Originally Posted by bricks (Post 11639811)

The Jays pitching is significantly better.

David Price y'all know is an ace. RA Dickey is pitching as good as a Cy Young pitcher right now. His last 11 of 12 starts, he has given up 3 runs or less in a game.

Buerhle is just Buerhle. An innings eater that will give you quality starts and take you deep in games. And Marco Estrada has been a pleasant surprise. The bullpen is leaps and bounds better. You guys don't know Sanchez and Osuna very well do you? These guys are money so far in the pen and I anticipate that they will be for the rest of the season. In addition, Jays picked up Mark Lowe who is one of the best relief pitchers in baseball and let's not forget LaTroy Hawkins who is no slouch.

Pitching is not going to be a problem anymore.

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho (Post 11639704)

It's like this: :banghead:

It absolutely true that Rios was a much better offensive player in July than Infante. There's literally no stat you can look at to say otherwise, unless you're looking at it incorrectly.

5 hits over a month is the difference between a guy who hits .300 and a guy who hits .240. That's 30 hits over the course of a year. That is a significant difference. (And hits are an antiquated way to evaluate a player, anyway).

Omar Infante posted a sub-.600 OPS in July, just like he has in every month except April (when he put up a whopping .621).

Alex Rios posted a .736 in July. I don't think that's a great month, but that type of performance would create a significant increase in offensive production over a sample size of a few months or a full season, when compared with who Infante was then and of late.

150 points of OPS difference is a significant improvement. That IS "trending so much better."

They're both going to play a lot between now and when Gordon returns. If Rios continues to produce at the solid, slightly above average rate he did in July, he should continue to play. If he slides back and his production looks more like the aggregate of his season, then Infante should play due to his defensive value.