=== Dead-Arm ===

Now, the second thing Wok said, that Fister's arm must be tired after so many looonnnnnnnng (read: successful) starts, that one is true.

Not only was Fister's velocity down to 86.5 average ... moving his FB from "questionable" to "very minus" ... but, more importantly, the bite was gone, the RPM, the swerve.  Both the Kubel and the Cuddyer back-to-back homers, occured on slow fastballs that broke only 6 inches apiece.

..........

For all that, Fister was hardly defenseless.  He fanned 6 Twins and walked none, gave Mauer an O-fer, fanned Thome twice, working with a non-moving 86 fastball.  Such is the effectiveness of his command and changeup.

Given that dead-arm was the problem -- and it definitely was -- you wonder why another 7.2 innings.  Guess it was that he was still under 100 pitches...

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=== Mixing It Up ===

SSI has been asking, hey, if the run value on Fister's laser-guided swerveball is +3.00, imagine how effective it would be if he didn't announce it before the pitch?!

Monday night, Fister did attack more effectively with offspeed stuff.   He threw 13-of-16 changeups for strikes, and gave up only one base hit -- a seeing-eye grounder by the red-hot Justin Morneau.

He threw another 10-for-14 strikes with sliders and curves, with the only hit the Young miracle off a curve on his hands.  Guess that's what you get for breaking tradition with hard-in, soft-away...

.............

Anyhow.  Fister fanned 6 and walked 0, against a great lineup.  Those of yer who've been wondering whether he's capable?  It's just a matter of mixing the pitches.

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=== Quotes and Notes Dept. ===

Geoff Baker hooks us up:

"I thought he competed all night,'' Wakamatsu said. "You look at that outing, there's three balls that got up in the zone, but he knew our bullpen was short, and continued to battle and gave us 7 2/3 when we didn't have anybody in the bullpen.... He pitched a lot at 86 and 87 miles per hour. The one curveball, just the bite on his pitches was a little off today. He finds a way to compete out there and get through."

This is a big part of why the Mariners had a rotation slot reserved for him, and kept it open for him despite the fact that he didn't show anything this spring.  They saw his makeup last year.

"Makeup" is a data field on a scouting report, and it's not (purely) a baloney dump.  As Dr. Naka has emphasized, the physical differences at the ML level are very subtle.  What goes on behind the forehead is often the deciding factor.

.........

As well, pitchers have A games and B games.  At the back of the rotation, you're more likely to compare the quality of the lousy starts when picking between two pitchers.  Managers drool over the prospect of getting a BOR pitcher who takes them into the 7th and 8th on an off night.

Gardenhire sez, "He's got great stuff. I think you can see that. He's got a great changeup, a heck of a curve ball, and a nice little slider. His fastball, he locates it really well, so he is tough. Fortunately for us, we got that one inning in. He made some mistakes and we got ahold of them pretty good.''

Not sure how literal Gardenhire was being, but that'll do for us too.  I think that long term, it is Fister's offspeed stuff that is plus.  He continues to run gigantic fastball ratios, so I'm psyched about his future once he starts using his best pitches.

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Or not,

Dr D