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The Shout Box often contains 90% of everything that Dr. D crunched off the mainframe. This makes his own postgame-report job either (1) very easy or (2) totally impossible. Depends on your orientation.
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OBF SEZ: Man.... Paxton may be better than Unit, King, Moyer, EVERYONE when all is said and done... 98 MPH UP in the zone from a lefty, 93 mph cutter boring in on the righties, a knuckle curve for gimmie strikes and a changeup that after some refinement will rival The Royal Change... You Go Paxton! Now lets score him a couple runs!!!
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Dr. D sez: and that wasn't even the fabled "whipsaw" version of K-Pax. Not by a long shot.
Did you see the Angels "in between" pitches? No. Did you see Paxton throwing two consecutive hooks to start a batter 0-2 and leave him a quivering mass of jelly? No. Did you see him going up in the strike zone with a heater, after a curve? No. The "pitchability" was okay, not great.
The Angels were just sitting dead red, and tipping their caps on the curve ball. Teams stop doing that precisely when --- > they buy into an SP's ability to throw a hook at will. That hasn't happened yet.
But, for the first 6 IP check me on that, for all 6.2 IP, the embryonic version of Paxton looked like THE nastiest pitcher in the game. (Kershaw and Felix might conceivably be in the discussion.... )
Earlier, we said that the rookie Michael Pineda was a better pitcher overall than Paxton is right now, albeit Pineda had no upside. That's done now. Paxton last night was plenty 'nuff better than Pineda ever was.
Next year, Taijuan will undoubtedly be 80% as good; his fastball has Mariano Rivera action on it and he's going to learn his craft. He ain't Paxton, but don't undersell him. Taijuan goes into 2015 as the #1 ML-ready starter in the game, or close enough.
IOW: Lose the battle, win the war.
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DaddyO SEZ: Tough, TOUGH break for Paxton on the ball misplayed by Denorfia. He has looked as good as any pitcher I've ever seen. C.J. Wilson is throwing a gem himself.
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Dr. D sez: I guess we don't have to revisit this luck factor in baseball. It's one of the most melancholy spectacles in all of sports -- a pitcher throwing like that, and getting switched for it like Adrian Peterson's kid.
One more way in which sports teaches us all how to be Real Men. Confucius say, You're not always rewarded for doing the right thing. Love seeks no recognition; virtue seeks no reward. Sometimes the only satisfaction you get is --- > the knowledge that you are happy with your effort.
You all you got. You all you need :- )
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Tacoma Rain SEZ: Harold and rest of MLB TV experts are questioning removing Paxton loudly - even saying that they could see the relief in the Angels dugout when Paxton was getting pulled.
rick82 SEZ: Should have let him finish the inning. I know that's obvious now, but how many of you were thinking the same thing when Lloyd pulled him?
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Dr. D sez: Everybody, of course.
McClendon's pitching switches made the bullpen, and therefore the season, possible. So we can't jump on him now.
But yeah. Dare we say McClendon is getting the yips. If he leaves Paxton in after 100 pitches and Paxton loses, he's got to face the press after. But yeah.
......
It wasn't long ago before Baseball Prospectus' "Pitcher Abuse Points" dogma created an environment in which a manager couldn't think about leaving in a James Paxton. I was quite taken aback by the momentum swing on this issue.
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Gordon Gross SEZ: Observations as of the 7th inning: 1) James Paxton remains as maliciously and casually devastating as I have always believed him to be. 2)The Ms offense as a whole has apparently faced it's 97th Cy Young candidate on the year. 3) Smoak's 647th career fat meatball that he turned into a can of corn with runners on made me say inappropriate (or perhaps very appropriate) things to the TV. 4) Denorfia is a bad human being, or at least a terrible fielder of baseballs in a playoff race that can't afford any more games to be given away with moronic gaffes.
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Dr. D sez:
4) HEH!
3) Just so
2) How a famous novelist can mis-punctuate "its" is beyond Dr. D. (Time for that Shout Box self-edit feature.) And it's only 82 Cy Young candidates. Step up your game there G.
1) Our work here is done.
Of course, Gordon never needs Dr. D's help to decide what he thinks about a prospect. But the whole blog, if not the whole blog-o-sphere, now well-and-truly gets it on James Paxton.
Any more debate this winter, as to which of these two things the Mariners should package for a star?
The Mariners themselves have prioritized Taijuan over Paxton, and by a comfortable margin. They need to pay more attention to the news .... tomorrow's news, that is.
:- )
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MtGrizzly: Looks like the Angels are resting a number of their regulars tonight. If Felix can't beat the Angels 'B' squad, they aught to shut him down.
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Dr. D sez: And ... Oakland getting blasted (again) by the stRangers today, 7-2 after the 7th. This following their pathetic "we weren't ready to play tonight" showing the day before.
No, Dr. D is not yet ready to relinquish his "We're in a pennant race!," shtick. Going into the game, the M's will be only -1.5 down to Oakland. They are -2.0 to KC, and -2.5 to Detroit.
Just for funsies... would you compare our chances of catching Oakland to --- > drawing a face card, a 4/13 shot?
I'd say that's a rather modest analogy, in view of the fact that the current version of Oakland is approximately a 145-loss team.
Three draws at the deck needing only one face card ... you'd have a 69% chance of pulling one face card. Doesn't sound so bad.
BABVA,
Dr D
That was the only reaction to have last night. [deleted], Paxton looked tough.
/Reporter to Trout in the clubhouse after clinching/
"Why are you drunk?"
/Trout/
"50% to celebrate...and 50% to forget Paxton."
One question: I did not understand the 'prioritizing Walker over Paxton' reference. Isn't one in the rotation...and one not?
1. Q: did Trout really say that?!
2. Until Paxton's 3rd or 4th start in late 2013, the M's -- often via the TV crew, but also in Zduriencik's cryptic interviews, and in their trade posturing -- always spoke of Taijuan as a true blue-chipper, vs. Paxton as a very intriguing prospect.
Everybody, including the Mariners, have always misinterpreted James Paxton's minor league BB totals. They did not understand that, as with Lincecum and Kerry Wood and others, the ML environment would help bring these down.
This is a critical "light bulb" - which nuclear AAA starters are going to benefit from ML strike zones, coaching, the sense of danger, etc. Paxton was always going to be fine, once he got to the bigs, threw 80% fastballs, had quality mechanical coaching, re-calibrated his sense of danger and re-set his definition of success ... and got strikes called consistently.
......
Their attitude about Taijuan vs Paxton began to change --- > only this last winter, after Paxton detonated 4 straight contenders. (Taijuan was still ranked far above Paxton on the prospect lists, though, and on every other Mariner site.)
This spring training, and into April, the momenum had apparently swung inside the Mariners' camp. This is almost certainly because of McClendon's ability to correctly prioritize talent. As we stand now, it's not possible for ANYBODY to value Taijuan more than Paxton.
When we talk about Taijuan getting the love, we're talking about back when the situation hadn't clarified and become obvious to everybody.
:daps:
That reference must be Doc's daily ketamine injections kicking in. He knows which pitcher the Mariners consider the glue of the rotation, and which pitcher produces starts that McClendon would not characterize as good starts. Doc also knows which Mariners pitcher was once traded for Justin Upton.
As we have gone through McClendon's levels of dissapproval, it is also instructive to consider the McClendon scale of baseball recognition:
Pretty Good, Charlie Furbush, 3/13/14, Mike Zunino*, 6/8/14 (Qualified), the Mariners, 7/13/2014, Austin Jackson**, (Qualified) 7/29/2014, Hisashi Iwakuma*** (Qualified), 8/7/14, Chris Young, 8/12/14, Corey Hart**** (Qualified), 9/2/14, Carson Smith, 9/17/14,
*Didn't get a hit but won game
**Worked counts deep but struck out sometimes
***Walked a batter
****Pretty good results were against minor league pitchers
A rare accolate from the Skipper. Only excellent play is characterized as "Pretty good" Note that McClendon often qualifies his pretty good statements with a constructive criticism of some kind. When McClendon says someone is pretty good, it usually means that there were flaws in the play that kept it from being pretty darn good.
Pretty Darn Good
Lloyd's highest ordinary honor, bestowed on the Mariners, 4/8/14, Chris Young, 5/21/14 Felix, Hernandez 5/23/14, Mike Zunino, 7/9/2014, Taijuan Walker, 7/1/14, the Mariners, 8/20/14, Taijuan Walker 9/1/14
This is generally as high as McClendon will get on any given player. It is the Mariners' equivalent of being recognized as employee of the month.
Outstanding or Tremendous
Bestowed on the Mariners, 11/5/13, Robinson Cano, 2/18/14, the Mariners, 8/12/14, Hisashi Iwakuma, 8/19/14, Felix Hernandez, 9/3/14
When a player's play begins to transcend the game of baseball in a hall of fame worthy manner, McClendon may recognize it as outstanding or tremendous.
Good, Greatness written all over him
James Paxton* 9/7/14 (Qualified) Good, this recognition has never been spoken by McClendon of any other Mariner, past or present.
*Says Paxton just has to remain healthy.
As we are in uncharted territory here, it is unclear whether McClendon reserves this title for legendary play, as an inner circle hall of famer, or only for mythical play, as in Sidd Finch.
1) No, I'm not sure Trout even drinks. My poor attempt at humor.
2) Gotcha. I thought the reference was to something said currently, not the historical record.
What did they use to call it in the days of the Cold War, when experts deciphered what the Soviet Union was saying based on cryptic pronouncements, reports, whispers, etc.? Kremlinology? This is invaluable McClendological work.
And Dr. D will certainly admit to drug-induced psychoses -- what, you haven't seen his picture? -- but notes that the Counselor's "Good" precedent is far too recent to bear relevancy to the petition.
*walked a batter - HEH
Mojician, that post killed me. I laughed, I cried, I pondered. Brilliant stuff, man.
This has been a fun year for shtick. I've thoroughly enjoyed blogging with all Y'all.
Lloyd says Elias' second half was tremendous. 9/17/14. Lloyd only uses the term tremendous when talking about franchise players.