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=== THE GOOD ===

French's changeup was working, for this one game anyway, as effectively as Jamie Moyer's.  For the first five innings.

Time and again he drove toward the plate, pulled the string, and the Indians put garbage swings on it.  Five of the 6 strikeouts, IIRC, were swinging, at the change.

Several swings-and-misses were at low-away dead fish changeups in the Moyer mold.  An early swing-and-miss was at a REALLY good change right down the middle, at the knees.   Another one was teed up, but was so good that a Cleveland scrub swung right through it.

The last couple of batters, they started lining it around the park, creating an asterisk:  maybe it's a first-time-around the league thing.

But let's not quibble.  French's change was good enough to build a quality start around.

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The fastball was 88-89, a tick above that, now and then.  It was lifeless and as limp as Randy Johnson's hair in Texas in August, but it was not 85.   It was plenty fast enough to keep the Rangers from sitting in-between.

There were two occasions when the fastball looked crisp:  once he threw it by Kelly Shoppach, up in the zone at 88, and Shoppach (looking offspeed) was way behind.  I think he broke his bat over his knee.  But, that fastball had late explosion.

Another time, French got on top of the fastball, threw it downhill, at the knees -- it hit 90 and had nice life on it.   Wow.  A sharp fastball from Luke French.  Cool.

That's Adair's thing, to get on top and throw downhill, and on one (1) pitch French illustrated that it is possible, for him, to do so.  And it was a difference-maker!  That one fastball looked like a Jeff Fassero fastball.

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The velo didn't seem to tail off.  I mean, in the middle of the game, he started throwing a couple of 85's, but then later he was back to 89.  So, okay.

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Don't get carried away.  :- )  The legit swings-and-misses tonight were at changeups.  The two or three swings-and-misses at FB's were flukish, Shoppach having two of them, and he looked like swill tonight.

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Rob Johnson, I thought, deserved a ton of credit on this one.  I could never guess what was coming next.

It's extremely tough for us fans to tell when the catcher's outsmarting the hitters and when he isn't, but I'm guessing this was one of the "he is" 's.

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=== THE BAD ===

Even at 88-89 the fastball makes me cringe.  Garrett Olson has a considerably more lively heater.

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The slider was only okay, and unfortunately it was at the same speed as the change, with a similar shape.

That's the alarming thing for me, because earlier this season it was precisely the wicked hook that had me thinking Fister might be something other than a cookie-cutter AAA lefty.

...............

You know what's weird?  The arm action on French's change looks weak to me.  On his fastball, he snaps his hand through and you can see the back of his hand.  On the change, you see the palm of his hand at the finish ... and we could go on.

But don't you worry about Dr. D.  The Indians' swings told a different story.  (Let's hope it's not a different, "different story" the second time through the league...)

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French did, after all, give up 8 hits and had one cleared the fence, he'd have given up more than just 3 runs (to a team that has quit).

Still:  he struck out six guys and his stuff was a lot better.   You think Rick Adair is one of those pitching coaches who coaches pitchers?

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=== THE UGLY ===

The Indians were an ideal matchup for French.  

Just for example, they had 900+ strikeouts coming into the game, compared to (say) the Mariners' 798. 

The Indians are a very free-swinging team, and guess what else, they have mailed in the season.  They're not exactly going up there with a lot of malice aforethought.

French was in trouble some, the first 4-5 batters, and then he threw a change and got a garbage swing and ... HEEEYyyyyyyyy!  It was like it dawned on him.  For the rest of the game he tortured the thoughtless, too-aggressive Tribe with marshmallow S'mores.

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Dr. D didn't pick the SSI moniker, but hey.  We'll roll with it.  Unless we get buried in paper cups.  ::sheepish::

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Wok, who is the greatest rookie manager I've ever seen in baseball, was very measured in his praise for French after the game.  "We saw ... um ... improvement.  He battled, and wound up giving us a solid start."

My own cornball Skip-O-Vision translation of him was, "Well, guys, we'll see what we can do with him."  Personally, I strongly suspect that Wok knows that French is a dime-a-dozen lefty who doesn't differ in much degree from, say Olson.

But, Capt Jack sees it differently.

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=== BOTTOM LINE ===

French fans got a very encouraging start.

The changeup was a strikeout pitch, and French's heater was -- crucially -- enough to keep them honest.

It gives French backers reason to hope that he can compete.

BABVA,

Dr D