If I was to tell you that the Mets have shutout the vaunted Phillies offense for two games in a row you would think one of two things: either I'm crazy or we had Pelf and Johan on the mound. In fact neither is correct (ok, maybe I'm a little crazy but who isn't?) as pitching for the Mets were R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi. Yep, that's right - a guy who prefers to be called RA than Robert and a guy who the casual Mets fan thinks pitched (and cried) for us last year started those two games. Our rotation is in shambles - 3/5 of our opening week starters are no longer in the rotation and yet here we have RA Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi pitching like they're Doc and Darling.
There is no real point to this post except to note that if Dickey and Takahashi can give us any stability we may have more to hope for then we thought.
Pitching like Doc and Darling? Well Takahashi is a lefty, and neither Gooden nor Darling were. Also, I don't think Gooden or Darling came from Japan. In addition, Dickey is a knuckleballer. Gooden's success came from a combination of a rising fastball and knee buckling curveball. Darling relied on mix of pitches that kept hitters off balance. But none of those pitches were knuckleballs.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are at it, "pitching like they're Doc and Darling" is probably a bad thing at this point. Have you Darling lately? He looks like he hits every eatery at Citifield during the games. No way he's throwing more than like 70 mph at that age or in that shape. And the only thing Gooden has been throwing lately is himself into prison. And even before his legal troubles, he ended his career relying on off speed junk. He's a shell of his former self. No way i'd want to be compared to him now.
So anyways, I'd way you're wrong. Very wrong. I would say instead, that Dickey and Takahashi are pitching like they're Wakefield and Lester.
Great blog by the way.
somehow i suppose i deserve that post
ReplyDelete