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Q.  Who or what is a Lance Painter?

A.  Great, great article right here.  The M's pitching coach at AA, Painter, watched Erasmo give up 11 runs in a start.  He grabbed Erasmo by the scruff of the neck, took him to the bullpen, and FORCED him to throw non-strikes.  You remember Michael Pineda on March 16 last year, opening the game with 22 consecutive strikes?

We once had the privilege of picking Lindy McDaniel's brain on pitching, and this was his entire philosophy of pitching, "Go into the plate, and then go OFF the plate."  You remember Maddux and Glavine winning 300 games by expanding the strike zone?

So Erasmo learned this lesson early, and apparently it stuck.  Give it up for Lance Painter.  A pitcher with Plus-Plus command, who will torture batters with Catfish Hunter tease pitches, that guy has a big leg up.

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Q.  Does Erasmo have an offspeed game?

A.  No idea.  

It certainly starts to sound as if a swing-through breaking pitch would set Erasmo up for a good ML career, if he can stay healthy.

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Q.  Does the Maddux comp hold up to any extent at all?

A.  Go check Maddux' minor league stats, and rookie year, and you'll see that he had some work to do, to put his game completely together.

Maddux didn't do much in the minor leagues that Erasmo isn't doing. ... we are talking about theoretical ceilings only, LrKrBoi28.  The point is, there's no reason you can't star, pitching the Catfish Hunter way, if you do it good enough.

Q.  Who are some other short RHP's with exquisite command and a feel for pitching?

A. Besides the reductio ad absurdum, Greg Maddux ... in Seattle we had Scott Bankhead.   Until he got hurt, he was a very fine 130 ERA+ starter who simply knew how to start with strike one and then expand the strike zone.  It's not rocket science.

We're not talking about short RHP's with electric stuff, like Tom Gordon and Edinson Volquez.  We're talking about short RHP's without it, like Maddux, Bankhead...  Ian Kennedy.  I sort of think of Chris Bosio here because Bosio had short arms and a short stride and therefore a "perceived slow" fastball.  Tim Hudson threatens to get into the group.

Let this saying sink into your ears:  There are few short RHP starters who are good.  Go look up ten decent righties in the bigs right now, and nine will be tall, including the meatballs like Jeff Suppan.

Being short forces a RHP to be really, really good at what he does.  That doesn't mean Erasmo can't be.  Here is a Baseball Prospectus article on short pitchers.  You'll get a feel for (1) the fact that there aren't many, and (2) it is still more than possible to be good, short and RHP.

Lincecum, Pedro, and Maddux survived okay.

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Q.  So we'll be watching for what?

A.  To see if the reported command is actually Tewksbury-like.  To see if he sticks with that Atlanta Braves "tease pitch" weapon.  And, in the best case, whether he develops a putaway offspeed pitch.

Jack Zduriencik, in August last year, tabbed three players as ones to watch this March.  Paxton, Nick Franklin, Erasmo.  Obviously Jay-Z thinks the game translates to the bigs.

Erasmo seems to have something that sets him apart.  He's definitely worth watching.