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Mr. T "Prediction?  Paaaaiiiiiin," Dept.

The velocity of 1,000 burning suns notwithstanding ... Dr. D did not enjoy a single pitch during the first three innings.   Grade "B" stuff?  He needed a second pitch and a map of the strike zone to get up to Grade B stuff, brother.

Paxton threw 14 straight fastballs (!!) to start the game.  Then he threw a first-pitch changeup for show, and then he threw another 11 straight fastballs.  He threw 34 of 37 fastballs to begin, and he had no idea where those were going.  Apparently, Dr. D's dream of a fastball/hammer whipsaw was going to have to wait again.  GRRRROOOAAAaaaaannnn... 

(Paxton has got some pain in both his feet, and he wasn't extending well.)

Only in the 4th inning did it occur to Sucre to start some hitters with curve balls ... the measured rhythm of the curve helped Paxton settle in, a little bit.  (Paxton did say, after the game, that he felt like he's getting "closer and closer."  Not to "a higher league," but to "being able to execute his own pitches".)

Paxton had Sucre catching him a lot in AA, right?  Which is why they pair up so much?  Has it occurred to anybody that the pairing may be both (1) familiar and (2) BAD?

Come on, somebody get Zunino in there before Paxton's bloated 1+ ERA embarrasses him any further.

The Phrase "Easy Velocity" Gets Thrown Around a Lot ...

What are those little whirlybird toys called?  The rotating flower on a stick?  Oh, yeah, they're "pinwheels."

When Paxton rocks back and splays himself into "pinwheel" yoga posture, and spins it forward with that frictionless effort ...you get a sense like with the PBA bowlers.  Like they just lift the ball up and let it rock forward without any muscle work at all.  

After the game, Paxton said something very similar -- that once he gets "into rhythm," he can use as much muscle "as he wants" (without feeling any stress).

I was trying to think of some left hand pitcher that I had EVER seen, whose velocity was more effortless than is James Paxton's.  Randy Johnson... he was smooth, very, but you could feel the oomph as he finished some pitches.  Don Gullett ... if you go way back into the 1970's you can think of a guy like that.  Who else?  I just dunno.   Who else?  The frictionless lefties, Barry Zito, David Wells, they didn't throw 97.

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Paxton had thrown 100 pitches after six IP (okay, 98, to be exact, no IBB) and somebody axed Dr. D, "is he coming back out for the seventh?"   We shot back, "starting pitchers don't come back out after 100 pitches," and the instant we said it, we realized that here, probably Paxton would come back out.   Not sure why we knew.  For the same reason McClendon did.  The section header, above :- )

So.  Top of the seventh, first guy up, Adam Rosales.  Count goes to 2-2, and then Paxton with sad eyes and slumped shoulders takes a fastball signal from Jesus Sucre.  He pistol-squats into his left cleat, splays the pinwheel, spins it forward and the gun lights up at 97 MPH.  

Rosales swings through, of course, but tips it just enough to deflect it into Sucre's face mask.  Sucre topples backward, exactly as if he were the "extra" catching in Albert Brooks' "The Scout."

Sucre finished popping his ears out (yes, literally). Paxton's next two pitches to Rosales also read 97 MPH.  We are two hours into Paxton's marathon here.  In fact, here be the velocity graph:  it rises up to, and through, the end of the game.

Brooksbaseball.net gives 95.7 MPH as the average velocity of Paxton's 80 (!) fastballs on the night.  He looked like he was having a catch with his sister.  No word on whether his sister is from East Germany.

This may be a throwback guy, like Randy Johnson, a guy who (in three years) can toss 120-140 pitches a turn without breaking a sweat.  Even if not, he figures to be a kid who is still throwing haaaarrrrrd several years down the line.

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Closer and Closer ... to What, Exactly

So this kid, working with absolutely zero except --- > an "effectively wild" LHP fastball thrown from 7' off the ground ... combines with Lord Farquhar on a shutout.  Headline:  Paxton Cruises.  Um, no.  Paxton Survives 7 Different Times.

If Paxton got this fastball going, and added:

• The curve
• The fastball-curve whipsaw synergy
• The fadeaway change
• Um, location, how bout
• Um, pitchability, how bout

There is no telling what he could be.

As for what he is now, we'll take it.  We've got games to win.

BABVA,

Dr D