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Maurer's stuff is electric. I think he also threw a couple of very good looking changeups. Can someone in this organization please explain pitch sequences to him, please.
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Nobody will confuse the Astros' hitters with anything poisonous, but still. Brandon Maurer came out and blew away the Astros' 1-2 hitters with a fearsome array of plasma fire:
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Boom, Boom, Boom went the crackle of electric fire; Maurer had to chew a rubber mouthpiece to keep from biting his tongue off on the feedback. Not to mix our metaphors any further, the first three pitches were
- Mid-90's fastball on the black, 0-1
- 89 MPH slider breaking off the plate, 1-1
- 77 overhand curve away, 1-2
And the curve was a t'ing o' beautee. Excellent arm action, sharp late break, froze Villar solid. Three pitches stacked on top of each other like a Kendrys chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cone. Okay, with the count 1-2...
- 98 (!!) fastball, garbage swing foul ticked away
- 79 yakker, no chance, STEEE-RIKE THREE
In other words, Maurer just cycled through the Rainbow Ice Cream cone again... the sheer quality of the pitches made the issue of command a moot point.
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The next batter, Jose Altuve, had even less chance.
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Again the first three pitches ... it was as if Maurer were putting on a museum exhibit for Little League pitchers, cycling through his pitches in order as if introducing you to his children and making sure they got equal time from Daddy.
It certainly wasn't Zunino's idea: Maurer shook him off almost every pitch, so by the second inning Zunino was practically poking down 1, 2, 3 fingers until he hit whichever pitch Maurer had preselected. (Calling your game from the mound is NOT a good thing, kiddies. For the same reasons that you don't want a quarterback audibilizing 70 times during a game ... he needs to focus on execution, the game plan should be better than that, etc etc.)
But the three pitches were devastating:
- 90 (!) slider broke out onto the black, 0-1
- 99 (!!) fastball ripped Zunino's glove off, just a little outside
- 78 yakker low and away
It's interesting here. The ump called 2-and-1, and Brandon Maurer in an overly-friendly way --- > gesticulated to the ump, asking (nicely) where the pitch was ... LOW? (Hold the left hand out, palm down?) Ump, just as friendly, waved that it was a little outside. We're all pals here.
Maurer, at this point, obviously had the no-hitter in the bag.
Next two pitches to Altuve:
- 90 (!) slider broke way down and outside, garbage swing, 2-2
- 79 yakker, hellacious late break, belt high, wave and miss no chance
Maurer's weapons are of elite quality. He is as confused as any pitcher I've ever seen, and his ERA is funny, man. But don't let that distract you from the quality of Maurer's fastball, curve, and slider. They're even better than they were in March.
NEXT
Comments
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Just tell him the next time he shakes off Zunino he gets fined $5000. Problem solved.
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I couldn't figure out what happened to that pitcher I saw in the first inning. Love and appreciate the insight, Doc. Blowers and Bone helped, but you gave me the X's and O's.
I don't understand why this very young pitcher was allowed to jump AAA to get his brains splattered. Walker and Paxton had to prove success in Tacoma before getting a sniff of Safeco. But not Mauer.
Mauer still has not proven success in AAA, he got pounded there this summer after his demotion, and he's back in Safeco. Probably because we've had enough of Beavan, and to a lesser extent, Noesi. I would like to see him blow away AAA hitters, Noesi too, for that matter. Both these guys were getting lit up in Tacoma, so should anyone be surprised their electric arms don't translate better in Seattle?
Do we need to beef up our pitch coaching staff, and get a Crash Davis catcher in Tacoma so that these lessons can be taught there? I think it's detrimental to the system as a whole when we promote players before they prove it. We like to "catch lightning in a bottle", but it's not helpful to the kid trying to figure out how to get called up. It looks arbitrary and doesn't motivate the player to work on the right things.
Ona semi-related matter, thinking of the problems of Capps, Wilhelmsen, Ruffin and other young bullpenners, I'm wondering if this movement to develop bullpen specialists is really the right way to go. Seems to me the opportunity to pitch as a starter in the minors allows the young pitcher to throw a lot of pitches and really work on their stuff and how it works. They need more innings, not fewer high leverage innings. Seems to me many, if not most, of the best closers are failed starters. Certainly it worked for JJ Putz, who went from middling starter to off the charts closer. It probably helped Wilhelmsen, that he came up as a starter, in winning the closer job last season. Rafael Soriano is another example. These kids - I'm thinking specifically of Carson Smith and Dominic Leone now, need more IPs, not shiny ERAs and high K ratios in small samples, to be really prepared for their Safeco debuts.
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He sort of floats off to 1B throwing it, puts an exaggerated feather onto the finish, so it's kind of telegraphed...
But the velo drops to 85-86 and he gets very good tailing action (3x9 break). Other things being equal, it's a "50" pitch, which is impressive for being his fourth pitch. Last night he threw two, one for a ball, one taken for a strike.
::golfclap:: Terry
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Four high-octane pitches, and the run values for 2013 are:
-1.78 = fastball
-0.74 = slider
-2.51 = curve
-2.81 = change
The rookie Kevin Appier got blistered, then came right back as a Cy candidate the next year at age 22. But let's hope that we're not looking at another Tomko or Salomon Torres...
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... and why wouldn't you want to see ONE game like that, before going into the winter? Where Maurer's head, or lack thereof, was taken out of the equation?
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1. Because, in March, he could throw 4 pitches for strikes, with confidence. End of story. See how simple GM decisions can be?
2. Walker and Paxton can't throw their offspeed with confidence, but then on the other hand Walker and Paxton will be able to get ML hitters out.
3. Think the M's brass will take anything away from this? Naaaaaaah. Baseball cliches are the comforting port in an eternal anxiety storm.
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Because as to this truth you have spoken, Rick...
Ona semi-related matter, thinking of the problems of Capps, Wilhelmsen, Ruffin and other young bullpenners, I'm wondering if this movement to develop bullpen specialists is really the right way to go. Seems to me the opportunity to pitch as a starter in the minors allows the young pitcher to throw a lot of pitches and really work on their stuff and how it works. - See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/article/maurer-3-ip-7-h-5-r-5-er-0-bb-3-...
Also has me chipping my teeth.
Easiest thing in the world for a scout to call for Lively Arm X to go to the bullpen. It's a recommendation that is liable to provide a nice easy "win."
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Over at the Times, Geoff Baker is now yelling for changes to be made. This is Year Five. Pre-season, BJOL picked the M's as the surprise team of 2013.
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Well I think G is kind of right here. The M's really got decimated by injuries early on especially with their young pitching and Saunders. Morse started strong but then was also destroyed by injuries. Joe Saunders had one of his worst years. Ackley, Smoak, and Montero all had their own set of problems. Zunino gets hurt as soon as he starts getting hot. Previously reliable bullpeners all imploded the same time. Gutz gets AS. People talk about all the things that would've had to go right for us to have a surprise year. .. OTOH, a lot of things had to go wrong at the same time throughout the season for us to be 15 games below .500.