The Blue Jays 2012 season has been fun to watch, a roller coaster of emotion. There have been so many pleasant surprises. Kelly Johnson, Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames have been hitting the ball well. Brett Lawrie and J.P. Arencibia have been great defensively and Jeff Mathis when playing has not been getting out (I hope we all know this won’t continue forever).
The 2012 Blue Jays have also had some disappointments; their bullpen has been abysmal blowing saves like a machine, Jose Bautista has been off to a terrible start at the plate (.172/.310/.323 4HR 12RBI). Adam Lind has continued the downward spiral that he has been on since 2009, which I think is an important talking point.
In 83 at bats in 2012, Adam lind has an OPS of .581, which is ranked 40th of the 51 people who are considered 1st basemen. Although there are some notable names behind him (Albert Pujols, Justin Smoak) there are MANY names ahead of him. 1st base is a position a contending team needs to get production from, I think the blue jays need to take a long look at what is going on and maybe look into some changes, or at the very least stop batting Lind immediately behind the struggling Bautista. There are infinite possibilities of how this will work out for the rest of the season, heck Lind could pull a 180 and continue where he left off in 2009. I personally do not see this happening.
My suggestion to answer the Lind/line up conundrum lies in AAA Las Vegas, not at the 1st base position but in the Outfield, Travis Snider. I would DFA Ben Francisco (a pointless off season move in my opinion) and field a line-up that would look as such:
R Yunel Escobar (SS)
L Kelly Johnson (2B)
R Jose Bautista (RF)
R Edwin Encarnacion (1B)
L Eric Thames (DH)
R Brett Lawrie (3B)
L Travis Snider (LF)
R J.P. Arencibia (C)
L Colby Rasmus (CF)
This would improve the jays defence as well as creating a better bench for the jays. Adam Lind would be able (with defensive changes around him) to replace any outfielder, corner infielder or DH. *Note: I am not suggesting Lind can play 3B, CF or RF and it would be in a pinch for him to play LF but there could be defensive changes that would make the Defence significantly weaker that could happen for Lind to replace those people pinch hitting or if an injury occurs in a game.
I aware that these changes will not happen but in my perfect brain it would be an ideal situation. I would also like to note that I may have it in for Adam Lind because my wife has a crush on him for some reason.
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