The Blue Jays are in second place in the AL EAst, but have not been playing well. The Blue Jays have now lost 7 of their last 9 games including losing 3 out of 4 games to Boston this past weekend in Fenway. They made the struggling Red Sox look great over the past few days. In fact, the Jays were outscored 21-3 in the past three games, scoring only 1 run in each of those games.
Toronto needed to make a change after last year, after going 85-77 and not making the playoffs again. The Jays have only finished a season better than 3rd place, once since 1993, when they won the World Series. During the offseason, they hired a new manager, John Farrell. Farrell was the former pitching coach for the Red Sox. His first year with Boston was 2007 when they won the World Series. Farrell is credited for the success of the Red Sox young pitchers, Lester, Buchholz, & Papelbon. He has some young players on the Jays and will be looking to continue his success with the Jays.
YANKS NOTES
The Yankees have been hitting for power to start the season. They now have 27 home runs over the past 14 games. This past weekend, 10 of their 14 runs scored against Texas were from homers
Cano has a 9 game hitting streak and is now hitting .351 over these past 9 games.
3000 Hits Countdown – Jeter only needs 61 more hits. He should reach this milestone in early to mid June.
JAYS NOTES
The Blue Jays had a winning record against the Yankees last season going 10-8.
Over this past weekend the Jays stole 9 bases against Boston. They have now stolen 21 bases over the first 14 games of the season!
The Jays have a young very hyped catcher behind the plate this season, JP Arencibia. He is batting .308 this season. He has 4 multi-hit games with 2 Home Runs and 6 RBI’s.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Tuesday : AJ Burnett (3-0, 4.67 ERA) vs. Kyle Drabek (1-0, 1.93 ERA)
Burnett has a win for each start he has made this season. Although he hasn’t been lights out, AJ has been looking pretty good.
Drabek is a young stud of a pitcher. Baseball America ranked him #12 best prospect in the 2006 draft. His father is former Cy Young winner Doug Drabek. Drabek managed to get through his 3 starts with minimal damage, but his control has become an issue in each game. He has allowed 11 Walks over 18 total innings, but he has struck out 17 batters in those 18 innnings. I watched him pitch in spring training and believe that he will have a great future with the Jays. Drabek had one start against the Yankees this spring, pitching 4 innings and allowing only 2 runs after struggling early.
He throws a cut fastball and a sinker, but his best pitch is his curveball which sits in the low 80’s. Last year he added an offspeed/changeup pitch as well, which he uses on lefties often. In the minors he had a difficult time getting lefties out, but has been more successful since using the changeup.
Wednesday: Bartolo Colon (0-1, 3.97 ERA) vs. Brett Cecil (1-1, 6.19 ERA)
It has been 633 days since Colon started a Major League game, so this should be pretty interesting. Worst case scenario they can bring in Hector Noesi or Lance Pendleton for middle/long relief if Colon gets into trouble. Colon has only pitched 11.1 innings so far in 2011, but has 13 strikeouts. He should only be stretched out to 85 pitches, so hopefully he can get into the 5th or 6th inning.
Cecil started this season with a lack of velocity on his fastball. This was originally a cause for concern but this past weekend in Boston he regained some of his mojo and was hitting 92 mph. Over the past 16 innings he has thrown in 2011, he struck out 11 batters. Last year in his first full season, Cecil won 15 games going 15-7 with a 4.22 ERA. Cecil had four wins against the Yankees last season, going 4-0 on the season in five starts!
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