Buffalo Boy's Blog

Marco Scutaro will man shortstop this season for the Blue Jays. Last year Scutaro was picked up to play a role off the bench and play part-time after success in that role with the Oakland A's. He was a great depth player.

With injuries to Aaron Hill, Lyle Overbay and Scott Rolen we found out that Scutaro could play full time. Not something expected, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that he could contribute both defensively and offensively after having to fill an unexpected role after the Hill concussion.

Scutaro will have help from John McDonald and Joe Inglett throughout the season, both of whom impressed last year defensively and at time offensively. Who knew Joe Inglett would come in and hit close to .300.

So this year, Scutaro knows what to expect, knows that he will be the main guy at short. Though not the best of the bunch defensively, he is probably in there because he is the best bat between himself, McDonald and Inglett.

Look for Scutaro to hit 8-12 HR, .260-.280 batting average, 150-180 hits, 70-80 runs, 60-70 RBI's. If the Jays get that and some solid defense and reliable spot duty from Johnny Mac and Inglett, I think they would consider that a successful year for Scutaro.

In a division filled with the offensive variety of shortstop looking at Scutaro it is easy to question him and the Jays at this position, even if they had to go with Johnny Mac, Cito Gaston has pointed out a few times that the Jays in 92-93 didn't have a power hitting shortstop, they had Manuel Lee the first year with Alfredo Griffin as his backup and Tony Fernandez the second with Alfredo Griffin and Dick Schofield backing him up. Granted that Fernandez was one of the better hitting shortstops for his time, powerwise he was never much better than Scutaro will give in a typical year.

Overall, this should be a strong position for the Jays and Cito is used to not having that heavy hitting shortstop, just be excellent defensively or the lack of offense will be an issue from this position.