Dennys Reyes is the epitome of a loogy. If you refute this, you are a callous jerk. Reyes rode the rails for years, hitting Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Diego, Denver, Arlington, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Kansas City and San Diego before arriving in the Twin Cities before the 2006 season.
The most significant aspects of his career were not very significant and truthfully, Reyes was lucky that the Twins even took a flier on him in ‘06. The low risk gamble paid off as Reyes turned in quite a remarkable season, by loogy standards or otherwise.
Anyway you slice it (up, down, left, right), a 0.89 ERA is “disgusting” and Reyes used his portly physique to baffle hitters with a wide array of southpaw junk. This contributed to a surprising 2006 American League Central division title for the Twins. The Oakland Athletics ultimately swept the Twins in the first round of the Divisional Series (Reyes allowed an inside-the-park home run to Mark Kotsay in Game 2) but the quick post season exit didn’t tarnish one of the finest loogy seasons of all-time.
| Name |
Year |
Tm |
W |
L |
G |
SV |
IP |
BB |
SO |
ERA |
WHIP |
| Dennys Reyes |
2006 |
MIN |
5 |
0 |
66 |
0 |
50.7 |
15 |
49 |
0.89 |
0.99 |
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Let’s discuss the Top 10 Single Season Friends.
The problem with most friends is that they’re fleeting. They’ll either get promoted to closer (Mariano Rivera, Mel Rojas, Duane Ward), to starter (David Wells, Craig Lefferts, Jimmy Key) or they’ll just fade away after 2-3 seasons in the ‘pen.
There are very few Buddy Grooms and Eric Plunks in this world–pitchers who will spend the majority of their careers in set-up or middle relief. This doesn’t make them evil. It doesn’t make them worthless. It makes them friends.
Here is a Top 10 list of the all-time best single-season performances by friends.
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Henceforth, all relief pitchers will be called “friends” within House of Hurl. This is for two primary reasons:
- Brevity.
- Relief pitchers are friends to managers and starting pitchers. They help them out, try their hardest, travel with them and basically look to enrich lives.
It is also important to establish that House of Hurl will only focus on non-closers. We will not discuss Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley, “Tall” Tom Henke or Mariano Rivera in much detail. Rather, the focus will be kept on middle relievers and set-up types. These are friends and from this post forward, a single season performance of a friend will meet these three pieces of statistical criteria:
- > 50 games in a single season
- < 5 games started in a single season
- < 10 saves in a single season
- 1980 or later. This is highly contentious but truly, the age of the friend didn’t “really” start until the 1980s (I blame Tony La Russa) so if you have a problem with that, we could settle our differences with our fists.
Pitchers who do not meet these four pieces of criteria will not be considered friends.
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Why don’t relief pitchers get more “props”? Seriously. These men and women are terminally undervalued, underpaid and underappreciated in the annals of Major League Baseball. Luckily, House of Hurl has come to the rescue to shine some light upon the rears of these tortured souls.
So whether you’re a Bill Bray booster, Frank Francisco fanatic or Lester Lancaster lover, there is something for everyone within the House of Hurl. So ditch the chaw, hyperextend your elbow and buckle up for the ride of your life.
Or whatever.
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