=== Type and Arche-Type ===
The Mariners continue to argue with SSI that "The Professor" is Jo-El Pineiro, as opposed to being Brad Radke.
Doogie's fastball percentage was every inch of 80% going into the ballgame, and it probably went up from there. Fister is #2 in the entire AL in fastball ratio, and there is one other sub-90 mph SP in the top 20. Bet you'd never guess who.
As time goes along, Fister is even triangulating into a ground-ball game. His ratio is over 1.5 this year, up from league-average last year, and check his ratios in the last five games:
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Last year there were only 7 pitchers in the league with groundball ratios over 2, of whom one was Felix. Hey, for that matter, there are only a dozen pitchers in the league over 1.5 grounders per flyball. 2.38 is where the reductio ad absurdum groundballer Jo-El was.
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=== Fastball Ratios ===
As noted before, when Jo-El came up with his 10-inch swerveball, he quickly realized that he was getting blizzards of groundballs with it. He decided he liked getting easy strikes, easy outs, easy wins and easy losses. This is precisely what the Mariners have stumbled upon with Doug Fister.
Pineiro throws a diving, swerving fastball into RH hitters' hands, and they top it time after time. Fister's swerveball rises more, but hitters also routinely wormburn it, especially when it's inside.
Doogie's groundball ratio is something to keep an eye on.
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=== Scoreboard Dept. ===
SSI recalls dimly :- ) a winter-long argument in which Doogie's positives were dismissed with a contention that his 87 fastball would always wind up flying over the fence at least 1.4 times per nine innings.
Possible, crunched the mainframe, but that's the question. Whether Fister's drop-dead gorgeous mechanics would allow the Moyer-esque command that will allow him to avoid mistakes consistently.
So far in 2010, Fister has allowed 1 -- count it -- home run, in 180 batters faced.
Friday night, he allowed 3 fly balls on the evening. One was medium, deep, though not to the warning track. The other two were straightaway, OF moves sideways a bit.
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Right now Doogie absolutely is showing the command game that will keep HR's under 1.4, albeit perhaps not under 0.2. :- ) But this is the light bulb for next time: there is such a skill as Shandler's "Mistake Avoidance." Not many pitchers have it, but those who have plus-plus command or plus-plus change speed, do.
I can hardly wait for the comments thread if and when Doogie ever loses a game :- ) and he's not going to finish with a 1.72 ERA, but he's a whale of a fourth starter for a team with a good defense. He's a huge reason that the team ERA+ is 115.
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Cheers,
Dr D
I think a lot of teams in the AL would be jealous of the Mariners if Fister was our number two starter...when Bedard gets back...he's our number four. That's just comically good top-heavy rotation depth.
Vargas is a good solid #5 too...this team's 115 ERA+ will go UP...when Bedard gets back. All we need to do is hit 100.