Gauging Blake Beavan on a "B" Day
And that's what he gets for damage control: a solid "B"

Looks like 17-9, 2.99 standin' still

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Q.  Why do you say he had his "B" game?

A.  From the first pitch of the game, he looked like he was physically laboring through an 8th inning grind.  After the game, sho' nuff, his velocity clocked in at 89.2 compared to his season average of 91.1. So the fastball was a good two feet short on his regular fastball, which is no ball of fire itself.

For some reason ::cougholivocough:: Beavan threw one - count it - of his shiny new sliders during the whole game.  Instead, he threw an amazing 32x change curves at about 69-72 MPH.

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Q.  How was the change curve?

A.  Change curves, deployed effectively, have the ability to delight Dr. D's little heart.  All y'all will remember David Wells and Barry Zito.  Nowadays Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum - eeeeyup, SSI is stalking the shlub - have very effective bloop curves from the right side.  Jered Weaver has become infatuated with the idea of tormenting batters with them.

Beavan's change curve was, shockingly, of MLB(TM) caliber.  It had a beeeee-eeeeg break on it, he threw 21 of 32 for strikes, and only six of those 21 were even put in play.  The Orioles' jaws dropped wider than Dr. D's.  They watched the bloopers bloop by like deers in headlightses.

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Q.  How is that a bad thing?

A.  The curve, in a vacuum, stole strikes.  The problem is that it did not make his fastball more effective, the way that his slider does.  The slider comes out of the hand looking like a fastball; there's an evident little split-second delay for the hitters in distinguishing the slider from a fastball.  However, with Beavan using 30 bloop curves and 60 extremely cruddy fastballs, guess what happened when something came in at speed.  You guessed it.

Also, I didn't feel that Beavan set up his "ladder" high fastballs the way he did when Montero and Jaso were catching:

Weiters homer in IP2, pitch sequence - (1) Fastball way in for garbage called ball, (2) Fastball letter high fouled off, (3) Bloop curve sails way high for a garbage called ball, (4) Fastball at top of strike zone (not over it)  crushed for a home run.  That's three straight pitches at eye level, the last of which was airmailed to the D.C. metro area.  That, Miguel, is not how one uses a high fastball to miss bats.

Markakis RBI single in IP2, pitch sequence - (1) Fastball high called strike one, (2) Fastball at top of strike zone, centered, laced for a line-drive single.  That, gentlemen, is not tricking a batter into swinging late at a pitch that looks tasty but isn't.  That is, in technical terms, "throwing batting practice."

Way to change the eye level, man.  For those who just joined us, the concept of "taking him up the ladder" involves teasing a batter with offspeed stuff and fastballs in tough locations, and making the batter dearly wish that he had a fastball to hit.  Then you give him the fastball ... whoops!  A little too high, where he is under it.  "Up the ladder" involves a second fastball, even higher - okay, I'm ready for this one!  Whoops, it was a ball way high.

"Up the ladder" does NOT involve beginning the at-bat with two consecutive 89 MPH fastballs inside the strike zone at the same eye level.  That version of "up the ladder" comes bundled with the concept of tragic losses after you have led by five runs.

Weiters homer in IP6, pitch sequence - (1) Curveball way outside for easy called ball, (2) Changeup 79 MPH at top of strike zone, inside strike zone (not above hands) airmailed this time to the Boston metro area.

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Q.  Okay, Beavan wasn't on his game.  Did he get KO'ed?

A.  No, he cobbled a near-quality start out of it.  Six full, four runs, "only" 7 hits and 1 walk, so 8 baserunners in 6 innings.  Not a tragedy in Camden.

That's one thing you give Beavan credit for.  He does not walk himself into 5-run innings.  He does make the other guys beat him, and with runners on base he's going to give you a fastball that is a strike and that is NOT centered.  

That's kind of why he has such a high career percentage of quality starts.  When you're making the other guys earn everything, it puts the brakes on their runs scored to some extent.

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Q.  Leaving him where, as far as the 2013 rotation?

A.  The problems were verrrrrry fixable.  Such as throwing the cotton-pickin' slider to set up the fastball.  Such as exploiting Blake Beavan's one strength - the fact that he can do what the catcher wants done - by calling pitch sequences that are effective. 

The fact that he competed with his B game, that's a rather gi-normous part of being an MLB(TM) back of rotation starter.  

Actually, Dr. D was excited by the change curve.  Who knew the guy could throw 30 of those beasties in one game and live to tell the tale?  Slap me silly.

Okay, so mix them in as the THIRD PITCH - as Greinke, Marcum, and Jered do - and maybe there's yet another plateau leap in the oven.  All that is in theory, now.  Maybe he'll never mold it into a coherent Marcum-type game.  But as you guys keep reminding me, the big chump is still only James Paxton's age.

Interesting game,

Dr D

 

 

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