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Robert Ray shines in fourth start, Emaus has four hit day
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The last three days of the Arizona Fall League's third week saw extensive playing time for the Blue Jays' contingent including Robert Ray's and Reidlier Gonzalez's second appearances of the week. The Phoenix Desert Dogs struggled however going 1-2, the only win coming Saturday over David Cooper and the Mesa Solar Sox. The Dogs still hold a comfortable lead over the Scottsdale Scorpions in the East Division by 3.5 games.
Brad Emaus sat out Thursday's game and went 0 for 4 on Friday. He struckout for just the second time in the AFL and showed a little impatience seeing 3.25 P/PA. On Saturday however, Emaus collected four hits in four at-bats and came across to score two runs. In the second he doubled to left field and came around to score on another double from Corey Brown. In the fourth he singled to left field, went to third on an Adam Loewen single and came home on a groundout to shortstop by A.J. Jimenez. His 4 for 8 performance over the two days boosted his average to .314 and his OBP up to .385.
While his batting average stands at just .179 Loewen collected a hit in both Thursday and Saturday's games going 2 for 7 between them. He picked up a couple more strikeouts while seeing 4.33 P/PA Thursday and just 2.75 on Saturday. A.J. Jimenez had a rough Saturday going 0 for 4. He did pick up a run batted in with his fourth inning ground out that scored Brad Emaus from third and reached on a fielder's choice. He picked up a stolen base in that inning as well. Jimenez was unsuccessful in one steal attempt against him but he did pickoff a runner at third base. His 5.25 P/PA was the best of all the Jays in week three's second half.
Darin Mastroianni picked up some more at-bats on Thursday and Friday going a combined 2 for 5. He hit a first pitch single into right field in the 8th inning on Thursday and also collected a walk. After getting picked off first base in his first game he was caught stealing second Thursday. A little unexpected for a player who's collected 100 stolen bases the last two seasons. On Friday he doubled in the 8th inning driving in Nevin Ashley from third and then scoring on a Shawn O'Malley single to left field. His P/PA between the two days was just 3 but he only struckout once in five at-bats.
Playing against his Fisher Cats teammates on Saturday David Cooper went 1 for 4 with a double, a walk and a run scored. He doubled in a seven pitch at-bat in the second inning and wound up scoring on a sac fly by P.J. Phillips.
After a rough outing on Monday Robert Ray bounced back nicely on Saturday going five innings and earning the win for the Desert Dogs. He allowed two earned runs on just four hits and a walk while striking out three. He had a pair of 1-2-3 innings in the first and fifth innings. Both his runs allowed came in the second but escaped any major damage getting the last two hitters on groundouts. In the fourth he allowed a one out single but promptly struck out Josh Vitters and David Cooper to retire the side unharmed. He showed good control getting ahead with 10 first pitch strikes to the 15 batters that didn't put the first pitch in play.
Reidlier Gonzalez followed Ray's solid outing with a shaky two innings of work. Struggling to get ahead and throw strikes Gonzalez walked three and allowed three hits while only recording one strikeout. He threw just 24 of his 43 pitches for strikes and got ahead on the first pitch just 4 times in 10 chances. Still, he only allowed one run putting his ERA at 3.27 through 11 innings of work. His WHIP(1.73) is a little on the high side and his strikeout total is not too impressive but his ERA is still over two runs below the league average through three weeks.
The Arizona Fall League is known as a hitter's league and this year has been no exception with the league ERA through three weeks standing at 5.69. That coupled with the small amount of at-bats most players will end up with limits how much stock can be put in player's performances out in the Desert. Simply looking at a player's batting average or OPS can be misleading without comparing to the rest of the league.
That's where OPS+ becomes useful. An OPS+ of 100 is considered league average, anything over 100 is above average, below 100 is below the league average. This allows us to see how each player is performing relative to everyone else in the league who's playing in the same conditions against the same pitchers. Below we have the OPS+ of each Blue Jays player, except Mastroianni who still has less than 10 at-bats, along with their league rank.
David Cooper leads the Jays with a 112 OPS+ good for 39th in the league, he's followed by Brad Emaus in 43rd(110 OPS+) both slightly above league average. Loewen(50 OPS+) and Jimenez(48 OPS+) are both well below league average so far. Both Cooper and Emaus have been better as of late and could still finish in the top 20 while Loewen and Jimenez need some work to push closer to league average.
Next Sunday we'll take a look at a similar stat to OPS+ but instead it's used to evaluate pitchers performance relative to their league's ERA. Before that be sure to check back on Wednesday and Friday for more coverage on the Arizona Fall League. Next Saturday the AFL All-Star game will be on MLB TV and we'll let you know if any of the Blue Jays makes the cut for the game.
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