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The American Revolutionaries gave their very lives for a future in which every man would have the right to --- > max out credit cards at Disney, to "go out" for dessert, to measure the gains in "inches" rather than centimetres, and to occasionally see a Seattle Mariner fulfill his den-sity. Dr. D is starting to think the Mariners could win a pennant in his lifetime (no hyperbole whatsoever attached).
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SLOPS to the Mariners' 2-for-19 on balls in play Monday. GameDay described six of those outs as "Chris Iannetta lines out to center field," "Kyle Seager tears third baseman's mitt off," or some variation thereof.
The M's had a great night at the plate, one of yer all-time great 3-run outbursts. They walked seven times and lined out those 6 times -- and 5 times it was the other way. Their four hits were two line-drive singles, a home run by Kyle Seager and (of course) another soul-murdering shot from to Leonydas, King of Exit Velocity.
Hey, Matty. Do us a solid. Figure out for us why Leonys is going to bat .189 with 18 homers but have an OPS+ of 100, compared to Mike Zunino batting .179 with 15 homers and an OPS+ of 47.
No, seriously, at this point Leonys has Dr. D on the ropes and has knocked his mouthpiece into the third row. Slap me silly if he doesn't look like he isn't going to OPS+ the 90 that OBF told us all he would. :: you WANT me over that wall. you NEED me over that wall ::
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PROPS to Taijuan Walker. You see what happens when this kid gets the opposing batters in between.
His fastball had just that extra 12 inches' length on it, crossed that line at which batters have to start their swings before they see the ball. Meanwhile, his splitter/slider had just that lesser 24 inches on them. The effect was that of the Astros having to cover 6' worth of depth, rather than 3'. It was far, far too much. One moment they were frantically trying to lean back into the catcher's mitt for the fastball, and the next moment they were leaannnnnning way out to willow-swick a diving splitter way in front of the plate. 0.20 seconds is not enough time to decide which to do.
As a completely separate issue, Walker legimately had Schilling command of the fastball.
BASEBALL DORKING ALERT click this link rat cheer, go to inning 7, click on Luis Valbeuna. Really, go there. Dr. D will wait. It's worth it. Of the eight pitches in the at-bat, 6 were on various picture-frame edges at perfect random ... 1 was a splitter dropping just below the knees ... and then bask gloriously in pitch 8. :: shaking head :: A better pitch sequence it will not be your privilege to see in this mortal realm, Hercules.
oh! edit to add the Shout Box ... the Rickster also basked in the radiance of that specific pitch. Dr. D has nothing more to teach you, kiddies.
Taijuan was reliably effective the first three starts; he was quite good (if not reliable) the last four months of 2015. But the Taijuan you just saw on Monday is a Taijuan whose next contract would start with a 2. ... and his slider / split are works in progress .... NOW, gentlemen, let us commence with geeking out about this pitcher.
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Maybe you were wondering why 118 pitches? Walker's pitch count has gone 100 - 107 - 112 - 118 or something similar. It's a loooonnng season, right? What is he doing throwing 120 in April?
Thusly:
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... and the last 6 hitters were 6 of the best of Taijuan's life, grotesquely torn apart in a holocaust like Sarah Connor hanging on to the chain link fence with bony fingers.
Which reminds us of an old Sandy Koufax tracer that Terry might be able to run down for us. Goes the story of some National League rook who was in the on-deck circle and Koufax threw a pitch he couldn't see. "I thought, nobody can throw that fast. Then I realized he was pitching from the stretch, and I got scared."
Taijuan doesn't just throw with no windup; he doesn't even load his shoulder. Which habit will be of considerable use when there are runners on base in Game 6 of the Serious.
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SLOPS to any amigos who trusts Joel Peralta. But, slap me silly, how do DiPoto and Servais resist bowing to the four directions. From courtesy invite to maybe one more season in the sun chatting up the kids to P-T-P'er dragging us by the napes of our necks into the division lead. Dial 1-800-RETREAD
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PROPS to the denizens who follow on with other baseball dorking this morning so we can savor the rest of the victory :- )
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BABVA,
Dr D
