David Purcey, Walk this way

David Purcey’s return to the Blue Jays is bittersweet in many ways. He began the season as one of the surefire starting pitchers, then quickly fizzled out and was sent to work on his stuff down in the minor leagues.

That’s why it comes as a surprise that Purcey was “promoted” and called up to the Blue Jays when there were arguably much better potions in Triple A Las Vegas. Last season and earlier this year, Purcey showed moments of brilliance. Most notably his start on August 27th 2008 versus Matt Garza in which he basically matched him pitch for pitch.

That gem of a game was overshadowed by his knack for missing the strike zone when it counted most. The fellas at Mop Up Duty touched on this earlier this year, but Purcey hasn’t really improved his control down in the minor leagues. His BB/9 was 6.31 with the Blue Jays and is still hovering around 5.04 with the Las Vegas 51’s. Brad Arnsberg must have a master plan here and is hoping that he can do the same for David Purcey that he did with Ricky Romero.


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I would have much rather seen Fabio Castro called up, alas there is only one way to find out if Purcey can cut it in the big leagues once again. It’s just unfortunate that in his September callup, Purcey’s team mates will be going up against Justin Verlander. Good luck with that one, boys.

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

5 thoughts on “David Purcey, Walk this way

  • September 14, 2009 at 10:44 pm
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    Castro has hit his Verducci ceiling for the year.

  • September 15, 2009 at 6:36 pm
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    I don't know what Purceys deal is. It's funny how many times pitchers get told to not nibble and throw strikes, use your defence etc but so many guys struggle with the concept…

  • September 15, 2009 at 10:12 pm
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    Will, that sucks about Castro but maybe they will give him a second look next year.

    Mattt, with Purcey it's all about lack of control. I didn't see the game last night, but it sounded like he had trouble finding the strike zone yet again.

  • September 16, 2009 at 1:41 am
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    Jayzone, I think the Blue Jays were depending more on Cecil and Romero to impress that they just assumed Purcey would work out since he had big league experience. Things can turn around for the bad (or good) pretty quickly.

    I'm sure the starting rotation will hold it's own until the end of the year. It's a bit tough right now since Cecil is done and R-Zep will be shut down soon, so that leaves Halladay, Romero, Richmond, Purcey and Tallet to finish off the season. I just hope Richmond gets a decent couple of starts in before the season is over!

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