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We'd been casting about feebly for a halfway-convincing comp to Roenis Elias, when MLB Network inadvertently helped us out.

.....

A quick foreword:  it's not necessarily overreacting, when you go "HEY DID YOU SEE THAT ROOKIE FAN 10 GUYS?"  It's a topical discussion at BJOL.  Extreme pitching performances tend to rule a young pitcher out of the "lousy but lucky" category.  For instance, there will never be a major league game in which Anthony Vasquez strikes out 12 men.

Edit to add, after we'd had the above remark in the main Elias post ...  MLB Tonight gives the following 4 Mariners rookies who ever fanned 10+ in a road game:

• Mark Langston
• Freddy Garcia
• Randy Johnson
• Byron McGlaughlin

Mark Langston, you'll note, had an unimpressive AA season (6.5 strikeouts, 4.6 walks) before jumping all the way to the bigs from AA -- and leading the league in strikeouts, 3 of his first 4 years.  It goes to Dr. D's point that some pitchers' "games" play better in the major leagues than they do in the minor leagues.

We sabermetricians are supposed to pay attention to how players have performed, rather than paying attention to what scouts say about players.  But you can become a slave to any rule.  If you'd been slavish about career arcs, in March of 1984, you'd have rejected Langston that year.  You want to be aware of performance arcs, but life can never be reduced to one 12-variable algebraic equation.

..........

Langston was deliciously similar to Elias.  

He had a hot fastball, not overwhelming, but plenty hot.  He was "effectively wild" when young, and he came right after people, up in the zone, inside, and so forth.   His curve was a big sweeping 2-plane pitch with late bite.  He had a drop-and-drive motion, a whale of a cheek, and he loved to fight.

..........

Not that it's critical -- it's not -- but I was curious to see whether Langston had also started his rookie year in relatively "meh" fashion, then Had The Light Bulb Come On later.  

Sho' nuff, on May 19, 1984 Langston was sporting a 5.32 ERA.   It might have been his next two starts -- against the Mattingly-Winfield NYY and vs. the Ripken-Murray Orioles -- that Mark figured out that a good major league pitcher has the advantage against any major league hitter.

It's only you guys who watched 1980's Mariners baseball who might get a wry smile out of the Langston comp.  (Well, check me on that -- we see that Langston did throw into the late '90's, but trust me, in 1984-85 he was a lot more of a wyld stallyn than he looked later.)

For everybody else, here's what Langston wound up being -- a guy who was in the league's top 10 for strikeouts during nine different seasons, and B-Ref's #109 starting pitcher ever.

BABVA,

Dr D

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