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Q.  "Coherency" being another self-indulgent SSI thematic birdwalk?

A.  If Marshawn Lynch runs the ball effectively, it will be easier for Russell Wilson to complete passes, right?

It would take all day to explain exactly why, but it's about the COORDINATION of two attack units, and that's one that we all understand instinctively.  You run to set up the pass.

In chess, the Queen and Knight coordinate together very well; nobody's quite sure why.  In the diagram position, ...K-f8 meets with Q-f7 mate, or if K-h8, then Q-g8 check, ... Rook takes, N-f7 smothered mate.

.........

In baseball, a pitcher's curve sometimes coordinates VERY SUBTLY WITH his fastball to make both more effective.  This goes wayyyy beyond simply "you're not sure what's coming next."  It goes to things like, "Get the curve into the batter's mind," ESTABLISH the curve there, and THEN the fastball looks 120 MPH.  Or the overhand curve looking, early on, like a high fastball.  And like that.

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Q.  How is James Paxton's coherency?

A.  It isn't.  His arsenal does not coordinate AT. ALL.   (Neither did Taijuan Walker's.)

Right now, this is the main difference between James Paxton and Clayton Kershaw.  Having spent a year getting his head beat in ... Kershaw found a feel for the way that his curve and fast ball INTERACT to make each other better.

Right now, Paxton and Taijuan are just heaving the ball.  Man, a year from now.... ::shudder::

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Q.  How do you measure the effect that a curve is having on a fastball?

A.  You don't.  How do you measure the effect that Marshawn Lynch is having on Russell Wilson?  You know it's there.  How much effect is it?  That, you don't know.

The concept of "Pitchability" -- the Hisashi Iwakuma, Greg Maddux factor -- is one that we saberdweebs will probably NEVER capture.   We can put run values on fastballs and curves and cutters.  How much does it change the value of a 1-2 fastball, if a curve was called for a strike at 1-1?  That, we don't know.  

Even if we measured it industrywide ... 1-2 fastball after 1-1 curve ... we wouldn't have measured it for Clayton Kershaw.   Even if we measured it for Kershaw, we wouldn't have measured it for Kershaw in the fourth inning of a close game.  Right?

Hisashi Iwakuma has some kind of intuition that tells him when his high fastball has "set up" (?!) his low-inside shuuto.  And vice versa.  Where's the Fangraphs column for this?  Sometimes we just have to admit that we're behind computer monitors.

Even from behind the monitor, though, we can tell you how much James Paxton was "setting up" his pitches.  Zero.

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Q.  But Paxton threw some curves for strikes.

A.  He did, but none of them with bad intention.  He was just grasping at straws out there.

When he threw one for a called strike, Paxton's jaw dropped wider than the Rays' did.  There wasn't any Iwakuma-like pitchability.  But K-Pax still mowed um down.  Kain't wait to see the finished product, can you?

That's why he isn't yet laying waste the baseball landscape.  He's got the thunderous fastball and five gallons of confusion going for him.

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