Whoooo Are Yu
.
I woke up in a SoDo doorway
The policeman knew my name
He said, "You can win one at home tonight
If you can go up and Walk today"
I staggered up to see what Yu got
The breeze blew back my hair
I remembered throwing punches around
And takin' AJ's dare
Said who are Yuuuu
Who who
Who who?
.
Darvish has started five games at Safeco and, as Dave Valle remarked, "He is clearly not comfortable pitching in this stadium." Also with the nation of Japan watching the WBC matchup he couldn't have been happy with his command.
That's okay by us. Darvish is one of the three, four, five best SP's in the league right now, and the M's just poached one off him. All's right with the world.
.
=== Adjustments ===
Sgt. Wedge stated that the opposition pitchers are adjusting to the Mariners' hitters, in-game, and the Mariners are failing to adjust to the adjustments. On this technical point, I'll take Wedge's word as gospel.
In this particular game, Yu's adjustment was to pitch two innings, and then to go nuts with his offspeed pitches. What do we mean by "nuts," you ask? Glad you asked. Like here was the third inning:
| Batter, Result | Sequence | Fastballs | Breaking pitches |
| Bay, HBP | slow-slow-slow-FAST-FAST-slow | 2 | 4 |
| Ko K'Mo, BB | FAST-slow-slow-FAST | 2 | 2 |
| Rauuul, K | slow-slow-slow-slow-FAST | 1 | 4 |
| Smoak, K | FAST-slow-FAST-slow-slow | 2 | 3 |
| Seager, GIDP* | slow-slow-slow-slow-slow | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 7 | 18 | |
| Darvish Velocity Rank, AL | #3 |
And then it got worse from there.
In the 6th inning, for example, Darvish's first 12 pitches (!!) were puffballs, and then he opened up Seager with a puffball, and then finally on pitch #14 threw a 90 MPH fastball (right by him, for a swinging strike). Then Darvish threw Seager five more puffballs -- 19 pitches, 1 fastball.
Bear in mind: the only dangerous fastballs in the AL right now are those of David Price, Derek Holland, Yu Darvish, Matt Moore, and Alexi Ogando. Maybe Jake Arietta. You could argue Scherzer and Lester, but basically Darvish is one of only four, five guys who can just blow you away, out and over the plate with two strikes.
But still, to an MLB(TM) insider, it's a little like watching Steven Strasburg throwing 19 pitches of which only 1 was a heater ... my man Blowers was in utter disbelief all night long, just couldn't get over it. Even on the postgame, he's like, "Darvish just had no confidence in his fastball at all." And they'd go, "Well, he gave up no hits after the first inning." ... silence...
Just so you know. The M's thing is that they're grinding the handles of their bats into sawdust, starting their bats too soon, trying to do too much.
.
=== I said we OWWWNNNNN Yer ===
On the postgame, the one Root guy was all over Darvish, like the M's own him .... we scored 3 runs.
It's a funny thing, isn't it? Your offense gets 3-4 runs, and it looks great or awful depending on your pitching that day. You give up 12 runs, then 4 runs looks like you need to line them all up against a cinderblock wall and open fire. You throw a shutout, that same 4 runs looks like an inexorable grind to victory.
The same thing doesn't work the other way. You don't take a starter who gives up 4 runs -- say, Felix on Friday -- and hype him up or down based on the offense. For some reason, you can see the SP clearly, whatever the offense does.
Interesting paradox, no :- )
................
Point is: with this lineup, doing moderate damage 1 thru 8 -- and the way Capps and Pryor are throwing -- I think the M's could win a disproportionate number of games when their starters lock down the enemy. Could you see a couple of 18-7 seasons for Felix and Iwakuma? I could.
I could also see a horrible record, worse than other teams,' when our starter is KO'ed before the 5th. We don't have the OBP to mount comebacks From Distance.
Checking the schedule ... sure enough, our SP has been shaky in 5 out of 12 games, and the M's are 1-4 in those games. For instance, the second part of the Oakland series ... we got moderately behind early, and it was over early.
I'm wondering if the early lead won't be disproportionately important in M's games, because of Pryor/Capps and because of our low OBP.
If true -- Great Start You Win, Shaky Start You Lose -- where would that leave us with Innings Eater starters in the 3-4 slots? Hm.
M's GOT to get a kid rolling in the #5 slot. Definitely they need a ROY candidate to go with the other four guys. We're guessing that thought might have occurred to them, too.