Seattle Sports Insider

Merging into the Something Special lane

Montgomery is a kewl dude!

Posted by

moethedog

7/1/15

Question: When was the last time anybody in the ML's threw back-to-back shutouts and gave up 6 hits or less, combined?

Answer: I don't have the foggiest!

Likely: It's been a long while!

Statement: What Mike Montgoeery has just done is pretty special in the history (well, since 1990) of MLB ball.

Statement #2: KC had an idea when they took him as #36 in '08.

Cheech and Chong mention: Remember the line, "They call me old Cucumber Head," from Los Cochinos? Kewl as a cucumber, that's our Monty.

Statement #2: And you still think Zunino should be in AAA? And I'm not talking about his tater tonight, either.

Pointing to the obvious: Paxton, Elian. Montgomery and Happ is a boatload of good lefties. Hmmmmmm.....What do you think Happ brings us in return pretty soon?

'Kuma mention: 'Kuma whom?

My bad: If something similar popped up in the Shout Box, it's becaue this new format has me a bit bamboozled right now. Kinda,like hitters....er, non-hitters....facing Montgomery.

Doc will likely provide the expert analysis. Technical stuff like pitches and 1st pitch strikes, etc. It will be excellent, bet on it. But like Joe Friday, I get to ask the easy questions.

Just the facts, ma'am.

Ooooo-eeeeee, Montgomery is coookin' with oil!

Were we brilliant (meaning, did we know what we were getting?) or did we luck into a young Whitey Ford?

Either way: You go kid!

moe

Comments

It's always fun when a player exceeds expectations.

Beyond that, all I've seen of him is the highlight reels on MLB.com, and it sure as heck doesn't seem like he's getting 'lucky' on those lefty-lefty changeup whiffs.

And, dare I say it, he's making the righties look like Moyer used to do on the same pitch. -10mph on a low change, with a ~90mph, located fastball...well, that's a recipe for long-term success. Might not punch a ticket to the Hall of Fame, but then neither did slugging 762 home runs *grumble grumble*.

He sure looks like a keeper.

It will be interesting to see

It will be interesting to see if this is a "fun while it lasts" stretch for a pitcher hitters have never seen or something remotely close to "what you see is what you get." It struck me last night that Montgomery's starts have been a mirror image of how so many times the M's have hit against unfamiliar young pitchers. Of course, the M's also often hit like that against grizzled, booked BOR veterans as well.

I am amazed at how consitently the Zduriencik regime has been able to deploy highly effective starting pitchers from an unheralded pool of talent (Montgomery may have been a no. 1 draft choice (end of round), but when the M's deployed him there was more curiosity than buzz.) The same, of course, has held true of the bullpen.

It's unfortunate that the offense is the Bizarro World image of the pitching, or this serendipitous pitching might actually get us somewhere.

Ditto

Ditto, DaddyO. It'll be interesting to see what happens when teams start seeing him for a second and third time. If he's got the stuff that he had in KC, I don't think it will matter much. If he's got the stuff that he had against SD, he might get hit a bit. The SD hitters were definitely confused and not comfortable last night and I love seeing that.

No way that Montgomery is the guy to go when Kuma comes back, is there? My bet is that Elias will be optioned back to Tacoma. He's been worse than Happ the last three starts.

As a Dodger fan growing up in

As a Dodger fan growing up in the years I got used to a team that had a seemingly endless parade of effective starting pitchers (and usually bullpens too) that other teams simply couldn't match. It's astounding when you really look at it (see below).

But the Mariners currently seem to have a fountain seven or eight deep (depending on if you count Hultzen).

Felix, (Iwakuma), (Paxton), Happ, Walker, Elias, Montgomery, (Hultzen)

Felix is a true ace, of course.

'Kuma when healthy is a solid number two.

The two of the young studs, Paxon and Walker, have each demonstrated number two capability with ace potential.

Happ and Elias are VERY solid number threes.

And now Montgomery comes along and quickly stakes a claim to being as effective as any of them not named Felix.

The Mariners can have three of their top eight pitchers on the shelf and still run out a number five pitcher who as likely as not can shut you down. Doesn't happen every time, but not one of them would be surprising us if they did.

* * *

1965 - Koufax-Drysdale-Osteen (123 starts between three starters!)

1966 - Koufax-Drysdale-Osteen-Sutton

1967 - Drysdale-Osteen-Sutton-Singer

1968 - Drysdale-Osteen-Sutton-Singer

1969 - Osteen-Singer-Sutton

1970 - Sutton-Osteen-Singer (a down year for the team pitching-wise)

1971 - Sutton-Osteen-Singer-Downing

1972 - Sutton-Osteen-John-Downing-Singer (down year for Singer)

1973 - Sutton-Messersmith-Osteen-John-Downing (five bona fide starters, none higher than 3.31 ERA)

1974 - Sutton-Messersmith-John-Rau

1975 - Sutton-Messersmith-Rau-Hooton (Tommy John had his famous surgery)

1976 - Sutton-Rau-Hooton-John-Rhoden

1977 - Sutton-John-Hooton-Rau-Rhoden

1978 - Sutton-Hooton-John-Rau-Rhoden-Bob Welch (SIX!)

1979 - Sutton-Hooton-Sutcliffe-Reuss

1980 - Sutton-Hooton-Reuss-Bob Welch

1981 - Hooton-Reuss-Valenzuela-Welch

1982 - Valenzuela-Reuss-Welch-Hooton

1983 - Valenzuela-Ruess-Welch-Hooton-Alejandro Pena

1984 - Valenzuela-Welch-Rick Honeycutt-Pena

1985 - Valenzuela-Hershiser-Reuss-Welch-Honeycutt

1986 - Valenzuela-Hershiser-Welch-Honeycutt-Reuss

1987 - Hershiser-ineffective Valenzuela-Welch (the pipeline starts to break down)

1988 - Hershiser-ineffective Valenzuela (despite Hershiser's historic campaign, the end of the run is upon them)

This is why I find the

This is why I find the Mariners so frustrating. For the Dodgers, such pitching was the bedrock of sustained success. They rarely had the best offense in the league (when they did they won the pennant), but their pitching routinely had them in contention and all it took was an offense a little above average to vault them into the playoffs. Often they didn't even have the best top two or three pitchers in the playoffs, but they could compete with depth.

Mega dittos, DaddyO

Given Montgomery's minor league results, RECENT minor league results, his erratic pitching motion, his 89-91 MPH fastball and his template, it's hard to visualize a legit top-20 starter at any time soon.

Lot to work with here, though. If he jells as an Elias-type asset, thass' a lot of assets.

Point of reference

In Randy Johnson's best season, '05, he never had B-t-B complete games, let alone shutouts. In Maddux's best year (it's close), '95, he 3 times threw B-t-B CG's (actually he had a streak of 4 in a row) but never consecutive shutouts. At the end of May he had consecutive starts, going all the way, where he allowed 5 then 1 hit (a match with Montgomery) , although he allowed 1 ER in both. In '04, Maddux had B-t-B CG's only once and just one was a shutout.

We've seen something fairly rare.

I thought an isolated CG was fairly rare these days :- )

Wasn't it recently that they ballyhoo'ed Felix for accomplishing one?

.........

So we could ask the interesting question, "what was it that allowed Montgomery to 'Be Efficient' " despite 4 BB's, a hit batter, and a 50% strike rate?

.........

Didn't know that about the 2005 Johnson. Amazing. ... of course when you fan 13 guys it's hard to keep your pitch count under 100. Heh! ... No, really good backdrop on the proportion there Moe. :: daps :: Enjoyed it.

..........

What Montgomery has done for sure, is bought himself some time in the majors. Short- and long-term. That is one fact of the case. Another probable 'fact' of the case: he's a "sexy" trade chip over the next four weeks. Especially if he throws a couple more QS.

Max Scherzer just accomplished it. :)

So...it's not as rare as you might think for a pitcher to go back to back CGSHOs with 6 hits or less. Scherzer just did it...throwing a no-hitter right after throwing a one-hitter. Not that that dulls the point much...getting comped to Max Scherzer is a good sign. :)

They just had some Hey Bills trying to measure this

In terms of back-to-back Game Scores comparable to that Scherzer eruption. Named twenty guys since WWII, or something.

Like you say, getting comped to Max Scherzer would be pretty cool, especially if you were Brandon Morrow ... you want to name one forseeably disastrous pick the M's have made early, that's my choice. D-O-V threw quite a hissy fit at the time. There's a long series of POTD's on the 2006 amateur SP's somewhere in the internet archives.

In the 2006 draft, we begged for Lincecum, if not him then Scherzer or Kershaw, over the kid with the 97 MPH fastball and the faint, tentative "ki" in his makeup. Lincecum, Scherzer and Kershaw all went bing-bing-bing right after Morrow at #5.

The M's took Morrow and gloated. "We've been watching him closely since high school."