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Verlander seemed to have trouble hitting his spots. His stuff is still good and his fastball got up to 97 once, and 96 a few times, so his arm's not tired.
Maybe he's just in one of those funks. Maybe his head's not right - problems at home...who knows?
But I'd take him on my team.
Do the Jays have 20 million to pay him for this season, followed by 28 million a year '15 through '19? That is 160 million dollars for someone who is having trouble hitting his spots.
FanGraphs tracks pitcher velocity and for Verlander, his average fastball:
2011 95 mph
2012 94.3 mph
2013 93.3
And so far this season it has been 92.1
Verlander has hit a power pitcher transitional stage where his smoke is no longer enough and he needs to learn other ways to get batters out. Some pitchers make successful adjustments (Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, Andy Pettite) and some fail to do so.(Hideo Nomo, Tim Lincecum has been struggling to adjust since 2012, with mixed results)
Verlander needs to develop some nasty go to pitch that he can use the way he used to be able to use his 98 mph fastball.
A bizarre game. Could've been 10-1. Cards starter Lynn flirted with danger every inning. The Jays left the bases loaded 3 times in six innings.
The win demonstrated a key to their recent great run. The team has bought into hitting coach Kevin Seitzer's focus on getting deep into the opponent's bullpen in the first game of a series. It sets up an advantage that could, and often does, pay dividends later in the series. So the players are trying to get into deep counts right from the get-go. Consequently, they're avoiding swinging at bad pitches, taking more walks and sooner or later, getting a good pitch to hit.
It's helped them to three sweeps in their last four series.
Shelby "Just call me Cy" Miller took the thunder out of the Jays bats, pitching a complete game and never getting into real trouble. Kid has got a great arm. Cards fans are going to enjoy watching him get even better.
Jays blew a 4-2 lead in the 9th but scored a walk-off win in the bottom half of the inning. Double E hit a 3-run dinger in the 1st.
Dickey looked shaky again, unable to get out of the 6th inning. McGowan picked him up and Loup pitched in and out of trouble in the 8th. Closer Casey Jannsen blew the save when the Twins scored a couple on tweeners and a bloop.
Well-pitched, hard-fought game between two pretty evenly matched teams. I'm thinking these two might be duking it out for 1st when September rolls around.
Jays fans hoping for a split tomorrow.
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