2000: David Wells, Carlos Delgado: Blue Jay All-Star Moments!

by Tom Dakers on Jul 10, 2011 6:31 PM EDT in Toronto Blue Jays History

David Wells talking to Derek Jeter at the 2000 All-Star Game

Number 3 on our countdown is the 2000 All-Star game in Turner Field in Atlanta.

We had a pretty good team in 2000, we finished 83-79, in 3rd place, 4.5 games back of the Yankees. We had 3 players named to the 2000 All-Star team: David Wells, Carlos Delgado and Tony Batista.

David Wells: David was back with the Blue Jays after having come up to the majors with the Jays and playing his first 6 seasons with the team. The Jays had traded Roger Clemens to the Yankees for Wells, Homer Bush and Graeme Lloyd before the 1999 season. At the break Wells was 15-2 (!) with a 3.44 ERA in 19 starts. His second half didn't go quite as well, he finished 20-8, 4.11 in 35 starts. In 229.2 innings he had 166 strikeouts and just 31 walks. It was Well's 3rd and last All-Star game. He came in 3rd in Cy Young voting. In those two year with the Jays, he went 37-18.

Wells was named the starting pitcher for the AL and pitched the first 2 scoreless innings. In the first inning, he got Barry Larkin to pop out, gave up a single to Chipper Jones, got Vlad Guerrero to line out and struck out Sammy Sosa. In the second he got Jeff Kent to ground out, Andres Galarraga lined out to left, Jim Edmonds singled and then David struck out Jason Kendall to end the inning.

Carlos Delgado: In 2000 Carlos was having his usual great season. At the break he was hitting .363/.476/.709 with 28 home runs and 80 RBI. He played every game that season, finishing .344/.470/.664 with 41 home runs, 137 RBI and 123 walks. He finished 4 in MVP voting and won the Silver Slugger award. It was his first of two All-Star games.

Carlos came into the game in the bottom of the 4th, taking over for starter Jason Giambi. He hit a 1 out double in the 6th but was stranded at second. In the bottom of the 7th he was replaced at first by Fred McGriff.

Tony Batista: The owner of the most peculiar batting stance that I think I have ever seen Tony was having a good first half of the 2000 season. At the break he was hitting .289/.328/.571 with 24 home runs and 72 RBI. He slowed in the second half, hitting .263/.307/.519 with 51 41 homers and 114 RBI. Pretty decent, even if he didn't get on base all that well. 2000 was the first of 2 All-Star games for Batista.

Batista pinch hit for Troy Glaus in the top of the 9th and struck out swinging against Bob Wickman. He stayed in the game at 3rd base and played the rest of the game.

The AL won the game 6-3, Derek Jeter was the MVP.

Tweet Comment 26 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

“He slowed in the second half, hitting .263/.307/.519 with 51 homers and 114 RBI”

Hey Tom, I wasn’t aware that there was a 50-homer season for a Jay until BAUtista came along. lol ;)

by Adamthebluejay on Jul 10, 2011 6:44 PM EDT reply actions

Typo: 41 HR for Batista – 2.8 WAR as a shortstop.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jul 10, 2011 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

he was at third that year....

by Tom Dakers on Jul 10, 2011 6:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Ah, I forgot he ever played third for the Jays.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jul 10, 2011 7:24 PM EDT up reply actions

I was always curious about his batting stance

I tried it for a bit playing fastball but it didn’t do much for me, you get a good view of the pitcher throwing but I’d lose the ball while closing up to hit it.

by Tom Dakers on Jul 10, 2011 7:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Did you try Ruben Sierra’s too?

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jul 10, 2011 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Fixed...thanks...I need the All-Star break

by Tom Dakers on Jul 10, 2011 6:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Common theme?

His second half didn’t go quite as well

How many times has this phrase (or something similar) been used in these All-Star Moments posts? This is not a criticism of the writing, but more of a question of whether or not the ASG has perhaps been a bit of a curse for Jays players.

by durga2112 on Jul 10, 2011 7:26 PM EDT reply actions

nah...it's more that you have guys getting in the game for having a good first half.

The excuse folks use for voting guys like Jeter in is that they want an ‘All-Star team’ not an ‘All-First Half team’.

by Tom Dakers on Jul 10, 2011 7:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Yep. Guys who are slow out of the gate generally don't make it to the All-Star game, so you don't hear about the ones who turn it up after the break.

@BBBMinorLeaguer

by Minor Leaguer on Jul 11, 2011 12:13 AM EDT up reply actions

I got a warning (again)

What did I do?

Happiness is a long walk with a putter.

by craig in calgary on Jul 10, 2011 8:27 PM EDT reply actions

Being too awesome, don’t worry about it big guy..

"Ask yourself, "What would Ted do?" Then do the opposite."
- Barney Stinson

by Joseph Kirby on Jul 10, 2011 9:02 PM EDT up reply actions

I forgot how good Delgado was.

by Joey P on Jul 10, 2011 9:12 PM EDT reply actions

crazy how

.344/.470/.664 gets you fourth place in the MVP

Choose me, Ash!

by Pikachu on Jul 10, 2011 9:37 PM EDT reply actions

remember it was a massive era for offense

At first glance I thought “wow, Delgado was outhitting 2011 Bautista!” But Delgado mashed when everyone was mashing. Bautista is mashing when no one at all is hitting

WAR... WAR never changes.

by benk on Jul 10, 2011 10:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Like Frank Thomas, Delgado was probably clean.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jul 10, 2011 11:07 PM EDT up reply actions

maybe

TBH, I’d be surprised if anyone in that era (and now, actually) is clean. if steroids do, in fact, grant substantial performance enhancements (there is fairly significant opinion that it does not enhance baseball performance), why wouldn’t everyone be taking them? particularly when there was essentially no disincentive to do so? I know we think Thomas and Delgado were clean, but both are huge guys who hit for lots of power. why not?

basically, I think it’s pretty crazy to assume certain players are clean when we have even less of an idea as to who’s clean than we do to who’s not

WAR... WAR never changes.

by benk on Jul 11, 2011 12:03 AM EDT up reply actions

I did say ‘probably’ clean. There were always some disincentives for taking steroids. Primarily health and morale reasons.

Basically, there is a range of players that goes from John Olerud (most likely clean) to Jose Canseco (definitely not clean). Even Barry Bonds was probably clean for most of his career.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jul 11, 2011 3:14 AM EDT up reply actions

my main issue

is why do you think John Olerud is clean? seems to me most guys who seem above reproach are just guys who seem nice and professional but there’s really no way to know.

WAR... WAR never changes.

by benk on Jul 11, 2011 9:20 AM EDT up reply actions