You don't get too many e-mails like this in a day:
Thought you might want to know, Jason finished 1st in the International League in Complete games and shutouts. 2nd in the league in ininings pitched and strikeouts. In 3 yeares since his Tommy John surgery he has not missed a start, Since being drafted no one has given him a solid chance to see what he can do up in the bigs, After his 2 starts for the Tigers I think he showed that he is capable of being a solid 4-5 starter in the rotation. I think he's earned at least that.
Steve Grilli
Jason's Dad
Uh-oh. What did I do now? (Normally those around me are the ones who pose this question. But it was a slow day at work.)
I know who Jason Grilli is. He's a pitcher for the Mud Hens. I saw him pitch at Fifth Third Field a couple times this year, and he didn't win either game. Perhaps I took a shot at him unbeknownst to my better judgment, and Papa Grilli is coming to wreck some havoc on big bad blogger boy.
Perplexed, I searched the archives, including the Bloggers stuff that didn't carry over. Nothing.
I search Google for "Sussman" and "Jason Grilli." Indeed, a match came up. Obscure as hell.
It took me to Mario Impemba's blog, Last Call. In particular, the Tigers' Fox Sports announcer wrote a post "Fire Up The Grilli." Impemba was impressed with Jason's debut Tiger appearance, a win against the Mariners. He allowed one run over seven innings.
Sitting at the bottom of Impemba's post was a lone comment, with my Yahoo! e-mail attached to it:
I saw Grilli pitch for Toledo last year and this year. I haven't been that impressed with him, but hey, if he gets it done at the top level, it doesn't matter what his AAA marks were!
Ahh, spur-of-the-moment Sussman. That's what I did now. I spoke ill of Steve Grilli's son.
Steve, a former Detroit Tiger himself (gulp), quickly informed me that Jason actually had a good year in Toledo. I looked it up. Can't argue with that:
A 12-9 record. 4.08 ERA. Three complete games, 2 shutouts, and 120 strikeouts in 167 1/3 innings. Plus everything Dad said.
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Article comments
1 - Sterfish
Very interesting post. It's amazing how people will find the smallest thing that you post. I once had the creator of an as-yet-unaired new comedy series e-mail me because I said something an offhand negative remark about the show based on the network fall/midseason press release.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
It's a good lesson for anyone who comments anywhere. You never know who's reading.
3 - cdg
The tigers will never make the post season with Todd Jones closing games, he has below average fastball and won't throw anything else, please give the job to Rodney and let Jones mop up or set up, because he is painful to watch.