The Jays finished fifth in the American League with 198 home runs last year, but also fifth in strikeouts with 1,251.
“If you can put the ball in play and run a little bit, you don’t always have to hit the ball hard [to score runs],” general manager Alex Anthopolous said. “You can force the other team to make an error, break a bat and still get a single, to keep a rally going. Home runs are great, they’re guaranteed runs. But with power comes strikeouts and with strikeouts, you’re a little bit more prone to slumps.”
Bonifacio and Izturis are switch hitters with speed; Izturis is a much better contact hitter and Bonifacio the more dynamic base runner. Bonifacio has struck out once every five at-bats in six seasons, slightly above the major-league average, while in eight seasons, Izturis’s ratio is slightly under one strikeout every 10 at-bats.
Bonifacio stole 30 bases in only 64 games during an injury-plagued 2012 season with the Miami Marlins, hitting .258 with a .330 on-base percentage. Izturis stole a career-high 17 bases in 100 games for the Los Angeles Angels, hitting .256 with a .320 on-base percentage.
“We’ve talked about different scenarios back and forth with Izturis and Bonny,” Anthopolous said.
For instance, Izturis could get the start against a strikeout pitcher such as the Tampa Bay Rays’ David Price. Bonifacio might get the nod against a pitcher with a slow motion to the plate. With a tough lefty on the mound, both could make the lineup.
...“I love Bonifacio,” Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter said this weekend. “If they don’t know it yet, they’ve got a gem. It doesn’t matter where he plays, he can impact a game defensively in about four spots.”
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1. Walt Davis Posted: March 19, 2013 at 01:32 AM (#4390983)I'm not entirely sure the logic of "good contact hitter vs. high K pithcer" works. Sure, somebody who K's 1 per 4 times might turn into 1 per 3 times against Price; but presumably a guy who K's 1 per 10 turns into a 1 per 7.5 or something. Using him against a team with poor defense might pay off better.
* I suspect WAR doesn't handle guys with a lot of pinch-running opportunities well -- adding baserunning value without adding PAs will make you look better relative to average. That said ... it seems he hasn't done much pinch-running. Last year he started all 64 games he appeared in; the year before it was 141 out of 152 (some of which may have been PH or def replacement without being a PR).
Does the Jays offense have need for weak groundballs to the SS?
My understanding of the bench is
Backup INF: Izturis
Backup OF: Davis
Backup Everything: DeRosa
Backup Catcher: Blanco seems to have the edge on Thole.
EDIT: Whichever one plays I think 2B (along with DH and CF) are going to be problems for Toronto.
If so, they should've added Cesar, not Maicer.
VS RHP
Reyes SS
Cabrera LF
Bautista RF
EE DH
Lind 1B
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Arencibia C
Bonifacio/Izturis 2B (Depending on matchups)
VS LHP
Reyes SS
Cabrera LF/DH
Bautista RF/DH
EE 1B
Lawrie 3B
Arencibia C
Davis DH/RF/LF
Bonifacio/Rasmus CF
Izturis 2B
This club has plenty of versatility with platoons and matchups since Izturis and Bonifacio can play many positions and Davis could be a useful short-side platoon DH/OF when Melky or Bautista need a day off in the field. If Izturis and Bonifacio don't end up spending a decent amount of time at 3 positions each, the club wouldn't be optimizing.
DH shouldn't be an issue IF they platoon Lind and Davis. Both have an OPS above .770 respectively against righties and lefties.
This was also my understanding, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them flip the starting job back and forth all year.
I'm pulling for Thole to come back strong-- he really looked like a different hitter last year, but if he can go back to his 2011 form, the Jays have a good player on their hands, sort of a mirror image of Arencibia (no power, walks a but, and can hit for an OK average). He and Bonifacio were both good buy-low pickups.
But he spent his 20s being a productive offensive contributor - an OBP heavy 99 OPS+ from 2005-2011 in Los Angeles with solid baserunning and defense. He shouldn't be confused with his siblings.
Emilio Bonifacio is a very useful bench player, but you'd much rather he be plan C than plan B for any starting position. And he's no kind of 150 game regular.
And Izturis is? Izturis has never played more than 122 games in a season...95 on average from 2005 on. Bunny Face played 152 in 2011...and 127 in 2009...
Neither of these are players you want to anchor your team around, but there are far worse #9 hitters around the league than either of them.
Of course, now that I check his BB-REF page, he signed in Toronto on November 8th, which is the day my dad died, so I was probably a little preoccupied that day.
Well, again, it has the virtue of having happened. Which is more than we can say for Izturis's producing over the course of a full season.
So: they rest on a 32 year-old doing something he has never done before in his half-decade plus career? It just seems strange that you stated as a naked fact that Bonifacio's not a 150 game player, when he was a 150 game player just a year ago, and a valuable one at that. The player you're comparing him to has never once played close to a full season, IIRC due in part to nagging injuries. I'm not expecting a middle infielder to be healthier and more durable at 32 than he has been in the rest of his career.
Edit: I'm not that down on Izturis, or that high on Bonifacio. I just think that they each bring a set of question marks, to the point that the Jays would do well to ride the hot hand, at least while everyone's healthy. If Rasmus struggles, they're either going to run Davis or Bunny Face out there in CF while Gose continues to get at-bats in AAA. And Reyes is no picture of health at SS.
It's not reasonable to be expect more than maybe 110 games out of Izturis. But you know what you're getting in the other 40 games of Bonifacio - a utility guy with a marginal middle infield glove, a utility guy bat, and great speed. You're really unlikely to get more than that. Izturis' 110 games are the ones where the Jays stand a reasonable chance of getting plus production.
I always assumed John Tudor had a brief stint with the Jays because I have a Donruss 1991 card (the green second series) which shows Tudor pitching in a Cardinals uniform, but with a Jays logo in the corner. As I recall this was standard practice for when a player switched teams and they didn't have any current shots handy. Google is giving me no hits on this card (but I assure you it exists). Baseball-Reference also has no record of him playing for the Jays in either the majors or the minors. He did retire in 1990, so my best guess is that he was invited to Jays camp in 1991 but didn't make it? That's the best I've got, unless Donruss just made a mistake. Does anyone recall?
I'm an idiot, in that I was thinking of Ken Dayley.
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