Friday Bantering - August 26

Despite a pretty uninspiring series against Anaheim, happy Friday everyone.

Going into the week I thought this would be a prime chance to make some hay in the division. Tampa did their part for us early in the week but unfortunately the Jays could take only one of three from the Angels. On Friday, the Jays host the first of three with Minnesota (worst record in the AL) while Boston will begin a series against KC.

I don’t like this Devon Travis injury at all. It just seems like it can be one of those that lingers. It just feels like we aren’t meant to have a complete lineup together. Hopefully everyone gets healthy soon for the playoff push.

Richard Griffin saw enough today to tell us that Jose Bautista should be moved lower in the batting order. Contradictory article to me. Griffin starts by reminding us that Jose kick-started a stagnant offense when he move to lead-off earlier in the year. He then says he should go to the manager and request to move down the order due to base running limitations. Unsurprisingly, Bautista says he’s ready to man right field again but sounds like he’ll stay at DH according to Gibby.

“I talked to him (Wednesday) night — he came in,” Gibbons said. “He says he feels fine to play the outfield, but we’ll give him plenty of time at DH just to guard that thing a little bit. I think it would be smart.”

Yesterday I commented in the game recap that it seemed as though Estrada made some very good pitches that the Angels managed to hit and hit hard. It turns out Mike Trout’s HR was pretty exceptional, as profiled by August Fagerstrom at Fangraphs. Trout certainly looked like the best player in the game this series.

John Gibbons is tired of the six-man rotation questions, but after another lackluster start yesterday, this time from J.A. Happ, I suspect the questions are going to keep coming and will probably intensify. I hear a lot of questions but not a lot of answers. I don’t know who comes out of the rotation if a decision is made to revert to a standard five-man rotation.

Marcus Stroman has been good lately. Very good. Maybe the best in baseball? Mike Podhorzer or Rotographs has some very nice things to say about Marcus and, with arbitrary start dates, he makes his argument that Marcus is in the elite.

Futures Market

Here I highlight yesterday’s performances for our top-20 prospects (according to MLB). Only those that played are covered and their ranking is listed after each player’s name in parentheses.

Richard Urena (1) went 0-3 with a sac fly; batting .322 this year. Anthony Alford (3) went 1 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts; batting .236. Reese McGuire (4) went 1-3 with a single; now batting .258. Jon Harris (6) had a nice start, working 5.2 innings allowing 1 run (0 earned) on 4 hits and 3 BB against 4 K; ERA down to 3.23 for the year. Vladimir Guerrero Jr (7) had a big night on Thursday, going 3-5 with a double and a triple; batting .287 on the year. Rowdy Tellez (9) went 1-4 with a single; average at .296. Max Pentecost (14) went 1-4 with a double and 2 strikeouts; batting .296. Angel Perdomo (15) had a nice bounce-back start after some recent struggles; 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 1 BB and 7 K.