Jair Jurrjens' Career Tracker

Jurrjens' maturity shows in Braves' win
Young starter keeps composure despite wild inning vs. Mets
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Almost immediately, the Braves knew they might have something special in Jair Jurrjens. But it wasn't until Friday night at Shea Stadium that they truly came to understand the depth of the young right-hander's composure.

During the early weeks of Spring Training, Braves manager Bobby Cox began to get a sense that Jurrjens wasn't the typical 22-year-old pitcher. It was obvious that he possessed both knowledge and maturity beyond his years.

But it wasn't until Friday that Jurrjens truly proved that he could momentarily lose his composure and then impressively recapture a sense of poise that carried the Braves to a series-opening 6-3 win over the Mets.

"He's so mature, it's unreal," Cox said of Jurrjens, who was obtained in the October deal that sent Edgar Renteria to the Tigers. "He understands baseball, the game, and how it should be played. He was a great pickup."

Simply put, Jurrjens was perfect for five of the six innings that he completed in his first career start against the Mets. During that other inning, he non-verbally contested plate umpire Tim McClelland with an agitated gesture and issued four walks in consecutive fashion during a span of 24 pitches.

Yet after surrendering three runs and seeing Cox get tossed while saving him in the Mets' three-run third inning, Jurrjens was legitimately perfect. He retired each of the final 10 batters he faced and then watched four Braves relievers hold the Mets hitless to secure his third win of the season.

"He's a great kid and we love playing behind him," said first baseman Mark Teixeira, whose first-inning RBI single off Mike Pelfrey gave the Braves an early lead. "He showed his maturity today."

After Jurrjens proved he had regained his composure, Kelly Johnson continued to match his season-high four-RBI performance. His other came on April 5 against these same Mets, who have seen the Braves second baseman collect eight of his 11 RBIs this year at their expense.

Johnson's fourth-inning sacrifice fly began the comeback and his sixth-inning two-run homer off Pelfrey gave the Braves a lead they wouldn't relinquish. As for his seventh-inning RBI single, that simply provided some insurance for relievers Will Ohman, Blaine Boyer, Royce Ring and Manny Acosta as they kept the Mets scoreless.

While Jurrjens' performance might have gone unrewarded without Johnson's contributions, this evening's most impressive performance was provided by the young hurler from Curacao, who is just 12 starts into his Major League career.

Just when it seemed like Jurrjens was rolling toward a gem, he surrendered a pair of third-inning singles and then issued a two-out walk to Luis Castillo to load the bases. Before walking Castillo, he had thrown 28 of his 40 pitches for strikes.

But the Castillo walk began the span of four consecutive walks that accounted for each of the Mets' three runs. After McClelland ruled that Jurrjens had just missed on the outside corner with a 3-2 pitch to David Wright, Jurrjens spread his arms, opened his hands and stared toward the plate.

This prompted the veteran umpire to begin walking toward the mound, which obviously irritated Cox, who needed just a few words to increase his career ejections record to 136.

"[Jurrjens] never lost [his composure]," Cox said. "He was around the plate. Let's leave it at that."

After the game, Jurrjens had no harsh words for McClelland. In fact, he said that he plans to find the umpire on Saturday and apologize to him.

"It's part of the game that I need to learn," Jurrjens said. "I'm still learning each time out ... I'm just sorry for showing him up."

When asked if he thought he might have gotten squeezed even more after making the gesture, Jurrjens chose not to comment. Instead, he continued to say he had learned a lesson on a night that he actually schooled many of the Mets' hitters.

"He was perfect except for the one inning," Cox said of Jurrjens, who has pitched into the sixth inning during each of his five starts. "You can't pitch any better than that."

Adding to Jurrjens' accomplishment was the fact that he was able to show this poise while pitching in front of a crowd that might have been even rowdier than many that Shea Stadium usually welcomes.

When Jeff Francoeur was delivering his game-tying fifth-inning RBI single off the left-field wall, there was a fight on the first-base side that Braves catcher Brian McCann couldn't help but watch, while standing on second base and attempting to keep his concentration on the game.

Still, all of this rowdiness never affected Jurrjens, whose 107-pitch effort might have been even more impressive if not for the unusual third inning. But then again, without that inning, Mets fans might not understand why the Braves believe they truly have something special in this young right-hander.

"If he can pitch in this environment, with a thousand fights going on, he can pitch anywhere," Francoeur said.

He looked okay last night!

Go JJ! Tiger fans still love you!

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

I merged all the Jurrjens threads.

I don't get paid enough for this job!

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

I merged all the Jurrjens threads.

I don't get paid enough for this job!

Nope! Lo gets paid the most for some reason

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

I merged all the Jurrjens threads.

I don't get paid enough for this job!

Nope! Lo gets paid the most for some reason

Jurrjens burgeons to Feldman's chagrin
Resident importer-exporter rues offseason trade, loss of rising arm
By Dave Feldman / MLB.com

Jair Jurrjens.

The name says it all.

It's fun to say. It's fun to write. It's fun to look at.

Jair Jurrjens. It just rolls off your tongue. You can't help yourself from saying it out loud while you are reading this: Jairrrrrrrrr Jurrrrrrrjjjjjjjennnnnsss.

Jair Jurrjens. How could anyone root against someone with that name? If his stellar numbers this year weren't enough (4-2, 2.42 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 36 Ks), the guy could easily pass for a long-lost member of ABBA: Anni-Frid, Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Jair Jurrjens. And he's not even Swedish.

Jair Jurrjens. He's a 22-year-old ace-in-the-making, the apple of Atlanta's eye, the inspiration behind the best fan club in the Majors (Jurrjens' Surgeons), and he's slowly ruining my 2008 season. Let me explain ...

I think I'll devote Chapter 7 of my yet-to-be-released debut book, "Biggest Bust Since Darko: How the Detroit Tigers Assembled the Best Lineup in the History of Baseball on Paper and Only Managed to Win 71 Games Thanks to a Starting Rotation that Would Probably Get Shelled By the 7-8-9 Hitters of an 'MTV Rock 'N' Jock' Lineup" to the Jair Jurrjens-for-Edgar Renteria trade. It boggled my mind then, and it makes my stomach a little queasy to this day.

For those who don't remember the deal, here is a not-so-brief recap:

At the end of last season, Carlos Guillen's lateral quickness probably placed him somewhere around the bottom 4 percent of all walking humans. This would be fine if not for the fact that he was the Tigers' starting shortstop.

With Guillen on the books for another three years, it was clear that he would have to find a new position and that Placido Polanco would need a new double-play partner. Instead of landing a serviceable replacement through free agency (David Eckstein), or make a minor deal for a Jack Wilson type, on Oct. 29, 2007, Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski made the first big splash of the offseason by trading two of his top prospects -- starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens and center fielder Gorkys Hernandez -- to the always savvy Braves for 32-year-old Edgar Renteria. For the sake of reference, Jurrjens and Hernandez were ranked in the 2007 "Baseball America Prospect Handbook" as the team's No. 4 and No. 7 overall prospects, a few spots below uber-prospects Cameron Maybin (No. 1) and Andrew Miller (No. 2), whom I'll get to in a minute.

Most Tigers fans -- still having not recovered from a dismal 2006 World Series showing and growing increasingly impatient after a postseason-free 2007 -- praised the trade and lauded Dombrowski for his win-now-at-all-costs mentality.

Truth be told, they would have held a parade for any trade that resulted in Sean Casey (4 HR, .393 SLG in 2007) not being the team's starting first baseman anymore. And with Renteria now on board, it was planned that Guillen would shift to first.

I, for one, was skeptical at best, partially because of Renteria's underwhelming showing during his lone American League stint with the Red Sox in 2006 (.276 AVG, 8 HR), but also because I simply hate trading away good young Major League-ready starting pitching. And while Jurrjens' stats would suggest that he didn't set the world on fire during his brief stint in the D in '07 (4.70 ERA, 13/11 K/BB), anyone who watched one of his outings knew that he oozed potential and that in a worse-case scenario, he would develop into a better-than-average starter. And in a market that nets Carlos Silva a $48 million contract, better-than-average starting pitchers are gold.

Anyway, it was clear that Dombrowski considered Jurrjens and Hernandez dispensable, with Miller slated to be the team's No. 5 starter and Curtis Granderson and Maybin serving as roadblocks in center field.

Of course, everything changed on Dec. 5, 2007, when Dombrowski dealt Miller and Maybin to the Marlins in the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis trade. Like everyone else, I loved this trade for the Tigers then, and even with the team's current 14-20 record, I love it now. It's a deal I would make 100 times out of 100. Anytime you can deal for a 24-year-old Manny Ramirez-in-the-making, you do it. It's really that simple.

Unfortunately, this trade would have been about a thousand times better if only it took place six weeks earlier -- before the Renteria deal. Cabrera's presence at the hot corner made 2007 starting third baseman Brandon Inge the highest-paid bench player in the Majors (3 years, $19.1 million). Despite fervent attempts by Dombrowski to trade the versatile Inge for bullpen help or even just a Costco-sized pack of Big League Chew, few teams expressed interest. And by few, I mean none. I'm guessing his lifetime .240 batting average might have had something to do with that.

And that's where the Renteria/Jurrjens trade hurts the most. If the trade never happened, I have no doubt in my mind that Inge would be the Detroit Tigers' starting shortstop.

Say what you want about Inge, but he is a wizard with the glove, one of those throwback, grind-it-out, Kirk Gibson-type players blue-collar fans from Detroit fawn over. With little reservation, Inge would have seized the challenge of playing a new position and would be vying for Gold Gloves in no time. I know this because he's done this before -- twice. A catcher by trade, Inge became a top-flight center fielder after the Tigers signed Pudge Rodriguez in '04 and seamlessly transitioned to the hot corner once Granderson arrived in the Majors in '06. And while Renteria's bat is obviously an upgrade over Inge's, I would argue that it's an unnecessary one. It'd be like ordering a ribeye with your porterhouse. When you have a lineup stacked with Cabrera, Guillen, Granderson, Polanco, Magglio Ordonez, and the artists formerly known as Pudge and Gary Sheffield, you can afford to sneak in a .240 hitter at the nine-hole. The only thing that could stop a team with such a lethal lineup like this would be its own starting pitching.

Right on cue, guess what the team's Achilles' heel has been this season? In the AL, only the Rangers have a worse team ERA than the Tigers' 4.98 mark.

But that doesn't even begin to tell the story. The Tigers are dead last in the Majors in terms of quality starts. In fact, it's not even close. As a team, they have registered just eight (eight!) through the season's first 34 games, compared to next-to-last Texas and Tampa Bay, which have each recorded 15. And of course, it goes without saying that Jair Jurrjens alone has five quality starts to his name.

Obviously, the Tigers' problems run deeper than not having Jurrjens in the rotation. A slew of injuries combined with untimely hitting certainly haven't helped matters. But I just can't help but think of the what-if factor.

What if we just never made the Renteria trade? I could be celebrating the dominance of Jair Jurrjens. I could be playing "Dancing Queen" on repeat even though I am fully aware that Jurrjens is from Curacao, which is nowhere close to Sweden.

Come to think of it, I could have been a Jurrjen Surgeon.

Goooooo Jurgey!

Even though you only pitched 4.2 last night...and didn't get the win.

But on the brightside Manny Acosta did, he's one of my Bravos!

Go Jurrjens

The curse of John Smoltz? Ex-Tiger Jurrjens making run for rookie of the year

The last time Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox said, "This kid can pitch, he'll be around here for a while." he wasn't kidding. The year was 1988, Cox was the GM for the Braves and the "kid" he was referring to was John Smoltz, a young, hard-throwing pitcher who had just been obtained in a trade with the Tigers. Since then, Smoltz, who still pitches for the Braves, has blossomed into a sure Hall of Famer, posting 210 wins, 154 saves and over 3,000 strike outs.

In May, 2008 as manager of the Braves, Cox made a similar statement, "This kid can pitch, he's gonna' be a good one". This time the "kid" Cox is referring to is another acquisition from the Tigers, 22 year-old starting pitcher, Jair Jurrjens. After eleven starts this year, the rookie pitching phenomenon, is taking the National League by storm. After being part of an unpopular trade that sent hometown favorite, Edgar Renteria to the Tigers, Jurrjens is now being referred to as the most impressive rookie pitcher the Braves have had in over a decade.

The Braves were at home on Memorial Day Monday and Cox, again showing confidence in Jurrjens, put the rookie right-hander on the mound against the first-place Diamondbacks and their ace Brandon Webb (9-1). Going into Monday's game, Jurrjens had a 5-3 record with an impressive 2.64 ERA. At that time, Jurrjens ERA was 4th best in the league and better than Webb's (2.69).

Against the Diamondbacks, Jurrjens, out-pitched Webb during the Braves 7-3 win, but was pulled with a 5-3 lead because of a blister developing on his throwing hand, just one out shy of recording his 6th victory of the season.

During his post game interview Monday, Cox said, "Jurrjens pitched incredibly good. He's a young kid; he's pitched a ton of good innings for us this year."

Yes he has and his record should indicate that. In two of his past outings, the rookie walked away with no decision after giving up no runs in one game then only one run in another. It is safe to say both of those outings deserved to be victories as well as Sunday's game if he were left in for one more out. Jurrjens record could easily be 8-3 right now which would only rub more salt in the wounds of Tiger fans as they watch their team's starting pitching staff struggle throughout the year.

Jurrjens who has not given up more than four runs in any of his outings this season, is way ahead of Smoltz' pace, thus far, as Smoltz struggled his first year as a rookie in 1988 then went on to win 12 games in his second year, posting an ERA of 2.94. Jurrjens' performance is creating a buzz around Atlanta and talk about the possibility of him taking home the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year award.

While Renteria is having a respectable season hitting .279, the Tigers sit near last place with one of the statistically worst starting pitching staffs in baseball, it's hard not to notice what contributions Jair Jurrjens could be making for the Tigers at this point of the season. This season, only one of the Tiger's starters has more than three wins and with the Tiger starters having ERAs between 4.58 and 6.66, they could use a young right arm like Jurrjens'. While the top four starters for the Tigers have given up at least seven home runs each, Jurrjens has given up just a total of two long balls in his 11 outings.

Many Braves fans hated to see Renteria get traded and were bitter and questioned the move. Over the years, Bobby Cox has shown he has a knack for recognizing talent, and the Braves manager liked the potential he saw in shortstop Yunel Escobar. When Jurrjens' name came up in trade talks, he jumped on the opportunity to land the great prospect, even at the expense of Renteria, his all-star shortstop.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Escobar was hitting .310 compared to Renteria's .279. Both players each had 4 home runs, 4 errors and almost an identical number of RBI's.

Clearly the Braves have not lost any offense from the transaction and have made a huge gain in their starting rotation. With John Smoltz on the mend from typical aches, pains and injuries of a 40 year-old pitcher and Tom Glavine turning 42 years-old this season, Jurrjens success coupled with the evolution of Escobar is making Braves fans forget about the loss of Edgar Renteria.

With solid starting pitching hard to acquire in Major League Baseball, this trade appears to be an excellent move by the Braves. Time will tell if the Renteria/Jurrjens trade will haunt the Detroit Tigers and their fans, like the Smoltz trade of the 80's. In the meantime, in Atlanta, the team and fans are reaping the rewards.

Go JJ!!

And the Tigers let another great arm get away from them. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have Renteria, but I'd rather have sent Zach or Nando or someone like that to the Braves instead of JJ!

Smoltz déjà vu

You ain't kidding! And with all the (former Tiger) players that are now "Fish", I wouldn't be suprised to see 1/2 of them become all-stars year in and year out!

We should switch teams secretly

Poor JJ gave up Ken Griffey Jrs 599th homerun.

Griffey stuck on 599

Oh AND he got a triple yesterday! it was so cool.

Go Jurrjens.


Tigers make a huge mistake letting him go

John Smoltz all over again!


If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it!


Tigers don't learn

Tigers' office doesn't learn!

You are so right



How we can see it and they can't!


Makes me ill!

Who knows...maybe the Braves will struggle and be so far out of the running by the trade deadline that we can get JJ back pretty cheap! lol

I wish

Me too gs, me too, I bet JJ would be doing great for us this year, pen or rotation.

I miss Jurrjens

Updated...

6-3 - 3.77 ERA - 76 1/3 innings - 55 K - 32 BB

Jurrjens spins a gem as Braves win
Young righty shuts out Jays over eight innings of work
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com

TORONTO -- If Braves manager Bobby Cox had known Jair Jurrjens was going to make it this easy, he wouldn't have worried so much about his inexperience-laden lineup card. Thanks to Jurrjens and Mark Teixeira, the veteran skipper actually was able to enjoy a return to one of his favorite cities.

Jurrjens flirted with perfection and then continued an evening of dominance while leading the Braves to a 4-0 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Center on Friday night. His impressive outing was backed almost solely by Teixeira, who continued his recent power barrage with a homer that highlighted his three-RBI performance.

Jurrjens surrendered just three hits and issued just one walk over eight innings of work. The 22-year-old right-hander, who hasn't been charged with an earned run in his past three starts -- 21 2/3 innings -- allowed the Blue Jays to hit just four balls to be hit out of the infield -- two flyouts and two singles.

Jurrjens was perfect until Matt Stairs bounced a single through the middle of the infield with one out in the fifth inning. Stairs' single and a one-out, sixth-inning walk to Gregg Zaun were followed by double-play groundouts. Until surrendering Alex Rios' two-out, seventh-inning infield single, the Braves young hurler had faced the minimum number of batters.

Before Jurrjens threw his first pitch of the evening, Teixeira had given him a lead with a first-inning, two-run homer off Dustin McGowan. Two innings later, the Braves first baseman capped his three-RBI night with a double that scored Gregor Blanco home with a double to right.

Teixeira, who has hit .444 (8-for-18) with five homers and nine RBIs in his past five games, was the only player in the Braves lineup with a salary of at least $1 million. With Chipper Jones and Yunel Escobar unavailable because of injury, Cox stressed through Friday afternoon, while attempting to reunite with many of the people he'd known when he was the Blue Jays manager from 1982-85.

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Game of the day: Braves 4, Blue Jays 0
Jurrjens grounds the Blue Jays
Former Tiger gives up three hits in career-high eight innings to win his fourth straight decision.
Detroit News wire services

TORONTO -- Bobby Cox has seen plenty of fine pitching performances as manager of the Atlanta Braves, but few as good as the one Jair Jurrjens delivered Friday night.

Jurrjens worked eight innings, extending his scoreless innings streak to 21 2/3, and Mark Teixeira backed him with a homer and three RBIs as the Braves beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0.

"He couldn't have pitched better than that," Cox said. "That's one of the best games I've seen pitched, ever."

Jurrjens (8-3) allowed just three hits -- all singles -- and didn't allow a runner to reach second base. He turned it over to Mike Gonzalez for the ninth.

"All of his other ones have been on the great side," Cox said. "This is on the excellent side. His location was just perfect."

Teixeira also recognized that he was watching something special.

"JJ was awesome tonight," Teixeira said. "He was real close to throwing a no-hitter."

He did a real good job of staying down in the zone," Teixeira continued. "He didn't go out there and try to strike everybody out. He was letting guys hit the ball and getting double-play balls, getting ground balls. They weren't hitting much hard."

Jurrjens walked one and struck out three. Fifteen of the 24 outs he recorded came on ground balls.

"The two-seamer was really working today," Jurrjens said. "I kept throwing it and throwing it and they kept hitting it into the ground."

Atlanta posted just its 12th road victory of the season, the lowest total in baseball, while Toronto was blanked for the sixth time this season and second time in seven games.

Jurrjens retired the first 13 batters in order before Matt Stairs grounded a single up the middle in the fifth. Scott Rolen promptly ended the inning by hitting into a double play.

The 22-year-old rookie didn't allow another hit until the seventh, when third baseman Ruben Gotay dived to grab a sharp grounder by Alex Rios, but threw late to first. Vernon Wells bounced back to the mound for the third out.

"He didn't really make too many mistakes," Wells said. "He was living on the edges, living down in the zone. He did his job and kept us off-balance."

Jurrjens, who won his fourth straight decision, leads major league rookies in victories and has not lost since May 12 at Pittsburgh, a span of nine starts.