What's the Towers Award?

by vann0308 on Sep 4, 2010 8:11 PM EDT

So what's the Towers Award I keep on seeing? And since I'm new, I'll introduce myself here too (:

Name: Vanis
Location: Vancouver BC
Favourite Current Jay: Jose Bautista
Favourite All-Time Jay: Roy Halladay
Favourite Non-Jay: Roy Halladay
When Not Bluebird Bantering, I: play Baseball Mogul, play soccer and street hockey, shoot hoops, and watch the Canucks.
Major Leaguer My Little League Career Most Resembled: John McDonald; I couldn't hit at all, but I was amazing on defense.

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Bad pitcher award...its like the "Anti Cy Young for a Day" award.

I'm thinking that when the Leafs win the Cup, I'll lose my drinking problem.

by leafsfan4life94 on Sep 4, 2010 8:27 PM EDT reply actions

And the winner is.....

Brian Tallet

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by Schenn4captain on Sep 4, 2010 8:45 PM EDT reply actions

the Towers award is only for the starter

a reliever gets the Batista.

"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 4, 2010 8:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks (:

by vann0308 on Sep 4, 2010 10:13 PM EDT up reply actions

welcome, by the way!

great to have you aboard!

"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 4, 2010 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I wonder if the Batista award should be renamed the Tallet award in the upcoming years since Batista will be a faded memory for a lot of newcomers next year when this team does well. It is hard to believe we havn’t really had brutal pitchers since Towers/Batista that lasted long enough to earn the status. Tallet is the only one I can think of currently.

by Joey P on Sep 5, 2010 7:18 PM EDT reply actions

all the more reason to keep the Batista

and tell the real dyed-in-the-wool fans from the JohnnyG-come-latelys

"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 5, 2010 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, stupid new guys…… Hey wait!

Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...

by JohnnyG on Sep 5, 2010 8:03 PM EDT up reply actions

New award names:

Towers – Tallet
Batista – Oh I dunno, Billy Koch?
Hinske – easy one, The Millar.

I’d also include a defensive Suckage award. If someone makes a game changing error, I’d give him an E5.

by craig in calgary on Sep 6, 2010 1:26 AM EDT reply actions

Millar

lol he wasn’t that bad, good clubhouse guy :)

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by Schenn4captain on Sep 7, 2010 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Not sure if you read the recent Griff piece but Millar was basically King Douche and everyone hated him.

by handknit on Sep 10, 2010 2:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I think these suckage awards if they’re going to be named after Jays players, then it should be for guys who had absolutely no success with us, just disasters. So with that in mind, think it would be unfair to besmirch Tallent with such an award, as he’s had good seasons for us in the past. Same goes for Billy Koch. No objection to Millar – that could be the award for bad veteran/journeyman acquisitions.

by jabalong on Sep 7, 2010 9:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Batista was decent for one year

4.1 ERA (109+), 6.6 K/9 3.3 BB/9, 31 saves out of the pen

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by boo15749 on Sep 10, 2010 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions

though

i’ll never forget him giving up a three-run shot with a two-run lead on an 0-2 pitch with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth at a game i went to. that one stung.

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by boo15749 on Sep 10, 2010 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Those aren’t that great for a closer. He had 8 blown saves as well. His WHIP wasn’t great either.

FWIW, he accumulated .4 WAR that year according to fangraphs, Henke earned 3.4 in his best year.

by siggian on Sep 10, 2010 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Towers was not that bad

Considering he had absolutely nothing in terms of stuff and still managed to gain 1.1 WAR in 04 and 2.9 WAR (!) in 05 (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/towerjo01.shtml). I know he was all smoke and mirrors, but he managed to make his act last 2 years before imploding to a -2 WAR in 06.

So yes, he really sucked hard in 06, but he was good the previous 2 years.

by siggian on Sep 8, 2010 9:31 AM EDT reply actions

Looking over those stats, his 2005 was unreal

The question needs to be asked?

by T_Mizz on Sep 8, 2010 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Nah

Towers was a classic control pitcher. He actually had decent enough stuff; bit of a nasty slider, good change. He really suffered two big problems. One, his fastball went from around 91-92 mph to about 87 mph over a five year period, and two, he was easy to rattle. He’d be dominant for five innings, give up a bloop single, and then just meltdown. He also never got over trying to hork a high heater past the batter for a strike when behind in the count, which you can’t get away with at his velocity.

If Towers had ever found the mental game to go along with his control, he’d have been a solid back of the rotation guy.

by dexfarkin on Sep 9, 2010 9:20 AM EDT up reply actions

I wasn't serious, but upon further review it was his contract year and the next season he got 2.4 to be one of the worst Jays pitchers in recent memory

Also Marcum gets away with the high fastball, looking at the highlights from the last time he pitched there were a few times that he got a K from an 87 MPH high fastball. Granted his changeup is apparently one of the 3 best pitches thrown in MLB. But he’s evidence that it can be done.

by T_Mizz on Sep 9, 2010 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions

Marcum’s changeup is really really good, which is why he can throw the high heat and get away with it. Also, I never remember him throwing it behind in the count, which is when a hitter is sitting on a fastball.

See, I liked Towers. He was that classic underdog kind of guy that you wanted to root for. I really do think if he’d learned the kind of poise under pressure that he needed, he would have been a very solid dependable 10 win/4ish ERA 4-5 starter for a long time.

by dexfarkin on Sep 9, 2010 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions

My impression on Towers was that he had marginal stuff but amazing ability to put the ball just on the outside corners. Once the league stopped swinging at his pitches and started to force him a bit more inside, his show was over.

by siggian on Sep 10, 2010 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions