Apparently It’ll Be Mat Latos and Casey Lawrence Filling in for Happ and Sanchez This Weekend

According to Joel Sherman, a baseball columnist with the New York Post and insider with MLB Network, the Blue Jays will use Mat Latos and Casey Lawrence in place of the injured J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez this weekend against the Los Angeles Angels.

Latos has made two stars for the Triple-A Bisons so far this season, allowing three runs (one earned) on seven hits and six walks over nine innings pitched. Lawrence, who’s already been up with the Jays once this season, has made two starts for the Bisons, allowing only one run on five hits and no walks over five innings.

The logic, according to Sherman, is that the Jays want to use the right-handed throwing Latos and Lawrence rather than lefties like Brett Oberholtzer or T.J. House against Anaheim’s righty heavy lineup. Unfortunately, the Angels aren’t really much worse against lefties than righties anyways. For example, C.J. Cron, Kole Calhoun, Yunel Escobar, and Albert Pujols have a wRC+ of 118, 112, 105, and 102 respectively against righties, and 81, 122, 138, and 115 against lefties. And then there’s Mike Trout. He hits everyone.

But hell, the splits don’t matter. The reality is the team is already very, very thin on starting pitching depth, and we’re into the No. 6 and No. 7 starters. It’s going to be bad. It doesn’t matter what way thew throw, when guys like Latos and Lawrence are facing major league hitting, they’re probably going to get hit.

Godspeed to you, Aaron. Godspeed to you, J.A. The team is 2-11 right now. They’re facing last season’s Cy Young winner tonight, another Cy Young talent tomorrow, then they’re going to be relying on two minor leaguers to keep the team from hitting something even lower than rock bottom.