OT: The D-Train makes his debut today
Dontrelle Willis makes his 2010 debut today at 2 eastern. How does the MGoBoard feel Willis will fare in 2010? I for one have a wee bit of confidence in Dontrelle. He had a strong spring, and maybe, just maybe he's finally got all of the cobwebs out of his head.
0 confidence. I hope I'm wrong though.
Ditto. I like Willis and am hoping for the best, but my expectation is 5 starts, 12.57 ERA, history. His spring numbers may look good, but he once again had too many walks, and his velocity was pretty low. That translates to regular season struggles.
Hope: he can pitch and be a 13-15 5th starter.
Fear: 3rd inning, ball over backstop.
Hope for the best.
But his spring has given me a LOT of hope.
My thoughts exactly. As long as Willis is good enough to be a fifth starter that gives the offense a chance to win most of the time, I'll be happy. But, my expectations are very low.
I can't find them off the top of my head, but I remember reading a recap of a few of his spring starts, and his numbers didn't do much in the way of feeling warm and fuzzy.
He had a STELLAR spring.
I guess maybe it was just his last start, I remember reading about it after the Robertson trade.
2-0 with a 3.26 ERA I will concede looks nice. I'm fraught with nervousness about him falling apart again.
Barely hitting 90 on the gun...a lot of runners left on base, etc. I'm not really sure what to expect from him. He's a good person and has had a lot of success in the past, so I am really pulling for him and probably would be even if he wasn't in a Tigers uniform.
You're not wrong -- he had 12 walks and two plunks along with 14 Ks - that's not a ratio that will get even league-average results. Not to mention it was just spring training and who knows what kind of hitters his numbers came against.
The positive is that he wasn't walking a guy an inning.
last night going 6 innings of shutout ball. I would be afraid to stand in the batter's box with Dontrelle on the mound. He looks like an extended scene from Bull Durham where Kevin Costner tells Tim Robbins to hit the Bull.
Yikes.
I have as much confidence in him as I have confidence that I'll be the starting QB for Michigan next year.
Sorry, but spring training stats mean just about nothing. My confidence level has gone from 0 to .01 on a scale of 0 to 10.
If you plot that on a log scale...25 percent of the way there!
Not the stats themselves, but the fact that his velocity was usually below 90 for most of his starts isn't really a good thing.
I would love to see him suceed at a decent level. He will never be a 20 win starter again, but a lefty who can throw even high 80s with decent movement and control can win 15 games. he's got the first 2 down, the last one is the big hurdle, and if he can just spot his pitches he can be a useful piece. Still, that is a big hurdle to overcome, and one that many pitchers have never gotten over.
Lincecum only won 15 games last year. True, our offense should be better than the Giants was a year ago, but 15 wins is impressive for your 2nd starter. 8-12 with a 5.0 ERA would be a damn good year for him as our 5th starter.
Anyone have a stream for the game today?
Train Wreck. Take it to the bank!
If it wasn't for that avatar.......
FISTICUFFS!
Nice outing today. He doesn't deserve to get a loss. Hopefully the Tigers' bats can wake up.
(EDIT: Woo!)
All aboard. D-Train looked good today.
He started off kind of rocky and at no point in the game did I think he had everything under control. At one point Price mentioned pitchers mixing speeds on lurposeand implied that Willis was achieving this with his lack of control and consistency in release.
There were men on base the whole game. He got away with it today against an arguably inferior opponent, but putting runners on against better teams does not bode well. However, his final line looks decent. If he can provide that production over the course of the season from the fifth spot, then the Tigers will do well.
Anybody tell me what his velocity looked like throughout? Lots of singles given up, so that I am not worried about...and he didn't walk one batter after the first. To be honest I am pretty encouraged, especially when someone can tell me more about his velo.
His velocity was excellent. It ranged from 82-94.
His breaking stuff was consistently in the low to mid eighties.
His fastball was right around 93-94 with his two seamer around 88.
That's excellent news. Really, after the first inning all he did was give up some singles....a couple of which were infield/bunt style. Glad to see he's hitting the gun hard though, that's paramount to his success.
If he's back in the 90's I am a little more encouraged. Today was a decent outing for him. I'm up to a 2 out of 10 in the confidence scale.
Was that on the tv broadcast? I was following on MLB At Bat and I didn't see many pitched over 90, mostly mid to upper 80's on the fastball.
Has anyone else noticed that Miguel Cabrera's jaw line has become much more chiseled since last season and that his uniform appears to be hanging on for dear life?
When I saw him at the plate for the first time toward the end of yesterday's game, I didn't even recognize him at first and thought he was some guy we picked up during the off-season.
I sure hope there's not a tell-all SI interview in his future.
"I ain't saying he's a gold digger, but..."
Glad to see him touch 94 today. That's somewhat encouraging, hopefully that speed can become more consistent. When he started off the game with a walk on four straight balls, I was worried. But he battled and put up a decent line, good for him.
Choo-Choo
I'm driving the D-Train bandwagon until the wheels fall off.
Cy Young or bust.
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But in all seriousness this is a great start for a pitcher who has the stuff but has confidence issues.
As an Indians fan I was upset when you guys got Cabrera and Willis. Cabrera has been great it seems but I love it when we get to face D-Train. We'll see you guys over the weekend