Here is the April monthly review or recap of the Toronto Blue Jays as we break down what happened over the past 30 days or so. It was definitely an interesting month and beginning of another MLB season for the Jays.
| Record | 13-11 |
| Standings | 4th place, 3.0 games back |
| Runs Scored | 4.7 |
| Runs Against | 4.3 |
| Run Differential | 0.4 |
| Pythag. Record* | 13-11 |
| 1run games | 2-2 |
| Past 10 | 5-5 |
| Past 20 | 11-9 |
| >.500 | 5-9 |
| <.500 | 8-2 |
| Home | 7-7 |
| Road | 6-4 |
| vLHP | 5-3 |
| vRHP | 8-8 |
*refers to the Pythagorean record which is the win total expected based on the teams run differential
The Toronto Blue Jays have had a decent month (above chart includes May 1, 2012) overall and have played most teams very tough. As you can see they have beaten the teams with sub .500 records handily but have struggled against teams above .500 (thanks Baltimore).
Their Pythag. record is right in line with what their run differential says it should be so thus far they haven’t been a victim of super bad statistical luck. They have scored the third most runs in the AL East and have given up the third most, right in the middle of the pack on both rates.
Have a look at the offensive numbers and where they rank in the American League (14 teams):
| AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | 2B | HR | BB | K | SB | CS |
| .240 | .316 | .401 | .717 | 35 | 30 | 86 | 164 | 13 | 7 |
| 11 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 4 |
It hasn’t been a pretty month offensively as we all know. Some of our key veteran hitters haven’t produced at the expected level and our numbers reflect that. If Jose Bautista, Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus show improvement it will go a long way into making our offensive attack much more potent.
Have a look at the pitching numbers and where they rank in the American League (14 teams):
| ERA | IP | H | ER | BB | K | HR | SV |
| 3.87 | 223.0 | 194 | 96 | 87 | 160 | 36 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 10 |
The pitching staff was expected to be a weakness coming into the season but has definitely performed very well considering the starting group is the majors youngest. It is still an area of concern going forward especially the back end where it is unclear how many innings will be given to Henderson Alvarez and Drew Hutchison.
If Kyle Drabek continues building on a successful start he can be a solid number three starter for any team in baseball. All in all it was a solid month of baseball for the young Toronto Blue Jays and the excitement and optimism surrounding the team in spring training is still alive heading into May.
Here are the upcoming series on tap for the month of May, which is shaping up to be an extremely difficult month overall with some tough matchups:
@LAA (x4), @OAK (x2), @MIN (x4), TBay (x2), NYY (x2), NYM (x3), @TBay (x3), @Tex (x3), BAL (x3)
