You could look at this as a mid-term test for David Purcey, a chance for the Blue Jays, and Purcey himself, to see how far he has come and, more importantly, how far he has to go.
Once one of the Jays’ top pitching prospects as a starter, Purcey’s inability to maintain his control through six or seven innings on too many nights convinced the team brass that a new role in the bullpen might be in order.
So Purcey has been learning about life in the bullpen this season down in Las Vegas and now, with the dismissal of Dana Eveland, he has been given a shot at showing where he’s at as a reliever while the Jays sort out how they’ll deal with filling Eveland’s spot in the rotation. How long Purcey is here is definitely up to him.
“If he wasn’t pitching well we wouldn’t bring him up,” manager Cito Gaston said. “But it is a reward for him for working hard at something we asked him to do. Who knows? Maybe he doesn’t go back (to triple-A). We’re going to try to keep the best guys here.”
At Las Vegas, Purcey was 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA and had been working as an eighth-inning setup man.
“It’s a lot different than I thought it would be,” Purcey said. “With a starting routine, you have your five days, building to that one day when you pitch and you’re done. In the pen, you have to come out every day and be ready to pitch.
“It’s different. First couple of days I was sore in a couple of areas but I’m getting used to it and kind of enjoying it.”
The concept that Gaston and pitching coach Bruce Walton came up with regarding Purcey was to simplify things and limit his pitches to fastball and slider so that he wasn’t having trouble controlling four pitches. That’s how he began his life as a reliever but he’s since started to mix in his changeup.
“First couple of outings, I gave up a couple of runs, going fastball-slider in multiple innings, so I asked if I could start throwing my changeup. They gave me the OK on that. Primarily, if I’m going one inning, I’ll go fastball-slider and if I go multiple innings, then I’ll mix in the change. Fastball and slider are two hard, firm pitches so if you turn the lineup over more than once, you’ve got to have something else.”
Purcey is an excitable type whose emotions sometimes would get him out of his rhythm. He spent years trying to get himself into a calm, controlled state on the mound as a starter. For relief pitchers, it often works the other way as they try to amp themselves up to go an inning, maybe two.
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