Historical perspective on Hawpe’s debut

Posted Sep 2, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 2, 2010 at 12:55 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG—Things can only get better for Brad Hawpe in a Tampa Bay Rays jersey.

Right?

According to the blog “Stats & Info,” Hawpe is just the fourth player since 1900 to go 0-for-4 with four strikes in his debut after changing teams.

Stats & Info credited the Elias Sports Bureau for the research.

Hawpe, who left the bases loaded in the eighth and stranded six runners during the Rays 2-1 win against the Blue Jays, joins Willy Taveras of the 2007 Rockies, Ernie Whitt of the 1991 Orioles and Harmon Killebrew of the 1975 Royals.

The blog also dug up this nugget about David Price, who earned his 16th win of the season Wednesday:

“David Price continued to dominate the Blue Jays this season improving to 4-0 with a 0.58 ERA against Toronto. Wednesday Price mixed things up. After Blue Jays hitters swung-and-missed only three times on his fastball last time out on June 9, Price went to his off-speed stuff more often this time. He threw only 63 fastballs on Wednesday, his fewest total in any start this year. Mixing in more off-speed stuff helped make Price’s fastball more effective. He recorded 11 swings-and-misses on his fastball, his highest against Toronto this season.”

For more, go to http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/5743/hawpes-debut-historically-bad.