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We can not do assessments based on the number of spring workouts. We know better than that. But we can look at new entries and make our first impressions with GIFs that we will constantly watch because we are hungry and we need it.
Today, the Mariners presented an arm that we had not yet seen the major strikes of the major leagues, their Japanese import. Yusei Kikuchi and probably have staff.
Adam Garland did a great job over the winter, indicating what we should expect, which you should read if you have not done so already. It details a fastball between the bottom and mid-90s of the left side, associated with a sliding slider that will not forget to forget the bats. He has room to flourish in his curved ball in the mid-70s and in rare changes, the couple comprising less than 20% of Kikuchi throws. If the heating system and the bender are in place, Kikuchi can hide its inefficiency.
This is the idea that comes today. This idea may have changed a bit in today's performance and allows me to describe what I saw in Yusei Kikuchi two rounds of work against the Red Cincinnati:
First run
Out of the door, it's not surprising that Kikuchi set up his fastball. That's what you do.
Nothing special here because I swore that the angle of the camera hides a lot of movement on the Kikuchi grounds on the left. One day, we will have fantastic camera angles in all the ballparks.
Now at 0-1, Kikuchi has once again pounded the area:
Not a good heater here for Kikuchi, left in the middle for Nick Senzel give the ball a turn to the right field. But it's literally the second pitch that Kikuchi launched this spring – of course, he's going to whistle a fastball or two.
Joey Votto followed and I was curious to know what approach we would see:
We may be watching Kikuchi's plan against left-handers as he opened the bat attack. Joey Votto: stay away from heat with left-handed people to install a slider in the same place afterwards. I want to see Kikuchi face more left-handers to see if he's going too high with radiators.
At 2-2, I expect this signature slider to appear and I was surprised. So was Votto:
Well, there are a lot of things to discuss here and it's time to discuss his deception. Kikuchi did a great job of hiding the balloon until his release. The Mariners have presented this video from a book of his last week and you can see it here: Votto can not pick up the ball very late, which makes it difficult to recover what will happen a little later than usual.
There is, however, a disadvantage to this. Keeping your hand so low later than usual depends on how fast your arm is for whipping faster than most others. This usually evokes more inconsistent orders – it can be very difficult to have an exact arm synchronization, although Kikuchi looks more precise and uniform than the average arm. It's definitely something to watch for throughout the year.
As for the terrain itself, it's not really a good curve. He was destined to disappear and float, but he caught Votto in a no-man's land, trying to resist Potential K back, but not perceiving his movement enough to make contact. In other words, Kikuchi has had a bit of luck with this one and it's odd to add caution to the normal celebration of doing Joey Votto to look silly.
With Yasiel Puig Then we finally could see what I expected from the door. Watch Kikuchi head for a quick 1-0 ball in the inner corner:
Then follow with a cursor starting at the same place but ending at Puig's ankles for the second shot:
It works in the same spot against the hitters on both sides of the plate and could be the strongest ball in Kikuchi's room.
Now 2-2 and facing an unbalanced Puig, Kikuchi ran a fantastic fastball at Puig that ended in an easy start:
You can see Kikuchi's plan of attack and efficiency when he lands his heater. The only question is how far can we rely on this command. Great to see his potential in action from the very first run.
Second run
Kikcuhi's command was not very good to start the second. A clickable heater and a bad slider took the count to 1-1. A wild heater set up this Suarez 2-1 heater just missed, located right in his wheelhouse.
At 2-2, Kikuchi turned again to the curved ball, which floated down his arms, as against Votto:
At a full count, Kikuchi featured a good offending Suarez slider, forcing Kikuchi to locate a fastball under another 3-2 score:
It was a hard fight to watch. Kikuchi struggled with each throw, trying to reconcile Suarez and nibbling, not finding a happy medium that could upset Suarez. At this point, Suarez was looking for warmth and had the easy opportunity to get off on a leisurely walk.
Kikuchi however recovered. This very next step to Chris Okey was well placed on the inside corner, inducing what would normally be a double game:
It's baseball. Sometimes you make a terrible and rewarding speech, while you can do everything right and everything is wrong.
With another right-handed man at the plate, I was expecting that a slider or a fastball inside trying to try another double-play ball. But instead, we have got another point:
Interesting to see Kikuchi turn back to the yaker, especially since we were expecting his slider to be the main breaker. We are in the spring and the biggest question about Kikuchi is the performance of his third throw. I imagine that Kikuchi simply takes the time to work on the big hook and preserve the dominant position of the cursor for the following weeks.
At 1-0, Kikuchi produced what I was looking for: a powerful radiator.
This is excellent. I'm saying it's important for left-handed people to pile up right – just look at James Paxton's last year – and painting this fastball not only opens the plate, but also installs its slider.
After hitting the spot and getting a 1-1, Kikuchi tries to go back and this time, he takes too much of the plate, which resulted in a shot in the middle of the field:
It is difficult to touch this corner of the area steadily. Extremely hard. Too far and hurt the dough. Too far and it becomes hittable. The great ones have this precision, those lost in the struggle of mediocrity. It's spring and I'm not going to judge Kikuchi's ability to reach the goal. Instead, I will sit here smiling, we have an excellent example of its necessity.
Kikuchi quickly recovered, surprisingly as expected with his curveball again. Kikuchi shot a powerful 1-0 lead, which resulted in a third-place shooter and the first two outings of the inning:
In fact, Kikuchi pressed the reset button here. Yes, it allowed a race, but the basics are cleared with two outs on the board, and a southpaw is ready to be carved and served.
It seemed that Kikuchi recognized this, painting a fastball at 100 km / h:
Then followed up with what appeared to be a poorly located cursor:
He deserved a strike, everything Kikuchi wanted, but I really hoped that this company would give in as planned. There is a plan that Kikuchi will follow during the year – paint away from heat followed by a slider that starts at the same spot but deviates from the plate – and I selfishly wanted to see it now.
But good. Kikuchi now has 0-2 and he's given me something else I wanted to see – a fast high and tight ball to a left-handed batter:
It was not a setback, but playing the field was a great achievement, concluding Kikuchi's spring training debut on his 29th throw.
Conclusion
This was the first start for Yusei Kikuchi and I must remember that we should not make rash judgments on this basis. There were still some takeaways. I was a little surprised to see his trackball more than his slider, although the hook is effective and it's associated with a seemingly solid slider making it a strong secondary pair to complete his heater. at 93-95 mph. The fastball was a bit wild, although there seems to be a fair amount of disappointment with the pitch as it dances back and forth with it. I loved seeing the pitch up and down compared to the hitters on both sides of the plate, which will often open the circuit breakers. It's just a question of coherence that we'll see.
Reports of a powerful radiator with dam potential seem legitimate so far. It will depend on the command of this fastball, although nothing here will scare me off those reports. Assuming that the deadly slider we saw is incredibly short of a consistent weapon, the sweeper associated with its curved bullet should return a starter that will go to the bottom of the games effectively.
I see the Mariners here and a solid starter # 4/5 for fantastic purposes. All that remains to do is to see his cursor at the height of his name.
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