Blue Jays Offense: There’s Still Time To Join This Party

Did you miss out on Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista in your fantasy league this year?

If so, then the Toronto Blue Jays’ offensive exploits this August probably made you feel like you’d also missed out on the best fantasy baseball fireworks display in recent memory.

The Jays, en route to a 21-6 record for the month, scored eight runs or more a staggering 10 times. Unsurprisingly, Donaldson, Encarnacion and Bautista led the way, with the powerful trio combining for an incomprehensible 32 HR and 90 RBI for the month.

While it’s obviously too late for owners who missed out on these three mashers (now affectionately being called “Mount Crushmore”) to cash in on this kind of elite-level production, there remains a very appreciable and in fact surprisingly unrecognized opportunity for fantasy leaguers to still reap some nice rewards from Toronto’s historic offensive season.

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When a team is hitting this well, all nine players in the batting order benefit in tremendous ways. Every walk or broken bat single represents a significantly increased opportunity for a run scored. Hitters are coming up with men on 1st and 3rd and less than two outs seemingly every other at-bat. Hitting a leadoff double is pretty much a guarantee that you’ll be crossing the plate.

Simply put, any hitter in this lineup getting regular playing time deserves your attention. Especially if they happen to be playing well in their own right. A rising tide this strong definitely lifts all boats.

Right now, there are two regular players in the Blue Jays lineup who are widely unowned in the vast majority of fantasy leagues. Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins earned their way on to this team with their stellar defensive play, and they both hit at the bottom of the lineup. In addition, they’ve both had their share of offensive struggles this year, with neither player ever having been considered a plus-hitter. But lately they have been getting on base, making solid contributions and most of all – they have both been actively involved in the team’s recent offensive success…and not just in fringe capacities.

Aug 30, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Ryan Goins (17) hits an RBI double against Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning at Rogers Centre. Jays beat Tigers 9 – 2. Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports

In the final 10 games of August, Pillar was 16-for-44 for a .364 BA with 2 HR, 4 RBI, 9 R and 2 SB. Over the same span, Goins was 12-for-28 for a .429 BA with 4 RBI, 7 R and a SB. It is worth noting Goins’ fewer number of AB is because he occasionally cedes playing time to Cliff Pennington, but as the left-handed hitter in that platoon, Goins’ playing time is much greater. In fact, Goins has started the team’s last seven games, one of which was against a lefty.

While Pillar struggled in the early part of August, Goins produced during the entire month, hitting .314 over 70 AB with 14 R. Most impressive however was his .442 OBP for the month, which in this lineup is absolute gold. Of course, he followed all that up with a game-winning two-run homer on Tuesday, starting the new month off with a bang.

Pillar, for his part, has shown he is capable of a big month. He posted a .365 BA over 96 AB for the month of June, adding 4 HR, 18 RBI, 13 R and 5 SB, numbers that easily made him a Top 5 fantasy OF for that month. This was obviously an overperformance, but for a starting OF in the most potent offense in baseball, it demonstrates that his ownership rate should be more than the 30% level at which it currently sits. Goins meanwhile, is hovering at around 1% or less.

We can’t expect the Jays to sustain their recent offensive pace all season, and their 4-2 loss to Danny Salazar and the Cleveland Indians on Monday night shows that they can be shut down when facing a strong opposing pitcher. But Toronto’s offensive potency hasn’t been an August flash in the pan. They’ve been tearing through MLB pitching all season, with their 720 runs scored to date putting them 90 runs ahead of the New York Yankees, the majors’ next best offense. With the additions of Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Revere, they’ve only gotten better, as many predicted they would.

They’ll slow down now and again, but they have an excellent chance to lead the majors in runs scored for the month of September. They have seven games against the Baltimore Orioles (a team without a true ace), six against the Boston Red Sox (27th in the majors in team ERA) including a series at Fenway Park, three against the Atlanta Braves (26th in team ERA) and of course, seven games against the Yankees, some of which could turn into outright slugfests.

The next time the Jays hang a 10-spot on their opponent, why not give your fantasy team a chance to be in on all that fun if you don’t have one already? Most of the time it will be the usual suspects leading the charge, but sometimes it’s the 7-8-9 hitters that end up being the ones filling out the boxscore.

There’s a good chance that you might be able to improve on the final OF/Utility or the SS/MI position on your roster heading into September. Give both Pillar and Goins a close look.

It may not be a VIP ticket, but it’s still a way to get into the hottest party in town.

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