=== Dr's Diagnosis ===
Fister gets upgraded several notches. Buy another several hundred shares.
We remember the young Bill Swift getting on a roll and somebody asking Jim Lefebvre, "If he pitches like this, is he going to be in the rotation?"
Jimmy's reply, "If he pitches like this, he's going to be in the Hall of Fame." Meaning, of course, that Swifty was just red-hot at the time.
.................
With his 87-89 fastball, Fister lives on the edge in Radke / Blanton / Moyer* style, and I went into the game skeptical that he would execute as well as he did vs. the White Sox. (That was a 6-IP, 1H, 0ER game last Tuesday.)
... and then Fister went out and executed considerably better this time. So that's two games: (1) A 1-hit shutout against a vet lineup including Thome, Dye, Konerko and Podsednik and (2) a 3-run win against the Nightmare on Broad Street . Two games for the rook, and two beautiful performances.
I don't know if Fister will keep executing the pitches that he did Sunday, but if he does, he's a quality starter in the American League.
For that matter, I don't know how he COULD paint like that in the long term. If he hits Johjima's mitt the way he did SUNday, he's going after Greg Maddux status more than he is Brad Radke status. ;- )
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=== Two Mistakes Dept. ===
One of my favorite baseball cliches is "He only made two mistakes today." That means he gave up two 415-foot homers, of course. Is that even possible? 98 pitches were unhittable, but the two pitches that were hittable, the batters scored 100% on their home run derby launches. LOL.
Funny thing, Sunday was one of the few games where I felt like that's what happened. That Fister threw approximately 88 well-placed pitches, and two badly-placed ones, and the two mistakes were a crushed HR and a rope into the OF.
Fister gave up 2 hits, but it showed up as 8 in the box score:
1. A cheap bunt hit by Pena to break up the no-hitter. ;- )
2. A grounder by ARod to the SS, thrown wide of 1B and scored a hit.
3. A blooper by Cano that fell in no-man's land to the opposite field.
4, 5, 6. Three bloopers by Jeter over the 1B's head. (There's a game you don't see every day.)
7. A rope by the LH Hinske the other way for a clean single.
8. An HR crushed to CF for two runs by Swisher.
To be fair, there were two or three medium-long fly balls in the game. Not warning track shots, but it's not like the Yankees only hit two balls. Still !
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=== Makeup ===
Doogie M.D. kept up the awesome Jack McDowell assassin face, after bloop after bloop fell in.
Is this guy a rookie?
Think about it. Yankees. Second start ever. Six lucky hits. Back on the mound and back on the job, each time. Does Felix do that as reliably?
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=== Annnnnddd... .there's the Zero Walks ===
Seven innings against a scary lineup, 11 strikes taken away from him, and still no walks.
Only four strikeouts, but it could have easily been 5-6 over the 7 innings, and a Greg Maddux box score. So that's the performance that Fister fans were hoping would translate from the minors to the majors ...
... in the best case scenario.
You got it Sunday.
Cheers,
Dr D
...he needs to be perfect to avoid getting pounded on any given day, but if he's near-perfect 20 times and only meh 10 times, he'll have a 4 ERA and a #3 starters job.
I am very VERY impressed with Fister right now. He and Ryan Rowland-Smith join Brandon Morrow as my deep hope for 2010 rotation along with King Felix and either Ian Snell or Carlos Silva, whoever does better.
I have exactly *zero* interest in Luke French, Garrett Olson and Jason Vargas.
We're starting to do a Silentpadna shoot-around-the-corners act here chief. Seems like it's been awhile since I differed with you much on a starter.
Guess you must have one mammoth cranium ;- ) ;- )
It would be worth asking, which other 1.8 BB, 5.5 K pitchers were flyball guys.
Fister didn't throw tons of FB's in the minors, but Sunday he did throw a blizzard of BIP's in the air IIRC.
Fister will be fine in Safeco, as regards the FB ratio, but IF he does turn out to be a flyball guy, I wonder which of the Blanton-Wolf-Radke-Moyer* types that links him with.
Joe Blanton was an extreme flyballer. Jamie Moyer, even in his prime, was a flyball pitcher.
...you and I always agreeing on SPs these days...or Jack Zduriencik ALSO agreeing with us. :)
Seems I put the D or D- rating on a pitcher and within 4 starts, he's gone or in a better role or whatever.
The only guy I think I've blown the call on so far is Snell. I like his upside but he's all screwed up in the head right now...so he's not a B- pitcher today...not till he gets his stuff together.
Have never drawn out the four-square for FB/GB on CTL/PWR starters. Never thought much about what it means for a Derek Lowe to be a groundballer and a Jamie Moyer to be a flyballer.
Any thoughts as to what it is in their arsenals that induces that? First guess here is that a Moyer/Blanton/Fister uses the whole strike zone, whereas a Lowe or Erickson pounds the knees and below.
I chuckled out loud at that one.
It's a far cry from the days of Silva, Batista and Washburn all being 32-start entitled at the same time.
Fun watching Stars & Scrubs fungibility, and even more fun when the admins have a pretty good shot at finding the most talented guys.
...would be some combination of their preferred method of attack (Moyer, Maddux, Blanton...all famous for using the whole zone if they think it will help them change the batter's eye level, Lowe, Erickson, Silva when he was healthy all famous for picking on one game plan no matter who was up) and the kind of movement they get on their fastball (Silva, Erickson, Lowe with sinking action, Batista, Blanton, Fister with swerve, not as much sink).
At least in terms of there being -some- tendency that way.