Purchase tickets via Ticketmaster<\/a><\/p>\nKazuma Okamoto\u2019s Strikeout Rate is Raising Early Concerns<\/p>\n
It felt like just a little while ago that you saw the promise in Kazuma Okamoto on the Toronto Blue Jays. Now, you\u2019re seeing another side of Okamoto that is raising some concerns just nine games into his MLB career.<\/p>\n
In nine games, he\u2019s had 34 at-bats, and in 17 of those, he\u2019s struck out. He\u2019s been incredibly reliable for the Blue Jays defensively, but this side of the game is coming at the wrong time.<\/p>\n
Okamoto leads the team in strikeouts and sits third in the at-bat category behind George Springer (38) and Ernie Clement (37). Springer is second in strikeouts with 13, and Clement is near the bottom of the list with just two strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Why is Okamoto\u2019s strikeout rate so concerning? It\u2019s because he\u2019s sitting at a 50% strikeout rate right now. Bat discipline isn\u2019t an issue either, but it\u2019s more than that. Okamoto is getting out primarily by striking out. You might ask why bat discipline isn\u2019t an issue, but the numbers argue that it is, and that\u2019s solely based on the fact that Okamoto has shown great control when it comes to swinging the bat at times.<\/p>\n
This is a trend that I\u2019m going to track, and it\u2019s one to watch as Okamoto hits either cleanup or fifth in the Jays\u2019 lineup right now.<\/p>\n
Lack of Offence Makes it Hard to Compete in Winnable Games<\/p>\n
The Toronto Blue Jays are in a situation where they need at least something to happen in each game, and they still aren\u2019t getting the bare minimum. Home runs are nice, but that is not going to win the Blue Jays games outright.<\/p>\n
Getting on base consistently is becoming a problem for the Blue Jays, and when they do manage to get a couple of runners on base, the bats disappear entirely. Across nine games, they\u2019ve left 72 runners on base, and that is a problem that is starting to take shape.<\/p>\n
The issue outright isn\u2019t getting on base; the Blue Jays don\u2019t have a problem with that. Stringing hits together consecutively is also a problem starting to take shape, and that relates to players in the Jays\u2019 lineup striking out more often than not.<\/p>\n
Scoring just seven runs against the White Sox should raise alarm bells. The team looked lost at the plate, and when they had players on base, nobody could capitalize on scoring runs when the Jays needed it most.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be no easy opponent, and Toronto needs to figure out its offensive issues quickly. The Blue Jays are set to face Justin Wrobleski in game one, Yoshinobu Yamamoto in game two and Shohei Ohtani in game three.<\/p>\n
Blue Jays Aren\u2019t Playing Simple Baseball Well Early This Season<\/p>\n
Tyler Heineman was incredibly hard on himself after a couple of throws that should\u2019ve turned into routine plays in back-to-back games. Both of them proved costly as Chicago capitalized on the mistakes to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n
Other plays throughout the series equalled Heineman\u2019s, but everything piled up equally into an ugly weekend for the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve already mentioned the Blue Jays\u2019 shortcomings at the plate, but some pitches their batters chased were questionable.<\/p>\n
Eric Lauer, who wasn\u2019t playing at 100% this game, wanted to play for the Blue Jays even though he is fighting the flu. He wasn\u2019t able to find his game, and he managed to just pitch three innings where he walked three and struck out none.<\/p>\n
Per manager John Schenider, Lauer wasn\u2019t the only player dealing with flu-like symptoms.<\/p>\n
That could answer a ton of questions as to what happened against the Chicago White Sox, but for now, the Blue Jays need to reset for a big series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a hot start to a 4-5 record early on this season, the Toronto Blue Jays have run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-665515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-white-sox","14":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116354944296127587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}