.

The buzz around Vieira seems to be building to a crescendo .. .the first day in camp.  Ryan Divish's Twitter feed gloated over a pitch that looked 100 MPH first day.  The News Tribune was not a little amazed, either; they put a feature piece up based on --- > a workout.  In mid February.  Fine by us.  Baseball's back.

Armando Benitez was always a guilty favorite of mine.  Huge physical guy whose fastball compressed the air in front of it to about 400 PSI.  His breakout year was 1997, the season that Mike Mussina & Co. broke the Mariners' hearts in the playoffs.  Unit, Fassero, Moyer and four Hall of Fame types in the lineup, but Gillick's O's made short work of the M's.  Randy Myers, Arthur Rhodes, Armando Benitez (106 K in 73 IP) and Jesse Orosco were for me one of baseball's most memorable bullpens.  Myers and Rhodes one night, Benitez and Orosco the next night.

'course there has been no indication that Thyago comes from the Benitez-Dibble school of thought as to 99-MPH assassination of one's enemies.  Small favors.

Anyway, here is Lookout Landing's 40 in 40 on Vieira.  Coach Ethan Katz gets credit for The Big Reveal, that you should have a second pitch in the big leagues.  Also LL's article has excellent vid, with velocities in real time.  Funny how 100 MPH on the LL video looks slow compared to Divish's tweet earlier Friday.  Not sure the hitters think the -23 MPH slider is a joke, though.

Thyago is on the 40-man roster and so not at all unlikely to show up in Safeco on any given game.

Enjoy,

jemanji