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Doc,
I love your stuff - and your mechanical analyses are top flight.  But, I must admit a disconnect when your hyperbole in talking about "fixing" mechanics gets so strong --- especially on a case where by your own admission the mechanics are so obivously bad that tribesman in the Kalahari could tell him how to fix it.
This is not a 17-year-old out of High school.  He's a kid in his SIXTH profession season.  I think it's a pretty safe assumption that MULTIPLE professional pitching coaches have been working to fix his mechanics for 6 years (and 650 innings).  Sure, he had 12 good innings in Tacoma - (control-wise) - but that was after posting a 5.7 BB/9 in 84 innings in West Tenn *THIS SEASON*.
How can his mechanics be so miserable on one pitch and look great on the next?  It's not because he hasn't gotten instruction.  It's because he's not CAPABLE of repeating his motion from pitch to pitch, (at this point).  The sad truth with these "wild thing" guys that have supernatural abilities - is that when they are walking 6 guys a game they *ARE* doing the best that they can.
Yeah, a guy like Batista might voluntarily allow his walk rate to go from 3 to 4, in order to avoid making mistakes against the guys that can do real damage.  But *NOBODY* takes the mound INTENDING to walk 5 guys a game. 
That doesn't mean he'll NEVER get it - (though you note several guys who never did).  But, if after 6 years of professional instruction, he's still throwing like Nuke LaLoosh in A-ball, then "fixing him" has already been clearly proven as NOT a trivial exercise.
That said - Morrow is a case where a kid had control problems with a fraction of the mechanical difficulties of Cortes'.  In 2010, under new management, he improved.  He had a wonderful second half, (though his 4.1 Bb/9 for the season is barely palatable - even when fanning 10).
My objection here is not to be excited about a possible dominant arm for the bullpen of tomorrow.  My objection is a tone that suggests (or states clearly) that this outcome is somewhere between easy-as-pie and pre-ordained.  Take it from a guy who got to see the good, bad & ugly from Rocker and Wohlers -- VOLATILITY is the least desireable trait anyone wants in a reliever.  Today - Cortes is volatile squared.
I'll take a dozen Hoffman's, throwing the same pinpoint slop night in night out over any of these wunderkinds that have off-the-charts "stuff" that they can throw every other pitch.
That said - I do think there's room for optimism.  The club has improved the control of a number of pitchers in the past two seasons.  Fister, Vargas, Aardsma - (Aardsma may be the best comp for Cortes at this point, btw). 
Me?  I wouldn't expect much except frustration in 2011 as DC ranges oscilates through good and bad spells, (sometimes in the same game).  Age 25 ... that's the point where the brain matures, and "maybe" the instruction finally takes.
Unfortunately, at this point, he's a near lock for the 2011 bullpen.  In case nobody has noticed, Garrett Olson happens to be the most "dominant" pitcher in the bullpen (not on the DL with more than 9 innings pitched) at this point, (7.1 K/9).  (I hope Lonnie doesn't read this - he may leap off a tall building).
 

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