I got a bad case of loving you.
The Jays are now 24-4 when Halladay starts the game after a loss... He is, and ever shall be, the Stopper.
On that occasion, back in June 2005, I was thinking about other Blue Jays pitching very fine games, getting no run support, and taking a tough Loss. Which has nothing to do with Doc, because:
When Roy Halladay's team doesn't give him much in the way of offense, Doc hangs a Tough Loss on the other guy.
That's who he is, that's what he does.
I got a bad case...
Anyway, that was career win #97 - four Blue Jays have made it past 100 (Stieb, Clancy, Key, Hentgen). With a normal healthy season, he'll pass Hentgen... nah, let's not go there. I will say that his next start will be his 195th as a Jay, tying him for fifth place with Juan Guzman. His 25th career complete game moves him into a tie (with Alexander and Lemanczyk) for sixth on the franchise leader board, two behind Luis Leal. He needs one shutout to catch Hentgen, two to catch Key, and three to catch Clancy, who is second overall. Probably won't happen this year. (Stieb is way off in the distance, with the same number of shutouts as Clancy, Hentgen, and Key combined.)
OK, some Other Stuff -
This Would Have Been Cool, Dept. If necessary, Josh Towers ("our fastest pitcher") would have been used as a pinch runner....
Otto Remembers: Velez was on the radio reminiscing with his old teammate Ashby about getting in trouble with Roy Hartsfield for drinking in the hotel bar. It was Hartsfield's policy not to allow his players to drink in the hotel bar because "that's where I drink." Many managers have the same rule and for the same reason. I'm sure that managing that team would have sent poor Roy there on a regular basis... unless he was made of far stronger stuff than ordinary mortals.
Roster Construction, Revisited: I would expect Adam Lind to be the starting LF today, tomorrow, and pretty well
every day for at least the next two weeks, or whenever Sparky comes off
the DL. The Matt Stairs Experience should now come to a halt, and his
outfielder's glove can be safely stowed in the same place they keep All
Things We Never Want to See Again.
It's not the most impressive bit of roster construction, is it? And if
you're bound and determined to carry a four man bench, and all modern
baseball teams do seem to have decided to plunge blindly off the cliff
into that abyss... well, you need players that provide a little
flexibility. Tony LaRussa, the Mad Genius (just ask him!) who kicked
off this whole era of seven-man bullpens, always had a couple of
multi-position guys around. It was the only way the whole
thing ever could have worked for him. The rest of the baseball world seems to have
largely overlooked that part of the equation.
I was always the Dude's Advocate, I am proud to say, and it was often a lonely and unrewarding task... but I think if I shouted "Come home,
Eric Hinske, we miss you!" I wouldn't be singing solo anymore - a mighty,
swelling chorus would fill the land. A left-handed bat, who can play two infield spots, two outfield spots, pinch run, pinch hit... worth every penny in the era of the four man bench.
I do think the notion that having Frank Thomas is a problem, not because of Frank, but because it means you
can't rest Glaus by having him DH... I'm not sure that really matters. Glaus
seems to be aggravating his physical problems by running the bases, and there's no getting out of that. He did lots and lots of base-running on Monday, of course, and he came out of Wednesday's game after a desperate, if futile, attempt to beat out a double play
grounder. In those two games (it was just eight innings between the two
of them), there wasn't a single ground ball hit in his vicinity.
Lind's defensive reputation suggests that he may at least be close to competent, if not
quite there. If so, he'll be a huge upgrade. I feel somewhat sorry for
Matt Stairs, because it's got to be a little humiliating being called
upon to do something you are not remotely qualified to do. The man was
a bad outfielder when he was 29 years old - why on earth would it occur
to anyone that he might be OK this year, now that another 10 years have gone by.
That said, he's been unbelievable. And he knows it, too - he knows he's
hurting the team and it's only making it worse, because now he's getting
tentative out there. With his wheels, he can't afford that.
But in three games, at a minimum, four balls that probably would have
been outs became base hits. That's an enormous swing for a single
defensive player - it's comparable to the difference between having
Ozzie Smith in his prime playing shortstop and... oh, I don't know...
not Jeter, considerably worse than that... Troy Glaus with his sore
heel?
To get that kind of defensive impact from a left-fielder is barely conceivable (although the extremely small sample size has much to do with it.)
So just what they were smoking around the office when they decided that
Stairs would be a perfectly useful fourth outfielder, and where can I
get some?
All right then - today it's A.J. against Chad Durbin, and tomorrow Josh Towers makes his second start, facing the Official Poster Boy of the Detroit Advance Scout.
Alex, you got some 'splainin' to do...
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