Jays 11, Devil Rays 6: New Kids in Town

Saturday, July 16 2005 @ 08:00 AM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

There's a lot of pressure when you play Tampa Bay. You're supposed to beat Tampa. Losing to Tampa is profoundly discouraging. So, yeah! Good game!

It was a profoundly uninteresting ball game, as was reflected by the Chat, much of which turned to a discussion of which picture of Scarlett Johannsen was the most pleasing to contemplate. As is my wont during Friday Night Chats, I went fishing for Game Report Ideas, having not had an original idea of my own for Quite Some Time now. Rob (also known as "the other Rookie") happily shared some of his research on the worst hitters in Tampa Bay history. This is indeed an interesting subject, but the wealth of available material suggests that it might best be suited for a full length book rather than a Humble Game Report.

I had to absent myself from the Chat for awhile, and just now looking over the log, I came upon the following disturbing exchange:

[20:44]  Hall really really wants to pick off Zaun
[20:44]  Catchers are strange dudes
[20:45]  Kinda like goalies
[20:45]  goalies are complete loons

As an old goalie myself, I'd like to have a word with PaulS. You have to some explaining to do, sir.

Anyway, the score was 10-3 by this time. Or was it 10-5? No one was quite sure. Baseball fans were arguing with one another - we were absorbed, engrossed in a gripping debate, exchanging our views, each arguing for their particular point of view. The clash of minds and wits - you've heard of the Algonquin Round Table? Well, it was nothing like that. But gradually, a consensus emerged, and the consensus was that this

was the one we liked best.

Meanwhile, back at the ball park, Gustavo Chacin was improving his record to 8-5. There are a few items of interest in connection with young Mr Chacin's season that I'd like to share with you.

Gustavo Chacin is putting together one of the finest seasons by a rookie pitcher in team history. Chacin's next start will be his 20th of the season - he hasn't missed a turn, and assuming he's not traded or injured, he should end up making some 30-32 starts this season. Only two Toronto rookies have ever made 30 starts in a season: Jerry Garvin in the inaugural 1977 season, and Phil Huffman in 1979. Garvin and Huffman both lost 18 of those starts: there is no way Chacin is going to duplicate that awful accomplishment. He's already won more games than Huffman, who went 6-18. Garvin, who was 10-18 in 1977, is one of just two rookie Toronto lefties to win 10 games in a season; the other was Jeff Musselman, who went 12-5 in 1987, working almost entirely in relief.

Chacin's season is obviously not the best by a Toronto rookie pitcher - that was Mark Eichhorn's amazing 1986 season - but he has an excellent chance to win more games than any Jays rookie starter, ever, and Eichhorn's overall rookie record of 14 wins is not out of reach. At the moment, the best season by a rookie starter would be Juan Guzman's 1991 campaign - Guzman was only called up in early June of that year, after Dave Stieb was injured. He made 23 starts, and the last of those was a 3 inning tuneup for the playoffs. Still Guzman and Garvin are the only rookie starters to win 10 games in a season. Chacin looks pretty likely to be the third.

And so - it's not a scientific ranking, by any stretch of the imagination. But here are the best seasons by Blue Jays rookie pitchers. And no, I didn't forget Jimmy Key. It just wasn't that great a year...

Player              Age  G  ERA  W  L  SV  GS  CG SHO IPT    HIT  R   ER BB HR  SO  BFP  ERA+
Mark Eichhorn 1986   25 69 1.72 14  6  10   0   0   0 157.0  105  32  30 45  8 166  612  246
Juan Guzman 1991     24 23 2.99 10  3   0  23   0   1 138.7   98  53  46 66  6 123  574  142
Mike Timlin 1991     25 63 3.16 11  6   3   3   0   0 108.3   94  43  38 50  6  85  463  134
Billy Koch 1999      24 56 3.39  0  5  31   0   0   0  63.7   55  26  24 30  5  57  272  145
Roy Halladay 1999    22 36 3.92  8  7   1  18   1   1 149.3  156  76  65 79 19  82  668  126
Duane Ward 1988      24 64 3.30  9  3  15   0   0   0 111.7  101  46  41 60  5  91  487  119
Bob File 2001        24 60 3.27  5  3   0   0   0   0  74.3   57  28  27 29  6  38  299  145
Aquilino Lopez 2003  28 72 3.42  1  3  14   0   0   0  73.7   58  31  28 34  5  64  316  138
Kelvim Escobar 1997  21 27 2.90  3  2  14   0   0   0  31.0   28  12  10 19  1  36  139  159
Victor Cruz 1978     20 32 1.71  7  3   9   0   0   0  47.3   28  10   9 35  0  51  199  230
Jeff Musselman 1987  24 68 4.15 12  5   3   1   0   0  89.0   75  43  41 54  7  54  381  109
Darren Hall 1994     29 30 3.41  2  3  17   0   0   0  31.7   26  12  12 14  3  28  131  141
David Bush 2004      24 16 3.69  5  4   0  16   1   1  97.7   95  47  40 25 11  64  412  132
John Cerutti 1986    26 34 4.15  9  4   1  20   2   1 145.3  150  73  67 47 25  89  616  102
Dave Stieb 1979      21 18 4.31  8  8   0  18   7   1 129.3  139  70  62 48 11  52  563  101
Jerry Garvin 1977    21 34 4.19 10 18   0  34  12   1 244.7  247 127 114 85 33 127 1046  100

And now I know what to do next Friday night! Aaron Hill, and the rookie hitters...

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