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Iwakuma has a terrific sense for which pitch is the right one in this situation. Maddux was the best I ever saw at that. If you didn't watch him in '94 and '95 it is almost impossible to get how good he was. He had 53 starts over those two years. One of them was a one inning deal in '95 with one ER. Over the other 52 starts he went between 5-5.2 innings three times (the 1st three starts of '95). Those were his only 3 starts below 6 innings. In those 52 starts he gaave up 0 ER's 16 times and 1 ER 14 times. In nearly 60% of his starts he gave up one run or less. He gave up 2 ER's 14 times, 3 ER's 5 times and 5 ER's 3 times. He had quality starts 49 of 52 times. He was a machine.
Iwakuma is a junior Maddux, right now. He's pretty freaking good.
The story about Maddux intentionally wasting a 2-2 pitch to set up the K on the 32 changeup reminds me of something I read years ago about Richie Allen. Allen was GREAT great and remains incredibly underrated. He had 11 seasons in a row, at one point, where his OPS+ never dipped below 146. The last time the M's had a fulltime/full-season player get close to 146 was in 05. Sexson was at 144 (Morales is at 142 this season, Jaso--a parttime player--was 143 last year). Sexson was .263-.369-.541 in '05 with 36 doubles and 39 homers. Essentially, that was the worst season Allen had over an 11 year run. Holy smokes!
Anyway, I remember reading something by a teammate of his who said that he would purposefully strike out late in a game that was out of reach, just so he could deke the pitcher into throwing him that same pitch the next time they faced one another.
Oh, what a player.
If we had Noesi or Beavan pitching in Iwakuma's 12 starts, we might have 4 or 5 wins.....maybe. I don't know how you add it up....but he's been worth 4-5 wins already this season in the moe WAR book. He's that good right now.