PROPS TO ERIK BEDARD'S TWO-PITCH GAME.

The next time you see a pitcher's game chart show this much white space in the middle 8-12 mph, give a holler...

Much to Dr. D's glee, Erik has almost completely dispensed with his changeup -- only 3 recorded by F/X on Tuesday.  He doesn't need his changeup, because his other 5 pitches are too much already.

In 10 pitches on Tuesday, the hitters would see:

• 2 jam pitch fastballs
• 2 painted outside-black fastballs
• 1 heavy sinking FB at the knees
• 1 ladder fastball
• 3 Nintendo change-curves
• 1 of something else ... maybe a pitch that missed a bit, maybe not

(It's interesting; for some reason Erik Bedard used few of his curve ball / ladder pitch sequences.  I wonder why.)

(It's interesting; for some reason Erik Bedard used the left and right edge of the plate, not the knees and letters.  I wonder why.)

(It's interesting; for some reason I use a lot of parentheses and semicolons, even though I know better.  I know why:  I've got a lot of Brandon League in me.)

Bedard's command of the fastball was exquisite, every inch a Jamie Moyer game, except +4 mph to the fastball and with George Sherrill deception.

Go through MLB.com's GameDay and you'll see for yourself.  Bedard was hitting the black, or jamming the hitters, literally at will.  And of 25 curves, 22 were strikes....

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PROPS TO ERIKKK'S PITCHABILITY.

Want to see what a real pitcher's ball-and-strike chart looks like?

him?  

He's settling in as (hopefully) our championship-level shortstop, and tell yer why we hope so:

..........

When Jack Wilson got here, we talked about Whitey Herzog's theory of baseball, how a shortstop needs to be your team captain.  (You know what I mean.)  Whitey believed fervently that if your SS was a skirt, your whole team would be.  He got to St. Louie (IIRC) and immediately powerflushed the talented Garry Templeton:  "If it's drizzling he don't wanna play.  If it's Thursday he don't wanna play.  I gotta have a SS I can count on."

Another little story:  back just before the days of the Gas House Gang, Johnny Martin was underachieving, getting jerked around various semipro leagues, and not playing as well as he should have.

A journeyman asked him one day, "Johnny, don't you LIKE baseball?"  Johnny thought about that, and decided that he did like baseball, and from that day he attacked the game with such ferocity that he got the nickname "Pepper."  

.........

You'll have to run a Tracer on that ... maybe I'm even thinking of a different player.  But the point is, Brendan Ryan LOVES baseball.

When Smoak hit that ball hard and far, over the fence, Michael Saunders and Doug Fister hugged like it was Game 7.  Luis Rodriguez yanked Felix' warmup jersey about 10 times, trying to get it off him, while Adam Moore laughed uproariously.

And as the M's dugout went all kiddie-fest over a May 31 baseball game, I thought of Brendan Ryan's effect on the 2011 Mariners.

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BABVA,

Dr D

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