Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxmagicman
I am not sure why Joe Carter isn't on the list. He is Mr. Blue Jay to me. And the only person I think of when I try to think of them.
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Possibly because outside of that awesome homerun, he just wasn't all that good. One of the most overrated players I've ever seen. However, I can see how those looking from the outside/in would think of him as The Franchise. Popular? Yes. A guy who warranted 650 PA per season? Absolutely not. Then again who knows if that HR gets hit if he's not a regular?
Stieb was a warrior and the organization's first real homegrown star. He was a bit of a prickly pear to put it mildly, but he put in his time and was hands down the MLB pitcher of the 1980's regardless of what people say about that Jack Morris fellow. He was a trooper for fifteen seasons in two stints with the Jays, whether the team was good or bad, and man there were some bad teams in there. He went 8-8 in his rookie season with a league average ERA on a team that had a 53-109 record for cryin' out loud.
Not bad for a dude who was drafted as an OF on June 6th, 1978 (He was called up to the big leagues barely a year later on June 29th, 1979 after 19 starts, 128 IP, a 12-2 record and a 2.95 ERA with only 1 HR allowed in the minors - that my friends is the very definition of a natural) in the amateur draft and converted to a pitcher at the urgings of Al LaMacchia (RIP, and know that Blue Jays fans and the baseball world in general [except the hitters that had to face him] are eternally grateful for your persistence with Stieb through his pigheaded stubbornness). After all, if LaMacchia hadn't been so persistent, the baseball world would've been deprived of one of the greatest sliders I've ever, ever seen. Video
here,
here, and
here.
Warning: Volume is loud in these clips. Adjust accordingly.
...Filthy, sick, wicked, hellacious, and nasty. I don't think any of the modern arcade style baseball video games could possibly do justice to it. It was utterly ridiculous. So ridiculous, that you wondered if your eyes were working properly when he ripped one off for a big strikeout. "Did I really just see that?" Oh yes lucky Jays fans, you really did. You really did. Dave Stieb fanboy? Guilty as charged, but with very good reason. With any kind of support (sometimes it was run support, sometimes the bullpen imploded, sometimes his fielders betrayed - I know happens to every pitcher, but it seemed to happen to him an extraordinary amount of the time), we'd be talking about a multiple Cy Young Award winner, and a guy who came up just short of the HoF. Unfortunately, the best he ever did in the Cy Young voting was 4th and he fell off the ballot with 1.4% of the vote in 2004.
I'll let the splits (which include his season with the White Sox and his age 40 comeback) do the rest of the talking:
Pitch Count: 101+: .200/.277/.275/.552
Times facing opponent batter as SP:
1st PA: .233/.311/.337/.648
2nd PA: .238/.309/.365/.673
3rd PA: .249/.317/.368/.685
4th+ PA: .238/.304/.359/.664
2 outs RISP: .229/.301/.313/.614
Run Support:
0-2 runs: 19 W 85 L
3-5 runs: 68 W 46 L
6+ runs: 88 W 6 L
Overall vs Batters: .239/.312/.355/.667
The Franchise.
/end of rant