=== Luke French ===

... has improved.  A lot.

We baseball fans have trained ourselves to look past 13-12 and see Cy Young winners.  Saberdweebs and beat writers alike -- we can all discipline our minds that much.

We can also usually look past ERA to K:BB:HR, because our roto championships depend on it.

However, we have definitely not conditioned our minds to look past ERA on a single-game basis, because if a pitcher gives up hits and runs on Friday night, we are just as vehement against him as we ever were...

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

As Luke French's biggest cynic, Dr. D is entitled to report when French has made a stride or three forward.  He has.

French knocked down the Rox 1-2-3 in the first.  Leading off the second against Troy Tulowitzki, here was his four-pitch walk:

Reminds me of a famous passage in a Ron Luciano book, talking about when he'd recently been promoted to the bigs.  "First pitch of the game I called a ball, but it might have just nicked the kneecaps.  Second pitch was another ball, but maybe it just caught the top of the strike zone."

"Catcher paused, held his breath, composed himself, and muttered back:  'Look, you're going to have to give me either the low one or the high one, or we'll be here all night'."

"That was enough for me.  Everything near the plate was a strike for the rest of my career."  Or somesuch.

...........

You could spend an interesting half-hour with a thought experiment.  If I were going to hit the corners with four consecutive pitches, would I hit them in the order that Luke French hit them?

There are 4! ways in which to hit four different edges of the plate, which is about 24 ways if we recall our math kerrectly... of those 24 ways, I think that French's sequence ranks #1 for cliche factor.

.

=== Slow, Slower, Slowest ===

Blowers mentioned, during the broadcast, that "French will show you the fastball, but he wants to get you out with the offspeed stuff."

This is one-half of French's plateau leap:  he now buys in completely to the idea stated by Blowers.  After the Tulo AB, how did French come at Jason Giambi?

Thusly:

have Mark Buehrle tempo and confidence.

French is my #6 starter at this point.  Good on yer, kid.  You're gettin' it.

.

=== Jamey Wright ===

Threw that 4-inch sinker all inning, and induced a coupla grounders IIRC.  

That answered my pregame question:  how can he live in 60% grounder territory with a ball that sinks so little.

Answer:  he throws it on a more downward angle than other GB'ers, and throws it harder.

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

Here's a random anecdote for you ... my stepdad was scouted as a possible sign for the low minor leagues, this back in the 1950's.  He hit well for high school and played a good second base.

His team got to the playoffs and he faced a pitcher who threw a sinking fastball.  It sank :THAT MUCH:, he told us once, holding his palms four inches apart.

"I couldn't make contact, even bunting.  Our coach told us to swing under it.  That made things worse."

Undoubtedly Wright's sinker doesn't measure by F/X as an impact pitch, but if it bites late, it probably earns him a big league paycheck.

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

Anyway, considering the alternatives, Wright looks pretty set for Opening Day.

.

Cheerio,

Dr D