Jay Bruce Retires

[KronoRed]

Seems pretty young to retire, at least I'll tell myself that so I don't feel any older

[westofyou]

Seems pretty young to retire, at least I'll tell myself that so I don't feel any older

He's not old, his game is old

[BCubb2003]

A good guy, all the great moments, and good numbers at the end of the year. But his slumps were so frustrating. He could be NL player of the week, then look lost for a month. But if you needed someone to aff, he was able.

[Wheelhouse]

If Ron Oester got in, Bruce will get in. Never could lay off the low inside breaking stuff. Nice guy though.

[GAC]

Here's me and Jay Bruce at the Red's HOF (2005). I was actually there because Leo Cardenas, my favorite SS as a kid, was getting inducted into the Red's HOF! I was talking with Leo, but all he could do was brag about this hot, new prospect named Jay Bruce!

[Roy Tucker]

Here's me and Jay Bruce at the Red's HOF (2005). I was actually there because Leo Cardenas, my favorite SS as a kid, was getting inducted into the Red's HOF! I was talking with Leo, but all he could do was brag about this hot, new prospect named Jay Bruce!

A fellow Leo Cardenas fan!!!

[BillDoran]

After his scorching hot arrival in the middle of the 2008 summer--his first full week: 15/26, 3 HR, 3 BB, 12 R, 7 RBI, 6 BB--I'd have been shocked if you told me his final stat line.

.244/.314/.467, 108 wRC+, 20 WAR (both bref and f).

Perhaps another lesson in not overvaluing your prospects.

Nonetheless he was a great Red (they got 17 WAR out of him), and a big contributor on two playoff teams. His bomb to clinch the 2010 NL Central is Reds history.

Hope he enjoys his retirement.

[Bill]

Jay Bruce had a 169 PAs with Cleveland in 2017, joining them for their playoff push. In spite of the few at bats as an Indian, his retirement if being recognized there as they replay his walkoff double to give Cleveland their record 22nd game win streak record.

He had a lot of promise, but also a lot of big hits in his bat.

[Little Earl]

Milt Wilcox? Really. You're gonna cry over Milt Wilcox?

Most of those names (Like EE) were given up on by multiple organizations.

McCrae and Liebrandt are the two exceptions. I think everybody knew that Hal McCrae was going to be a player, but the reds had Tolan and Geronimo and Foster and Rose and Carbo and Griffey and....They didn't really have room for everybody. Now you can complain that they didn't get value for McCrae and I won't quibble, but if you look at the Reds stable of outfielders at the time, it's really hard to complain about the decision to let McCrae be Hal McCrae elsewhere.

Liebrandt is really a reminder that there is no such thing as a pitching prosepect. You can take 20 guys like the 1982 version of Charlie Liebrandt and 18 of them will be out of baseball in 2 years. One of them will become a decent bullpen pitcher and one of them goes on to be a solid innings eating starting pitcher. Go figure.

By far the most interesting name on that list is Mike Cuellar. I was a kid in 1970 so I knew the name and loyally hated the foe of my beloved redlegs. Later on I found out that he had at one time been property of the reds, but....in 1969 Cuellar was a 31 year old who had pitched roughly 500 ball for a couple of bad teams. He got traded to the Orioles and promptly won 20 four of the next 6 years and went 18-12 in the years when he didn't win 20. Ok now part of that is he got traded from a terrible team to a one of the best teams in baseball and was healthy enough that the Orioles put a lot of W's behind his name, but I .... I don't think I can name another pitcher that did anything like that, was pretty much nothing and then as his career should have been crashing became Cy Young.

They also gave away Ross Grimsley, Joaquin Andujar and reliever Steve Mingori, who would have helped considerably in the late 70s, early 80s.

[Larry Schuler]

The Jorge Cantu erasure in this thread. Smh.

[Spider Tre]

can't believe the Reds let Justin Turner get away!


in all seriousness, i wish Jay the best of luck in the next chapter of his life. he was the first shirsey i bought back in 2009