RIP Joe Grzenda, 1937-2019

[G-Fafif]

1967 Met for 11 games, every one of them a loss.



Yet he surely deserves a thread of his own.

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://www.citizensvoice.com/sports/grzenda-was-part-of-major-league-baseball-lore-1.2508197Obituary from The Citizen's Voice

[MFS62]

He threw "every day"?

He could have made a comeback. Mickey would have used him that way.

RIP.

Later

[G-Fafif]

Three of Joe's eight UMDB Memories are from family. Touching to see nephew and son weigh in.

[batmagadanleadoff]

According to the article Grimm linked to, Sports Illustrated named Grzenda 1971's best AL reliever. I knew that from playing that season's Strat-O-Matic set for many years. Unhittable.

[Edgy MD]

The next best AL reliever that year was a future Met.

[batmagadanleadoff]

SI may have understated Grzenda's case. He may have been the best reliever in the majors that season.

[Edgy MD]

Not Tug?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: The next best AL reliever that year was a future Met.

Came here in the Ike Hampton trade.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that's who I'm thinking of.



But I think McGraw gets the MLB Fireman of 1971. Forty more innings is forty more innings.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Not Tug?

I'm going by memory off those Strat cards. Tug's ERA (and ERA+) were clearly better, I see, now that I checked out the stats. But ERA doesn't translate so efficiently on Strat cards. Not as much as WHIP, anyways. Take two pitchers who each allow two singles and a homer in a half inning of work. They'll have given up the same kinds of and same amounts of hits. But the pitcher who allows the homer as his first hit will have given up just one run while the pitcher who yields his homer as the third hit of the half inning will have allowed three runs.



But I agree that 40 more innings settles it. But rate wise, Grzenda might've been a tick better. The Mets bullpen duo of Tug and Frisella was hellacious that year, probably the best single season one two punch in relief in franchise history.

[Lefty Specialist]

Joe was the same age as Phil Regan.