Half way through May and the Blue Jays continue to hover around the .500 mark. An exciting finish to their series versus the Rangers yesterday saw the diamond turn into the octagon. Hopefully this will spark the Jays to get over the .500 hump as they head back home for a three game series against divisional rival Tampa Bay.
Their hitting has been timely at best, but it looks to be coming around, having scored at least five runs in all three games against the Rangers, despite losing the series 2-1. One consistent thing the Jays have been able to rely on is their starting pitching. They have given their team a fighting chance each game and if not for a struggling bullpen this team could easily be 25-14 instead of their current 19-20 record.
We all know the future is bright with Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez, but Marco Estrada is continuing to build on an unexpected, but very much welcomed, highly successful 2015 campaign. He spent the majority of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers until an off-season trade brought him to Toronto in 2015. The Blue Jays traded first basemen Adam Lind for Estrada, and it looks like they won that deal so far.
Drafted 174th in 2005 by Washington out of Long Beach State, Estrada made his debut in 2008 but only pitched in fifteen games, with one start, for the Nationals. In that time, he worked twenty innings with nineteen strikeouts and looked to be a decent pitching prospect for the Nats franchise. However, on January 28th, 2010 they placed him on waivers and six days later he was picked up by Milwaukee.
From 2010-2014 he pitched in 139 games, starting seventy, with the Brew Crew and although his numbers wouldn’t jump off the page for you, looked to be a solid 4/5 arm for their rotation. Over his time in Milwaukee he had a 23-25 record and 5.09 ERA. Although high, he managed to pitch 521.0 innings over his time there and have a near strikeout to walk ratio of 4:1 with 489 Ks to 137 walks.
Last season he joined the Jays and managed to perform well enough in spring training to garner attention for a role in the starting rotation. He appeared in thirty-four games with twenty-eight starts and solidified himself as a more than reliable arm in the middle of the Jays rotation. He worked to a 13-8 record and 3.13 ERA, good for 5th in the American League. Over his 181.0 innings pitched he also managed to strikeout 131 while keeping the opposition to a .203 batting average.
He has carried over the success found in 2015 this season having pitched at least six innings in all but one of his starts. His best 2016 start, in my opinion, came back on May 8th where he pitched seven innings of three hit ball against the Dodgers, striking out eight. He has started this season with an impressive 2.89 ERA and 41 K’s over 43.2 IP.
Marco Estrada looks to be a reliable arm for the Jays to have behind Strochez and if he and Happ can continue to reach beyond expectations, this team may have one of the best rotations in all of baseball. Estrada is also closing in on a career milestone of 700 strikeouts, currently sitting on 680. Jays fans may have been head-scratchers initially after the Lind trade, but that head scratching has quickly turn to hand clapping every time Estrada takes to the mound.
Thank you again for checking out another Blue Jay player profile and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @GHam614 along with @SuperTwo_Sports
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