Saturday, August 22, 2009

Wells producing late in the season

It would be easy to chalk up Vernon Wells recent success at the plate (at least relative to the rest of the season) as "Wells being Wells" given the fact that the Blue Jays are now out of playoff contention and that's when he usually heats up. Instead, let's just be happy that Wells has shown some sign of life and (like most years) hope he can carry it over into next season.

Wells came through with a clutch RBI double in the first inning Friday against the Angels, following that up with a solo home run in the 3rd, which proved to be the winning run. This month, V-Dub has cracked three home runs to go along with 12 RBI, one run driven in away from matching his highest output for any one month this season, which came way back in April. In his solid month of August, Wells has hit safely in every game but three, going 19 for 68 for a respectable .279 average.

It's easy to assume this type of month from Vernon is solely because Toronto is out of contention, like his 11 HR, 36 RBI output in the final two months last year, but let's just be content he's producing more like the hitter he should be. In fact, I'd be shocked at the end of the season if we didn't learn of hamstring problems, which kept him out of a good portion of spring training, weren't attributed to his slow start to the campaign.

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