The Blue Jays designated David Purcey for assignment, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (on Twitter). Toronto recalled Casey Janssen and Brad Mills and officially placed Rajai Davis on the disabled list in related moves.
Purcey faced four batters in last night's ugly loss to the Mariners, allowing two hits and a walk. Though Purcey entered the game with the Blue Jays leading 7-1, the Mariners scored five runs in the eighth because of his poor performance and bases loaded walks by Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski. The Mariners completed the improbable comeback to win 8-7.
In five outings this year, Purcey has an 11.57 ERA with three strikeouts and four walks in 2 1/3 innings. The left-hander was considerably more effective in 2010, when he posted a 3.71 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 34 innings. The 28-year-old went 16th overall in the 2004 draft.
Bet someone claims him. Wouldn’t shock me if there’s a small trade for him, perhaps for another team’s out-of-options junk.
Blew the game last night (well, started the blowing I suppose) and gets designated. Thank the baby Jesus.
hard to say he blew it, Farrel brought in Dotel to pitch to lefties.. making matters worse instead of better
David Purcey for Brandon Wood? Wouldn’t be the worse trade the Angles made with the Jays.
David Purcey for Kendrys Morales? Wouldn’t be the worst trade the Angels have made with the Jays.
Better than Garrett Olson, guarantee he doesn’t make it past the Pirates
he is not going to make it far…move was made to quickly, this is a first rounder who was not that bad last year, in the most difficult division.
Pirates please.
good flyer for someone to take. he’s a lefty who can throw in the mid-90s. if he can ever find the zone he’s going to be effective for somebody.
Big big agree with Jordan. I think Purcey for BWood makes perfect sense needs-wise.
Besides, how could you possibly go wrong with Purcey’s humorously gigantic feet?
Perfect spot would be St. Louis. I hate the Cardinals, but that would be a great place for him to turn things around.
About time. He is useless and hopeless.
Bit harsh, that. He looked like a potential long-term heir to Downs when converted to reliever last season. Shame he’s had a rough start to the season, but he’s definitely a good project for some team in need of a reliever.
No matter how you look at it, Purcey and Reyes are interchangeable. Purcey has struggled with control worse than Reyes throughout his career. He’ll get a job somewhere, but he wasn’t going to be anything worse missing. It’s just tough to lose someone with the first-round stigma, that’s for sure.
Purcey and Reyes are hardly interchangeable…
One proved he could be an effective reliever last year and one hasn’t proven anything..
And if we are talking on pure stuff alone, purcey has 2 plus pitches.
Essentially come next week, Purcey and Reyes both wont be blue jays
Willing to bet you’re wrong on Reyes. Once Morrow comes back, they move him to the pen and I think he’ll be alright.
I agree. Reyes is around the strikezone and has a strong fastball, very similar velocity to Purcey. He’s got a good slider and even his cutfastball seems pretty good. I think if Reyes would ever throw his curve for a strike that he could hold down a spot in the rotation.
Purcey has two plus pitches ? Are you talking about his “slider” ? I thought Buck Martinez was the only one who called Purcey’s inside fastball a slider. I think it’s really when he overthrows the ball it always ends off to the far right, but thats no slider, its just a bad pitch.
That said I do agree with everything else you say, Reyes has proved much more then Purcey, and over a much smaller space of time. He has found the strike zone, and no matter how much Purcey asked him, Reyes always refused to draw him a map on how to get there.
As a Braves fan, seeing someone defend Jo-Jo Reyes blows my mind.
its fun to make things up and pass them as fact!
In 2010 Purcey’s pitch selection was as follows
Fastball 80.1% 92.2 MPH
Slider 16.4 % 84.1 MPH
Curve 3.1% 74.8 MPH
Change 0.3% 85 MPH
16.4% of pitches for a reliever, hmmmm so in a 20 pitch inning for purcey he throws 2 to 3 “sliders”. Sounds like a plus pitch to me. If you havn’t actually seen Purcey throw and you are only depending on pitch trax info for your “facts” then there was never really any grounds for a productive debate.
I usually love all your posts Lunchbox, I can’t agree with you on this I’ve just watch Purcey for to long. I think this is boosted by the fact that AA couldn’t get much back in trade for him.
I agree. And Downs was a nothing until his late 20s early 30s too. I wouldn’t give up on him yet
I wouldn’t say useless, but I understand your pain.
The guy needs to be elsewhere.
Wicked !!! Great news ! I know people will say Purcey was the heir apparent to Downs, but thats baloney. Downs has a low 90’s fastball and a wicked plus curve and can work multiple innings and be very effective. Purcey on the other hand has a mid 90’s fastball and … well thats it. If he ever tries to throw something which isn’t his fastball you’ll see the ball go over the batter’s head (Curve), it will hit the batter (slider) or it will get hit for a homerun (changeup).
Purcey def has a plus fastball, but thats it, which is why Downs is a terrible comparison. I think Purcey’s ceiling is he works everything out would be Matt Thornton, a guy with cheese to spare and only (majority) throws fastballs. Im sure he will end up in someone’s pen, but i honestly don’t know how any team can run out a guy who walks people like Purcey does, especially since his stuff is so mediocre. I don’t get how this guy was a first round draft pick.
totally knee-jerk stupid move so early in the season; even if he had no options left, in such a deep bullpen there were ways to bury him for a while as he worked things out, it is too soon to give up on a guy who at times last year was the most effective RP in the Jays pen. I hope Farrell and Anthopoulous don’t knee-jerk themselves into oblivion, they have shown a little bit of impatience to date.
Probably also has something to do with the fact that Villeneuva has looked much better and someone is going to have to move when Morrow and Francisco get back.
Villanueva has options, why lose purcey.. see if he improves, if he doesn’t then make this move and call back up Villanueva..
I can’t figure it out how the Jays brass was so adamant in not losing Reyes yet is so quick to give up on Purcey
Probably because Purcey has no command… even in a relieving role.
At least Reyes has shown he can hit the strike zone.
1 terrible start and 1 meh start is hardly a good barometer for measuring reyes
In 43 appearances in the big leagues he’s posted a 4.4 bb/9
I had a cat named Purcey once. That has nothing to do with the article, but I thought that people would just like to know that.
My life has changed for the better because you shared this knowledge.
could he find the strike zone?
And once he found it, he took a nap in it.
About time, good teams generally play with the best team possible. If the Jays want to be a contender they need to operate like a contender and send the best players out there. They clearly have better options in AAA. Im guessing the Astros pick him up if he gets to them
knee jerk reaction, d-purce is decent.
Because “decent” qualifies in the AL East.
mid 3 era reliever, 8.0 k/9 . throws hard and from the left side..
Still young and adjusting to a new role..
Some team will make use out of him and I wouldn’t be surprise if he becomes a very good major league reliever
Definitely did not see this coming. Maybe they can swing something with the Angels for Wood. Maybe the Angels will even take Rivera back, he has been worse then Purcey, if you can believe that.
Purcey and Rivera for absolutely nothing sounds pretty fair actually.
I really don’t understand the move.. They have relievers with options, why not send them down and not make such a rash decision after a few bad appearances.
Testing the waters, DFA = Ten Days to Trade, Release or Waive – OR you can put him back on the 40 man.