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The Mariners stripped down Taijuan's motion and approach. He served fastballs, splitters, and hooks into the strike zone with the robotic monotony of an old fireman crew handing buckets of water down the line.
The result: 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, nothing resembling a fly ball to the track, and 15 swings-and-misses. This despite Taijuan being a pale shadow of his future self. Slap me silly.
There was a confusing jumble of good, bad and ugly on the yellow legal pad. Think you can make any sense of it?
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HI
Thusly:
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MID
Thisly:
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LO
Thatly:
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TEMPLATE
First of all, it's a funny thing: Taijuan and K-Pax are living off their nuclear fastballs -- Paxton's dives like a stukka from the left side, while Taijuan's takes off up into the air like a rocket from the right side. Hitters can't barrel either guy up, for completely opposite reasons :- )
Anyway. Which young RHP works the way that Taijuan does now?
You can't put the Curt Schilling types in here, because they lived off fastballs, but could always move them around in the zone. It was before you kiddies' time, but Bartolo Colon pitched exactly this way in the late 1990's. Dr. D remembers his early 1997 struggles like it was yesterday -- his roto teams always seemed to have Colon on them -- and the struggles were exactly like Taijuan's. Even when he lost, he made lots of nasty pitches, but somehow it just didn't coalesce, the first 10-20 starts of his career.
Bartolo never did develop the offspeed stuff the way Taijuan probably will, but just with the fastball he would go 16-8, 3.75. Here is his baseball card. Bartolo has won 200+ games and has almost 50 WAR. There are a lot of guys who don't.
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Pitch Shape
Remember, Taijuan is coming from an overhand angle here, so the ball comes downhill, then swoops back up again in Stephen Pryor, Mariano Rivera style:
Major league batters don't swing and miss at fastballs in the strike zone. They swing over curves and changeups, and they miss fastballs outside the zone. But! Taijuan got 8 swings and misses just on straight fastballs -- while throwing 40 of 55 into the zone. That, gentlemen, is an invisible fastball.
His 95.4 MPH would rank 3rd in the American League for velocity, behind Garrett Richards and Yordano Ventura.
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The overhand angle, and rise on the ball, is a separate problem for the hitters, separate from the fact that he has Richards speed.
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The comically reduced stretch motion, that is another problem for the hitters. Who throws 97 MPH without a rock step?
Bartolo Colon threw the ball more like Gimli would than Taijuan does :- ) but his funky short-arm motion created an effect kinda like Taijuan's stretch motion. Both motions look like there's no way the pitchers could hit 90 MPH, much less 97.
Projecting forward ... Taijuan looked like a fish in water with this Jim Kaat batting-practice pitching motion. He looks like he could reproduce this performance from now on.
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There were the 15 swings and misses on 90-odd pitches. That's unpossible if you are not wielding a Michael Pineda slider or a Tim Lincecum changeup. "Learning in the bigs" and dominating while you do? Thath high-quality H20.
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X's and O's
1. The Mariners tried something very creative with their precious "ML-ready Cy Young" asset.
2. It worked out perfectly. Both from a performance, and from a safety, issue. Just the way they drew it up on the chalkboard.
3. Give it up for 'em.
4. They have hinted that their intention with James Paxton is to lower his throwing angle, as opposed to yoga-fying his lat muscle. Think they'll get that one right?
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Dr's Prognosis
If Taijuan threw just like that from now on, he'd probably rip off a string of Young Bartolo Colon seasons. We don't know what he will be some day, but what he was on Sept. 19th, was a kid who would go about 15-9, 3.60 next season.
It really is starting to look like the 1970's Dodgers. The M's were about 3.00 as a team before Taijuan got here. What an embarrassment of riches.
BABVA,
Dr D
A heroic effort by Ackley and Zunino last night. But Taijuan's getting out of the bases loaded-no outs situation in the third was the biggest moment of them all. He slammed the door, and in doing so, served notice to the league that he is a force -now.
Which was precisely what McClendon had been talking about, as we all know. With respect to Taijuan.
It sounds like a cliche, but often it's the magic sparkle dust. The ability to "never hit a Quit Shot," the ability to visualize the positive just as clearly when you are being thumped about the head and shoulders.
Not many park-and-rec basketball players respond well to being 15 points down. Taijuan last night, in that 3 on 0 out situation, threw his best pitches. Wowza.
WAAAAY different body styles, but Bartolo used to make a living off of 97 and 98, up in the zone, late in games. He just kept gaining steam as the innings went by. Taijuan looks like he's throwing bean bags at cans in carnival game.
The hitters definitely don't SEE the pitches that way, though, and those high, rising heaters with the bases loaded that rick's talking about were things of beauty.
Taijuan's just a shadow of what he could be... but it's a mighty LONG shadow he's casting.
If Elias is okay, then our 3 second-year pitchers (Paxton, Taijuan and Elias) could be the TOR for several other teams. We're slotting them in behind TWO other pitchers next year. Not a bad place to be.