He's not a downward plane kinda pitcher, more like Cole Sands in that his whole delivery seems to happen down low. Louie Varland looks legit to me. When I saw his compact delivery, it reminded me a little of Bartolo Colon, who looked like a converted catcher. The tight snap from behind the ear, no big, loopy wind-up, is a style that works well for some good pitchers, like Grienke. The quick delivery and up-tempo pace will help him surprise some hitters, who are accustomed to a more relaxed pace. Less time between pitches means less time for the hitter to process the pitching sequence and predict the next one. That and the compact delivery also means less time for a runner to read the pitcher's move to home...or not.
One thing that really impressed me was his K of Judge in the first. Got him with a beautiful diving change that caught the inside corner. He could throw a dozen of those to Judge, and I bet the guy still couldn't straighten that one out. Especially if he also can zip a heater high in the zone just previous. Point is, it looks to me like Varland can do just that. His command of several pitches is better than Joe Ryan's, not counting Ryan's heater, which is his one great pitch. Varland doesn't appear to have one great pitch, but he's got several very good ones, which bodes well.
If his arm doesn't fall off, keep this young stud in the rotation. Twins have found themselves another good young pitcher.
A few minutes ago, I made a bet with a Minnesota sports aficionado (Darren Wolfson) that the Red Sox would sweep the twins in Wednesday's double header. For the record, I did not make the bet ($10 and a mea culpa tweet) because I am an attention whore or because I hate the Twins. (Though I AM an attention whore and I am not a fan of how the Twinks have played of late). I just have a baseball vibe and, from what I've observed the past couple weeks, it just seems like the Twins have yet to hit baseball rock bottom this season. I figure the Sox will assist them with their downward spiral.
So here's why I made the aforementioned bet:
1. Rocco will make a bonehead move He's a good manager, but he errs on the side of letting the starting pitcher go too long. Today, he allowed Happ to pitch to a tie -- even though he was giving up lots of hard contact. Arguably, he should have taken Happ out one or two at-bats earlier.
While today's move was a bit of a nit-pick, Sunday's loss to the Mariners should fall squarely on Baldelli's shoulders. In the 6th inning, Shoemaker began the inning by tossing up a homerun ball to Seager. Then another rocket. And another. My dog and her fleas knew Shoe was done. What did Rocco do? Let him give up a 3-run jimmy-jack to some cipher. The game never should have gotten that close, and it's Rocco's fault it happened.
Rocco loves Kenta and Jose -- and will probably make the same mistake tomorrow.
2. Sano will play Miguel just plain sucks now. There's no two ways around it. He'll strike out to end a threat. Or strike out to begin a non-threat.
3. This ain't Detroit's offense The Twins' pitching has looked good, but they've gone up against Milwaukee, Detroit and Seattle. Here are some of the feared hitters they've faced repeatedly: Jackie Bradley, Jr, Niko Goodrum and Jose Marmolejos. The Red Sox can hit. They got thump, and they Twinks gonna feel it.
4. Colome It's not just physical. It's totally mental now, like RON DAVIS mental. I won't go into more detail so as not to trigger those who still experience PTSD from the 1980s.
5. I'm an attention who....
You get the idea. Just don't come crying to me when you are crying in your beer tomorrow evening in bewilderment...
