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MECHANICS and SPORTS MOTION
Personally, I enjoy very much the chance to watch Jason Hammel throw a baseball. He reminds me of my childhood hero Len Barker -- gathers his hip nice and high, as though he were a Roman archer lurking behind a peripet. Oozes confidence. Uncoils down the centerline powerfully and smoothly. It's just pretty to watch.
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R/X
If the Mariners were REALLY going to be able to:
(1) Talk Hammel into a 1-year deal for $12-14M,
(2) Talk to him sweet in May and June, skip a turn in the rotation now and then, and
(3) Deal for a rent-an-ace to replace him when his arm gave out,
Then I'd actually be excited to see Hammel in the 4 slot. But the above 3 points are a lot of moving parts in a roster strategy, and they are unconventional moving parts. All that said, Hammel is out there twisting in the wind for some reason or other, correct? Likely because teams have a scaled-down role in mind for him. Of some type or other.
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Let's! Go To! the Vid-eo TAPE!, Dept.
In this first video -- from last September, after his arm is supposed to be running on fumes, that is --
(1) Powerful 93 fastball way up out of the zone, RH batter bites 'cause of the deception (Hammel repeats his motion well on the slider, which woulda broke down)
(2) Bread-and-butter fatball at the knees, not sure how the batter missed it, but still
(3) Way high slider also deserved a worse fate than it got
(4) Takes a little off the slider and this is what F/X calls his "occasional curve"
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This video is a shutout 7-IP start in August. The pitches:
(1) Tight-spin slider on the black to a LH, doesn't bite super hard, but it is located with excellent arm action
(2) David Cone type slider breaking off the plate low and away (this would be Jason Hammel's favorite pork chop)
(3) Fastball "plays up" because the slider is crackling tonight
(4) See above
(5) Nintendo slider rolls off the table for a garbage swing
(6) see #2
(7) (8) He woulda thrown 15 shutout innings if it had been a video game
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So those two games give an idea of what Hammel can do, when his slider is biting and he's got his command. ... now, he does like to go up in the zone, so he's got both an 8K strikeout rate and gopheritis to go with it. But he can rock and roll when he's right.
Which is what the 1977 Mariners broadcast crew said once about Gary Wheelock :- ) When he's right he looks like a 30-game winner. When he's off you have to warm up the bullpen in the first inning. Which is true of most big league starters, they sez.
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DR'S R/X
It says here that a lot of ML teams would like to have Hammel on their own terms and conditions. Any resemblance to the buyer's terms, and the seller's, may be purely coincidental. For right now, M's fans can take heart that Dipoto seems to want to do better than Jason Hammel.
Enjoy,
Dr D
