FX on Danny Farquhar
Upgrade at bartender?

.

Gordon had a huge FAIL this morning ... failing to put THIS POST and THIS POST on the front page, that is.  He failed; I won't.

.

Pitch #3:  Super-Slider

G sez,

I'm not really sure why you [poster X] think he throws 90-ish.  He does, but it's with his MOVING fastball, not his straight one.  He's not fooling people out there, he's brutalizing them. - See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/90729#comment-90729

Right, Poster X saw Farquhar's slider/cutter and figured that was his fastball.  An understandable mistake, since Farquhar throws his slider at fastball speed.

As it pertains to that "cutter," I refuse to call it that because it moves wayyyy too much.  In fact we rolled our ol' F/X zone chart out of dry dock for the occasion:

 

.

See the problem?  If Felix Hernandez throws a pitch that moves like a splitter but is thrown as hard as a fastball, do you call it a fastball just because of its velocity?  If R.A. Dickey can throw a knuckleball at slider speeds, does that make it a slider?  :- )

I go by movement.  Felix throws a "real hard splitter" (changeup), not a fastball that rolls off the table.  R.A. Dickey throws a "real hard knuckleball," not a slider that dances like a butterfly.  And for me, Danny Farquhar throws a 91 MPH slider, not a cut fastball.  Cutters don't move the width of three baseballs.

To boot, "cutters" are thrown as jam pitches -- meant to break just in off the barrel of the bat.  Farquhar throws his slider back door, breaking hard to nip the black on lefties for called strikes.  That ain't a cutter, man!

Call it what you want, though, there are 5 right hand starters in the big leagues who throw Sliders/Cutters at 88 MPH+ and who use them frequently.  Those are:

  • Yu Darvish
  • James Shields
  • Clay Buchholz
  • Zack Greinke
  • Josh Beckett

There are a total of 6 more RHP relievers who throw sliders/cutters at Farquhar's velocity:

  • Mariano Rivera
  • Brian Shaw
  • Logan Andrusek
  • Jason Motte
  • Casey Janssen
  • Jamey Wright
  • Carlos Torres, almost (88 MPH)

Motte and Janssen are premier relievers; Shaw uses that one pitch alone (Rivera-style) to stay in the big leagues; Jamey Wright has built a career off the pitch.  Logan Andrusek is a work in progress, especially with his control.  Would be interested to hear Gordon's analysis of Torres' plateau leap this year (Torres used to pitch in Colorado where Gordon watches baseball).

Anyway:  when Gordon says "he's brutalizing people" it's because of that super-slider that there can be no question of a smoke-and-mirrors situation.  I dunno whether the 77 change curve is going to hold up against lefties.  Maybe it will.  But it doesn't look all that critical.

The slider looked reallllly good from the CF camera, but cutters and sliders ... that's a pitch that's kinda hard to "see" on TV.  Last night I overstated the role of his change curve, some.  The difference?  This morning I grok'ked the F/X on that slider.

What. A. Pitch.

.

Farquhar vs Tom Wilhelmsen

Gordon says,

 

Farquhar is for real. Now that he's comfortable throwing the breaker (btw, Doc, he never threw it before, it was all fastballs up in the zone and away) he's demolishing people, as he should with a FB that runs away, a cutter that runs in, and a breaker that cuts the zone like a slow samurai sword.

He has Wilhelmsen's heat with a cutter on the fists to righties and a breaking ball he can actually throw for strikes.  No trickery involved, Doc, just eviscerations.  When people sit on your 96 MPH heat because it's the only thing they have a prayer of putting wood on, life is pretty good.

- See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/90729#comment-90729

.

It's a funny thing, because the same thing occurred to me (independently) when admiring this chart:

.

Hmmmmmm.  Who was it, that was getting all this hype as a future star, because his curve ball was -20 MPH off his fastball?

So here you've got Danny Farquhar reproducing The Wilhelmsen Concept ...

  • Mid-90's heat
  • 70's curve ball

But!  Wilhelmsen is working on a changeup.  Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which TW's third pitch was already functional er, spectacular.  Imagine further that Wilhelmsen had control of his pitches.  Imagine further if Tom Wilhelmsen enjoyed the game of baseball.

Creating:

  • Mid-90's heat
  • 70's curve ball
  • #3 pitch, verrrry plus pitch
  • Reliable STRIKE ONE YOU IDJIT
  • "Gamer" mentality

True, Wilhelmsen throws harder than Farquhar.  That can't be minimized and won't be minimized.  But he was made the closer when his velocity was pegged at 95 MPH.  (Farquhar has also been touching 98 MPH at times.)

Nobody is saying that Farquhar is everything that Wilhelmsen is, plus other stuff.  Wilhelmsen has a pretty unusual arm.  But Farquhar looks like the Wilhelmsen concept, done right.

.............

I cheerfully accept Gordon's correction.  At first glance, Farquhar's game appeared to be based a little bit too much on that DARING change curve.  But at second glance, it's really not.

Farquhar is not a star yet.  He's just a guy with 13 strikeouts per game, who is earning them with nuclear stuff and a real enthusiasm for using it.  Whichever team he played for, he would be one of the electric bullpen discoveries of the 2013 season so far.

Now, let's talk about that 6' 6" flamethrower in the rotation, can't we....

.

Blog: 

Comments

1

If DF continues to close successfully, the ripple effect on the Pen is substantial. Perez and Furbush become situational lefties / high leverage relievers, for which they are well suited. Medina goes back to late inning relief instead of closer, and Capps becomes middle relief, pitching > 1 inning. All in roles that fit them -- maybe we'll continue to hold slim leads late in the game like we did last night. Plucking DF from the Yankees is looking like a real plus move for GMZ.

2

Deploy that thing on every occasion, Doc, don't just save it for special occasions.
I admit, I've watched Farquhar more than maybe some, and I like what I've seen.  I've managed to catch him several times in the minors over the last couple of years in addition to his ML time, so his growth has kinda unfolded before my eyes.  It's been an impressive two years.
One thing I didn't state about Danny earlier: he's finding his swagger.  Danny, JUST NOW, is figuring out that his stuff is really good.  He's always had a rubber arm and been able to throw multiple innings with easy bounce-back the next day.  But he was an afterthought on the mound in high school, being more of a position player at his height.  They used him as a swiss army knife, not a surgeon's scalpel, and it took him a lot of years to figure out his approach and place on the mound.
Farquhar has grown like crazy the last two seasons.  He was claimed off waivers from the As by the Yankees, and then traded to us all in a few weeks time.  He'd literally started implementing the cutter maybe a month earlier, and has been tinkering ever since, trying to figure out how best to sequence the heat and the other heat together.
But he never threw the curve.  He only really started doing that this year.  The pitcher he was with Toronto a couple of years ago was a one-pitch dude.  The Yankees picked him up on a lark from Oakland because he might be developing a second pitch, but they weren't attached to him.
Now he has three quality offerings, and as you say that devastating breaking ball might be the difference-maker.  For me, though, it's the attitude adjustment he got in July.  That's the one that Putz found when he went from mid-90s starter with bleh secondary stuff and a bloated ERA to devastating bullpenner with an unhittable forkball. It's one thing to have good stuff, it's another thing to embrace what you can truly accomplish with it. Danny seems on the cusp of really becoming the sort of special pitcher we want Wilhelmsen, Pryor and Capps to be. 
Farquhar has the pitches to handle hitters on either side of the plate, the attitude to make those hitters uncomfortable instead of just throwing what makes himself comfortable, and he's now getting the swagger and self-belief required to mow down the heart of the order with the game on the line.
Beware of Danny Farquhar.  Anybody who jumps three plateaus in 2 years is worth a really long look - which is why the Ms seem to have made him the de-facto closer in an attempt to test his mettle and see his stuff. 
He ain't disappointing, even if he's still under the radar.  That anonymity won't last.  Even if we replace him as closer, he's a bullpen arm I want around in a big way.
~G

3

Doc and Gordon. It's like I'm watching Butch and Sundance, Abbott and Costello, Simon and Garfunkel, Nellie and Rhodes. You guys are killing it.

4

I'm using an iMac 27" with Safari ... so I never have any idea whether you guys can read a chart like that.  Like, can you make out the text of "slider" within those dotted-line ovals?

5

And if it's recent, it's undoubtedly fragile ... relative to, say, Cliff Lee's makeup.  Farquhar hasn't gone into, and out the other side of, any road bumps and tunnels using his newfound game, y'know?  But still.
............
I'm glad you been watching, Gordon.  I'm time-warped into Planet Farquhar as of last night.  Keep the history comin' - it is definitely one of your signature talents, the "tools scout timeline."  Can't touch that.
You and Spec both.
.............
Farquhar is obviously havin' a ball with his shiny new pitch repertoire.  He's like the only guy at an 11th-grade rumble who's carrying an 18-inch chain.  The more action, the merrier :- )

6

What do you suppose Endy Chavez would do, if he ever got a Ken Griffey Jr. ovation?
But you know what, *I* am enjoying the dueling guitar thing with Gordon.  Heh!  ... and since he doesn't seem too averse, that may be an idea to run with ... thanks Rick...

7

I always loved that, Kirk pushing a button and seeing the little pressboard panel slide up to reveal a chicken sandwich on a plastic plate and a steaming cup of coffee in a styrofoam cup.  (Has everybody googled "3-D printer"?  They've moved to organic printing, including pizza.)
Any time you can "Replicate" a truly reliable closer out of thin air, you get that Domino effect.  Absolutely.  How many bullpens do you know, with top closers, that don't function well as a whole?
Good 'put PHX...

Add comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><p><br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

shout_filter

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.