Big Move of April 25th

Jose Bautista hitting his league leading 8th home run of the season and further casting aside the doubters who believe he is a one year wonder. Hobo has picked up right where he left off from last season and has firmly cemented himself as the face of the Toronto franchise and the BMOD blog thus far. Not only does he lead the AL in home runs but he also is ahead in batting average at 364 and would easily be leading in the RBI category if anyone on the Jays got on base. Of Bautista's 8 home runs, 7 have been solo sohts. By comparison, Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers also has 8 home runs and 20 rbi's compared to Bautista's 11. What's worse, Adam Lind, aka 'Sleepy' (very fitting nickname) leads the Jays with 12 rbi's despite only hitting one home run and pedalling a 235 average! Oh, and Travis Snider who has the biggest leash in the majors is tied for second on the team with Bautista at 11 rbi's. Snider's batting average is a blistering 173.

 I am a big believer in what Alex Anthopolous is doing with this young Toronto Blue Jays team but I must admit it is very disappointing to see a team that still struggles to get on base and has shown a retreat in the power category. With the exception of Yunel Escobar what you have is a roster filled with first pitch hackers who can't work a count and therefore struggle to get on base consistently. Eventually pitchers are going to start realizing they don't have to pitch to Bautista, which James Shields showed this past Sunday in a 95 pitch complete game shutout. That would be pretty unfortunate because Bautista is one of the most exciting hitters in the game today. Hopefully Lind can start to pick things up and provide more of a threat behind Bautista to offer him some protection in the third spot of the order. Furthermore, maybe someone will step up in the leadoff role and get on base more often so that the Jays get a little more value from Bautista's hot bat. Perhaps Rajai Davis will provide that when he comes back from the disabled list this week? He wasn't getting on base much prior to his injury but it should also be noted that he was hurt in the first game of the season and limped through a few more games before shutting things down. Word is he's one of the fastest players in the league and would give Chris Johnson a challenge in the 40 yard dash.

I should also note that it was nice to see Kyle Drabek get his second win of the season and he has looked very solid in the number two hole behind Ricky Romero. The Jays have a solid front three in the rotation but after that things really start to trail off and it could be a revolving door in the fourth and fifth spots for the rest of the season. Things sure don't get much better when the Jays will trot out their batting practice pitcher on Tuesday night against one of the best offenses in baseball. Who is that you might ask? None other than Jesse Litsch who sure improved his game down in Las Vegas following a one week demotion that began last week. I think he got 3 innings in and gave up one run, which is pretty damn good for him. Personally, I would have given Brad Mills a shot given his strong start in AAA this season. If not him why not try Zach Stewart who really turned some heads in spring training this week. I just don't get the organization's love affair with Jesse Litsch. To me he's the equivalent of a hot dog from 711. When you're real desperate you'll take a look at it and begrudgingly give it a shot, but more often than not you're going to regret making that decision and swear you'll never do it again.

Finally, congratulations to Juan Rivera on his first home run as a Blue Jay. I swear it was the first pitch I've seen him hit in the air  all season and the strong winds in Arlington were just enough to pull it over the wall. Word is he needed an oxygen mask when he got to the dugout because that's the furthest he's had to jog all season. I think Molina had already worked a 2-1 count by the time Rivera finished his home run trot. Blue Jays analyst Greg Zaun has a lot of confidence in this guy and is quick to point out he's a career 280 hitter and once hit 25 home runs in a season. Zaun firmly believes this might be the start of bigger things. Personally, I don't see it and think it might have bought Rivera a little more time before his eventual release this coming June. Oh, and stay tuned for a good Greg Zaun roast/rant later this week on BMOD.