Sandy:   THIS is the first game where Snell showed what he showed back then.  I believe my description was he once had the ability to make every righty hitter look like Beltre on his worst slider missing day.

Here is SSI's original article on Snell's platoon game.  Like Jered Weaver, he poses the possibility of an All-Star level pitcher who blows up RH's but who is ordinary against LH's.

Some pitchers have a shape to their breaking balls that is impossible for same-side batters.  Other pitchers -- like George Sherrill and Weaver -- have the ball coming out of their hand looking like their FB's.  I'd say Snell is the latter.

It's funnier to watch the latter.  Way more garbage swings.

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Erik Bedard is an example of a pitcher who kills hitters because of the shape of his breaking pitch.   As opposed to garbage swings from hitters thinking it's a fastball, he gets frozen hitters who give up on the pitch too early.

People wonder why a pitcher has a K% that looks better than his swing%.  Like BABIP early on, swing% (though solid) is faddish and the dogma around it is reaching frustrating extremes.

Some pitchers confuse hitters, get weak swings and strikes looking.  Others come at them from weird (power) angles and get bad swings.

I guess Ian Snell wasn't getting the angles on his pitches earlier.  But he's getting the garbage swings now.

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Sandy:  I remain convinced if the club can get the head noise under control, Snell is capable of doing everything Beckett has done with the Sox.  It's just very likely to be a bumpy ride. 

Wowza. 

"Everything Beckett has done" involves multiple seasons as one of the 10 best pitchers in the league, a dominating style into the bargain, and a difference-making presence in the pennant race.

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 Sandy:  I'm about 10 times more confident that Snell can develop into something special than I am that Morrow ever will.  The brass ring is if they both do.  THAT is the miracle that'll make Z and the new regime true miracle workers.

Am no Bill James when it comes to baseball history :- ) but it seems to me a huge, huge percentage of "overnight surprise" teams are those teams that simply pull a couple of star pitchers out of their ears.

Billy Beane was awfully smart when Hudson and Zito came through for him.  The rest of his decisions all looked great, provided that he had two Cy Young pitchers making peanuts.

It seems that every year, SOME team pulls two impact pitchers out of nowhere and makes life miserable on the rest of the league.   This year, it was Detroit:  Edwin Jackson and Verlander went from 100 ERA's to 135 ERA's, and won the AL Central* after a 74-88 season last year.

Occasionally a team parlays a handful of these.  Snell AND Morrow?  Added to Felix, and let's add the whipped cream and cherry of Erik Bedard coming back, even for 4-5 month.   That's the kind of perfect storm that produces a mammoth 2001 season out of nowhere.

Asking for a lot all at once?  Sure, but it's one thing for a boy with baseball cards to hope that Fister and French will win 17 each; it's something else when you've got blue-chip talents like Ian Snell and Brandon Morrow you're rooting for.

This is what the M's are hoping for, in 2010, from Morrow.  They'd be idiots if they were NOT hoping for that.  :- )

We fans are SOOOooooo tempted to give up on a young hotshot who doesn't jell in year 1, or 2, or 3.  But check out Edwin Jackson:  the Dodgers bought the cake mix, the Rays baked the cake, and the Tigers ate it.

Post-hype syndrome, Shandler called it.  To the rotochamp, both Snell and Morrow are more tempting targets in 2010 than they were as rookies.  The projects are farther along.

BABVA,

Dr D