Reese Kaplan -- Forgotten Setup Guys Part 1 of 6

As I mentioned before, I have soft spot for pitchers with funky deliveries and the Mets’ ironman of the late 80’s and early 90’s was I-Man, the first Met ever to have a last name starting with the letter “I”, Jeff Innis.  During his brief but exclusively Mets career he went an uninspiring 10-20 but his career ERA as a setup man out of the pen was a sparkling 3.05.  He twice pitched more than 80 innings in a season and once threw 76. 

The skinny submariner was a joy to watch as his soft tossing stuff befuddled batters.  He never had huge strikeout numbers but no one was making any strong contact against him as they were not sure where to pick up the pitch as it was released near the top of the mound when he delivered.  His two types of breaking balls had a lot of movement that batters could not handle very well.  In this video clip you can see an example of how he pitched, a typical weak swing and an equally surprising accurate throw from catcher Mackey Sasser to nail the runner at first base.  Have a look here.

Innis attended the University of Illinois, earning a degree in psychology.  During the summers he played in the Cape Cod League for the Cotuit Kettleers.  He led the league in saves during one season, was an All Star both years he was there and helped his team to a championship.  During the period in which aluminum bats were fluffing up offensive stats, Innis finished his two-year stint in that league with a 2.15 ERA.  He was named to the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame in 2008. 

Drafted in the 13^th round by the New York Mets, he started off his minor league career quite well.  In short season ball for Little Falls over a period of 28 games Innis went 8-0 with a 1.37 ERA.  That stellar performance had him jump up to Jackson in AA for the next season where he got his first taste of adversity, becoming a bit wild and finishing with a much less impressive 4.25 ERA.  That performance earned him a demotion the following year to Lynchburg where he got back to what made him so impressive the first time around, finishing the 1985 season with a 53 game record of 6-3 with a 2.34 ERA and 14 saves.  He then returned to Jackson during the 1986 season serving as the team’s closer and finished the season with a then club-record 25 saves, a 2.45 ERA and became a Texas League All Star. 

1987 was a breakthrough year for Innis who rode the Tidewater/New York shuttle several times.  For the Tides he was 6-1 with a 2.03 ERA and for the big club he went 0-1, but pitched in 17 games and finished his first taste of the big leagues with a respectable 3.16 ERA.  Over the next three seasons he continued to bounce back and forth between the majors and AAA despite never posting an ERA above 3.18.  He was mentored a bit by NY Mets submariner Terry Leach, though Innis didn’t drop down quite as much as Leach did.  He said he was trying to pitch more like Dan Quisenberry until his minor league pitching coach had him stand a bit more upright with improved results. 

In general Innis was considered a quiet, pensive teammate who was not part of the firecracker-tossing, bleach spraying or golf club swinging antics that were a part of the NY Mets’ negative lure of those days.  He was, however, a talented mimic and routinely would break up his fellow players with a spot-on impressive of the GM, Frank Cashen.

In 1991 Innis had the dubious distinction of setting a record for appearing in 69 games without recording either a win or a save.  For the season he finished 0-2, but with an ERA of just 2.66.  He famously asked for a raise and was told he had his nerve considering he had a losing record and no saves. 

He followed that up in 1992 with even more pitching – this time appearing in 76 games, earning a 6-9 record and a 2.86 ERA.  He didn’t wait long to get off the schneid, recording his first ever win on Opening Day. 

He would pitch just one more season in the big leagues, closing out his Mets career in 1993 with for him an uncharacteristically high 4.11 ERA over 67 games.  He was not offered a contract for the 1994 season and bounced around with the Twins, Phillies and Padres minor league organizations, switching to a knuckleball that he was never quite able to master. 

After retiring from baseball Innis earned his living selling commercial insurance and ran a private baseball academy.