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There was a big fat hairy redeeming feature to Monday morning's ballgame.  After the A's turned Chris Young into a strawberry jelly smear on the rubber, enter Taijuan Walker, Seattle Mariner.  They warned us that his motion had been re-tooled, and they didn't tell us the half of it.

• Pitched from the stretch, almost
• Tiny ... actually nominal ... rock step
• No dip of the back shoulder to CF; no load at all to speak of
• Surgeon-precise down the centerline, Mike Marshall style
• Nice still head and eyes
• Easy, powerful throughstroke and decel

Erasmo!

It was still a tadbit stiff and mechanical, not super great acceleration of the CG.  But!  he had easily the best fastball command I've seen him show.  He threw 17 of 24 first-pitch strikes, and 39 of 55 (!) fastball strikes.  Even better, many of his fastballs hit the catcher's mitt dead-on accurate.

About half of his pitches were Walter Johnson, er, Stephen Strasburg quality.

........

The biggest payoff, though, was that somehow this motion had brought Taijuan's release point out to the side a bit.  We slo-mo'ed it quite a few times ... the pinch in the shoulder is 90% gone now.  :: gallery throws hats in the air like Army just blinkin' scored on Navy ::

Brooksbaseball.net confirms.  Today's release point:

Taijuan's release point from July 6:

That's oh, about 6-12 inches difference.  A large amount in pitching terms (ask Mo' about golf swing tweaks, which are measured in fractions of inches).  

True, he moves around on the rubber, so ... whatever the data is able to catpure, the eye could easily tell that Taijuan's upper arm bone was no longer "crowding" his ear.  That looks, to me, like it could easily be the difference between bursa irritation, and ... not.

Oddly, Taijuan lost no height on his delivery despite coming more sidearm.  I bet you his "short-arming" the ball less now.

.........

The stuff:

• Exploding, naturally "cutting" 95 fastball
• Functional changeup (give it a 45 on the 20-80 scale)
• Functional change curve (give it a 40)

Of course, the second two pitches "play up" due to the Strasburg fastball.  They weren't dangerous, but at least he wasn't the rookie Brandon Morrow out there.

.........

They made a lot out of McClendon's "long" pregame pep talk to Taijuan:  "I've heard a lot of hype.  Let's see the substance."  In this specific case, Dr. D seriously doubts that it is about psychology.  He thinks that Taijuan has always dearly wanted to throw blizzards of strikes, and that the technical fix allowed him to do so.

Blowers said, interestingly, that Taijuan has tended to "feel his way" in the first two innings at 91-92 MPH.  We agree, but was this simply because --- > he knew that his control was dubious?   If you're shanking your drive, you have to take the club halfway back the first few holes.  That's just smart.

In any case, Taijuan Walker throws one blinkin' hot nuclear fastball with no pre-load.

.........

Bob Melvin had lit the A's up before the game, and they came out a raging inferno.  Taijuan had the CO2 can for them:  a gorgeous 6 6 1 1 2 5 pitching line.  He looked like he could do it at will, now.

It's a dicey thing, powerflushing a classy veteran like Chris Young for September.  After all, the man has got you 12 very important W's.  Back in the 1970's, 1980's, it would have been verboten to fire him late in the year, simply heresy.  "Dance with the guy who brung ya."

But no sooner had Dr. D wondered about the plausibility of this, than the guys in the booth brought up the very same thing:  "So Taijuan's ready for this slot in the rotation?"  ... "I think you've got to consider it."  Bill Kreuger, who is not unsympathetic to slopballing vets who have paid their dues, piled on:  Chris Young just doesn't look right.

This is Young's highest inning total since before the Viet Nam war, and his velocity is down to like 74 MPH on the fatball.  You want to freshen up the rotation?  Here y'go, amig-O.

Enjoy,

Jeff