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Capps struck out the side on 9 pitches on Saturday.
Come Sunday, Stephen Pryor decided he didn't like having that gauntlet slapped in his face and HE struck out the side on 9 pitches.
And then came back out for the next inning, struck out the next batter on three straight pitches, got a one pitch out, and used just 3 more pitches to strike out ANOTHER batter.
2 IP, 5 K, 16 pitches. Anything you can do...
But it was a game in which the Generals had no offense. The Generals lost the game, but their bullpen pitched 11 innings and gave up one run. Moran pitched 2 entire innings using just 8 pitches, and he struck out a guy. FIVE one-pitch at-bats and a K.
Capps was weary - took him 11 pitches to get through an inning, and he walked a dude to go with his 2 Ks. Definitely not sharp...
We could swap Capps and Pryor into the big-league pen right now and be better for it. Moran will be a nice 2nd lefty at some point very soon.
Our BOR starters are beginning the year better than I expected. Noesi and Beavan have fighting spirit, and Millwood's starting off the year with something left in the tank.
But they're gonna need a bullpen backing them up. The Ms have a long man in Ramirez, but your starter needs a bad day before those come in to play. Furbush is an acceptable bullpen lefty but he's not a killer yet. Delabar is shaky. If we're going with a 7 man pen then add a couple of 97 mph howitzers to the thing and take Wilhelmsen off the hook for all the important innings of the year.
Please?
And as for Beavan...the guy is sticking at a decent velocity and being remarkably effective for a guy with show-me breaking pitches and an accuracy-based fastball attack. He keeps surprising me, but it looks like he's gonna be a #4 starter in this league for a while.
BTW, when Beavan first showed up in our minor league system he was throwing about 87-88. In 2011 in the bigs? 90.6. 2012? 90.6.
Apparently he's comfortably 3 mph faster now than when he got here. Same with Erasmo's jump since Elliott took over the minor league training regimen. Same with Carraway. Same with Fister.
Maybe all that is coincidence. Maybe we finally found a way to take advantage of strike-throwers with iffy fastballs.
If we have the tools scouts to find 97 mph death stars and the training program to properly calibrate X-wings to shoot wampa-rat-sized targets...
Picking the proper staff in a year or so is gonna be deliciously hard - but because of too many options instead of too few. Won't that be a nice change.
I'd prefer that start getting hard right about now, though. Promotions for the AA killers, please.
~G
Edit: In case you weren't aware, Pryor has the following AA line:
30.1 IP, 1.48 ERA, 3.6 H / 2.4 BB / 11.0 K per 9
He was our Capps-level pick, one year prior (no pun intended). We've drafted 2 monster bullpenners 2 years running, and I'm not sure how much longer they need down in the minors to prove they can get hitters out. What's a good time limit to establish dominance?