Pitching coach likes what he's seen

[LittleOzzy]

As openings go, it was a grand return.

Right-hander Shaun Marcum, starting for the first time in 20 months, retired the first 19 Texas Rangers he faced.

As closings go, it was a painful beginning to the 2009 season, as the Texas Rangers scored a pair against Jason Frasor in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 win Monday.

Marcum and catcher John Buck began throwing changeups off his fastballs and by the time he finished his 93-pitch, seven-inning, opening day outing, he had thrown 45 changeups.

“That’s a lot,” pitching coach Bruce Walton said. “It seemed like the Texas hitters couldn’t stay back. Buck and Marcum were pretty impressive. Buck doesn’t change just to change, doesn’t just for the heck of it, he has a knack of seeing what they’re doing and rides it out.”

A walk to Josh Hamilton and a single by Vladimir Guerrero led to a wind-blown three-run homer by Nelson Cruz in the seventh.

“Shaun was very happy with what he did on a personal standpoint, but no one was real happy with the way we lost,” Walton said.

Tonight, lefty Brian Tallet starts against Rangers right-hander Rich Harden of Victoria, B.C. Tallet, bumped ahead in the rotation’s pecking order so he would start the home opener Monday against the Chicago White Sox, has a changeup as his second-best pitch.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/ ... 91476.html

[tsherkin]

I don't mind what I've seen from Tallet so far, except that his raw stuff is awful. Good stamina, crap control, strong mentality. Bounced back from some rougher innings to give us a quality outing.

Marcum looked awesome, even when giving up runs. He may have crummy velocity on his heater but he does just about everything else well. Reminds me of an uber-poor-man's version of old Mad Dog. Lots of pitch to contact and deception. Loved that he threw nearly 50% changeups and fooled everyone, lol.

I miss Tallet's Lemmy, does that make me a bad person?

[Anatomize]

I've been saying it since his rookie year, Marcum reminds me a lot of Maddux.

[tsherkin]

Well, he relies on location and pitch-to-contact as a righty with no heat, right? He throws a decent curve, a great slider, commands his fastball, deceives well on the change and that cutter is pretty good, too. No heat, but good movement and command.

That's pretty much Maddux in a nutshell, though prime Mad Dog was still throwing low 90s heat, not mid-80s junk like Marcum. And he had a 2-seamer that was pretty brutal, too.

Anyway, Marcum is a really clever pitcher, someone who I hope will last a long time and stick around as a Jay. But by God will he be a right-handed Jamie Moyer later in his career, given his crappy velocity...

[satyr9]

In the future, please make all future comparisons about junk throwing control pitchers to Jamie Moyer, not Greg Maddux. Just my personal preference, but I remember being on scout.com arguing about Litsch compared to Maddux, and Towers compared to Maddux, etc... over the years (which is why you might understand I've become sensitized to it). Guys having some success without any real heat should not be compared to Greg until they've made 3-5 All-Star teams, or won a couple Cy's, or something else incredibly noteworthy. Until that happens, use Moyer (or any mildly accomplished no fastball starter, but anyone other than Maddux). Please?

And nobody here was actually making it a real comparison, but I'm trying to cut this one off at the pass and keep anyone from going there.

Hopefully that didn't come across sounding too d*ckish.

[Kevin Willis]

Tallet scares me - very much like League in you don't know what's going to happen but overall if pitching holds up we might be better than average this year.