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The BR game finder is free at the moment so I dug in a bit for silly Jay records.


Boy the game has changed for endurance eh?
  • Most K's as a reliever in a game
    • Jose Nunez on 1987-07-04 came in the 2nd inning and pitched the rest of the game 6 2/3 IP K'ing 9 guys.  Thought he'd become something great at the time.
    • 47 times a reliever had 6+ K's in a game.
    • Most recent 6+ K relief games were last year - Trent Thornton on 2019-09-11 (5 IP), Jacob Waguespack on 2019-05-27 (4 IP 7 K's)
    • 9 of them in the 2000's. 
    • Most impressive: Steve Delabar in 2 IP K'd 6 (0 H 0 BB, 26 pitches 19 strikes - but faced 7 as someone reached base on a 3rd strike passed ball, extra out was grounder 1B-P)
For those curious and wanting to dig in (please post stuff here for fun) go to Baseball Reference.
Fun Jay Stats | 17 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
John Northey - Saturday, April 25 2020 @ 12:33 AM EDT (#387062) #
Just checked WPA: Win Percentage Added.  Only 95 times has a player had over 1 for that (IE: added enough on their own to account for a win and then some but his teammates didn't do so good).
  1. Jose Bautista: 2013-05-22 going 4 for 4 with 2 HR, 1 walk, 1 stolen base.  Home run in the 4th to tie the game, walk & SB in a tie game in the 6th, home run to tie it in the 9th, a two out single to win it in the 10th
  2. Roberto Alomar: 1991-05-10 going 3 for 4 with 2 HR, and 2 BB.  2 out HR to tie it in the 9th, 1 out HR to win it in the 11th.
  3. Kelly Gruber: 1989-06-12 going 5 for 6: 2 out double to win it in the 11th (Jays losing by 1 before that)
  4. Paul Molitor: 1993-05-13 going 2 for 5: Home run in the 6th to move the Jays ahead 2-1, 2 out 2 run double in the bottom of the 9th to win it (trailing by 1 ahead of that)
Surprised Delgado's 4 HR game didn't make it (2003-09-25: biggest play was bottom of the 8th solo HR to put the Jays in the lead), among others. 
Biggest Post Season game was Devon White on 1993-10-20 where he was 3 for 5 (double, triple, walk, SB) - the triple in the 8th to put the Jays ahead was the big one (driving in 2 runs) this was the insane 15-14 game.
James W - Monday, April 27 2020 @ 09:21 AM EDT (#387071) #
It only takes a WPA of 0.5 to "win the game on your own" since every game starts 50/50 and ends 100/0.
John Northey - Monday, April 27 2020 @ 01:25 PM EDT (#387072) #
Well, each win is worth 1.0 so I see a guy going over 1 as a pretty crazy thing.  0.5 happens a lot more often (obviously) but this is a fun way to see some of the biggest impacts of players in a single game. 

193 times pitchers for the Jays have had a 0.5 or greater WPA, never at 1.0 though.
  1. Jesse Jefferson (!) on 1980-05-16 - 11 inning shutout, 1-0 win.  4 BB 4 H 10 K's.  Wow.  0.992 WPA
  2. Jesse Jefferson on 1978-05-23 - 12 innings 2-1 win, 1 ER (HR) 7 H 2 BB 3 SO  0.886 WPA
  3. Roy Halladay on 2003-09-06 - 10 inning shutout 1-0, 3 H 1 BB 5 SO,, 99 pitches 70 for strikes 0.883 WPA
  4. Dave Stieb on 1982-09-16 - 11 innings 2-1 win, 3 H 1 ER (HR) 2 BB 7 SO  0.878 WPA
  5. David Wells on 1999-07-11 - 9 innings 1-0 shutout, 2 H 1 BB 7 SO  0.864 WPA
At #18 we get Victor Cruz on 1978-08-23 in relief 3 2/3 IP 2 H 0 R 4 BB 4 SO, came in with a runner on 3B tie game 1 out bottom of the 9th.  Gave up a double in a tie game in the 10th with no one out and got out of it.
The shortest to get 0.5 WPA was a 1 inning game from Jim Acker on 1984-05-16 - came in with bases loaded none out, 2 run lead.  got a double play (run scores) then a fly out.
mathesond - Wednesday, April 29 2020 @ 03:03 PM EDT (#387074) #
I must be getting old - I have no recollection of the Jays hitting 6 HR in a game they lost 8-6, yet it happened in 2010. EE had 3 of them, which is impressive but not overly surprising. Fred Lewis hitting one, though, that got my attention!
hypobole - Wednesday, April 29 2020 @ 03:31 PM EDT (#387075) #
2010 would have been the year to do that. Jays led MLB with 257 HRs, but finished dead last in singles with 767, 84 singles fewer than the 29th place Rays.
John Northey - Thursday, April 30 2020 @ 04:56 PM EDT (#387079) #
Just hit me, great opportunity to get WAR leaders by position for the Jays...
  • Starting Pitcher
    •  Roger Clemens 1997 11.9 (won pitchers triple crown)
    • Pat Hentgen 1996 8.6 (Cy Young)
    • Roy Halladay 2003 8.1 (Cy Young)
    • Roger Clemens 1998 8.1 (won pitchers triple crown)
    • Dave Stieb 1984 7.9 (two closers came in 1/2 for Cy that year, Stieb was 7th)
    • Dave Stieb 1982 7.6 (4th in Cy despite far more innings, lower ERA, more K's, fewer walks, but 1 less win than the guy who got it)
    • Jimmy Key 1987 7.4 (2nd in Cy, first not to lead league in pitchers WAR)
  • Relief pitcher (all the guys with 3.0+ WAR)
Positions require 81 games at that position to qualify.  Top 3 per position... WAR is at that position only
Fun stuff to look at.  Didn't remember that Rance was a PH for over half his time playing in 1990.  Fernandez really dominates the SS position in Jays history, listed Escobar just to show who else was on the top list. 
John Northey - Thursday, April 30 2020 @ 05:12 PM EDT (#387080) #
For top rookies by position...
Tons at 3B (Brett Lawrie's rookie year was 2nd overall) and 2B (Cavan Biggio was 4th overall) but for some reason no 1B/LF really got much time as a rookie - seems the Jays put those types at DH as rookies then move to 1B (McGriff, Olerud for example) or screw around (Delgado in LF where he got -1.0 dWAR in just 41 games).

Rookie pitchers are a bit easier.
Not a terrible rookie team.  A few spots need improving (1B/LF) but otherwise pretty strong.  2015 sure had a nice rookie pen eh?
mathesond - Thursday, April 30 2020 @ 06:28 PM EDT (#387081) #
I never woulda guessed Polo Scutaro was the single season SS WAR for the Jays.
John Northey - Friday, May 01 2020 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#387083) #
Me either - that was a surprise when I pulled the stats.  Fernandez dominating otherwise wasn't a shock, although I expected Tulo and someone else to be up there.

Scutaro in his big year hit 282/379/409 for a 108 OPS+ and had 2.0 dWAR that year (a drop from his 2.7 the year before).  Funny he was only here 2 years but did very well.  Then went to Boston and made over $10 mil over 2 years, $6 mil from Colorado, then got a killer deal from SF 3 years over $20 mil which they regretted.  He was an All-Star the first full year in SF then played just 5 more games due to back problems.  A shame as his career was going so well in his mid 30's.  With Oakland he was a meh utility guy who had an OPS+ under 90 then with the Jays at 33 he had a 108 OPS+ and was off to the races.  From that 2nd year here to the end of his career he had a 102 OPS+ over 695 games.  26-32 he just had a 87 OPS+ over 696 games.  Weird to have a big jump up at 33 - most have a bigger drop.  This was well after Canseco & Clemens were here so they had nothing to do with it, plus by then testing was in place so he was probably clean and it was just an amazing thing.
Magpie - Tuesday, May 05 2020 @ 06:38 AM EDT (#387087) #
Scutaro's career turned around when Gaston came back in 2008. Someone - I believe it was Gene Tenace - had him make some changes at the plate (they may have just been a matter of his approach). Gaston made him an everyday player for reallly the first time ever in what was a little like a very strange platoon arrangement. With Aaron Hill out for the year and a 33 year old David Eckstein quite obviously not up to playing shortstop on turf, Gaston alternated Inglett at 2b and McDonald at ss, with Scutaro switching positions depending on who was in the lineup that day. Necessity, the mother of many a desperate stratagem.
Mike Green - Tuesday, May 05 2020 @ 11:13 AM EDT (#387088) #
Scutaro's offence improved somewhat upon arrival in Toronto, but his defensive numbers were much better.  Perhaps it was the Butterfield Effect.
Mike Green - Tuesday, May 05 2020 @ 11:16 AM EDT (#387089) #
Blue Jay middle infielders at the time posted some very fine numbers.  It may also have had something to do with Roy Halladay generating a lot of weakly hit ground balls.  The defensive measures at the time focused on location of the ball rather than velocity. 
John Northey - Wednesday, May 06 2020 @ 04:42 PM EDT (#387090) #
Good point Mike.  Got me thinking about defense so before PI is closed by BR and they start charging for it again...
Top defensive WAR by Jay players ever...
  1. Devon White 3.9 1992 (no shock to anyone who was there)
  2. Kevin Pillar 3.0 2015
  3. Orlando Hudson 2.9 2004 (grossly underrated player)
By position....
There have been some amazing defensive players here over the years - with White & Barfield having claims on being among the best ever at their positions.  Best in CF by dWAR is Kevin Kiermaier 2015, with only him, Darin Erstad 4.2 2002; and Andruw Jones 3.9 1998 ahead of Devo.  For RF the best is Mookie Betts 2.7 in 2016 (really should be a CF); Barfields best 2 years were 23/24th best ever his 1988 was 31st best; 1986 32nd - dang he was consistent eh?
John Northey - Wednesday, May 06 2020 @ 04:44 PM EDT (#387091) #
Just had to check - Donaldson's best years defensively were all away from Toronto (2.1 in Oakland 2014, 1.7 in Atlanta 2019).  Here he never cracked 0.1 and actually was -0.1 for his entire time here.  Never would've guessed that.
AWeb - Wednesday, May 06 2020 @ 06:48 PM EDT (#387092) #
Donaldson's defense took the biggest hit of almost anyone during the latest update, which purports to factor in shifting properly and actually assigns defensive value to the team instead of a player. It's very likely his #s were significantly better last time you looked.
Mike Green - Thursday, May 07 2020 @ 12:56 PM EDT (#387093) #
John, I am pretty sure that the outfielder arm stats in the mid 80s were pretty rudimentary.  Barfield not only led the league in assists, but baserunners rarely tested his arm and that part of it, I think, was missed.  He had good range too when he was young. Rios' 2008 was a year in which he played 820 innings in right field and 522 innings in centerfield.  He was, of course, a fully capable defensive centerfielder and his dWAR reflects that- he didn't get as many fielding runs as Barfield in his best year, but he took less of a hit for position.

There's little doubt in mind that Barfield was the better right-fielder and Rios the better centerfielder of the two. 
John Northey - Friday, May 08 2020 @ 12:11 AM EDT (#387094) #
Good point on the difficulty of defensive stats over time - in the 80's much more limited than in the 00's or today.  I bet White would be even more amazing if they had the trajectory and how hard hit balls were back then.  I know the advanced stats in the 80's/90's were very limited (innings instead of games played was the big help then, some estimated balls to a side based on various methods but human error was a big factor when Stats Inc started tracking where balls were hit and how hard - I could've been tracking that stuff but chose not to as I knew I'd miss a lot doing it via TV in the days before PVR, plus the pay was well below $10 an hour iirc).  Alomar is still listed as a negative on defense for most of his prime years (93/94/95 ages 25/26/27) which doesn't pass the eyeball test. 

Barfield seemed to range far and wide and had that killer arm back in the 80's yet never got to 2 wins on defense which again makes zero sense - often those assists were of the toss out at the plate types (removing a run and adding an out) which should be massive pluses.  In 1987 they give him 8 defensive runs saved by his arm - on 16 assists, checking game logs Barfield tossed out 7 at home, 6 at 2B, 2 at 3B (1 was trying to score ran back but not in time, other was an error on the 3B on a Barfield throw), 1 at 1B.  So 7 runs directly saved, an 8th as well for all intents and purposes (each changing a run into an out) and that isn't factoring in how often runners stopped at 3B or the other 8 guys thrown out on the bases.  Yeah, he deserved a lot more credit back then than he got.
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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.