Late in a game with an outcome no longer in doubt, David Purcey emerged from the Jays bullpen to mop up against the stellar Rays of Tampa. Sure, the Rays looked like they needed to catch a bus, but hey, his stuff was good. Purcey missed some bats, threw some smoke and generally did his bit to end the game in respectable time.
Glancing quickly at the Gameday Pitch F/X data, it looks like Purcey might messed around with this change and curve again; getting away from the streamlined approach that afforded him so much success in the spring.
Please Cito; use this fine two inning performance as a springboard to higher leveraged appearances. A little at a time, like Brandon League last year. Give Purcey a change to earn your trust and a chance to get used to warming up in a hurry or whatever magic spell relievers use to be effective 4 out of 5 days.
Bandit Auditions
As someone who lives blogs a few games a month, I can say the 2010 Jays are a god send. Not only do they seem to play a lot of close games, they do it in a hurry. The Jays reckless offensive abandon coupled with their pitching and
According to Baseball Reference and my sweet Excel skills, the average Jays game in 2010 checks in around 2 hours and 49 minutes. While not the brisk pace of a popless NL West tilt, it is down from 3:01 last year, according to Joe Posnanski.
What does it mean? Not much, other than an extra quarter hour to spend waiting for the other Clarence shoe to drTOO LATE.
Props re Purcey. I was considering the same proposition but figured maybe it was too soon...
ReplyDeleteUltimately, nothing would be more satisfying to me than if he blossomed into a solid closer for the next few years.
Odd quote from Cito...
ReplyDelete"Purcey pitched well for the second night in a row," Gaston said. "He was able to give the bullpen a little bit of a rest, which was good."
Is Purcey not a part of the bullpen? Just strange wording maybe, but I guess I took it as an indication of how Cito sees things out there (i.e. Purcey is just a mop up guy still).
Christ. That's why I avoid the gamers mostly, Clarence says stuff like that and it boils my blood.
ReplyDelete94 MPH fastball - check.
ReplyDeleteDeadly slider - check.
Sounds like all the makings of a closer to me!
So, that's it, the other shoe has officially dropped? It took three games?
ReplyDeleteWhat shoe?
ReplyDeleteI think with Purcey the main thing is to build his confidence after repeated poor showings-as a starter. I'm ok with his bullpen progression a d would love to see him close at some point.
ReplyDelete