=== Taijuan Walker ===
Had a huge game over the weekend. Says Cool Papa:
Taijaun Walker pitched for the third time this year and was on fire. He struck out 11 men in 6.1 innings while allowing only two singles and walking nobody. He is only 18 and facing off against a lineup with an average age 22 yet was completely overwhelming, striking out over half the guys he faced. He's looking like the real deal.
The game report said that he took a no-no into the 6th. Wound up with 2 singles, 11 strikeouts, and 8 other outs... all via groundball.
[Strikeouts + groundballs] always amuse Dr. D because "natural" strikeout pitches go over a hitter's bat -- fastballs, anyway.
When the hitter can't catch up to the pitch, the bat on its upward plan sails under the ball, which is why a letter-high FB is a strikeout pitch and a knee-high fastball is a "pitch-to-contact" pitch (you can't swing under a fastball at the knees).
Anytime I see a pitcher do that, tons of K's, tons of GB's and no fly balls, I want to know how it is that a pitcher managed to do it in that particular game.
Erik Bedard's curve drops hard, and produces both K's and grounders -- his fastball low-away gets topped two-hoppers and swings on FB's off the plate. Erikkk also goes up the ladder for K's.
But Kevin Brown, Erikkk Bedard and Kevin Brown are throwing slightly more sophisticated games than 18-year-old pitchers do....
How did Walker blow away 50% of the hitters while inducing weak, topped BIP's when they did make contact?
No clue. Only guess would be that he threw lots of those vaunted overhand yakkers.
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=== Mechanics ===
There is plenty of T.J. Walker vid on the net.
SSI's quick impression includes:
- Pitcher's body drawn up on the chalkboard
- Super tall, yet light on his feet, lanky but powerful, long arms -- loose ligaments
- Jangly when he walks, there, Satchel
- Easy velocity, smooth, powerful extension down CL, easy clearance
- Spins the curve with Matsuzaka-like fingersnap
Visually the kid reminds me a little of J.R. Richard when he came up. Looked like a human catapult on the mound, scary fastball, scary overhand yakker, came down the CL at you finishing with a huge low face halfway to you, like a snake-monster uncoiling to bite...
J.R. battled his control in a manner very similar to Randy Johnson, and when he jelled at ages 27-28, he took over the league...
As you might remember, Taijuan Walker was a hoops star. According to the interviews, he was more surprised than anybody when somebody asked him to try pitching and he hit 92 on the gun...
So you can imagine that his mechanics would need some time to come up to speed. But his mechanics seem to be improving very quickly, per the vids we've seen.
Scout or saberdweeb, you still have the right to ask a simple question: how come Taijuan Walker is throwing strikes so soon?
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=== Velocity ===
At first they said that Walker threw 92-93 ... Zduriencik IIRC said 95-97 this year. At 18, 19, and 20, Michael Pineda got credit for 91-95 mph....
Aside from the velocity, it is easy to fall in love with Walker's overhand curve. He snaps it off with zero strain or effort and the ball just quivers with spin. He's been throwing it easily for called strikes since as long as they've been putting vid on the net...
..........
Score another one for HQ, which before the season flatly stated that Walker's "upside is as high as any pitcher in the minors."
When Walker was selected, Dr. D pulled a sour face, though he admitted that the M's scouts had to know a lot more than he did. ... if that draft were tomorrow, Walker would probably be a top-10 overall.
SSI fancies the J.R. Richard archetype. We'll see how it goes...
BABVA,
Dr D
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