No reason, besides the fact that I always liked Jim Gott - and I can't imagine there will be many other opportunities in my life to 'honour' the Gottfather.  Gary Lavelle had a nice year in '85, and Augie Schmidt never amounted to anything, but I was a little miffed when they traded him.

Six innings? That's a job for a swing man, and of this group Vuckovich and Downs are the only guys who were true swing men, as a Blue Jay anyway. Q was most effective in short stints and not at all as a starter. Gott was a starter here and a closer elsewhere. Johnson and Canditotti were starters, although I suppose Candiotti could have managed.

John Cerutti would have been a reasonable alternative as well. Pete Walker qualifies. The Arizona edition of Miguel Batista...

Tom Candiotti made 34 regular season starts, 2 post-season starts, and zero relief appearances in '91. Colour me confused.

Well, I was thinking that a knuckleballer would be ideal and Candiotti would have no shot at making the All-Time Jays rotation, so he was inserted here as an option. But you're right, he really doesn't fit as the others do, most with the occasional start, the occasional save, and 125 or more innings of relief.

Although, to be fair, it appears 29 of Johnson's 30 TOR appearances were starts, over two years. Not that he's getting any votes ... what, the "I can't believe we traded Jim Acker!" crowd still out there?

If we're looking for six good relief innings, where's 1986 Mark Eichhorn? Brandon Lyon doesn't really make any sense to me either.

I actually think Gott in his time in Toronto would be the most likely to fit this scenario.  He was a closer elsewhere but he was definitely the long man in that pen.  Eichorn just didn't go six innings - if the question was 3 innings then I think he'd be the no brainer answer.

My only choices?  ..dammit.  Before even looking at the list of available long relievers my first choice would be the '90 David Wells.
I picked Gott, but after looking at it I think Vuckovich would be the best pitcher to eat up those long innings.

People might hate me for saying this, but I don't think it really matters. Use whoever you have. If you have no one for the job, use two pitchers. Give people who are not used as often a chance to get 2-3 good innings in. If they fail, well, hey, who cares. I'd even let people who don't normally pitch do so, as long as they aren't trying to injure themselves by overthrowing. I wouldn't mind seeing Rios pitch. haha

Unless it is a very critical game such as a playoff game. Then, I would use good pitchers and just manufacture every inning. Use quick runners, bunts, suicide squeezes, anything I could to get the Jays back in it. It may seem impossible at 11-2, but if you can get back to say 11-8, then it doesn't look like that much of a feat. Especially if you have power in your lineup.

I think  for me it would be a tossup between Vuckovich and Gott . Both went on to pitch effectively for other teams but I would go with Gott for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Gott always seemed to struggle in pressure situations as I recall but he had above average stuff in nonpressure games. Secondly, he also had an A+ sinker if I remember correctly so he was likely to keep the ball in the park and have a lot of ground ball outs. Who was the pitcher when the J's came from behind to beat the Red Sox in Fenway?

If you're down six, why do the relief innings have to be good? The game is lost. Hell, pitch BJ Birdy.

Maybe the question should have been: You're in the playoffs and your starter gets hurt in the first inning. What long reliever do you bring in to get you to the 6th?