It's official: Lyle Overbay is back. And I'm as giddy as a school girl about it.
A .540 slugging percentage, and .939 OPS; both tops on the Blue Jays. Even better: a marvelous 146 OPS+.
And ... wait for it ... he's only grounded into four double plays.
There's more. In 174 at-bats (more than 100 fewer than regulars Marco Scutaro, Aaron Hill, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and Adam Lind) Overbay has walked 36 times, trailing only Scoots. It's a virtue, all that patience.
Speaking of Scoots, he's strolled leisurely to first 48 times in 71 games (and once to second). I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Marco will shatter his career high of 56 walks, set last year, in 146 games. What a fucking Scutaro. Love this guy.
But back to Lyle. He's having the type of June I wanted Vernon Wells to have: .300/.455/.620; a 1.075 OPS. Four home runs, four doubles, and 18 RsBI in 18 games.
And yet 93% of his at-bats this season have come from the seventh spot in the lineup.
I want to berate The Cito. I want him to free Lyle Overbay. But I can't. Somehow, Gaston's Jays, with Overbay batting seventh, are only a game behind the Yankees in the wild card standings. Cito's handed the ball to 11 different starting pitchers this season (remember Brian Burress?), V-Dub has one home run in seven weeks, and the team went to hell and back on a nine-game losing streak. Yet here they are. In the race.
I'm going to count my blessings. I'm simply going to be content with Overbay's production. Lord knows the Jays are going to need it the rest of the way. I'm on the same page as The Cito; let's not mess with a good thing.
Welcome back, Lyle.
UPDATE: Russ Adams is batting 1.000. Just saying ...
6 comments:
This is going to be one hell of a roller coaster the rest of the way. The trip to the Bronx next week will prove to be the most important of the season thus far... would love to have a series win going into the all-star break
havent been this excited about our Jays since.... well, since never
Better to keep Overbay where he is. Cleanup has been the Bermuda Triangle and whoever hits there gets lost. First Wells and then Lind. Keep the hot hitters out of there and the Jays will be okay.
playoffs!!!!1
I don't buy the Cito love, because I think that a group of talented players can often win in spite of poor management, and I think that recently when wins have happened, that is often the better explanation. That said, Overbay is awesome, Rolen is awesome, and the right spread with the rest of the guys seems to work from time to time. Here's hoping ...
Anon: That 4-game set in the Bronx certainly does loom large. Hopefully we'll get to see Doc destroy AJ again, this time in their house.
William: Rolen's doing a helluva job in the cleanup spot. In six games: .393/.452/.571. Yeah, I quite like that 1.023 OPS.
furifer: Yes. It goes without saying. Although I should say it more.
Q: You better start buying the Cito love! Nobody does it better.
I'll see how things go now that we are out of the NL games -- I think the NL requires proper hands-on managing, and that is clearly not Cito's forte.
I do have a hard time seeing how Cito has been a great manager -- I do see some highly questionable moves, and even some stupid ones. I'm fine with some consistency (i.e. not on SPEED with line-up changes), I don't buy the "lose now, win later" explanation. You for one must agree that Wells has weakened this line-up considerably batting where he has, and for waaaay too long. VW isn't the one deciding to bat there.
Anyway, I'm not complaining. This team is doing much better than expected, and Cito has done fine overall. I'm just putting the credit for the team's success in other places.
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