Blue Jays Franchise Leaders

[tsherkin]

Just for fun...

Career ERA:

Henke and Duane Ward are 1-2.

Why am I not surprised?

Key and Stieb are tied for third, Halladay's 7th... and somehow, Juan Guzman is tied for 10th with Jim Acker.

Roy Halladay holds the Toronto record for single-season wins with 22. 5 Jays pitchers have 20 games (and Clemens is the only one to do it twice).

David Wells, Jack Morris, Pat Hentgen, Roy Halladay and Roger Clemens are those pitchers.

Dave Stieb is the franchise leader in wins with 175; Halladay's 5th with 105.

Halladay leads the team in career won/loss percentage at 66.9%. Key, Stieb and Hentgen all pitched more innings for us though, so we'll see if that lasts.

Henke's our leader in career WHIP (mind when I say 'career' I mean 'career with Toronto').

Jimmy Key is #2; he was a nasty pitcher. Halladay's fourth; he doesn't suck either. I'd forgotten that Key was the runner-up in the '87 Cy Young race, and then again in '94. He was on-pace for a 23-win season in that season. Effing strike, ruined everything.

Henke and Ward are 1-2 in Hits/9, with Stieb at #3 followed by Guzman and then Key. Halladay's 8th.

Man, our pitching staff in the late 80s and 90s was freaking RIDICULOUS... We had the Terminator for 8 seasons (4 of which were 30-save seasons and 7 of which were 20-save seasons). We had Ward for half of 86 and then the rest of his carer (8 years).

I was actually surprised in '93 that we did so well, because we didn't have Henke. We went to Ward as our closer though and he put up 45 saves and I nearly choked when I just read that stat because I didn't realize he'd had that kind of season as a closer. It was his finest season (and really, '95 doesn't count because he only played 4 games and then re-retired).

OK, back to the records.

Josh Towers is actually the Toronto Blue Jays' career leader in BB/9. Key's third, Halladay's 4th, but seriously...

Towers????!?!?!? o.O

Who's our career leader in K/9?

Tom henke. He was the punchout king with that damned forkball and that heater. Ward's right after him, surprise, surprise. I guess Clemens didn't pitch with us long enough? He had two seasons with us that were over 9.9 K/9 but henke would be #1 either way because he posted 10.29 K/9 on his career as a Jay. It can't be the innings, I think that's a glitch on my list.

Clemens posted about 10.19 K/9 as a Jay, winning consecutive Cy Young awards in the process (also posting WHIPs under 1.1 in both seasons and only giving up 20 homers over about 67 games).

Ward, then Henke, are our career leaders in games pitched. That shouldn't surprise anyone, since at least one or the other closed pretty much every game for us for like a decade.

Henke and his 217 saves lead the franchise, followed by Ward and his 121 and Koch's 100. Next closest is Escobar with 58.

Innings pitched goes to Stieb. He was a horse. Clancy, Key, Hentgen, Halladay and Guzman follow Stieb.

Stieb, Clancy, Guzman, Hentgen and Halladay are our strikeout leaders. Halladay's only 10 behind Hentgen and 219 away from Clancy in second place. I don't know if he'll touch Stieb, though; Dave had 1658 strikeouts as a Blue Jay.

Stieb was dirty, man. Leads us in games started, leads us in complete games with 103 (Clancy's the next closest with 73; Halladay's got 26, he's not going to touch that). He had 30 shutouts (Halladay's 5th with 8)... He also had a season in which he recorded 19 complete games and 4 seasons with 4+ shutouts (1 season with 5).

I should point out that Jimmy Key is consistently top 5 in all of these categories. The best pitchers the Jays have had have been Stieb, Key, Halladay and Roger Clemens but yeah, Key was RIDICULOUS... Pat Hentgen was pretty good, too.

K/BB.

Who leads?

Henke.

Towers is right behind him.

o.O?

Oh right, career leader in BB/9. Towers is, after all, a control pitcher. Halladay's third on this list. Ooh, Key's just outside the top 5 at number 6.

I miss him so badly and am inestimably PO'd that we let him walk after '92 like so many of our other players.

Dave Stieb faced about 2,000 more batters than the second place guy. He has almost 12,000 BFP and Jim Clancy's a distant second with 9,397.

Wonder of wonders, Henke and Ward are 1-2 in Games Finished.

Best ERA+?

Henke at 166. On his career as a Blue Jay.

o.O?

You didn't get runs when he was on the mound, that's a damned fine closer.

Then it goes Quantrill, Ward, Halladay, Stieb, Key (ooh, 6th again).

An aside; it's a crime that Stieb never won a Cy Young.

==

OK, onto batting!!

Career leader in batting average?

Robbie Alomar, who was just recently attending a game that my buddy Russ and I went to see. That was fun; we won, too, though Towers didn't get the win despite 8 IP and like 3 hits and a shutout to that point.

Shannon Stewart and Tony Fernandez (yay!) are 2-3, followed by John Olerud (who holds the Jays' record for single-season BA at .363, in the '93 season).

Damasco Garcia is next, followed by George Bell and Shawn Green at the 6, then Reed Johnson, Vernon Wells and Carlos Delgado.

Olerud, Delgado, McGriff, Alomar and Stewart are the top 5 (in that order) in OB%. Freddy always was a better hit than Joe but we needed an outfielder, not a 1B. Ah well. Joe Carter and Tony Fernandez are my two favorite Jays but McGriff is right there with them. And it's all good, too, because Freddy won a World Series with Atlanta in '95 (and played in another the year after; the Braves were ridiculous in the mid-90s).

Green, Bell/Wells, Barfield, Carter, Olerud, Cruz (o.O) and Alomar follow.

As an aside, a brief interlude researching OPS led me to this fact: Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a GRAND SLAM on not just his first major league at-bat but his first PITCH... Here is the ESPN article about that game. Seriously, that's nuts.

Delgado and McGriff are 1-2 in Slugging %, followed by Green, Bell/Wells, Barfield, Carter, Olerud (o.O), Cruz (...) and Alomar.

Delgado and McGriff are also 1-2 in OPS. This does not surprise me, since they're top 3 in OB%, top 10 in average and top 2 in SLG%. It just follows.

I am pleasantly meandering down memory lane as I write this post... Fred McGriff was freaking awesome. It is of note that we DOWNGRADED to Joe Carter (ITO hitting) in order to get Alomar at second base (and had to give up Fernandez, who led the league in triples 2 or 3 times, IIRC). Fernandez was, for those that don't remember, a 4-time Gold Glover (in consecutive years) and a 5-time All-Star as well. McGriff was a 5-time All-Star as well. Of course, Alomar made a dozen All-Star teams consecutively and won 10 Gold Gloves, so that swap worked out for our infield...

Carter was a 5-time All-Star, a two-time Silver Slugger (McGriff was a 3-time Silver Slugger) and of course, he was involved in both plays to win the World Series... including one of the most famous home runs in major league history. That was awesome.

Fernandez and Delgado are 1-2 in GP for Toronto, both over 1,400. Carter's 8th.

Fernandez has a lead of over 200 at bats on the 2nd place guy (Lloyd Moseby), with 5,335. Delgado, Bell and Carter follow. Wells is 7th.

Delgado, Moseby, Fernandez, Bell, Stewart and Carter lead in Runs.

Fernandez, Delgado, Moseby, Bell and Carter lead in Hits (Stewart is 6th, Wells is 8th). Wells will pass Carter at some point next season and figures to settle into 5th or 6th in Runs next year, as well.

Delgado, Bell, Fernandez, Moseby and Carter lead in total bases... Wells is 6th (Stewart 9th) and is in prime position to jump into the top 5. Wells averages about 250 TB a year, so if he does that again next year (ignoring what he's going to do the rest of this season), he'll pass Carter in that category as well.

In doubles, it goes Delgado, Fernandez, Moseby, Bell, Wells, Carter/Stewart and then Olerud.

Triples is Fernandez, by 12 (he has 72 as a Jay). Moseby is closest with 60. Alfredo Griffin had 50, Willie Upshaw had 42, Alomar had 36, Devon White (first time he's on this list; White was a 3-time All-Star, a career .263 hitter, WAMCO put him as our lead-off man and he was good for 17-30 SB a year, too, and he was a 7-time Gold Glover). Bell and Stewart had 32 a piece and then Carter had 28 (surprise!) and Barfield 27.

Joe always surprised the Hell out of me with those triples.

Stewart was the last guy we had who was a really dangerous threat like that. Shannon, if you recall, was a .300 hitter who was generally good for 30 SB (had 51, one season), good for about 40 doubles a year, 5 triples... He was a really nice lead-off hitter. Considerably better than, for example, Devon White, though White's fielding was quite important and Stewart wasn't the same kind of annual threat to win a Gold Glove.

Home runs. Quick guess.

Yeah, Delgado. He has 133 more homers than Joe Carter (203), who has 1 more than George Bell, who has 23 more than Jesse Barfield, who has 179. Wells is next with 154. McGriff is, surprisingly, 8th. He had 125. He only had basically 3.5 seasons with us, though. In his rookie year, he had 20 homers and then hit 34, 36 and 35 homers for us. Then he busted out in a big way once he left.

Delgado is also the overwhelming leader in RBIs, with 1,058 against George Bell's 740. Yeah, 318 more ribbies.

Carter had 736, then Moseby, Fernandez (sneaky little bugger, ain't he? It was so important that he won that '93 WS with us, at least to me) and Wells (551). Olerud's 10th, he gets in there.

Delgado's also the overwhelming leader in walks, with 827 against Moseby's 547. Then Olerud with 514 and Fernandez with 439. McGriff's 8th and Alomar's 10th.

Moseby's 255 leads us in stolen bases and Alomar second with 206. Robbie also has a 55 SB season (second behind Dave Collins' 60 in '84) and two of our other top 10 single-season SB records. Rickey Henderson had 22 SB in 44 games with us in '93, which is ridiculous.

Fernandez is fourth, followed by Stewart and Devon White. Otis Nixon follows. He had 54 stolen bases for us in '96, then 47 before being traded the year after (he ended up with 59 on the year).

Tony Fernandez pwns everyone in singles with 1,160 against Moseby's 868. Fernandez was an astonishing hitter. Sidenote, in the '93 WS, he had 9 RBIs, a record for a shortstop, and hit .333. He was actually 8-for-17 in the '97 WS while playing for Cleveland, with 4 RBIs. They lost but DAMN... He retired a Blue Jay (unlike Joe Carter, who got traded and retired after the season; that PO'd me something fierce). That Tony retired a Jay makes me very happy. In '95, while playing for the Yankees, he hit for the cycle. He's 138th all-time with 2,276 hits. He's tied for 124th with Kirby Puckett (RIP) with 414 doubles and he scored 1,057 runs (255th, tied with Bobby Wallace).

Adjusted OPS+ is Fred McGriff's domain at 153. Delgado's next with 140, then Olerud with 129, Alomar with 122. Vernon's 10th with 110.

Delgado is, despite Redd Johnson's best efforts, the overwhelming leader in HBP, with 122. Next is, of course, Reed himself, with 73. Stewart's 4th, Carter's 6th, Fernandez is 7th.

Alfredo Griffin leads in sacrifice hits with 74. Other notables include Alomar (3rd, 39) and Fernandez (5th, 34).

Carter leads with 65 sacrifice flies, Delgado second with 61. Bell, Fernandez, Moseby and Wells (38) follow.

Intentional walks? Delgado, no big surprise, with 128. Next is Olerud with 87 and Willie Upshaw's 46 are good for 3rd. Carter's 6th, Tony's 8th and McGriff is tied with Barfield for 10th (despite his short Jays career).

Power/Speed Number is ruled by Lloyd Moseby, at 188.1. Then Carter at 112.7, then Stewart with 100.8. White's 7th with 91.6 and Tony's 10th with 89.0.

Delgado and McGriff are 1-2 with AB/HR. Delgado's on top with 14.9, McGriff wtih 15.6. That's pretty crazy. Carter was 5th with 20.2.

==

So, that's my exhaustive post for no good reason other than I felt like it.

[Harry Palmer]

Dave Stieb is among the most underrated pitchers in MLB history, imo. If he had a career with a good team and especially a decent pen, the guy in in the HOF.

You had to see him pitch in his prime, like mid 80's, to see what he could do. Electric stuff...slider that was just unbelievable. And you also had to see the tragically comic regularity with which his team would let him down to understand how his numbers don't reflect his performance.

As to the other side, Tony Fernandez before the elbow injury was on his way to being (easily) the best player the Jays ever had. Ozzie who stayed on his feet on defense, somewhat Rod Carew like on offense. But yeah, his D...it was the stuff of legends. Made you catch your throat every game...went into the hole better than anyone I've ever seen.

[evilRyu]

Can you really compare ERA leaders when you're looking at relief pitchers vs starting pitchers? I know that the same formula can apply, but it doesn't take into affect the stanima the starting pitcher requires.

And wow tsherkin, that is a super long post!

I wonder who will be the "big bat" that will challenge those career HR/RBI numbers down the road. I can't see it being Wells..

[tsherkin]

Can you really compare ERA leaders when you're looking at relief pitchers vs starting pitchers? I know that the same formula can apply, but it doesn't take into affect the stanima the starting pitcher requires.

It's still a measure of how effectively you're limiting runs but yes, there is definitely a factor there. I wasn't really COMPARING so much as listing our franchise leaders. It's more of a really good way to understand how dominant Henke and Ward really were.

I wonder who will be the "big bat" that will challenge those career HR/RBI numbers down the road. I can't see it being Wells..

It won't be; Wells can challenge Carter's various numbers but doesn't really resemble the 40/130 player that Delgado was. Mind that Delgado was a more productive version of McGriff, who was until Carlos the best percentage slugger on the team (by SLG%, OPS+, etc).

Carlos SHATTERED our power records.

[OldNo7]

Wow, fantastic writeup, appreciate the effort put into this. If anyone wants to summarize into an easy to browse list format, this might be something stickied.

[Geddy]

Nice one for taking the time to gather all that info!

I was not surprised to see how most of the Batting stats are because they are pretty much what I expected.

I thought Tony Fernandez would be the leader for getting hit by a pitch. It was always funny seeing him get hit because he'd always let out this really loud scream.

Delgado has been slowing down lately, but I hope he does get to 500HR for his career. As long as he stays healthy I think he can do it.

[tsherkin]

Wow, fantastic writeup, appreciate the effort put into this. If anyone wants to summarize into an easy to browse list format, this might be something stickied.

It's all available at the Jays' team page on baseball-reference.com, up in the upper-left corner.