Q.  Maybe he'll come back -- but be less effective?

A.  That's the one thing that will never occur.  

He ran a 2.82 ERA in 2009, pitching with a ripped shoulder.  How the deuce do you strike out 90 men in 83 innings?  10 strikeouts a game with a major shoulder injury?

'Cause Erikkkk's tight-spin hook is in the fingers.  And 'cause the fastball is hidden, thrown with great deception.  Those have zero, nothing, to do with shoulder strength.  And he proved it by flinging 10 whiffs a game, with no shoulder.

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Q.  Bringing us back to:  who's the comp?

A.  If you're axing SSI, I want guys who pitch with their fingers, who don't need arm strength, who have demonstrably fragile "connective tissue." 

The guy must have tons of strikeouts to compare to Bedard; strikeout rate is simply the #1 factor in predicting pitcher innings going forward.

I mean, guys pitch in pain.  Pedro went out there and pitched in tons of pain his whole career.  I don't see him as having robust soft tissue.   Johann Santana is obviously pitching in pain, with serious wear and tear, and he just goes out and pitches anyway.

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Q.  Could Bedard have pitched in 2010, if the M's hadn't lost about 80 by the All-Star break?

A.  I fancy a scenario in which Jack talked sweet to Erikkkk all year, and as the June-July rollout hit a snag ...

Jack just said, "hey, Erik.   Let's do this thing right.  Shut it down.  You stay in the dugout with us, boss the clubbie around like everybody else.  Give your arm enough time to get it totally right.   We'll see you next March and you'll win a division for us."

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Q.  Is it an insult to decline the option?

A.  Jack sez, last July, "Next year we'll do the same 2-year we did this year.  $1.5 and an option for us, in case you pull a Chris Carpenter."

So goes Dr. D's fantasy.

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Q.  Wouldn't Zduriencik be getting tired of Bedard's rehab act at this point?

A.  Every time Z opened his mouth about Bedard last year, it was to tell the beat writers to shut their yaps already and leave him alone about Bedard.

Picture's worth 1,000 words.  You think, as he watched the Giants starters rampage, that Zduriencik became less and less interested in 10-strikeout starting pitchers for his own ballclub?

Like we say, Zduriencik is interested in being better than the average ML team, not in being equal to it and in being an accepted part of the fraternity.

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Part 2

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