.
... which is the beauty of being pessimistic. When you lose, you win :- )
After Victor Martinez' "Five-Year At Bat" against Hisashi Iwakuma on Friday, Dr. D (with many of you amigos) wrung his hands despairingly. "That's the difference between a contendah and a pretendah," we moaned.
...
Whereupon the M's #6 and #5 starters promptly went out and wrote their own Kevin James "Here Comes the Boom" storylines against Drew Smyly and (gasp) Max Scherzer.
Didn't see the Roenis Elias game, unfortunately. Had been warning you that he was capable, but we don't get many points for that. We do claim a few points for noticing that Mark Langston, as a AA-transplant, also gathered MLB(TM) momentum very quickly as his rookie season unfolded.
...
We did see the Chris Young game, and there was soommmmething about it .... we've sold Young as 100.00% pure placeholder, but that game, something clicked in Dr. D's slimy but nimble mind. As we watched Chris "Safeco" Young, comparing him tit-for-tat to the aging Bartolo Colon, our confident "#6 starter" pronouncement ... the water seemed muddied.
Is this guy really going to run a 3.30 ERA in this airport of a ballpark? And, like, finish the season with the league's #17 ERA? :: disoriented ::
Article forthcoming. But at this point, we do have 1 clear takeaway as fans. After Taijuan is in there, then James Paxton is going to have to show verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry hot AAA sauce in order to get back into the rotation. Grok that. Because K-Pax has one of the best 6-start beginnings of any starting pitcher ever born.
...
The M's have demonstrated the ability to lock down good offenses, and have demonstrated the ability to beat great teams, 3-1, in 1970's Dodger style. They're pretty tough right now.
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Linkage
Grizzly sez,
Cuban pitchers, in general, spit the face of conventional wisdom regarding a single, repeatable and consistent pitching mechanic. I noticed that hitch - even Blowers commented on it. Elias and Jones are my favorite new M's. they are both kind of making it up as they go...and making it work.
.
They do. James pointed this out about the young Pedro Martinez, that he "pitches like the Cubans," varying the arm angles, basing their games on taking hitters out of rhythm.
Bruce Lee's fighting style was based on the same. "Broken rhythm." It's a valid principle of competition.
The worry is, that Elias won't be able to become CJ Wilson -- if you :
- don't have RHYTHM, you will not
- have command inside the strike zone, and you will never
- have a low HR rate
But it is possible to obtain "rhythm" while varying your arm angle. Pedro did. Luis Tiant did. I haven't seen Jose Fernandez pitch, but notice that his K/BB is rather desireable...
The profound question: can broken rhythm, itself, create a low HR rate in the absence of command? By disrupting the hitter and preventing Back Leg Specials that way? Dr. D would love to hear thoughts on this.
....
You and I are quick to notice things that Jack Zduriencik does wrong ... things that Zduriencik does that we do not like.
How about the fact that he was willing to put a class AA pitcher into his starting rotation -- not "OK, let's see him get a few PCL hitters out and he's first man in." But, "This kid is IN there."
One thing I've always liked about Jack: his flexibility of mind. He'll put a 297-lb. guy at first base and give him $180M, if the guy will take their money. He'll move Dustin Ackley to second base. He'll let Jesus Montero try to catch. He'll take bartenders out of scrub leagues if they have 98-MPH fastballs.
Roenis Elias and Chris Young are on Jack, you know.
Cheers,
dr defecto (humbled .. momentarily)