Solid outing from Wilhelmsen; wobbly but unscored-upon outing from Robles
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Wilhelmsen's first fastball was 90, but he quickly got up to 93 and sat 93-95 the rest of his inning.
Struck out Eli Whiteside swinging on 93mph fastball.
Struck out Darren Ford looking on 76mph curve.
Got Miguel Tejada to ground out on 75mph curve.
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Robles started at 88 and never got over 91.
Got Aubrey Huff to ground out on 74mph slider.
Got Buster Posey to pop up on 83mph change.
Nate Schierholz doubled on 90mph fastball.
Thomas Neal walked on 4 pitches (not intentional).
Mike Fontenot walked on 4 pitches. Bases loaded.
Threw two balls to Ryan Rohlinger before strking him out swinging on 90mph fastball.
Gameday: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_03_08_sfn...
7 David Pauley: Every (well, almost every) ML starter who lasts for any length of time in a big league rotation?, ---> has something he does better than a quad-A pitcher.
In Pauley's case, it's command of the fourth pitches. You'd be amazed how few ML pitchers are comfortable throwing four pitches, like Ryan Franklin is, and like David Pauley seems to be.
He's not good. But he can pitch in the big leagues. That differentiates him from Ian Snell, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Luke French, Garrett Olsen, and about 6.8 billion other people.
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The Founding Father will tell you there's no such thing as a AAAA player, on the logic that about 30% of the big leagues overlap with the top 30% of the minors. With that we agree, but we also believe that there's such a thing as Adam Morrison and Marques Tuiasosopo. A lot of guys' games work in college and just don't work in the NBA, right?
There's an NFL quarterback and there's an NBA shooting guard; you can be the best player in the NCAA and not make the pro's at all. There's also an ML starting pitcher, a guy who has a weapon to beat the racoons off his feet. Pauley's weapon is extra-plus pitch mix.
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Tom Wilhelmsen: might be here on the intersecton of (1) the semi-reliable reports that he sits at 94-95 mph, as Felix Hernandez does, and (2) good K/BB data.
And SSI would be perfectly happy allowing Wilhelmsen to pitch 180 innings right after throwing 40, because of information like this, and Wilhelmsen's time off probably assures a Trevor Hoffman DL record from here.
Major league teams don't like to promote A-ball pitchers straight to the big leagues. Then again, he is on the 40-man roster, and there's an imperative to respond to performance.
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Wilhelmsen isn't higher because --- > his low-minors control data is consistent with a guy who has insufficient command. Haven't seen him.
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Compared to the 1977 Mariners, there are about nine starting pitchers more than zero. Compared to the 2001 Mariners, there is one guy who gets the ball against the Angels, first week. So, eight days to go.
Cheerio,
Dr D