was absolutely filthy. He had the Twins completely baffled, and if not for an arguable managing blunder (no real effect on the game, but I think Anderson catches Mauer’s double), Gavin throws a no-no. He apparently found his curveball in Canada, because that was breaking something fierce.

If his stuff stays anywhere near that good, I see his K rate going up along with his homer rate, because he’d absolutely hang a few of those curves. I like how he looks right now though – he’s adjusting to his stuff well in every start and giving the team a chance to lose by one every game. In his start against the O’s, his changeup was great; in his last start versus the Twins, he had pretty rotten stuff and command but kept the team in the game; this start he was obviously phenomenal.

I’m curious to see how the rest of his year will play out and if his stuff remains this inconsistent from start to start. If it does, he’ll probably be a Cy Young contender because teams won’t know what the hell to expect out of him…lol.

He was still throwing nasty stuff in late innings. His velocity was still in the 90’s too. A great game to watch. Finally.

Last night was the first time I got a good look at Floyd’s haircut. I think the Coen Brothers recommended Javier Bardem’s barber to him.

Gavin Floyd almost threw a no-hitter last night, so you might think the timing is off for me to tell you that you can expect a decline in his performance. That’s the case, though, as Floyd’s ERA of 2.50 does not sync up with his 6.22 QERA. Floyd is walking almost as many hitters as he is striking out (4.1 BB/9 versus 4.3 K/9), which is two problems at once. That’s far too many walks, and nowhere near enough punchouts. Combine that with only 35 percent of all batted balls as grounders—in a park designed to give power hitters a boost—and you can see why QERA is pessimistic about Floyd’s future, even though it isn’t park-adjusted.

Floyd has succeeded so far thanks to only allowing 4.5 hits per nine innings, which translates into an opponents line of .149/.250/.291. The White Sox have played some excellent defense behind him, better defense than their rank of 13th in Defensive Efficiency lets on. Take a look at this chart from First Inning to see how low the averages are around the diamond:

He’s had problems with balls to right, but every other spot on the diamond is turning into an out. Even if his outfield numbers last, it’s tough to believe that the opposition is going to hit under .100 on groundballs for the season. So, you can expect Floyd’s H/9 to increase, bringing his ERA up with it. Considering last night’s performance, it’s the perfect time to sell to an optimist.

hmm, why balls on right? who do we…
oh ok!

Opposing hitters having to protect against an extra pitch is another reason Floyd has found success early this season. He started using it frequently late last season which probably not coincidentally is when Floyd started stringing together all those quality starts. And his slider is a good one, Cheat provided pitch data sometime this offseason I believe which showed it was his most effective pitch by a wide margin. He struggles too much with command still and if that remains the case I’d expect his peripherals to hold steady and his BAA will come falling quickly back down to earth (or should that be rising back down to earth?). But if he somehow can garner better command of his arsenal then the periphs will obviously improve and overall he’ll land somewhere between where he is now and where he should be

Can someone help me out here? Say I’m reading a thread and someone makes a post above where I was reading. Whenever I hit ‘Z’, it doesn’t scroll up to that new post—rather, it erases the post and thus forces me to scroll up to see if the new post is above where I’m currently reading (which isn’t a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but in the 150-post threads it’s somewhat annoying).

But on BTB I added that it appears he’s throwing a few new pitches this year, otherwise we basically hit on the same points.

http://sportspickle.com/features/volume7/2008-0507-guillen.html

Don’t know how to make the link, sorry.

still no play.