Toronto Blue Jays Need to Improve Plate Discipline to Compete in AL East

The Toronto Blue Jays are average at a lot of things this year.  

They are third in the league in steals, but also tied for fourth in the times they have been caught stealing.

Those are about the only two categories that stand out in a way in which this Blue Jays team has distinguished itself. Last year, they had the home runs; this year, they have steals.  

Their problem lies in all the other categories in which they are just average.

Look at these numbers for a second.

The Blue Jays are 15th in the league in doubles, on-base percentage and on-base plus slugging. They are tied for 16th in RBI, rank 17th in average and 18th in strikeouts. Then they are 14th in slugging percentage and hits and 13th in runs scored.

Those rankings are simply not good enough to work their way up through the ranks of the American League East.  

Then again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The fact is, the Blue Jays lineup has been torn apart by injuries this year, making it very difficult for the manager John Farrell to keep any sort of pattern. Every one of their starting position players has missed time this year with the exception of the catchers.

Let's repeat that: Every single one of the Jays starting position players has missed time with injury with the exception of catchers Jose Molina and J.P. Arencibia.

The fact that utility player John McDonald has now played in 25 games already this season and Mike McCoy has made appearances in 19 is evidence of how much the injuries have cost the team.

If you look at it that way, then the Blue Jays are doing well to stick around in the middle of the pack.

So the positives they have shown so far, such as tied for eighth in the league for home runs going into Tuesday's game (in which they hit three home runs) and being 10th in at-bats, suggests they have some good things to build on.

As the players return from injury, it will be important for them to take a cue from their leader, Jose Bautista. Bautista leads the American League in average, on-base percentage and walks, with only 17 strikeouts in 92 at bats.

Now, this isn't to suggest that all the Blue Jays should suddenly become home run kings. But what distinguishes Bautista, other than his uncanny power, is his stunning ability to recognize pitches.  

What the Jays need to improve on as a whole is their ability to assess what pitches are worth hitting and what ones to lay off of. The hitting coach Dwayne Murphy emphasizes a philosophy of looking for a particular pitch to hit at each at-bat and laying off the others.  

But as the Sportsnet announcers have suggested, when a team is struggling, each player tries to do more than they should at any given time. This makes each player try and win the game themselves, reaching for pitches in attempts to get a hit.  

The Jays need to develop a trust in their fellow players that the batter after them will get the necessary hit. There has been many situations where Bautista has runners on and could try and hit them home. But if the pitcher isn't giving him anything to hit, he isn't going to reach for it and hit into an out.

One of the other positives of being more selective in their at-bats mean they take more pitches, which rises the pitch count of the opposing teams' starter and knocks them out of the game earlier. If you can get to a pitcher early, score runs when possible and move to the bullpen, it gives a team an even better chance to win games.  

Usually, the bullpen isn't quite as strong as any given starter, and if you can tax a team's pitching early in a series, it may cost them later.

This approach is built on a lot of different factors, but it seems an expansion on the approach that Farrell is already trying to implement. It is small ball taken to another level.

If the Blue Jays can get healthy, have a little more patience at the plate and trust in their teammates, then the wins will follow.