Jay Bruce deserves his own retirement thread (split from Farewells)

G-Fafif · April 18, 2021

Au revoir former Met Jay Bruce, who apparently couldn't stand having gotten himself involved with a band of pinstriped miscreants.

batmagadanleadoff · April 18, 2021

Au revoir former Met Jay Bruce, who apparently couldn't stand having gotten himself involved with a band of pinstriped miscreants.

https://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1383790114984271873?s=21https://twitter.com/ken_rosenthal/status/1383790114984271873?s=21

Nice haul. Made $102M from baseball according to bRef.

Edgy MD · April 18, 2021

It's such good citizenship when somebody is ready to hang 'em up at the end of long, productive run, but decides his career isn't really complete until he takes a bit of time to undermine the Yankees from within.

The José Cruz CodaTM.

Johnny Lunchbucket · April 18, 2021

I'll tip my hat to Jay Bruce for a decent career. He was what he was, you knew what you were getting with him. He wasn't ever not Jay Bruce

Frayed Knot · April 19, 2021

From one of the very oldest threads [6/7/2005] here in our archives:

Those scouting writeups are a marvel of efficiency. Here's the guys the Mets are looking at [for the upcoming 2005 draft]:

Jay Bruce Westbrook HS CF L/L 6'3" 195 1987-04-03 HS 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Large frame. Broad, sloped shoulders. Body similar to a young Larry Walker. Aggressive, stroke w/ strength & lift for power. Loose, strong wrists w/ flick. Ball jumps off bat.

Loose arm. Plus OF instincts. Five-tool player. Complete package.

Jeffrey Clement U Southern California C L/R 6'1" 210 1983-08-21 4YR 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Good upper body strength. Muscular arms. Similar to Tyler Houston. Short, compact stroke. Gamer, plays w/ intensity.

Michael Pelfrey Wichita St U RHP R/R 6'7" 210 1984-01-14 4YR 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Tall RHP w/ long limbs. Throws a FB that bores into hitters when up in the zone, sinks when down in the zone. Throws a power CB w/ some slider-like action.

Also has a change-up.

Clement wound up going 3rd overall to the Mariners and was a major disappointment: 385 ML ABs over pieces of four seasons for the M's and Pirates

Mets take Pelfrey at #8 while Bruce goes four slots later to Cincy and winds up as the hindsight best pick among those three

Highlights of that 1st round:

#1 J. Upton, #2 Alex Gordon, #4 Ryan Zimmerman, #5 Ryan Braun, #7 Troy Tulowitski, #11 Andrew McCutcheon, #23 Jacoby Ellsbury

Picks #6, 17, 20, and 29 that year never play in a big league game

Frayed Knot · April 19, 2021

The Yanx never even got him into the game yesterday after he pre-announced that Sunday would be his finale.

I mean, couldn't you have given the guy an opportunity to go out in front of the home fans after all the good times they've had; go off

to a standing O when you pull him mid-inning for a pinch-runner; have a debate as to whether he qualifies as a "true Yanqui"?

Some teams are just cold and heartless. Tradition my ass!

His final start and appearance came five days ago in which he K'd twice and hit into two DP's. Ouch!

Oh well, not all endings are storybook. He wound up 4/34 as a Yanqui w/1 2B & 1 HR

Edited April 19, 2021 by Guest

Fman99 · April 19, 2021

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Yanx never even got him into the game yesterday after he pre-announced that Sunday would be his finale.

Of course they didn't. Fuck those MFYs.

Benjamin Grimm · April 19, 2021

batmagadanleadoff · April 19, 2021

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Benjamin Grimm · April 19, 2021

I had totally forgotten that Jay Bruce was one of the players sent to the Mariners in the Cano/Diaz trade.

Johnny Lunchbucket · April 19, 2021

same.

Are TCG 2021 cards out yet?

Edgy MD · April 19, 2021

Mets had to move some salary to take on that much salary.

Some.

Chad ochoseis · April 19, 2021

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Yanx never even got him into the game yesterday after he pre-announced that Sunday would be his finale.

Of course they didn't. Fuck those MFYs.

I kiner get this. It was a close early season game against a division rival, not a last hurrah in September after the season's been decided.

Edgy MD · April 19, 2021

Crazy Theory: Brodie Van Wangenen got into the GM game in order to make the Robinson Canó trade (or a deal like it), convince the Wilpons that it would pay for itself, break whatever remained of their bank, and drive them out of the game — allowing junior partner Steve Cohen to jump in with billions to spend.

And then he gets back into agent game, where Cohen could kick some of that back to him.

Fman99 · April 19, 2021

Chad ochoseis wrote:

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Yanx never even got him into the game yesterday after he pre-announced that Sunday would be his finale.

Of course they didn't. Fuck those MFYs.

I kiner get this. It was a close early season game against a division rival, not a last hurrah in September after the season's been decided.

Yeah, but, to play devil's advocate here, the Yankees can eat a tureen full of micropenises served with a creme fraiche.

Centerfield · April 20, 2021

Mike Pelfrey did not have a change up.

batmagadanleadoff · April 20, 2021

Frayed Knot wrote:

From one of the very oldest threads [6/7/2005] here in our archives:

Those scouting writeups are a marvel of efficiency. Here's the guys the Mets are looking at [for the upcoming 2005 draft]:

Jay Bruce Westbrook HS CF L/L 6'3" 195 1987-04-03 HS 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Large frame. Broad, sloped shoulders. Body similar to a young Larry Walker. Aggressive, stroke w/ strength & lift for power. Loose, strong wrists w/ flick. Ball jumps off bat.

Loose arm. Plus OF instincts. Five-tool player. Complete package.

Jeffrey Clement U Southern California C L/R 6'1" 210 1983-08-21 4YR 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Good upper body strength. Muscular arms. Similar to Tyler Houston. Short, compact stroke. Gamer, plays w/ intensity.

Michael Pelfrey Wichita St U RHP R/R 6'7" 210 1984-01-14 4YR 56K | 350K

COMMENT: Tall RHP w/ long limbs. Throws a FB that bores into hitters when up in the zone, sinks when down in the zone. Throws a power CB w/ some slider-like action.

Also has a change-up.

Clement wound up going 3rd overall to the Mariners and was a major disappointment: 385 ML ABs over pieces of four seasons for the M's and Pirates

Mets take Pelfrey at #8 while Bruce goes four slots later to Cincy and winds up as the hindsight best pick among those three

Highlights of that 1st round:

#1 J. Upton, #2 Alex Gordon, #4 Ryan Zimmerman, #5 Ryan Braun, #7 Troy Tulowitski, #11 Andrew McCutcheon, #23 Jacoby Ellsbury

Picks #6, 17, 20, and 29 that year never play in a big league game

I've written several times here over the years about how I hardly ever follow MLB drafts closely. I usually know very little, if not nothing, about the prospective draftees - and the futures of baseball prospects, I think, are harder to predict compared to the future careers of amateurs from other sports. I'll make an exception if the Mets have a real chance at drafting some generational prospect, which hasn't happened in decades.

But this 2005 draft, I followed closely. Pelfrey was widely considered to be the best pitcher in that draft with a heavy fastball that would occasionally hit 100 on the gun, a BFD back in 2005. (Pelfrey's fast ball lost some by the time he got to the majors). And even though the Mets picked eighth that year, the Mets had a chance at getting Pelfrey (which they did, as youse all know) because Pelfrey's agent was Scott Boras and that was supposed to turn off most, if not all of the teams picking ahead of the Mets.

Johnny Lunchbucket · April 20, 2021

I was excited about Pelfrey too.

One thing I remember about Bruce was he had an awesome, Mike Jacobs-like first week or two as an MLBer, looked like he was gonna be a superstud but turned out only to be a semi-stud

Benjamin Grimm · April 20, 2021

Ah! I remember "The Jake Monster".

Frayed Knot · April 20, 2021

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=61510 time=1618948460 user_id=68]
Pelfrey was widely considered to be the best pitcher in that draft with a heavy fastball that would occasionally hit 100 on the gun, a BFD back in 2005. (Pelfrey's fast ball lost some by the time he got to the majors). And even though the Mets picked eighth that year, the Mets had a chance at getting Pelfrey (which they did, as youse all know) because Pelfrey's agent was Scott Boras and that was supposed to turn off most, if not all of the teams picking ahead of the Mets.

Edgy MD · April 20, 2021

Young Bruce was also widely recognized for flashing a game-changing arm as well.

Watch him pants Johnny Monell.

[YOUTUBE]ancNen6L5pU[/YOUTUBE]

batmagadanleadoff · April 20, 2021

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote:

same.

Are TCG 2021 cards out yet?

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Thank you for asking.

Johnny Lunchbucket · April 20, 2021

I like my chances

Edgy MD · April 21, 2021

Frayed Knot wrote:
it became almost a reflex among draftniks to say that the coach there abused them all, which may be true but I'm skeptical of claims made after the fact that no one seemed to mention ahead of time.

I seem to remember someone from the Mets, after the team picked Pelfrey, saying that the team had no interest in any of the Rice throwers. I don't recall any specifics about there necessarily being a WHY to that statement, however. My impression was maybe that they didn't like the pitchers' mechanics more than their workloads, but I dunno.

Frayed Knot · April 22, 2021

That trio from Rice was the year prior to Pelfrey and the Mets picked the first of them so, conditional on the wording and the timing, it seems like an odd statement to make.

My point was that after someone or some trend fails there are suddenly no shortage of folks who claim they saw it coming all along. That the Rice coach abused his hurlers and/or taught them incorrectly

was well known in all four corners of the world ... except apparently when they were being selected as three of the first eight picks in the draft by people paid to know that kind of stuff.

A few drafts earlier it had been Mark Prior who was the 1st pitcher/2nd overall (to Joe Mauer) pick and who came with raves of sound mechanics backed by monster legs (Calf-Zilla!) which would combine

to make him almost immune to breaking down. A few years later he would throw his last ML pitch at the age of 25 which was the first time I remember hearing about the dreaded "Inverted W" mechanics

so of course! he was destined for failure, anyone could see that.

And try finding a Ryan Leaf supporter today even though, back when the debate was he vs Peyton Manning, there was a sizable minority (20 - 30% ?) who thought him the better choice.

Edgy MD · April 22, 2021

Perhaps it was in the context of Humber (who of course had even a soggier career than Pelfrey). Like I said, it's a foggy memory. But, of course, he was one of those three rice cakes, so it'll take some work to parse out the statement, let alone confirm it.

I couldn't tell you much about Ryan Leaf.

Edgy MD · April 22, 2021

I did find this beefy bit from an article about all three of the pitchers being on the shelf in the minors:

[bLOCKQUOTE]

The same day that Andrews informed Humber that he needed surgery, Humber said a technician at the institute who ran computer studies of the Mets' minor league pitchers told him he had some of the best mechanics of anyone the institute had tested.

"It was kind of ironic to hear that, but that's what they said," Humber said. "I was like, thanks."[/bLOCKQUOTE]

Back to your regularly scheduled Bruce content.

duan · April 22, 2021

Frayed Knot wrote:

That trio from Rice was the year prior to Pelfrey and the Mets picked the first of them so, conditional on the wording and the timing, it seems like an odd statement to make.

Ah Phil Humber. We thought you'd be great.

G-Fafif · April 22, 2021

Tom Veducci asserts Bruce was commonly shafted by shifts.

Seven years of evidence is enough. The shift is harming baseball and must go. The career of Jay Bruce—what it was and what it could have been—is the canary in the coal mine. It is too late for Bruce, but not for the next generation of hitters—and fans.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/04/22/jay-bruce-retirement-shift-the-openerhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2021/04/22/jay-bruce-retirement-shift-the-opener