Understated Blanton was your average Joe

Beerleaguer says his piece about departed right-hander Joe Blanton.

Care to read on if the headline hasn't already spoiled the premise.

I listened to a lot of talk radio while driving around this weekend and heard a good share of revisionist high praise for Blanton, using phrases like "very solid" and "vastly underrated." There was even some heated grumbling and fist pounding over letting him slip past the non-waiver trade deadline without getting something in return.

But let's face it: the reason he slipped into August is that he's not a major difference maker, and not someone who'll give any team a real edge in the postseason, head-to-head, against higher-caliber pitching. Aside from 2008 - a comfortable win over the Brewers in the NLDS, then a homer in a blowout Game 4 of the World Series, you're getting a boatload of forgettable starts, inconsistency and injury over five seasons, ending with the final year of his three-year, $24 million deal. There were times, like the opening halves of 2009 and 2010, when he was kind of intolerable. For three winters, the Phils made him available, and nobody budged.

Perhaps the most "underrated" part about Blanton was how inconsistent he was. There were lows, but there were certainly highs. When he was on, he helped considerably and played a big role in guiding the Phils slog through a 162-game schedule. He was steady in those second halves of 2009 and 2010 and was having a pretty good season, overall, here in 2012, including some of the best strike-throwing of his career. His 5.71 K/BB rates as tops in the league.

From the moment he arrived in Philly, Blanton went about business in a low-key way. The "four aces" spectacle made him an unfortunate, and undeserved, punchline. Even his name - Joe Blanton - denotes utility and a workman's ethos.

But let's not get carried away on either side: the fat jokes are just as uncalled for as letting him drink free in Philly for the rest of his days. He was Joe average, a league-median, 97 ERA+, back-of-the-rotation starter.

Not that there was anything wrong with that.

Comments

[ddN]

Joe won 34 and lost 25 .576 percentage.

Can Kyle Kendrick do as well?

[J. Weitzel]

Well, let's see: 47-39, .547 percentage for Kendrick.

[mainerob]

On the other hand, I threw away a boatload of money buying tickets on StubHub for five of my family members to attend a predictable blowout at Fenway two years ago. Yes, it was that "innings-eater," Joe Blanton who pissed away the game.

It was also the major-league debut of the estimable Daniel Nava, who greeted "Say it ain't so Joe's" first pitch with a grand-slam homer to break the game wide open in the 3rd inning.

Tons of fun.

[J. Weitzel]

Bitter, mainerob?

[lorecore]

Blanton total career: 97 ERA+
Blanton PHI Career: 92 ERA+
Blanton during 3yr deal: 85 ERA+

He just kept underperforming bit by bit. Even if he put up those ugly numbers and gave the Phillies 200IP a season I could see coming to his defense in some parts, but then he started getting hurt too and it just makes his post-WFC tenure as forgettable as they come.

[GTown_Dave]

But let's not get carried away on either side: the fat jokes are just as uncalled for as letting him drink free in Philly for the rest of his days.

Tell it to The Trentonian!

[Iceman]

Some weird reasons for hating on Blanton over the years.

I still can't reconcile defending Lidge to the death based on his 2008 and nothing else, yet becoming disgusted with Blanton as soon as he signed his extension and immediately become oft-injured and got bombed with frequency. He provided some very memorable moments in 2008, and was a key contributor down the stretch.

What annoyed me the most about him was how they couldn't count on him in 2009 or 2010 for a damn thing in the postseason, especially the NLCS in 2010 when he was staked to a lead against a pretty weak Giants lineup and managed to cough it up and got chased before he could complete 5 innings.

Not sure why that (and 2009 against the Yankees) has irked me so much over the years, but whatever. Good luck to him in LA.

[lorecore]

mainerob: I was there - you forgot to include that it rained the entire game as well.

[The Truth Injection]

One thing on the last thread:

- I need to clarify the Mayberry comment. I don't think he obviously would be a centerpiece of a trade or a huge complimentary piece. I could see him as an additional guy thrown in though.

On Blanton:

In him the Phillies got a guy who was a 92 OPS+ pitcher. Not great clearly but better than many teams fifth starters.

[Dennis O.]

Even if you throw out 2011 when Blanton was hurt most of the year, Blanton won 33 in the other three calendar years from July 2008 when the Phils traded for him to July 2012 (minus all of last year). That's 11 games per year. The most he ever won for the Phillies was 12 and he actually peaked while he was with the Athletics winning 30 in a two year span (16 in 2006 and 14 in 2007.)
He was 47-46 with the A's, 34-25 with the Phils and 81-71 overall. That makes him "Serviceable" - and drops him into the same cateory as Kyle Kendrick. If anything, Kendrick gets a few points to push past Blanton due to his flexibility and versatility, transitioning fairly easily, from starter to long reliever and then back again.

[Dragon]

Country Joe's problem wasn't that he was a bad pitcher. He was a mediocre pitcher - a number three to number five pitcher (depending on the team talent). Joe's problem was that he was an overpaid, mediocre pitcher. On the plus side, he did his job, never complained and won more often than he lost. I wish him well.

[EastFallowfield]

Yo, new thread

[The Hook]

Heavy B is the best nickname. Joe was ave at best. In 09 and 10 he had chances to step up in important games and what happened he $hit the bed. Thanks for the homer and the jokes.

[MG]

Meah. I felt about him a lot like I did Lieber. Largely indifference.

Guy who had some moments but generally underperformed here (especially after '09) and got tattooed & gave up HRs an unhealthy clip when he his fastball control was off.

Didn't really care to watch him pitch either. Threw a ton of pitches but he really didn't have a single plus pitch.

While the 'Fat Jokes' were overdone and largely unnecessary, he was a guy with the exception of this year came into camp into mediocre shape. Always felt that hindered his ability a bit to pitch effectively later in games after from the 6th inning on.

[GTown_Dave]

What should be remembered is the awful contract r00b gave Blanton after Joe over-performed in the middle of the '09 season. That stretch (& the need to backload some salary to pay for his pet Doc) fed one of r00b's favorite delusions, namely: "Player X is tearing it up right now! I can only assume he'll continue to play this way, regardless of prev. career indicators!" (See: Mayberry, John Jr.)

[Mac]

Know who else is overrated? JW.

[Bob]

you guys are all a bunch of know nothing assholes on here, really.

[R]

I know no one cares about this thread anymore, but Bob is right.

Blanton's contract was not terrible. In fact (yes 'fact'), it was a good move at the time it was made, and had Blanton been healthy, he would not have been overpaid at all. He would have become overpaid, beginning next season. But he was paid about right, according to his actual ability and normal production (which in both early 2010 & all of 2011 was anyway heavily impacted by his injuries; those injuries count, of course, and negatively affected his value by a lot, but you can't simply look at his raw results and draw anything meaningful from them).

[verdeforce]

If it was not already confirmed, Weitzel and clout are one....

[tim mcgraw heart touching show]

Even to this day popular musicians are with the sitar to augment their creations. Newton Faulkner organism one of the more fresh artists to contain sitar on his tracks.