.
FELIX
The Mighty Sherminator has a sparkling comment up on the WBC game. Just watched the USA-VEN tape late night myself. Have just a couple of thoughts to add on Felix, later in the comments. He reminded me a little more of the 2015 King Felix (as opposed to pre-2015 Ultra King Felix or the 2016 Felix) -- I see this 2017 Felix (vs. USA, anyway) as a bankable #2, maybe more. But see Sherm.
He threw a new pitch, too: the low-away changeup, kind of like a David Cone slider. He'd always thrown the dry spitter right down the middle, starting at the knees and dropping below them. At the knees or low-away, the dry spitter had its sharp late break back.
Quibble here was that (1) Felix got some pitches up, including the cambio. (2) Wasn't quite as impressed with the velocity as m'man Sherm, though I thought it was good. (3) Few Ultra King Felix (TM) location sequences I noticed.
The yakker has never left Felix. Not even 1%. And it was wicked against the USA. That pitch alone puts "paid" to the idea of Felix as ten year punching bag; Aaron Sele made a career out of that pitch and an 88 fastball.
He was walking around, trash-talking with swag, brimming with self-assurance. Like the old King.
...
DREW SMYLY
:- O
When the scouts say "that's the best game Smyly threw in his life" that is code for "he looked like a different pitcher out there. Who WAS that?" And that is correct. John Smoltz was apoplectic: fantastic, best performance of the WBC, etc. They said the last pitch of the 5th, was the hardest pitch Smyly has recorded in the StatCast era -- but his last five fastballs were all within a micron of the same speed. Same with most of his FB's in the first.
He was 91-95 MPH up. .... 94 MPH jam. (?? whaaaa?) .... 92-94 knees. ... The yellow hammer of course. ... At one point threw 18-23 strikes, was grabbing the ball, rocking, and throwing another INVISIBLE fastball right by them ... I have. not. seen. that kind of rhythm since Cliff Lee.
Literally, the last single game I saw that kind of rhythm from a left hand pitcher was Lee five years ago. Better rhythm and attack than Keuchel or Price.
The scouts weren't just talking to hear their lips flap. The pitcher out there against Venezuela was two leagues (AA/MLB) better than Drew Smyly is. No idea how many swings and misses there were - not even foul tips back. LH on LH? Yellow hammer buckle the knees, 94 zzzinged down the middle for a taken strike the batter never even saw.
....
Coulda been adrenaline. But for one game, Smyly leaped a plateau. More than one plateau. :: shrug :: pitchers DO have great nights in isolation. Pesky rodent Angels fans better hope so.
....
If Drew Smyly merely added that JAM pitch to his usual two weapons, then he would have his best season. End of story. One of them shattered Miguel Cabrera's bat into a DP, and Miggy was heroic to do that much.
Smyly mixed-and-matched four tremendous pitches like it was a video game.
....
The three hits were a bunt single by Altuve, a front-arm four-bouncer up the middle by CarGo, and ...
Then there was a bunt down the 3B line that Smyly threw almost into the LF seats. This produced 6 lousy pitches to follow, including reduced velocity. Then Smyly got an out --- > took a breath --- > and WHAM, the Cliff Lee version was right back. Smyly fanned the last 6 Venezuelans in a row -- including Cabrera and VMart back-to-back. Smoltz' remark was that this would have been done maybe 4 times last year to the Tigers' MOTO.
Maybe it's all a huge confidence thing for Drew Smyly?
.
EDWIN DIAZ
Fanned some guy to end the game, on a horrific slider. Jumped around screaming and pounding his chest like Al Hrabosky.
I like the Green Rage Monster personality when you cross it with Diaz' stuff. Bring it to Safeco, man, MLB-streamlined to not start any beanball wars :- )
.
TANK O'NEILL
Matt posts an MLE that would look sweet on Nelson Cruz' baseball card for 2017. That MLE is saying that O'Neill is already as good as Cruz is. It's just an MLE. But that is what it claims.
G-Money says forget about other corner OF's in Seattle; we've got Haniger and O'Neill. (So gimme the part-time Gardner role for Gamel or Heredia!)
RockiesJeff, from field view, winks and asks what we thought about O'Neill crushing a Clayton Kershaw pitch.
Moe Dawg sez
.
When I saw that O'Neill was batting cleanup vs Kershaw earlier today (no accident, I assure you), I almost posted that it would be cool to see the kid go deep on Koufax, er...Kershaw.
Atta boy, Tank!!
.
This O'Neill kid is starting to make us lean forward in our seats a little bit, ain't he?
Enjoy,
Jeff
I hve no doubt that batting O'Neill clean-up against Kershaw was a Servais-Dipoto challenge to the kid. "Allright kiddo, this isn't a AA thrower. Show us what you got against Cy."
And he did.
And he threw a guy out at home.
Some time this winter I opined that June 1 was a decent Over/Under bet for his callup. It still is a pretty good one. He played LF tonight.
I made a trade for Smyly, Doc. He and C. Maybin for Jose Ramirez. :-)
Think you might be right on the 1 June, Moe, though I lean to a bit later. He may never completely beat the K problem and be a star (same as with Zunino), but is looking more and more like he'll do damage in an MLB(tm) lineup.
With that in mind, though, I'd sure like to see an O'Neill-Dyson-Haniger outfield some time this week after Cano-Cruz-Segura return. What would really be fun is that lineup when Felix starts against the Giants. Not sure whether I'd rather see Valencia or Vogelbach at 1B, but Seager and Zunino would round it out just fine. No big knock on Martin, but I'd like to see the Dyson-Segura-Cano-Cruz-Seager-Haniger-1B-O'Neill-Zunino train run by a few times, before the non-Dyson lineup #2 hitter trials start.
Admittedly, the June 1st date was first proposed before we added Dyson. So O'Neill has to rip through April and May AND there needs to be and injury and a failure above him. With Dyson onboard, O'Neill has Martin, Dyson, Haniger, Heredia and Gamel ahead of him, but I would be the last two aren't too far ahead in Dipoto's eyes.
Thanks for the front page promotion Doc! Makes me feel good about taking the time to write that post as soon as I finished my 27pg term paper. I a little like a Public Service Announcer, informing the good denizens of the resurrection of our Lord and King.
To clarify my position on The King:
Good put on the 2015 Felix comp, as opposed to his earlier seasons. In my mind, what characterized that season was that his fastball dropped from "threatening when located" to "usable, if not overexposed." The result was the greatest calamity in the Pacific Northwest since Mt. Saint Helens: an All-Star berth, 200 innings, 18 wins, 8.5K/2BB, a 3.5ERA (his worst since 2007) and just 2.9WAR. Which, in fairness, might be the tiniest bit closer to "best damn SP2 in the league" than "certified ace, first ballot HOF." Still and all, I remember arguing to anyone who would listen (in real life) that his ERA had been ruined by a couple extra disaster starts: in 2.2 innings (two starts) he allowed 18 earned runs. You mulligan those two starts, and the rest of the season he gave us a vintage Ultra King 2.75ERA. Up until the second disaster, I thought he was in the thick of the Cy Young race. Some writers must have agreed with me, cuz he ended up seventh in the Cy voting.
Of course those disaster starts did happen, but my point is that in 2015, he spent 95% of the year as a hair worse than vintage Felix. Before he showed up last year with a minus-minus-fastball, and then got injured, I had him penciled in for a solid bounceback to acehood. Now this was only one game, and maybe it was just the adrenaline of the international stage, but if Felix throws like he did against Team USA, I'm expecting that same bounceback this year. It's not that his fastball was overpowering, per se. But it was good enough to get guys behind it, when properly set up and located. And it had some of that old Felix crackle on it, the late buck and swerve that kept batters from squaring him up for nearly a decade. If he's got that... well, I've always loved Felix the competitor. So much so that I was expecting a bounceback to a solid SP2 this year BEFORE he showed signs of rejuvenation, just based on guile, heart, and yellow hammers. If he's actually got some weapons again... well, I don't want to be the one in the trenches when Felix Hernandez charges across No Man's Land with a pistol in each hand and screams "This is MY HOUSE!"
Smyly's been doing it all spring...
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-mariners-had-to-love-what-they-just-saw/
Dunno, if you saw that already tho. I can't remember where I saw it, lol