4 posts tagged “mcgowan”
For all the promise he showed after his call-up in May of last season, could Dustin McGowan be any more ordinary this year? Sure, the Jays' pitching as a whole this season has at least allowed the team to tread water, but after his efforts towards the end of last season, McGowan left me wanting more in '08. Am I the only one that's underwhelmed?
McGowan and Shaun Marcum both turned heads last season, and of the pair, McGowan was considered a sure thing to repeat his performance. And why not? Players around the league marveled about his overpowering stuff last year, the best of which was on display when he carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Colorado in late-June. Marcum, on the other hand, relied on breaking pitches and command, both of which seemed to fail him as the season wore on. So you'd expect McGowan to come back stronger in '08, no? Think again. After last night's loss to Seattle, McGowan sits at 6-7 with a 4.36 earned run average. Marcum? 5-4 and 2.65, the latter number amongst league leaders. Marcum, however, is beginning to show signs of wear and tear -- he was placed on the disabled list two weeks ago with a right elbow strain.
Back to our subject, though: McGowan has been strong as ever at home in '08, but a different pitcher altogether on the road. In seven home starts, he's 4-2 with a 2.20 ERA; on the road, he's 2-5 with a 6.17 ERA. Is it a mental thing, then? That's the way it would seem.
At 26, McGowan is still young, but he's starting to show an early onset of A.J. Burnett syndrome. Like Burnett, he has electric stuff, but doesn't seem to be able to harness it. Still, with nowhere to go but up in this suddenly-hopeless season, it's worth waiting to see whether or not McGowan is all he's hyped up to be. Let's just hope he doesn't turn into another guy who gets by solely on potential. Even if he does, though, he can rest assured someone will be waiting to give him a $55 million contract.
I needed some filler for the first issue of the school paper, so I came up with this column idea. It's called "Three Up, Three Down", and is basically your standard Who's Hot and Who's Not type of deal. Shortly after submitting the article yesterday, I discovered that SportsCenter has an installment by the exact same name. Naturally I chose the Jays as the subject for week one.
Three Up
Dustin McGowan: McGowan, Toronto’s second pick in the 2000 Draft, has long been heralded as a future ace. After struggling in stints with the big club in ’05 and ’06, McGowan’s finally given the Jays a glimpse of his potential this season. On June 24th, McGowan took a no-hitter into the ninth against Colorado before surrendering his only hit to Jeff Baker in a 5-0 win. In 21 starts this season, the 25-year-old is 8-8 with a 4.18 ERA, cementing his spot in the Jays’ rotation for years to come.
Shaun Marcum: Marcum was summoned into Toronto’s starting rotation on May 13th, and responded with six innings of no-hit ball against Tampa Bay. Since then, he’s been arguably the Jays’ most reliable arm, going 10-3 with a 3.29 ERA in 20 starts.
Jeremy Accardo: Accardo, acquired from San Francisco in last summer’s Shea Hillenbrand trade, started the season with 21 straight scoreless innings and has since filled in admirably for injured closer BJ Ryan. Accardo, who has 25 saves and a 2.19 ERA, will be called upon to close until Ryan returns in mid-2008, whereupon he’ll remain a valuable arm in an already-impressive Jays’ bullpen.
Three Down
Troy Glaus: Alright, so Glaus has been battling injuries all year, but what does it take to get this guy to play with some sort of fire? After hitting 38 home runs and driving in 104 runs in ’06, Glaus has seen those figures dip to 17 and 54, respectively, in ’07. Glaus’ body might benefit from a few months off this winter, though he’d really benefit the team if he acts like he actually cares in ’08.
Vernon Wells: It’s easy to blame the Jays’ highest-paid player for the team’s misfortunes, but Wells, who signed an seven-year, $126 million contract last off-season, has seen a considerable decrease in his offensive numbers and has failed to assume the leadership position the team bestowed upon him when he re-signed. Despite an off year, he’s the key to Toronto’s success in years to come.
Lyle Overbay: Overbay, like Wells, was given a sizable contract extension prior to the season. Like Wells, Overbay has also seen his offensive numbers decrease significantly. A broken hand in early-June did nothing to benefit the first baseman, who was struggling at the time of the injury and hasn’t hit a home run since.
In an interview with The Fan 590 yesterday, Blue Jays' GM J.P. Ricciardi admitted the A.J. Burnett is a pussy soft and that signing him to a five-year, $55 million contract in December 2005 was a mistake.
“I don’t know if it’s psychological, I don’t know if it’s just (that) he gets to a point where he feels something (that) he’s so scared from being hurt so many times that he just backs off,” Ricciardi said. He later added that if he had anticipated the emergence of Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum and Casey Janssen, he never would've signed Burnett in the first place.
Although Ricciardi merely echoed the sentiments of ever Blue Jay fan on the planet, it's still refreshing to hear the GM call Burnett out on his lackluster performance in Toronto. His latest trip to the disabled list is the 10th in his eight-year career, and fourth in his season-and-a-half with the Blue Jays. Burnett has a clause in his contract that allows him to opt-out at the end of next season, although it's unlikely he'll walk away from the remaining $24 million.
One last note on Burnett: His glove tossing, jersey ripping reaction to getting pulled last week in Minnesota was a disgrace. It's not clear whether he was reacting to the umpires or to John Gibbons' decision to pull him or to the realization that he was once again headed to the disabled list, but regardless, that's not the way a professional should act. Then again, maybe Burnett is nothing more than a spoiled kid with $55 million.
In one of the more remarkable pitching performances in Blue Jay history, 25-year-old Dustin McGowan came up three outs short of a no-hitter yesterday, finishing with a one-hit shutout in a 5-0 win over the Rockies. It was indeed a day of near-misses in Toronto, as Frank Thomas hit his 499th career home run in the fourth inning before striking out in his final two at-bats.
McGowan, a first-round pick in 2000, gave up a lead-off single to Jeff Baker in the ninth before retiring the final three Rockies in order. After struggling in brief stints in Toronto in 2005 and 2006, McGowan finally appears to be getting his act together, recording his sixth quality start in his last seven times out. The best start of his career did, however, come after his worst, in which he allowed six earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings against the Dodgers in a 10-1 loss on Tuesday night. Still, give the kid credit for bouncing back---a loss like that could've easily been a big setback.
The win evens the Jays' record at 37-37, leaving them at .500 for the first time in two months and a 1/2 game ahead of the Yankees for second place in the East. They're off to Minnesota for a four-game set starting tonight, before heading out west to face Oakland and Seattle, a trip that's proved to be a downfall in past seasons.
