Second Sweep in a Row

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 4:50 PM EDT in Game Recaps

An eight game win streak! I know, it would be better if we were in a race but winning is much more fun than losing. And we beat Matt Garza! And we equaled our season high for runs against him! We are in third for a bit anyway, till the end of the Yankees-Mariners game. Go Mariners...Yankees are up 2-0 at the moment, man the M's suck.

Purcey was terrific. 8 innings, 6 hits, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. I think we have a rotation member for next season. He did load the bases with 2 out in the 8th and I thought he should have been pulled at that point, especially since he walked Pena a lefty batter and was facing Rocco a righty. But he got Baldelli to fly out to Lind. Cy looked strong getting the save. And they are our Jays of the Day, Purcey with a .596 WPA and Cy with a .168. No Suckage Jay today.

We got all the offense we needed off a sac fly by Rod scoring Lind. We only managed 6 hits and a walk off Garza. Tomorrow we get to play spoiler against another contender, heading to Chicago to play the White Sox. AJ (16-10, 4.47) vs. Javier Vazquez 11-12, 4.34), an old favorite of mine from when he was an Expo.

I'm attaching a poll for people to vote for the title of the 'Suckage Jay' Award, reliever division. For the batters we are honoring Eric Hinske, by naming the award after him.

Folks....if you are going to vote someone else, let us know who the someone else is in the comments section. If make a good argument we'll add your choice into the poll.

Poll

Who should we name the reliever Suckage Jay award after?

Miguel Batista

13 votes

Dennis Lamp

1 votes

Joey McLaughlin

4 votes

Someone Else? Use the comments area to explain.

4 votes

22 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 31 comments

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Comments

Streak

We’re still in the running – stranger things have happened

by gordiek on Sep 7, 2008 5:42 PM EDT 0 recs

They have but........

It would take a heck of a run. I just want them to finish ahead of the Yankees at the moment.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 6:47 PM EDT up 0 recs

Just looked....M's beat the Yankees today....We are Third!!

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 6:50 PM EDT 0 recs

w00t!

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 7, 2008 6:50 PM EDT up 0 recs

had to take off right after the game

to take my daughter to the park, but what a streak!

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 7, 2008 6:53 PM EDT 0 recs

Things are good.....a little late but might as well enjoy.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 6:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

Hold on, I thought it was already renamed the Eric Hinske Award.

What did I miss?

Remember when we were kids and we mixed sodas together and called them "suicides"? It was OK though, because Dr. Pepper was always there.

by bs.uf15bosox9bears23 on Sep 7, 2008 8:46 PM EDT 0 recs

The Hinske award is for hitters

This is the one for relievers.

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 7, 2008 8:50 PM EDT up 0 recs

Then we need one for the Starters....

Presuming a starter ever has a bad start for us again….We do have two games next Sunday. Someone will have to make a spot start.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 8:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

If you're voting Batista

Sure, he was mediocre, but he was only -0.82 WPA in 2005. Lamp was -2.08 in ‘84 and -2.55 in ’86; McLaughlin was -3.23 in ’83. Don’t let Batista’s novelty distract you from what true suckage is like.

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 7, 2008 8:55 PM EDT 0 recs

if you followed through on this logic, though

we’d arguably have to name the starting pitcher award after Doc, since his 2000 was one of the worst years ever for a starting pitcher in major league history. An argument could still be made for Towers, but not a very strong one. so you can’t just go by one awful season with no context.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 7, 2008 10:13 PM EDT up 0 recs

We'll have to come up with a list of starters to vote on

I voted for Lamp because he was a big signing and if he had done what he was supposed to we might have made the playoffs in 84.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 10:28 PM EDT up 0 recs

Joey and Batista were bad on teams that were going nowhere.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 10:30 PM EDT up 0 recs

Doc's career WPA for the Jays is pretty good though

What reliever’s Jay career was the most Hinske-esque?

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 8, 2008 4:15 AM EDT up 0 recs

now that's a question I can get behind

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 8, 2008 6:52 AM EDT up 0 recs

Didn't Lamp have a good season for us?

that’s how I remember it…..

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 8:58 PM EDT 0 recs

Looked it up....

Lamp was 11-0 in 85….but hit other two seasons with us just sucked. The other point in Lamp’s favor, he was a big free agent signing.

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 9:04 PM EDT up 0 recs

Interesting that he managed 11 wins in relief in one season

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 7, 2008 9:29 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think, if I remember right, he was in long relief that season....

came in in games that were tied or down by a run. Really did pitch well that year, but got lots of luck too

by rincewind on Sep 7, 2008 9:36 PM EDT up 0 recs

McLaughlin had a good and an okay season too

but his bad one was epic

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 7, 2008 9:31 PM EDT up 0 recs

I vote for Jeff Tam

He was only here for one year, but that one year was awful. I cringed every time they brought him in the game

by jay_tee_slash on Sep 8, 2008 7:09 AM EDT 0 recs

Now there is a name I don't even remember.....

Signed as a free agent for $600,000 for the 2003 season he was 0-4, 1 save in 44 games, 5.64 ERA and released after the season. Signed with Colorado after that but didn’t play in the majors. Likely JP signed him because he had been with Oakland before that and had been a pretty good reliever for them.

He pitched in one game in the ALDS in each of 2000 and 2001 for Oakland and took the lost in each game. A point in his favor, for this poll, is that Jason Frasor is hign up on his Similarity Score list.

by rincewind on Sep 8, 2008 9:09 AM EDT up 0 recs

off-topic,

but do you think we will offer Frasor arbitration? on one hand, he seems like the odd man out of this bullpen, but on the other, isn’t he a little too good to just let go for nothing?

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 8, 2008 9:20 AM EDT up 0 recs

I don't think we will....

Shouldn’t really second guess JP but I can’t see us wanting to give up arbitration numbers for him, when Cito rarely seems to remember he’s part of the team and with Accardo and Janssen back next year.

by rincewind on Sep 8, 2008 9:39 AM EDT up 0 recs

Too good to let go for nothing

not good enough to pay arbitration money. Obvious trade candidate?

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 8, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yeah I'd like to see him traded......

But not sure if any other team would want to pay him arbitration dollars either.

by rincewind on Sep 8, 2008 5:17 PM EDT up 0 recs

In terms of WPA

Cliff Politte was worse the same year.

"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"

by Torgen on Sep 8, 2008 2:00 PM EDT up 0 recs

I would guess Tam wouldn't get the high leverage moments.

Politte…..now there is a name that should have gone on our poll

by rincewind on Sep 8, 2008 5:31 PM EDT up 0 recs

This Site...

…really likes to rip on The Dude. Why?

Hinske never measured up to that first season (although he’s doing a pretty good job for the Rays this year), but I’m not sure why he gets crucified the way he does. Other than one really bad year (2004), he was better than most people give him credit for, and I think he got unfairly run out of town, while other lesser lights (see MacDonald, John and Scutaro, Marco) get deified for significantly worse numbers.

by Jevant on Sep 8, 2008 4:04 PM EDT 0 recs

Hmmmm honest till now I don't think I've mentioned him much on the site....

He just came up in the game thread the other day and it was fairly quickly decided the Suckage Award should be named after him. Other than this, I doubt I’ve ripped him at all, mostly cause I don’t care that much about him. He likely gets talked about more as a rip on JP for paying him big money after the one decent season.

Mac is likes for his defense, Scoot….well someone complained just last week that I slagged him too much, mostly because I hate giving up that much offense at 3B and I’d rather have Mac’s glove at short.

by rincewind on Sep 8, 2008 5:30 PM EDT up 0 recs

funny

I actually got ripped for complaining about it when we traded Hinske. He played badly for the Red Sox, making it a non-issue, but I didn’t like that trade at all.

I think the problem with the whole Hinske thing was we signed him to the big deal a little prematurely, a large chunk of a small payroll, and then he never measured up. He never played up to the expectations that fans had based on his contract and his rookie season.

I can’t speak to other sites, but we’re definitely not Scoot fans here – and as for Mac, I enjoy his D as a former SS myself, but, every season, we come up with a long list of people we’d rather have at SS. I do think we’re wasting Mac by using a defensive replacement in the least important defensive position on the field, for one of our best hitters, and not using Mac as a defensive replacement in the most important defensive position on the field, for our worst hitter.

But you’re definitely right that Hinske is far from the worst offensive player we’ve ever had.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Sep 8, 2008 6:04 PM EDT up 0 recs