The Season That Was: Jo-Jo Reyes
by Tom Dakers on Nov 13, 2011 12:48 PM EST
in Toronto Blue Jays Analysis
Email
PrintJo-Jo Reyes came to us as a throw-in in the Yunel Escobar trade. He had been a 2nd round pick, for the Braves, back in the 2003 draft but he hadn't shown much in the majors. There was a little bit of hope that the Jays could help him find his potential.
Jo-Jo (was a man who thought he was a loner) got a long look in spring training because he was out of options and there was some thought that, if he was put on waivers, someone would pick him up. He didn't look bad in spring games. I saw him pitch against the Yankees and he pretty good. He made the rotation, mostly because he was out of options.
It didn't go well. With the Jays, in 20 starts, he went 5-8, with a 5.40 ERA. In 110 innings he allowed 140 hits, 35 walks and struck out 64. If you are only getting 5 strikeouts per 9 innings you have to be doing a lot of other things right to be of any value. He was finally pick on waivers at the start of August and the Orioles (who will take any former Jay pitcher) picked him up on August 2nd. He didn't do any better with them: 2-3, 6.16 in 9 games, 5 starts.
Fangraphs has him at a 0.7 WAR for the season, worth $3.1 million.
Reyes BABIP was .324. When you are striking guys out you are going to have to have a better average on balls in play to be of any value. His FIP was 4.90 and xFIP was 4.58, a little better than his ERA. He didn't give up a lot of home runs, which helps those numbers.
He gave up line drives 22.3% of the time. Ground balls 40.6%. Fly balls 37.1%. He did get a lot of pop ups, 12.7%.
He had a slightly harder time with RHB (.307/.365/.508) than LHB (.294/.356/.442). But not enough of a split that I'd like him as a LOOGY.
Jo-Jo was a little better on the road (4-6, 4.63) than at home (3-5, 6.50). At Rogers he was 2-3, 5.93.
Jo-Jo by month:
April: 0-2, 5.48 in 5 starts. Batters hit .337/.411/.500.
May: 1-2, 3.35 in 6 starts. Batters hit .274/.327/.411.
June: 2-3, 6.11 in 5 starts. Batters hit .289/.339/.500.
July: 2-1, 8.02 in 4 starts. Batters hit .343/.387/.525.
August: 2-3, 6.66 in 6 games, 5 starts. Batters hit .303/.387/.586.
September: 0-0. 4.26 in 3 relief appearances. Batters hit .250/.308/.333.
August and September were with the Orioles.
His longest win streak was 2 games. Longest losing streak was 4 games. His best game score was a 73, May 20 against the Astros. He went 7 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. His lowest game score? Well, he had a 15 on August 3rd, as an Oriole. His opponent? The Jays. We had 8 hits, 7 earned, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts and 2 homers against him in 2.2 innings. As a Jay? He had a 17 July 22 against the Rangers. 4.1 innings, 8 hits, 8 earned, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 1 homer.
Jo-Jo could only be effective if he was hitting the very bottom of the strike zone (and if the umpire was giving him the calls at the bottom of the zone). If he couldn't keep the ball low there he got hit hard. There really wasn't any room for error. I guess it was worth seeing if Jo-Jo could do the job for us, but I'm hoping that, in the future, we won't be hoping guys like this can do the job. I would have rather watch Kyle Drabek try to figure things out than hope that someone like Jo-Jo could suddenly become a pitcher. With the number of good young arms we have, we shouldn't be needing players like Jo-Jo in the near future. We'll remember him more for going 29 starts between wins than anything else.
24 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
ah
the Summer of Jo-Jo
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
I won't miss watching Jo-Jo Reys get knocked around
But I do find it unfortunate that he was DFA’d just three of four days before the Rasmus trade gutted the pen. I agree with Tom’s comment that his numbers didn’t indicate that he’d make a good LOOGY type, but I would have liked to give him the last two months out of the pen.
If he were just brought in for one inning, or even just selectively for a couple same-handed batters, with max effort, the numbers wouldn’t necessarily be the same. And even if wasn’t very good, he couldn’t have been worse than what guys like Ledezma/Miller/Tallet put up (I still vividly remember the anger from when Tallet blew an extra inning lead against the Orioles in August).
Anyway, it’s hardly the kind of thing to worry about, but I still would have liked to have seen Reyes get the opportunity given that he had to live through 4 months of him in the rotation because he was out of options.
im surprised his ERA wasn’t worse. Average/slightly below average fastball was sadly his only good pitch which he threw right down the middle or up in the zone and his off-speed stuff really sucked. He had no out pitch whatsoever with well below average command.
it would be great for us if he stuck with the orioles
he actually had a slightly plus slider
though who knows if that’s small sample or not. so while it’s always fun to rag on old, bad Jays pitchers, saying his off-speed stuff “really sucked” is just intellectually lazy
which is a bit strange
his slider really wasn’t anything special looking at the pitch f/x. It barely has any horizontal movement and the velocity is pretty meh. Maybe the break was really late? Deception?
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
"intellectually lazy"
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
His stuff wasn't that bad actually
his two-seamer had a lot of horizontal movement and had decent velocity. His changeup also had a lot of break and good. His slider barely broke at all though, and his fastball was really straight.
I don’t think he’s as bad as his numbers show.
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
by Pikachu on Nov 13, 2011 1:44 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I guess it's what you do with the stuff that's important
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
I think he was as bad as his numbers showed.
(if not worse)
by Alan F. on Nov 13, 2011 2:06 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
well
he was better than Brett Cecil, FWIW
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
at least according to FIP
going by xFIP and SIERA, he was about as good as (or better than) Jeremy Hellickson.
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
and good sink*
Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!
Rookie writer at Baseball Canadiana
Twitter? I hardly know her!
There was never any reason to move Rzep to the bullpen before establishing he couldn’t hack it as a starter, especially when those starts were going to someone as mediocre as Jo Jo Reyes.
Twitterin @NorthYorkJays
I don't think it really mattered that Rzep was in the bullpen
Other than maybe if he performed well as a starter his value was would have gone up. I think the Rasmus trade was only made under the assumption that Rzep would start.
he was actually very good as a starter in the Majors though
of course he was good as a reliever; he was good as a starter! I think it was a waste of a probably-good pitcher to convert him to relief
I mean it doesn't really matter now that they didn't use him as a starter in the first half
Unless he had done very well. But it worked out, what with the Cards needing relief pitching.
Pretty sure St Louis is going to try him out as a starter.
argh, I never agreed with the decision to put him in the rotation in lieu of Litsch
so I think I maintained a negative bias toward, even for the 3-4 decent starts he had.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bluebird Banter
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
Baseball Nation Recent Stories
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Giancarlo Stanton busts Marlins Park scoreboard with tape-measure grand slam (VIDEO)
- Baltimore’s tradition of fans shouting ‘O!’ during national anthem sparks interleague feud
- Chris Perez follows rant against Cleveland fans with even better rant against Cleveland fans
- Pitcher Clayton Richard gets key pinch single in 13th after coming in 0 for 16
- Livan Hernandez welcomes ball boy to the bigs with shower of sunflower seeds (VIDEO)
