Righthanded Pitcher
Seasons With Braves: 1966-72
Stats with Braves: 83-72, 3.60 ERA
We begin with, well, a guy I don’t know much about. Pat Jarvis began his career in the Cubs organization in 1960, but after a year was sent to the Tigers for some reason. (Even Baseball-Reference doesn’t know much about him!) A couple of years later he was sent to the Braves for Bruce Brubaker, who never did much, and pitched well as a callup in 1966. In 1967, he was in the rotation and led the team with 15 wins, though he didn’t pitch particularly well.
In 1968, Jarvis had his best season, going 16-12 with a 2.60 ERA. He didn’t pitch particularly well in 1969, but the Braves got big years from Niekro and Reed and decent years from the back of the rotation. For some reason, Lum Harris, down 2-0 in the 1969 NLCS (which was best of three at the time) chose to start not Milt Pappas, who had a 3.62 ERA with the Braves after coming over from the Reds, or his ace Niekro on two day’s rest, but Jarvis, who had a 4.43 ERA. I assume it made sense at the time. Jarvis was spotted a 2-0 lead on Hank’s two-run homer in the first but couldn’t hold it and was knocked out in the fifth, taking the loss.
Jarvis had one more good year in him, a 3.61 ERA in 1970 (the league’s was 4.30) but they didn’t score runs for him and he went 16-16. He went 6-14 in 1971, fell out of the rotation in 1972, then was traded to the Expos for Carl Morton, which was a great trade for the Braves. Jarvis only pitched 39 1/3 innings, all from the bullpen, for the Expos, while Morton (who just missed the cut) had three good years and one mediocre one for the Braves, and then he was part of the trade that brought Jeff Burroughs to Atlanta.
I promise to be more interesting with the guys who are more interesting.
No.1 Chipper Jones
That last line is something Yogi Berra would say if he was ever given the chance…
Under my rules, there can really be only one #1 guy. The race for #2 is pretty crowded, though — I have to decide between six candidates.
Pat was pretty decent for a short time with the Braves, good choice. 🙂
If anyone is interested, bullpens for 2007:
http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/6033318
I like the way the Mets-Cardinals game is going. You suck Trachsel.
“Under my rules, there can really be only one #1 guy.”
Hank Aaron?
Well, that just spolied it all, didn’t it? lol
I think it was pretty obvious under those rules who it had to be. But I’ve deleted my comment because I shouldn’t be too obvious.
I didn’t know for sure, but I was pretty sure. I thought there was a decent chance it could be someone like Smoltz.
*shrugs* Mac might change it now, throw us all for a loop. 😉 hehehe
@5
I don’t know… I don’t want to take much stock in an article that spells “role” “roll”. LOL
I’m very eager to see how the race for #2 shapes up. Contenders: Dale Murphy, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Phil Niekro, and Andruw Jones.
This just in from Mark Kotsay, on why the A’s lost the ALCS: “There’s a thing called the chaos theory, where you just can’t control certain things.”
Mark Kotsay and Shaquille O’Neal must have been in the same math class.
Atlanta Braves would be Niekro….Milwaukee etc. would be Aaron….
Boy, Kotsay really has a handle on chaos theory. Not!
Knucksie for #2, whoo!!!!
Although any of those guys will do just fine. On a similar note, I found the Pete Van Wieren/Bob Klapish “Special World Series Limited Edition Illustrated History of America’s Team 1871-1995” (whew) at a thrift store today for $1.00. Looking forward to digging into it this off season.
p.s. Congrats Stu, y’all deserved it. Joey T sucks.
@15
I have that book, got it for Christmas in 1995. Now it’s falling apart a bit because I read it so much, but I loooooooooooooove it. You’ll love it too.
Pat Jarvis was famous (and then infamous) to those of us who lived in Atlanta in the 1970s. He was elected Sherriff of DeKalb County and then made lots of money from the position. Jarvis bled guilty to a Federal mail charge fraud and he was subsequently was first convicted of using his office to profit from county contractors.
Is Rick Camp on the list?
Cool Sam, can you believe mine is in near mint condition? Literally, it looks like no page after the title page has been touched. Sweet.
It’s funny, when I brought it to the counter the lady ringing it up was like, “we’ll never win it all again.” Then she proceeded to tell me how much she didn’t like Bobby but loved the Red Sox. I refrained from giving her a smackdown because she was elderly (and the only people that get a pass from me are the elderly and small children). Glad to have the book though. Flipping through it, there sure are some great photo’s. One could probably trace the modern history of the mustache via ballplayers, if one were so inclined.
Great story, Stephen in the UAE. I really like the phrase “bled guilty”, even though it is probably a typo. Seems more appropriate for some reason. I can’t imagine how crooked the job of DeKalb Co. Sheriff was in the early 70’s. Much less for an ex-Brave. Glory days, fo sho.
Thanks for calling my error (I wish it was a Freudian slip) to my attention. The ‘bled’ is also the Algerian outback and something which comes up in my work…Yet, the `bled’ can be connected to Jarvis as well.
Jarvis was also acquitted in the shooting death of a 16 year old high school student. For more on DeKalb County sheriffs see: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/122200/new_1222000007.shtml
Bedrock should be safer…
Mac, Take a look at the innings pitched per season for guys like Jarvis. That, combined with the surgical remedies available then vs. today, explain the short careers. Jarvis was a pretty good pitcher. Pitching in the “Launching Pad” with poor defense. We could have used somebody like him this season.
I’m aware of the innings pitched numbers. They’re pretty remarkable, if not as remarkable as the IP numbers for ace relievers at the time. However, strikeouts and walks were a lot lower then, and I expect that starters weren’t throwing many more pitches than they do today. When Jarvis threw 256 innings in 1968, that was in an NL where 3.43 runs per team per game were being scored. When he threw 254 innings in 1970, levels were higher and that probably was a bit much. Jarvis got caught up in the change and couldn’t survive it.
Yeah, we could have used him this season.
One of my favorite Braves moments:
I am 10, listening to Milo Hamiltion on my grandfather’s transistor radio. There is a near hurricane outside that has knocked out all the power, so we are listening in the dark. Braves are playing the despised Dodgers, and Jarvis is on the mound. Jarvis triples with the bases loaded, and the Braves win 7-0 against the team we could never beat.
I was hooked.
Jarvis was nicknamed BULLDOG, darn good pitcher.