa and have a device that can read e-pub files, it's available to download for free on the Ottawa Public Library website. And FYI, there are a lot of good books about baseball available on their website. I'll probably do a baseball book post in the near future, so watch out for that...

My first reaction to slotting Yunel Escobar into the cleanup spot was "interesting". He's an improvement over Aaron Hill, but not the traditional power hitter that you'd expect in the 4 slot. I know that they're trying to protect JP Arencibia and not put any pressure on him, but with his power it'd be worth trying him out as the cleanup hitter. Also JP helped his own cause tonight by going 2 for 4 with 4 RBI's.

Nice start to the game by Jose Bautista, hitting his 19th HR of the year. Interestingly, he didn't go deep into the count as he traditionally does. He, very coyly, took the 1st pitch after Davis and Patterson swung on the first offer they saw and on the second pitch connected on a mistake by Bartolo Colon. After that, the Yankees made sure not to pitch to him. Interesting fact: to my knowledge Jose Bautista has reached base safely in 37 out of the 38 games he's played this season.

Carlos Villanueva did a good job pitching on short notice today. As a side note, it seems that the Jays starting pitchers throw a lot more pitches than their relievers do. You'd think that maybe this is because JP Arencibia is calling the throws, but to my knowledge, it's Don Wakamatsu who's relaying the pitch selection to him. So either this is just an odd coincidence, or the Jays coaching staff (led by a former pitching coach in John Farrell) are over-thinking the approach to opposing batters.

Also, it's officially time to replace Edwin Encarnacion with John McDonald. His defensive abilities far outweigh his inefficiency at the plate. Encarnacion is showing that he's has no value in the field or at the plate.

3 Stars:

1. JP Arencibia - 2 for 4, 4 RBI
2. Jose Bautista - 19th HR & 2 walks
3. Carlos Villanueva - solid start earning the win and only allowing 1 earned run

Honourable mention goes to Bartolo Colon and a dishonourable mention goes to Edwin Encarnacion.