I'll never forget that day in Toronto when Phelps hit two homeruns off Roger Clemens. One of those shots was perhaps the hardest hit ball I've seen in person.

Josh has a long swing and will always strikeout some. It's curious, but his problem this year hasn't been strikeouts, at least not relative to the norms he established in 2002/2003. The problems (as detailed in another thread) have been ground balls. Lots and lots of ground balls.

Josh is not the kind of player who should be hitting lots of ground balls. If he starts to hit more fly balls with the Indians, then we'll know that he's corrected whatever problem or problems Mike Barnett was not able to help him with.

Good luck in your new major league home, Josh.

The other obvious memory of Phelps is the series against Seattle earlier this year. He had 13 RBIs in the series, setting a Blue Jays record. The most memorable 4 of the series came off Julio Mateo in the 6th inning of game 2, when Phelps launched a grand slam into the fifth deck. Phelps had hit a homer in the previous inning off Travis Blakely, and would hit a rare triple the next game off Ryan Franklin. Over the series he went 6 for 9 with a HBP and 3 BB. His line for the series was .667/.769/1.308. That's a very impressive .673 GPA for the series. Rarely has a Blue Jay swung such a hot bat for a three game stretch.

Everything Josh did in 2002 was great. He certainly made me look good in my former role as ESPN fantasy correspondent; the following was from June 26 that year, about a week before his callup.

He's at 23 dingers and counting, J.P., with 59 RBI, .282 AVG, 1.016 OPS. You have a C rotation of Tom Wilson, Ken Huckaby and Darrin Fletcher combining to "hit" .200 with very sporadic power. Please explain... and while you're at it, let me know which parts of Orlando Hudson's game are NOT vastly superior to the limited skills of Joe Lawrence, your current embarrassment at 2B. Hudson is at .312-9-33 with 7 SB and great plate discipline -- 29 BB, 40 K -- and is renowned for the vitality and energy he brings to his teams. I have begun to pick up both Phelps and Hudson, in AL leagues where I have available spots and in deep MLB leagues.

Needless to say, Josh's .309-15-58 second half helped me (and those readers who bothered to take my advice) quite a bit. Since then, I've made quite a few excuses for Phelps, bemoaned his lack of playing time in 2003, then gradually accepted his inability to adjust to what righthanders are throwing him this year. Those weaknesses might not be permanent -- maybe he'll become an everyday DH again. No matter what happens the rest of his career, I'll always be a Phelps fan.

I remember the year Phelps had a cup of coffee with the big club at the end of some season or other, and got into a game as the starting catcher. Buck Martinez, still a broadcaster at the time, said it was the best-caught game the Jays had all year.

I truly do think the Jays will eventually bemoan this trade when Phelps figures things out. It just takes time for some people and it doesn't help if they don't get playing time. And don't forget, Phelps was the Jays' RBI leader and he wasn't playing everyday and he was near the bottom of the order with no protection behind him. I just hope the Indians can find room for Phelps with Hafner and Broussard on the roster.

That towering fifth-deck shot combined with my near-death experience the next day while hanging the giant number 17 where it hit will forever seal Josh in my Blue Jays memories. Good luck with the Indians, Josh -- I know a lot of us will be paying more attention to their games now.

A power hitter who understands game theory! What could be closer to the heart of a failed mathematician/baseball fan?

I wish Josh well, and I know that the odds are in his favor.

Actually my favourite Phelps memory comes from his game in Boston in 2002 in which he hit two monster drives (one into and one over the bullbpen in right centre) off perhaps my least favourite player of all time - John Burkett. Both homeruns were crushed. I don't know whether he'll regain his stroke or not but I wouldn't be the least bit surpised to wake up one day in Sept. '07 and see Phelps' name leading the AL in HR's.

At the very least Phelps will be a lefty masher with big time power. That's not necessarily easy to find so if Crozier doesn't work out, even losing just a platoon power hitter would be a significant blow. Josh has the type of power where he can hit it out "easily" to centerfield.

Is this season's performance versus righties his true performance level or is he just stuck in some kind of mechanical rut which they weren't able to fix? I guess we'll find out and Cleveland did well trading a guy they probably wouldn't use with Aubrey coming and getting a high reward type gamble.

I still think no matter how discouraged the Jays got with Phelps when he wasn't going well that if they just left him in for 500 at bats hitting sixth or so he would easily clear 30 homers and 100 rbi. There would be a lot of empty whiffs along the way but that has to be better than seeing Gomez play first base against lefties leaving the power plant on the bench.

Phelp's power is how most people will think of him, he was also really intelligent, which might have been part of his problem, as Yogi once said, "you can't hit and think at the same time"

Like many other people, my favourite Phelps memories come from 2002. When he first came up, if I had the game on TV in the background, I'd stop what I was doing to watch Phelps's at-bats, because he was quite likely to hit a baseball an extremely long distance.

I wish him well, and hope that he turns it around.

At the very least Phelps will be a lefty masher with big time power. That's not necessarily easy to find

Actually, it's not that hard at all to find these sorts of guys. It's how Tom Wilson, Doug Mirabelli, Jason Michaels and Frank Menechino have careers at all. I'm not happy to see Josh go but it's not as if he was difficult to replace if, in fact, his destined level of performance is what he's putting up now. Phelps may turn it around one day, and become that 45-HR threat everyone thought he would be, but it doesn't necessarily mean he would have done it here. Sometimes, guys just need a change of scenery in order to tweak whatever it is inside that will be the key to success.

My favorite Phelpsian memory is Box related - my intro to this website was a discussion on whether or not Phelps should catch in 2003.

Good luck to Josh.

Like NFH and Thomas, I was quite impressed with the slam against Seattle - my dinner mate was staring at me quite oddly when I yelped upon seeing the blast on the bar TV.

Plus, I have a fondness for any Jay named 'Josh' or wears number 17 (my birthday :). Phelps could hardly have been my more fav Jay in that regard.

Its a shame that he hasnt been able to capitalize on the promise he showed in '02. I hope he does well in Cleveland.

I was also fortunate to see Phelps upper deck blast against Seattle in person. I also remember Phelps hitting a titanic blast into the fountain in K.C. in August of 2002. My other fond Phelps memory was Labour Day Monday last year when he homered to help beat David Wells and the Yankees. If the Indians get him straigthened around, letting Phelps go could be turn out to be a big mistake as letting Cecil Fielder go to Japan before he went to Detroit.

I will always remember Josh, and so will my sons.

At the end of May last year, Josh was the first player to be at a car dealership for an autograph session. My boys (then 7 & 8) were quite a bit in awe of him, as they had never met a Blue Jay before.

Josh was great with them, crouching down to their level and just talking about baseball. He was an obviously intelligent young man and was very personable with all the fans that showed up.

I have a couple of pictures of that - if anyone wants to post them, COMN and send me an e-mail, cuz I don't know how.

I understand why the trade was made - I think the main reason being, as JP said, the Jays might have to pay Josh up to $1M next year for uncertain production. I do still have a lingering feeling that he should have been given more of a chance and not have been benched so often this year, during a season that was clearly going nowhere anyway. That feeling includes the suspicion that, with a different hitting coach, Josh may very well fulfill his early promise, but sadly for another team.

My younger son in particular was upset by the trade - in April I bought him a new jacket that happened to have "17" on the back. He had hand-lettered "Phelps" above the number and now wants to know if its still OK to wear the coat.

My boys and I wish Josh all the best.

http://me.woot.net
GregH sent me his pictures; they're below. Click on them if you want to see the full-sized version.

The first two are Josh with Doug Farraway from the Fan 590. The next is Josh with GregH's boys, and the last is just for fun. All four pictures were taken on May 31, 2003.

I met Josh Phelps in Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant and he signed my hat on Thursday August 26 2004 when my dad and I went to go see the game. After he signed my hat he told me I could go down to meet the guys. When I got home the next day I found out that he was traded to Cleveland. Josh, if your reading this I would like to thank you for the autograph.