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Brandon Maurer returned to the Mariners on June 25th, pitching out of the bullpen.  At this link you can review, Dr. D's review, of the Red Sox' hapless review, of Maurer's A+ outing.  Complete with David Ortiz humiliation and all the trimmings.

On June 29th, he pitched again out of the bullpen, this time grading "A" on the SSI meter.  Fortunately for the Indians, MLB dugouts provide "hardened" shelters against such radioactivity.

On July 1st, Maurer butchered the Astros in a 13-2 blowout, but we didn't catch that game.  In lieu of a Detect-O-Scan, we'll provide the stats for his 4 bullpen outings to date:

As compared to Hochevar last year, the summary is "better."

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On July 6th, Maurer had his 4th outing.  Your man, my man, the jen-man is here with your recap.  As y'know, we live to serve.

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4th Outing:  Game Plan

As SSI sees it, the Bullpen Incarnation of Brandon "Relief Ace" Maurer is based on four concepts:

• Work fast, don't shake anything off, don't think (yes, this is an exception to the SrFrBoi Axiom)†
• Throw the fastball as hard as you can, anywhere in the zone (get ahead in the count)
• Throw the cutter/slider way to the 1B side, against LHB or RHB (failing that, stay off the plate)
• Finish the change, keeping it down or off the plate 3B

† Really what this means is, "let the CATCHERS do your thinking for you."

Maurer absolutely did this his first two outings, and was Hochevar/Bard.  Most MLB(tm) ballclubs could use a Hochevar/Bard.  By "most" we mean "each AL and NL club since 1901."

In the 4th outing yesterday, Mauer threw 24 pitches.  We counted 20.5 of them that matched the above SSI pregame.  Here are three-and-a-half that did not:

Pitch 3 to Eaton, a cutter/slider that missed way off the zone.  Fine

Pitch 2 to Garcia, a changeup that missed up a bit.  But it followed a 98 fastball and Garcia (first time thru the lineup**) missed it 

Pitch 4 to Garcia, Maurer mixed in a huge yellow hammer -- his only one -- that broke OUT OF THE ZONE for a swinging K (we will take it, I think)

Pitch 3 to RH Viciedo, the cutter missed into the middle of the plate, but knee-high, not belt high.  Swinging strike.  (Next pitch, another slider broke off the plate, strike three)

**The idea, kiddies, is that given this context there is margin for error.  Hochevar isn't flawless.  One time through, a 98 MPH fastball followed by a changeup that misses, you'll probably get away with.

*** Maurer did "backdoor" three cutters to LH'ers that caught the black.  Dr. D is leery, but he's going to let it slide.  It is the slider that is out-and-over, center cut, that gets blasted.  Let's hope these don't remanifest.

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Three remarks:

On a 2-2 pitch to Dunn, with Dunn sweating bullets, Maurer fired a 91 cutter that broke into his knee.  Dunn fanned on a garbage swing.  My fave pitch.

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The fastball velocities, according to GameDay (not the faster Brooks):  95, 98, 97, 98, 99, 97 ... [you ask him to pitch a 2nd inning, which you wouldn't do to Rodney] ....  97, 99, 97, 96, 97.

(One 89 MPH fader to Eaton was branded a "fastball" by GameDay.  It was actually a changeup, on the black away, and resulted in a pop the other way.)

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It's not clear to me why the breakneck tempo smooths out Maurer's drive forward.  I guess it's like shooting free throws without break in rhythm, without a timeout to "ice the shooter."   With slower tempo, Maurer's explosion forward is painful to watch, herky-jerky, uncontrolled, ugly, fill in your own blank but he can't hit his spots we can tell you that.  With this tempo, Maurer hits his spots better than anybody in the M's bullpen.

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Dr's R/X

If Brandon Maurer executes these pitches, he's going to be a whale of a lot of fun to watch.  Two of them are foolproof.  Usually it's 15-20 outings before you let him pitch with the lead; we'll see whether that's what McClendon does.

Would Brandon Maurer follow the 4-point pregame?  We don't have a lot of confidence that he would, no.  But would Zunino and Buck do so?  On that point, we have considerably more optimism.  There isn't any real reason that Buck wouldn't continue to spot his mitt in on Adam Dunn's hands.  He's been around.  Buck, that is.

A fun subplot to a fun season.  I flat enjoy watching Maurer pitch.  To these two catchers, that is.

Enjoy,

Dr D