Friday, May 8, 2009

Robert Ray decent in 2 big league starts

Rookie Robert Ray has done an admirable job filling in for a patch work Jays starting rotation. The 2005 7th round pick has been pretty solid in both of his outings, Saturday against Baltimore and Thursday versus Los Angeles.

If you just look at his stat line, the start tonight against the Halos makes it seem like he was rather poor; 6.1 innings, 5 earned runs, 10 hits, 4 strikeouts, with 0 walks. However, the 25 year old looked the part, staying around the strike zone, very rarely working himself into jams.

Ray doesn't have overpowering stuff, but he knows how to change locations and mix speeds rather effectively. He's certainly done pretty well in both contests, giving the Jays a chance to win. J.P. Ricciardi has said Ray shouldn't even be pitching yet in the major leagues, playing due to necessity with all the injuries to the pitching staff. The big righty has been fine and projects to potentially be a back end member of the starting rotation within a few years with the Jays.