The Jays New Closer
Scott Downs is pretty good at baseball even though there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of him. Down is the designated closer now that B.J. Ryan is taking his annual DL vacation. That means fantasy owners are probably learning more and more about one of baseball’s more underrated relievers.
Downs is a lefty, which makes him a rarity at closer despite the obvious advantages one capable of retiring lefties and righties alike brings. Drafted by the Cubs in the third round of the 1997 draft, he would later be traded to the Twins then right back to the Cubs in the Rick Aguilera deal. Just over a year later the Cubs would send him to Montreal for Rondell White, and in 2004 the Nationals would release Downs.
Downs reached the Jays in 2005 and made his last start in 2006. Since then Downs has posted FIP of 4.33, 3.24, 3.39, and so far this season 0.84 thanks to allowing a combined zero walks and homeruns.
Backed by a generally stellar defensive infield, Downs groundball heavy ways (around 60% since joining the Jays) works ridiculously well. As most relievers are, Downs is basically a two-pitch pitcher. An 89-90 MPH fastball that breaks down and in to lefties gets most of the reps while a curveball that has ridiculous down and away movement from left-handers gets the call to finish hitters. The average left-handed curveball breaks 4.5 inches towards righties, Downs’ breaks 7.1 inches towards righties. With stuff like that, it’s not hard to imagine why Downs has been successful at retiring batters of both dexterities since moving to the pen.
And yes, it took a ton of self-restraint to avoid any “Up and Downs” related puns.
BJ Upton at the plate, Brian Downing behind the dish…followed by Downtown Ollie Brown and “Poosh ‘Em Up” Lazzeri would be more of an up and down.
Thank you, Jim Bowden.
Little known fact, Scott Downs admitted to crying when he found out he was traded from the Cubs to the Expos. As a Cubs fan, I’m glad to see that he has stuck around the Majors and made himself into one of the best relievers. Ditto to Ron Mahay
Sounds like he needs a little talking to.
As a Jays fan, and a cynical one at that, watching Downs is a pleasure. We’ve got a whole lotta really good relievers up here, and most of them at one point have really looked downright awful.
With that said, Downs has a nice mixture of stuff and the ability to control it. You know he’s not going to walk the bases full, and you know he can get you a K if you need it. With the recent headaches in the Jays pen, this means a lot.
“you’ve probably never heard of him” – GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
This isn’t about the information, but the writing.
This is FanGraphs. We’re nerds here. We know every player. We read sabermetric articles, understand the importance of defense, obp, and Babip. People who read here don’t just know what VORP is, they know their way around the flaws of VORP.
From here on I propose a moratorium on the authors of this site talking down to their audience. As a part of this I propose a moratorium also on the terms “over-rated” and “under-rated”, as the task of rating players is very complicated and most people here have a fairly advance ability to do so compared to the MLB.com/BBWAAish types who write more about personalities than the playing abilities.
You’re just jealous because you don’t have a gamer personality.
Grindiness – the new sabermetric
Guys, they’re still written pieces. It’s not just charts and tables. I like a well-constructed article. It’s much more enjoyable. Than reading short, choppy, sentences. With Statistics used as punctuation.
Anyways, I’m sure you’ve read enough magazine articles to understand the format: Intro, Junk or Stats, Conclusion. A strange breed of people enjoy writing well-crafted pieces — god forbid!
I briefly played with Scott Downs at the University of Kentucky and he was one of the kindest people I have known in baseball. Of the former guys I played with and against, I’m MOST happy for Downs’ success. I actually used to help him edit and correct his English papers and we would spend some time talking ball. He was recovering from shoulder surgery so I was never able to catch him, but his curveball was, and still is the stuff of legend. I hope he continues to have success for another decade and wish him all the best.