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Marc W at USS Mariner has been pickin' em up and layin' em down his last sevvral pieces. In this one, he asks an interesting question. What does Taijuan Walker have that Wily Peralta -- the kid who faced off against Taijuan on Friday -- does not?
It's worth a few minutes' meditation before answering. Peralta does clock in with the same 94.3 MPH velocity that Taijuan does. He's also young. He also throws strikes. Marc W points to Peralta's high groundball rates and thinks of Felix Hernandez.
So, it's worth a few minutes' baseball meditation. What is the difference between a Peralta and a Walker? What is the nature of that difference? Or is there none?
....
Taijuan threw a coupla innings today. People were frustrated at the outing, though the Brew scored only one run off him. Sharply contrasting this was the radio gush-fest at the pitcher his ownself. Jerry DiPoto gushed, and several men less accountable for the Mariners gushed. Somebody -- think it was Jonah Keri of all people -- gingerly predicted that Taijuan would outpitch Felix (!) this year.
DiPoto's gush --- > flowed around the idea of "untapped potential." Untapped potential the likes of which even Lonnie hath not seen. This "potential" despite the fact that Taijuan already IS a good major league pitcher. He fanned 8.3 men last year while walking only 2.1 ... from May 29 on, that ratio was a Maddux-like 118:17 with an even more Maddux-like OBP of .264 against. Slap me silly. This while using one functional pitch.
....
Somebody also pointed out that DiPoto "inherited" Taijuan. But, Jerry D has stepped wayyyyy, way around the kind of disvowal that Jack Z slapped on Brandon Morrow and every other player Z inherited.
Nate Karns is really, REALLY good. James Paxton is better than that. But DiPoto -- who inherited Taijuan, but married Karns -- will not even consider unseating Walker. So what kind of "untapped upside" are we TALKING here.
.
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Take a moment to savor this aspect of Jerry DiPoto's personality. You know that scent they put in the blue candles? What do they call it, "novermber rain" or "linen" or something? Very light and airy. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh
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The difference between Peralta and Walker:
1. If there were none, that would be fine. Peralta was healthy in 2014 and he won 17 games. He was 17-11, 3.53. Okay if Taijuan does that this year?
2. Peralta is 6-foot, two hundred fifty pounds. Walker, um, isn't. Walker's a strapping 7 feet, 225 lbs, with hands like Odell's and a Frisbee-like backspin.
3. This myth about "Groundballs = Good" dies hard.
4. Taijuan played hoops in high school. He's just gettin' started. He is simply physically capable of developing more --- > Command than Peralta. More pitches. More weapons. More everything. It's like the 19-year-old Kobe Bryant being able to create his own shot in the NBA. So what? Lotta guys can create their own shot ... yeah. But at age 25. So what did Kobe spend his time learning between the ages of 19 and 25?
5. etc.
....
Here is a vid of the kid, detonating the pesky rodent Angels "last" month. As y'know, we live to serve.
- Precision fastball on the black
- Smoltz splitter dropping from in zone to below zone
- Yakker
- Fastball up the ladder
- (picks Mike Trout off first base in a major league stadium, which is something you will never do as long as you live)
- Ladder FB again
- Smoltz split
- Out-and-over 97 challenge fastball (different from "up the ladder" - this one is upper third, outer third, do yer werst Meat)
It's all too easy to imagine Walker doing this routinely. In which case who knows what his W-L and ERA would be. Hey, it was late in the year and it's not like there were any surprises between Walker and the Angels. It's just that when these kinds of pitches travel from rubber to plate, nothing wooden is going to intersect their paths.
Dr. D has not been the quickest guy in the world to jump on Taijuan's bandwagon. But over the last decade or four, he has learned to spot a freak when he sees one, not that there was any shortage of freak sightings in this case. Here's to Taijuan gettin' his freak on this year.
BABVA,
Jeff
