Jump to content
Grand Central Mets
  • Create Account

Memories of Rauch

Edgy MD

By Edgy MD
in New York Mets Talk

 Share

Recommended Posts

Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
Posted


Signed away by the otherwise downsizing Marlins.

Just a touch disappointed that we never saw him absolutely lose it on the mound. Umpires running for cover, teammates hopping on his back, getting tossed off like whimpering chihuahuas. It would be terrifying theater.


Guest themetfairy

Guest themetfairy

Guests
Posted
Posted


When I think of Jon Rauch I think of a tall guy with a hideous neck tattoo who wasn't as reliable as he should have been.




Guest themetfairy

Guest themetfairy

Guests
Posted
Posted


Didn't he once get a tattoo on a day that he couldn't pitch because he was injured?


G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Aggressively passive-aggressive on Twitter after idiots would wish him doom following losses. I guess I can stop following.

Lost a Subway Series game. Nearly blew Dickey's 19th and 20th wins. Probably sliced up Valdespin's t-shirt.


Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guests
Posted
Posted


I think one of those tats was for "Best Neck" at the Oklahoma City Film Festival (nominated, but didn't win). Looks like a clown.

Not a bad season on paper, but crappy first half cost us the chance to unload him for something useful. I've forgotten what, but did something around June that inspired me to call for his immediate release, something I don't often do, so he must have made me mad.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


themetfairy wrote:
Didn't he once get a tattoo on a day that he couldn't pitch because he was injured?


Yeah, this baby.



Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


What I find interesting is that within Lunchbucket's perfectly reasonable full-season guess for the guy was 66 games and 74 innings.

While much of his guesses proved otherwise close to the money, we sort of got the inverse ratio of games and innings: 73 games and 57 2/3 innings pitched. We were hoping for a setup guy and got a ROOGy specialist instead. Terry had to pick his spots carefully to keep him effective. And that sort of late-game engineering always catches up with a fella.


Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


What I find interesting is that within Lunchbucket's perfectly reasonable full-season guess for the guy was 66 games and 74 innings.

While much of his guesses proved otherwise close to the money, we sort of got the inverse ratio of games and innings: 73 games and 57 2/3 innings pitched. We were hoping for a setup guy and got a ROOGy specialist instead. Terry had to pick his spots carefully to keep him effective. And that sort of late-game engineering always catches up with a fella.



Of all the complaints about Terry misusing the pen* the one I thought most apt was his use of Rauch in the 2nd half last season. If not the best reliever out there he seemed to be the most reliable and consistent during the later months and yet often wasn't trusted with a 2nd or 3rd batter after he retired the one(s) he was brought in to face much less get rewarded with a 2nd inning. Maybe there was a "tightness" or some similar injury-ish issue that we never heard about which put them in the situation where they felt they had to take it easy on the 6'11"/280-lb guy (which might also explain the reluctance to apparently even consider re-signing him) but it just smelled more like a lack of trust than anything else and I'm not sure why the leash was shorter on him compared to the rest of the crew.


* although let's face it folks, ask any fan of any team what he doesn't like about his manager and the 1st or 2nd answer in each case is going to be that the guy doesn't know how to manage the pen


Ceetar Prep Ball

Ceetar

Grand Central Contributor
Posted
Posted


Did pretty well in my eyes. I don't think he was untrusted necessarily. Although his pitch to contact style did lead itself to the occasional problem.

Mets are significantly shorter this year.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


Yeah, I was guessing that it was the date of his debut, but that wasn't until April 2002. His marriage date? Something 9/11 connected?


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


I'd like for Rauch, Chris Young and Eric Hillman to stand back to back to back so I can measure them to determine who is really the tallest Met ever. Because I doubt that they're all precisely 6'10" tall. Did you ever buy a shoe that doesn't fit? And did you have to wear that shoe for more than a day to figure out that the shoe doesn't fit? Thus putting enough wear and tear on the shoe to render it unreturnable? Because who says everyone's foot measures out in precise half inch increments? What if your shoe size is exactly 10 and five eights inches? Or ten and three quarter inches?


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


Your point is obviously correct, but Rauch's official height is 6'11". So until you can do your measurin', Rauch is officially the guy.


Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guests
Posted
Posted


Can't imagine a human being larger than Rauch. Seeing him up close is frightening.


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Edgy MD wrote:
Your point is obviously correct, but Rauch's official height is 6'11". So until you can do your measurin', Rauch is officially the guy.


I coulda sworn he was listed at 6'10". Musta grown an inch on our watch.


seawolf17 College Ball

seawolf17

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:
Can't imagine a human being larger than Rauch. Seeing him up close is frightening.

Saw Andre The Giant from like the sixth row at Nassau Coliseum when I was a kid. Enormous didn't even begin to describe him, especially as a pre-teen.


Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket

Guests
Posted
Posted


Good point. But Rauch was bigger than Big John Studd.


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


I'll always remember Rauch as the last surviving member of mid-nineties Nats penned filled with cartoonish stereotypes of relief pitchers. They had the trashy Southern monstrous mook guy in Rauch, the fat-everywhere-on-his-body-but-still-has-a-heater guy in Floyd King, and the crafty-guy-with-a-hopeless-long-hair-and-mustache-combination guy in Gary Majewski.

Hector Carrasco was with them for a year but refused on principal to play the role of the Dominican-hothead guy.


seawolf17 College Ball

seawolf17

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted


Edgy MD wrote:
They had the trashy Southern monstrous mook guy in Rauch, the fat-everywhere-on-his-body-but-still-has-a-heater guy in Floyd King

Ray King?


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

Site Manager
Posted
  • Author
Posted


Ah, yes, Floyd King was a flamboyant Shakespearean actor popular in DC around the same time Ray was coming out of the RFK pen for the Nats.

I conflate.



You can understand my confusion.


Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing
The Grand Central Mets Caretaker Fund
The Grand Central Mets Caretaker Fund

You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Mets community on the internet.

Become a Caretaker

  • Member Statistics

    209
    Total Members
    48,845
    Most Online
    Scott Cooper
    Newest Member
    Scott Cooper
    Joined
×
×
  • Create New...