I may be in the minority on this one, but after listening to JD call games for the Astros for all these years, I had never actually wandered over to Baseball Reference to see what kind of pitcher he was in the big leagues. His career, which began in 1984, was largely before I was old enough to truly start following baseball. When I took the time to peruse his career lines, I was impressed at what I found.
| Seasons | GS | IP | ERA | Wins | K |
| 1984-1995 | 253 | 1525 | 4.14 | 84 | 951 |
In his 1986 rookie season, JD helped the Astros win the NL West Championship, as he went 15-10 with a 2.91 ERA in 225.2 innings of work.
What made me think of making a post about JD was a discussion he and Bill Brown had this past Wednesday. The subject of BABIP was brought up, and JD went on to explain how BABIP and luck play into a season. I was watching the game with my sister, who isn't at all clueless when it comes to sports, but doesn't follow baseball religiously either. She was pretty inquisitive though, asking me more about what our two commentators were talking about. I could never remember a time that any commentator had made someone I was watching a game with spontaneously ask a question about a pretty in depth area. That alone made me appreciate JD and his astuteness.
Does anyone have any memories of JD pitching in the majors? Was he a colorful guy? A good post-game quote?
The Man
0 recs | 7 comments
JD for Manager!
joeljr - May 18, 2009
yes, I definitely remember Deshais, the pitcher.
But I didn’t know anything about his personality or humor until he started broadcasting. My recollection is that Deshais was a young prospect who was picked up in a trade with the Yankees. Deshais was a lefty who had a deceptive fastball. He didn’t have high velocity, but succeeded as a fastball pitcher, accompanied by slider and change up. I recall that he got a lot of swings and misses on the FB up in the zone, similar to some other lefthanders like Doug Davis.
When Deshais was on, he was very good. He could be a complete shut down pitcher. He wasn’t always consistent throughout his career, and his ERA probably took a hit in the later years of his career in Minnesota.
I started saying that Wandy and Deshais are comparable a couple of years ago, after Rastronomics posted an article about Wandy putting up the highest game score by an Astros lefthander since Jim Deshais. One of my points, at the time, was that Wandy and JD are underappreciated lefthanders who are better than people give them credit. Truthfully, at this point, Wandy is probably better than Deshais, at least as far as my memory of JD’s pitching goes.
clack - May 18, 2009
I remember JD quite well
Back in the mid-late eighties the crowd would literally cheer every strike when guys like Ryan and Mike Scott were pitching. JD had one game where he struck out something like the first ten batters he faced or something like that. There was generally a ton of excitement around the team’s pitchers back then.
JD had a rising fastball that, because of the way he delivered it, fooled batters all the time. He had this over the top motion that he used to disguise his pitch.
I remember watching JD pitch in the dome a few times. He was entertaining and, if I recall correctly, was known as a joker in the clubhouse.
tehGrindCrusher - May 18, 2009
Excellence in Broadcasting
Well 740 does carry EiB’s other famous program, so it makes sense!
Xan - May 18, 2009
JD
may have more insight on this club player-by-player than Cooper. But, I want him as a broadcaster.
NocturnalMatt - May 18, 2009
One of the good guys
I was a kid growing up in Houston when he was pitching, and got to go to quite a few games he was involved in. I remember one game quite clearly – I was sitting about three rows behind the dugout (my dad’s turn in the office season ticket rotation) and was waving to him as he came in from the field. He, of course, didn’t spot me among the 24,000 other people in the Dome, until my dad (knowing that he was the type to take it well) shouted “Hey Deshaies, wave at my kid, will ya?” JD actually came back out of the dugout when he heard that, looked around, spotted my dad, and gave me a smile and a wave as he headed back in. Certainly no big deal for him, but a big deal for me at the time, and not the kind of personal you expect from most athletes these days.
It was stuff like that that made me smile when I found out about his somewhat dubious Hall of Fame nomination; bizarre as it was, he took it in stride, launching his “One Man, One Vote” campaign online. I was particularly fond of his reaction to receiving said vote from the Chronicle’s John Lopez:
“As you know by now, this campaign fell 386 votes shy of reaching the Hall, but the fact that we reached our stated goal is a testament to the validity of our effort, as well as to the wisdom of never setting one’s sites too high. Today, we acknowledge the will of the voters and accept their mandate. I have called the winners (fellow former Twins Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett) and left a message of congratulations, but they have yet to call back.”
JonathanE - May 19, 2009
good story
joeljr - May 20, 2009
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