It's Time for a Jesse Litsch Thread

heemer · Post #1 » by **heemer** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:08 pm

Nobody, not even the Jays could have expected this type of consistent pitching from Litsch.

After todays game with the A's, he'll be 7 - 1, with an ERA in the low 3s! I thought if you could get 5 good innings from him each start things would be great, but hes been going 7+ innings for the most part.

vaff87 · Post #2 » by **vaff87** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:29 pm

Should he still be considered the Jays 5th starter?

At this point, I don't know if any of the Jays starters should be considered worse than a #3.

raps4life~ · Post #3 » by **raps4life~** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:44 pm

Burnett is our worst starter right now.

Duncanfan · Post #4 » by **Duncanfan** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:49 pm

raps4life~ wrote:Burnett is our worst starter right now.

burnett hasn't been as bad as his record shows.. unfortunately for him, the batters haven't been supporting him that much.. he did struggle in a couple of outings, but he is far from a bad pitcher this season.. our bats make our pitchers look bad even when they pitch real well..

Post #5 » by **arrpy** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:52 pm

I must admit, I didn't think he would last this long. Never did I expect him to put up a record of 7-1 either...

Raptor04 · Post #6 » by **Raptor04** » Fri May 30, 2008 1:20 am

It's amazing. I mean, Jesse Litsch is 7-1 while Doc is 6-5.

I mean, not saying that Doc has been bad (because he hasn't thrown a bad game yet and has got no run support) but just looking at the two records is scary.

Really, this team might be one of the best in baseball if our hitters who look good on papaer could deliever with a hit or 2 in the games. Which, for the most part, has been happening recently. That's led to a 7-1 record over our last 8 so far.

evilRyu · Post #7 » by **evilRyu** » Fri May 30, 2008 1:56 am

raps4life~ wrote:Burnett is our worst starter right now.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseba ... _jays.html

Holmes · Post #8 » by **Holmes** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:00 am

With the stuff he has he still looks like a career 4-5 SP. But hey he's 7-1 with a 3.18 ERA. More power to him.

But this is an awesome statistcal oddity.

Day Games: 5 GS 5-0 1.28 ERA 0.96 WHIP

Night Games: 5 GS 2-1 5.46 ERA 1.38 WHIP

Post #9 » by **Schad** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:43 am

Holmes wrote:With the stuff he has he still looks like a career 4-5 SP. But hey he's 7-1 with a 3.18 ERA. More power to him.

But this is an awesome statistcal oddity.

Day Games: 5 GS 5-0 1.28 ERA 0.96 WHIP

Night Games: 5 GS 2-1 5.46 ERA 1.38 WHIP

If he can keep his BB/9 low (not necessarily top-3 in the league low, where he currently sits), he could be a career #4/5 starter, but a good one. That's a big step in the right direction for a guy who looked like a AAAA player not long ago.

Post #10 » by **spykelee** » Fri May 30, 2008 2:11 pm

Schadenfreude wrote:I'll admit, I expected Litsch to be back in AAA by June. He has really impressed me of late...his pitch/inning counts are down, and he has gone from 2.9 BB/9 (not terrible) to 1.2 BB/9 (exceptional) while keeping the hits down and striking out more batters.

Like Marcum, his only major weakness is the long ball...and while he is definitely the more susceptible of the two to home runs, Litsch seems to have learned not to let it affect him, and quit the nibbling that saw him to so many sixth inning exits last year. Four outings of 7+ innings, all in his last five starts, is a big turnaround.

I'm definitely a believer now; no way he finishes the year with these numbers (he'd be top-3 Cy Young), but he certainly looks to belong.

+1 on most of this post. I was in the exact same boat as you. Fully expecting Litsch to be back in triple A by June. I would not say I'm a believer yet. His last 2 starts where against terriable offensive clubs... but to say he has exceeded my expectations would be very accurate. Like Heemer I was hoping for 5 quality innings a start, and lately he has surely surpassed that. I do expect him to come back to earth, and become our 5th starter again, but for now, let the good times roll.

And yes it would seem that AJ is at this point in time, our worst starter, though he has defientely been bitten by the struggling offense... But nonetheless, who whoulda thunk it

whiterasta80 · Post #11 » by **whiterasta80** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:33 pm

What we are seeing, is the benefit of a commitment to developing pitchers in the second half of a wasted season. That way they can work through struggles and begin to figure things out. We've reaped the benefits of that with McGowan and Marcum the past two years and now we're reaping the benefits with Litsch. If we're out of contention come July I'm not sure it would be the worst thing in the world to give Purcey an extended run in the rotation.

P.S. that salary list is from last year. I think Doc is once again our top earner with Wells due to take that spot soon (though I could be wrong).

The Flying Gent · Post #12 » by **The Flying Gent** » Fri May 30, 2008 6:11 pm

I'm another one of the people who wanted to see Jesse in Syracuse to start the season to see if he could handle even AAA batters consistently. Partly because i thought he was just another Chacin type guy who honestly owed his success more to luck than actual skill, and part in fact to how awesome Jansen is.

But now, after witnessing him improve and sustain that improvement (so far) i have a tonne of confidence in him.

Here's a great quote about Litsch from the Royals manager.

"If you've never stood in there against the stuff that Litsch has, then you don't have an understanding of just how nasty it can be."

Post #13 » by **Duffman100** » Fri May 30, 2008 6:47 pm

At the beginning of the season, I remember them saying they wanted Jansen in the fifth spot. I said 'Why? Litsh looked decent last year'...

I love being right.

LLJ · Post #14 » by **LLJ** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:25 am

Michael Bradley here was saying we needed someone to surprise in the pitching lineup, probably Purcey, but I think Litsch has pretty much fulfilled that "surprise" category this season. Which is a good thing since Purcey has looked awful in his 2 outings.

This is one of the strongest Jays pitching lineups I can casually recall in the past... 7 years?

It's unbelievable that they still probably can't make the playoffs with this lineup. And a waste, too. The offence is so disproportionately pathetic compared to the pitching, all I can do is sigh and shake my head.

Holmes · Post #15 » by **Holmes** » Sat May 31, 2008 4:26 am

Dangerously Dan wrote:Here's a great quote about Litsch from the Royals manager.

"If you've never stood in there against the stuff that Litsch has, then you don't have an understanding of just how nasty it can be."

Oh the irony.

Raptor_Guy · Post #16 » by **Raptor_Guy** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:16 pm

LLJ wrote:
This is one of the strongest Jays pitching lineups I can casually recall in the past... 7 years?

It's unbelievable that they still probably can't make the playoffs with this lineup. And a waste, too. The offence is so disproportionately pathetic compared to the pitching, all I can do is sigh and shake my head.

Ya, it bugs me, you'd think with the best team ERA in baseball the Jays would be a bit better then 5 games over .500, though they have been getting runs lately.

The_Hater · Post #17 » by **The_Hater** » Tue Jun 3, 2008 7:02 pm

raps4life~ wrote:Burnett is our worst starter right now.

AJ's ERA is 3.23 since May 1st.

Not that he's been bad but McGowan has easily been the weakest starter for the past 5 weeks.

dennistokyo · Post #18 » by **dennistokyo** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 1:16 pm

Burnett disappearing for draft picks would be beautiful. Purcey is looking good (at least in the minors). Like whiterasta was saying, if he can get a few more starts in 08, it will really help his 09.

Michael Bradley · Post #19 » by **Michael Bradley** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 7:07 pm

dennistokyo wrote:Burnett disappearing for draft picks would be beautiful. Purcey is looking good (at least in the minors). Like whiterasta was saying, if he can get a few more starts in 08, it will really help his 09.

I know Burnett is not too reliable and is inconsistent, but the Jays are going to miss him in 2009. If nothing else, you know he's a pitcher capable of bringing no-hit stuff into every start. He's had an ERA below 4.00 in his first two years in the AL (3.98 and 3.75), and he's likely heading down that path again this year. After Halladay, the Jays rotation is highly flammible with McGowan, Marcum, and Litsch (young pitchers tend to break hearts). Having a healthy Burnett is like a cushion to soften any blow to the young starters. Unless Purcey really straigtens out his command, he's not likely to fix that void by next year. Although, I questioned Marcum and Litsch too heading into this year, so maybe Arnsberg can work his magic.

The_Hater · Post #20 » by **The_Hater** » Wed Jun 4, 2008 8:26 pm

People are way hard on AJ. Throw away the injuries and he's been an above average starter the past 2 1/2 seasons. And just because he's not better than Roy Halliday and we have other solid starters around him doesn't mean that he's suddenly expendable. Our starting pitching has been the biggest strength of the team this year in part because of AJ. And we need great pitching because our offense is awful. Replace him with a AAA pitcher and people would be shocked at how big the downgrade is.

If he leaves and then get hit with a couple of injuries, suddenly our SP won't look so great anymore. Just look at teams like the Tigers and Chisox who went to the World Series with great Starting pitching only to watch it all fall apart the following season.