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Once we blogged with a guy who went on to a career in baseball, and before long he parted ways with us.  "You take the style side; I'll stick to substance," he said dourly.

HEH

Sigh

We should probably try to work in a little postgame substance:

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1.  Yoervis Medina:  my bad.  He's a bit of an SSI whipping boy, but ... he threw two 95 MPH fastballs tonight that had the downward bite of Iwakuma's shuuto.

One of them fanned a lefty; another one bounced in front of home plate and drew a swing, also strike three, I think.  You are talking about a 95 MPH spitball.  And the fastball not his best pitch.

Wednesday, he was overwhelming.  In the full sense of the word.

.........

2.  Fernando Rodney:  on pace for 47 saves, a club record.  You'd have thought Sasaki would be able to save more games, picking and choosing among 116 wins.

He has not been nearly as white-knuckle as expected.  He's not quite having the 2012 career year, but close enough for government work.  Check his K's, BB's, and especially his FIP is 2.40 compared to his career 3.64.

..........

3.  Iwakuma is "building arm strength."  Both he and James Paxton will slamming the stick into 5th gear just as other pitchers are wheezing past 200 innings.  Quite a thought for September / October.

Also, he was throwing the shuuto with no concern whatsoever for blisters on his finger.  Okay by Dr. D.

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The M's have 8 shutouts, of which 4 are Iwakuma starts.  Check me on that.  

They had some stat on TV where Iwakuma is running #3 in the DH era for control ratio.  Check me on that too.

The man is a championship-worthy #2 starter.  No need to check me on that.  Let's see some "WBC games" against star-studded playoff opponents.  You know, before they ever hit the lights, that Hisashi Iwakuma will be great there.

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Your winning percentage, given that you're going to score only 2 runs, is .200-something.   In theory, not in (WBC-san) practice.

Earlier, the M's lost a game to a single early HR in a 1-0 shutout.  They inverted it Wednesday.  This slop is getting old ... for the other teams :- )

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4.  McClendon gave a decent vibe Wednesday, on James Paxton.   The Counselor had a brilliant post, even by his standards, on McClendon's maddening treatment of young pitchers.  (Years ago, a Rainiers coach once "protected" a AAA pitcher out of a promotion, saying "Lou Piniella is not a man you want to pitch for unless you come up there at the very peak of your game.")

As Mojo aptly pointed out, McClendon gushes all over Chris Young ... while maintaining a grim, unpleasant silence over James Paxton's historic debut.  Much less shall we talk about the Erasmo and Taijuan scenarios.  Gordon has covered that issue also.

But on TV tonight, Dr. D grokked that McC is getting so he kinda likes Paxton.  He was axed about momentum going into Detroit, and he wheeled out an old Earl Weaver saw:  "Momentum is the next night's starting pitcher."  Then he went optimistic:  if Paxton pitches the way he's capable, we'll keep it going...

That is not proportionate to Paxton's jaw-dropping results, but we'll take it.

...

Also, they skipped Roenis Elias in order to keep Paxton in, right?  That would be way gutsy by any team's standards, since Elias has 9 W's already -- "he's one of the ones who got us here" -- and is on a streak of 4 straight excellent ML outings.

Check me on that too, the skipping Elias for Paxton thing.  As you know, substance isn't exactly SSI's home turf.

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5.  Skipping starters, period, shows Bad Intentions Baby.   A few weeks ago, we pointed out that there are advantages to 6 starters and advantages to 4 starters, relative to 5 starters.  (Yes, we know; don't bother.)

The M's effectively used 6 starters recently, exploiting their depth to give Felix and 'Kuma a blow.  Now they seem to be using 4, and we doubt we have to spell out the advantage of giving those two 50% of your games.

The M's have this Thursday off.  And the next Thursday off.  And the Thursday after that off.  While playing feebs.  They're well positioned to whip the horse's haunches into a sprint away from the pack.

Don't let Ace Ventura see yer though,

Dr D