RANDY JONES ONCE UPON A TIME MAXIMIZED HIS VALUE…
BY USING HIS HEAD
RANDY JONES WAS A GENIUS… BACK THEN:
Kevin Kernan in 2021 wrote this about ultra-slow-hurling Randy Jones, whose last 2 career years were with the Mets, at age 31-32, when he went 8-18, 4.69 for truly bad early 1980s Mets teams:
KERNAN: “In 1976, the lefty (Jones) won 22 games, two years after losing 22 games. He started 40 games that season, having pitched 25 complete games over 315 1/3 innings. Those led the league as did the 274 hits he allowed, only 15 them home runs. He surrendered only 109 runs. He struck out just 93 batters. And he worked fast.
“Think about those 93 punchouts,’’ Jones proudly told BallNine. “Half of those had to be the other pitcher. I only struck out like 40 real hitters. If I struck you out, it wasn’t my fault, it was yours, you just missed it.’
Jones’ fastest fastball was 87 MPH. He would never throw it that hard.
“At 87 it would not sink, it would just tail,’’ he explained. “As soon as I’d drop it down to 81-82, then the ball would start sinking. I could throw 73 and the bottom would fall out of it and it would be in the same spot in the strike zone.
“I just changed speeds and my mechanics never changed. A lot of times I would throw a slider into a right-hander’s hands, and I would throw that harder than my fastball and they would look at me like: ‘How the hell are you getting in my kitchen?’ I’d throw the slider 83 and the fastball 78. It was fun setting up guys.
“I would wear out my spot out there on the outside corner, right below the kneecap.
“I wouldn’t throw a strike the whole game sometimes. I didn’t have to. They would call that pitch a strike and they would keep swinging at it and it was over. Here we go. I’d just live out there.’’
He could pitch. Then he offered this 2021 reality.
“I don’t even know if I would get drafted today.
“I don’t know about the analytics today. Either you can pitch or you can’t pitch.’’
My thoughts? Randy Jones could get away with being Randy Jones back when Randy Jones pitched. He pitched in a great park for pitchers, and came in first and second in the Cy Young Award tallies in consecutive seasons (1975, 1976).
In those seasons, the median team smacked just 111 home runs.
In 2025, the median team launched 184 home runs. Sixty six percent more.
Randy Jones would have been slaughtered in today’s game, pitching in a hitter neutral park. ERA above 5.00.
Maybe 6.00, because in today’s game, far fewer balls are called strikes.
He was a genius, all right…for being born when he was.
And for being a Padre in their great, big ballpark back then.
THE METS' HOTTEST TEAM...
...was the Mets' coldest team 3 weeks ago.
Brooklyn was a subterranean 11-31 in late May.
Since then, through Friday nite? Scorching. 13 wins in 18 games.
24-36 sounds a whole lot better than 11-31.
Still hitting below .200 as a team, the Brooklyn bats have nonetheless been much improved since that late May 11-31 nadir, with the team average rising nearly 20 points in that stretch.
Pitching has been better, too, with the team ERA dropping sharply to 3.97.
Warmer weather a help? Very possibly.
May they keep on keeping on. They are OFFICIALLY THE HOTTEST.
They are scoring 4.1 runs per game, still lowest in what is this season definitely a hitters' league, through 60 games.
Amazingly, if they can somehow score a mere 188 runs in game # 61, they will catch up to league scoring leader Greensboro, which has scored an insane 7.2 runs per game.
I will leave you with this extreme, incomprehensible stat of the day:
Greensboro has 112 HRs, six times as many as Jersey Shore, which has 19 HRs.
12 comments:
Congratulations to the NY Knicks, who had the necessary drive and fierce determination and fearlessness (along with skill) to win a championship. I hope the Mets will one day get there.
I have a 9am post today on the Clones super trio of starters
Good deal.
I mean tomorrow
Thank God the NBA season is over . Maybe we can now focus on more important things.
I read Randy Jones’ remarks and I think of Tom Glavine. Another pitcher that benefited from umpires robbing the hitters and calling pitches 6 inches outside strikes. A bullshit time and I am glad for ABS.
On the Knicks’ win and the “fans” trashing the city. It seems commonplace for fans to celebrate sports teams’ accomplishment by destroying the city. Our country gives citizens a little too much freedom and the justice system just stinks. These businesses that are suffering losses this morning… what about them? Who cares? Certainly not Mandami, he was too busy announcing the parade.
Disgraceful.
Agreed. Glavine and his wider strike zone got him into the HOF.
Ray prefers poops to hoops. My poop output is more regular than Mets’ offensive output.
It is not the fans trashing the city. It is the people who look for the opportunity to create damage and disruption while there is a distraction. You see it everywhere - after sports championships, after rallies, and after civil protests. Bad people. Period.
As for Randy Jones, one could wonder how he would do today. With all the data out there on opposing pitchers, all the analytics on tendencies, all the high velocity, high RPM pitchers that batters face. I think Randy took advantage of his time in history.
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