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Is that he seems to have two actual pitches, and the second one isn't great. If all you're gonna throw are fastballs for 6 innings then your heater had better be lethal, not just good. In Texas it seemed like he was afraid to throw heat to a heat-hitting lineup, and he got crushed trying his weak secondary pitches. I wasn't that worried - opening day jitters get to everyone, and he is not that experienced a pitcher.
I loved seeing this from him - good rebound game. Focus on what you do well, and save the experimentation with mush for later. His changeup was pretty effective, and his fastball had good life to it. It was still hit HARD at times - this was not overwhelming dominance. This was...more like what the As have been doing to us for years. Taking a good pitcher, putting him on the mound against us and watching him perform like an ace.
I'm glad the As underwhelming lineup was the balm for Noesi's game one pain. If we'd come home to face the Tigers instead, I'd have been worried.
Noesi's still definitely a moving target, like you say Doc. The Mariners decided with Wilhelmsen (who has a more unhittable fastball than Noesi) to move him to the pen rather than deal with starter growing-pains. He had a weapon we needed, and we needed it now.
A good 200 inning starter tends to be more valuable than a 70 inning 7th-inning man. I agree with you - I dunno who's gonna be starting for us in 2 years, but we're gonna have a serious crunch. Erasmo Ramirez and Hector Noesi can each be starters in this league...
But Paxton's struck out 17 in 10 innings, Hultzen's racked up 16 in 9.2, Capps struck out the side on 9 pitches last night, Walker might be our best pitching prospect period, Pryor's looking good, Carraway wants to be noticed... and all those future major leaguers are on just ONE of our minor league teams.
Noesi's time to impress is limited, even with Vargas and his likely-imminent departure freeing up an extra slot. League being traded would open up another bullpen slot for RH setup, since Wilhelmsen would likely slide to closer. I dunno which trade would help Noesi's chances to make our 2014 club more.
So at the moment, I just want him to do as well as he can. Jose Campos is destroying A-Ball and generally being the prospect we believed him to be. If Noesi can be the same sort of pitcher for us now instead of in 2015, then we'll be well-served. And I'm sure we'll be able to find some use for him, either on the staff or in trade.
~G