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Diaz with one of the all-time great quotes for a rookie call-up: "I come to get outs."
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THE LITTLE LEMON ICE CREAM CONE TO CLEANSE YOUR PALATE BEFORE THE QUAIL IS SERVED
May 12th we had a philosophical take on Diaz' conversion.
Today, Lookout Landing stacks up the talking-point bricks and piles them into a neat little wall. Nice job amigos.
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PREGAME CONSIDERATIONS
1. It wouldn't be at all unusual for Edwin Diaz, Mark Lowe, or whoever, to be throwing 1-IP stints in AA (or even A+) and just flat-out be the best pitcher in the organization.
1b. Scouts are well aware of this. And are not averse to bullet promotions for such relievers. Chris Sale.
1c. It would be unusual, however, for such a pitcher to be ready for the Atlantic Trench pressure of holding leads in the 8th inning of triple-decker stadiums. A guy like Tom Wilhelmsen (fresh out of bartending and beer leagues) might save 6 games and then go forever haywire.
1d. Ergo, Dr. D's idea was to promote Diaz in order to give him a month of acclimation in ML long relief, as opposed to "acclimating" him in AAA. He'll be ready sooner.
1e. There is an exception clause for people like Chris Sale, Tim Lincecum, Kerry Wood and other young bullet-promotions who are too good for the majors. Anybody who is too good for the top level is well aware of their own skill. That's any sport. Kevin Durant, Bo Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Ichiro, Dan Marino, Jose Canseco, they know when they step into a max league and the other guys standing there just can't deal with their games. On a smaller scale a rookie relief pitcher can be aware right away that he's fine. Me against you one time, it's not the biggest deal in the world.
If Edwin Diaz has a true "Get Out of Inning" fastball-slider combo then he's free to devastate the league starting tonight. So, watch for that. If Diaz is really good, he needs a month. If he's a generational short man he needs 8 pitches, before the batter steps in.
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2. In a REAL big league organization, a little time in the bullpen is not a death sentence for a starting pitching career. It's a way to set up 3,000 innings. Sale, Santana, everybody Earl Weaver ever managed.
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VIDEO
No decent ones exist. However, this late 2014 video will remind you of .... Michael Pineda :- ) Up to and including the little stutter-step to catch his balance at the end. So, the first glance at Diaz in a real game will be quite the treat ...
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WHIMSICAL
Wouldn't it be something if the M's just added a Dellin Betances or something. :- )
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ROTATION CONVERSION
A month ago, JeDi looked like a genius. To me, anyway. The M's had six bona fide plus starters, if you counted Miley as ever-so-slightly plus. And here was a chance at a Greg Holland ... er, Kelvin Herrerra ... add out of nowhere. This is a team that was a Kelvin Herrerra away from being really championship-worthy.
Alas, the sight of Taijuan Walker last night has Dr. D rather green about the gills. This morning he is wondering about the notion of Diaz to the pen for a month or two, and then back into the rotation.
But, first things first. Let's see how good that slider really is.
Enjoy,
Jeff
Comments
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Methinks they will make sure there is plenty of water in the pool before Mr. Diaz goes off that wiggling high board ...
...but last nights Like A Daisy Kill performance by Mister Walker (no, T, you can't walk unless you stay on the bottom of the pool and your press clippings are failing as water wings and just holding you down somehwhere in limbo).
It took no more than a quick look early in the first (and see the concerned stare from his manager) that, indeed, Walker's post game comments suggest he is not totally unaware of his surroundings: "I've got to get out there and get after it from pitch one".
Hopefully, Mr. Diaz will not land on the semitose bulk of Mr. Walker's dissolving print library and have to grasp them to stay afloat.
One more shot for the "potentially predominant paradoial Mr. Paxton" (and if it ain't purty good he will be pushing pitches in less exotic cities), then who, indeed will be number 5 if not Mr. Diaz?
Two or three as a participant and the M's might need to prescribe Mr. Diaz as starting fluid instead of instant relief.
Good Luck on your continued stumping, Dr. D, as most candidates have fallen out of the race.
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Has the talent to be the (statistical) Ace of our staff by this time next year or sooner. This is too reminiscent of Morrow filling a bullpen need. Good thing all stories with a similar beginning don't have to have the same ending. Fingers crossed tightly we see Diaz in the rotation after a very brief bullpen diversion.
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Sigh. Why do we conflate every single good Mariner minor leaguer to an All Star before they clear AA? Why do we immediately speculate that every reliever who comes up would be an ace starter? It's as regular as clock work. Just as regular as the disappointment and rage that gets expressed when the kid doesn't live up to the inflated expectations.
Morrow should have been put in the pen - he's somewhere between mediocre and meatball as a starter. Maurer isn't a starter - they did not mess up by putting him in the pen. Just like Carson Smith isn't a starter. And I strongly suspect that Diaz isn't either. I tend to trust the club on this one. Servais was very clear - they looked at his pitching mechanics and reasoned that he would never be able to throw anything but FB/Slider with any consistency. They hoped that his FB would get some extra hop on it if he came out of the bullpen and if so, he might have the makings of a true relief ace. Why isn't that possibility enough?
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I just know that the rotation is flailing. Scoring in the teens doesn't completely hide that. I think it's always been more in hope that help might be found there, not that it's rational.
If not Diaz' insertion, what is the fix? Waiting and hoping that things get better (with work behind the scenes, presumably)? Hoping Paxtons nerves calm down enough that he gets to dominating again with ridiculous movement makes some sense. It's probably better than hoping switching to Moyer (/Randy) pitching coach mid season would have a similar effect that switching to Edgar did.
If the assessment is that Diaz is poorly suited as a starter and dressed well for late innings I see no sense in hoping he's an elixir for the rotation though.
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Absolutely concur that the braintrust did not move Diaz from starting in Jackson to the pen without fully evaluating the max potentiality.
But, you have to have someone start games, and the early season proclamation that the starters were the M's greatest stength seems to have evaporated ... without a serious injury to a starter (Fifi missing two starts is not a serious injury to his person, but it is to his team).
While Diaz might do a magnificent job of relieving excess stomach acid, Walker has just been pouring alcohol into an ulcerated underbelly.
The tenure of Diaz as a starter might be brief ... if indeed he is even called on to start ... but somebody has to fill a fifth spot (or, at present, a fourth spot) slotted into that postion because of the ... well ... they probably need more than a four man rotation.
It comes down to what you want to do as opposed to what you have to do.
The primary point is that he was jumped to the big club ... and it could be it is too soon to do so in terms of his career, as has been proven by this team with imposters from the past (most didn't even make it in bit parts).
They brought Diaz up because they hope he is ready (Zych? Furbush? Scribner? Peralta? all be gone, and Martin???)
Was it ironic that Morrow, drafted as a starter, was traded for a pitcher who was drafted as a reliever?
Bring up Roach or another arm from Tacoma to start?
Pray for Paxton?
You gotta do what you gotta do, and genuflect before you enter the pew.
You don't want to see that first inning look on Servais' face again.
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I'm excited to see Diaz in general too. The videos I found that show the shape of his pitches well are 2 years old with, it seemed to me, more changeups than mixed in. Newer videos from straight behind the plate,catcher, ump hide the movement somewhat. Even 2+ years back the slider looks pretty good.
Brooks baseball has an entire game of Diaz' data from last July. It will be nice when more MiL parks get installation of PITCHfx equipment.
It's funny that the starting was the area of the team most people were unconcerned about going into the season and it's the one thing that has seen the most struggle. Makes me wonder if Diaz might get converted right back to starting in just a few weeks. If both his dominance and others' struggles continue, that is. Of course my hope is that the struggles lighten up. Karns even having struggles lately have taken it past the tipping point in my opinion, as he was covering the ace like streak stopping spot early. Something there has got to improve for the fun to continue.
Looking back at how Felix has done when coming back from the DL mostly isn't heartening either. Something has to change, not necessarily the pitchers. By ERA+ Felix at 138 (DL) followed by Walker at 100, Karns 93, Kuma 89, Miley 67, Paxton 59.
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Absolutely concur that the braintrust did not move Diaz from starting in Jackson to the pen without fully evaluating the max potentiality.
But, you have to have someone start games, and the early season proclamation that the starters were the M's greatest stength seems to have evaporated ... without a serious injury to a starter (Fifi missing two starts is not a serious injury to his person, but it is to his team).
While Diaz might do a magnificent job of relieving excess stomach acid, Walker has just been pouring alcohol into an ulcerated underbelly.
The tenure of Diaz as a starter might be brief ... if indeed he is even called on to start ... but somebody has to fill a fifth spot (or, at present, a fourth spot) slotted into that postion because of the ... well ... they probably need more than a four man rotation.
It comes down to what you want to do as opposed to what you have to do.
The primary point is that he was jumped to the big club ... and it could be it is too soon to do so in terms of his career, as has been proven by this team with imposters from the past (most didn't even make it in bit parts).
They brought Diaz up because they hope he is ready (Zych? Furbush? Scribner? Peralta? all be gone, and Martin???)
Was it ironic that Morrow, drafted as a starter, was traded for a pitcher who was drafted as a reliever?
Bring up Roach or another arm from Tacoma to start?
Pray for Paxton?
You gotta do what you gotta do, and genuflect before you enter the pew.
You don't want to see that first inning look on Servais' face again.
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is surely not a guarantee of all star performance. We all know that. I don't see anyone here calling Diaz an all star SP from day one. I don't see how you can look at Diaz minor league career and the age he put those numbers up and say he's not a top flight SP prospect. Dude is 6' 3" and could easily continue to fill out and add strength. Would be a shame to see him stuffed into the pen never with a chance to start. But nobody knows how this is going to play out so I'm not going to cry too much about it yet.
As for the Org if they felt SO strongly about him being a RP why didn't he start the season from day one in the pen? Only after we were in the race and our bullpen starting getting dinged up did Diaz get the bullpen memo.
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I suspect even if they knew that they were going to eventually convert a prospect to relief, it would benefit a young pitcher to start in the lower leagues, just to face more batters, work on his pitches more, and get more experience.
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I think that the Mariner pitching coach / staff views Diaz as a likely candidate for Tommy John if he continued on his current path. I say this because if you listen to the way coaches and team reporters are talking about Diaz, you hear terms like "funky motions" and "he has a little deceptive, quirky release" and he's a little herky jerky" and "not fluid mechanics" and etc...
Plus, you add to that he just turned 22 years old, Diaz still is of a slight, skinny build, and he already has thrown 40+ innings compared to 141 innings all of last year... it probably makes sense to do something to ease the kid's path until his body catches up with his pitching ability and motions.
Further, Diaz really has nothing left to prove at the AA level, as Doc mentioned above.
Lastly, Diaz is the lone RHP close to the majors left in the system that can throw 97+ mph. If Zych was still healthy and effective, I doubt Diaz ever sees an M's uniform this year... but without someone having the ability to throw hard out of the pen, it makes the other relievers less effective. A pen needs to be able to disrupt a batters tempo, and there is only so much any pitcher can do with movement without speed component.