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I/O:  Baseball America, BaseballHQ, Baseball Prospectus, and Fangraphs all push Taijuan solidly into the #1 spot within Seattle's packed crowd of glamor arms.  

This despite Walker being a teenager.

CRUNCH:  When James Paxton first signed with the Mariners, Dr. D told you that he'd give you three Taijuans for one Paxton.  Those days are long gone.

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In principle this is still valid, and will be valid, for decades if not centuries to come.  It takes a lot of teenaged, high-school Victor Sanchezes to match the worth of one really elite college ace.  Even if the teenager is of equal talent, he has 3-4 years' worth of injury filters to pass.  Most, that is much more than half of, teenagers don't pass those tests.

But it was a long time ago, in prospect terms, that Paxton signed with the M's.  He and Hultzen have hit minor, we say again minor, hiccups in their marches to American League impact.  Meanwhile, Taijuan Walker has passed several tests with flying colors.

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Here is an SSI breakdown of Taijuan's motion from August 2011.  He was compact and comfortable.  However, his dynamic acceleration down the centerline was just awful, and his movements were naive.  He looked like a clay golem, putting body parts in about the right positions, but with no leveraging to speak of.

Those days are long gone.  Buckle your seat belt and get a load of Taijuan's leveraging now.  You hear the phrase, "Doesn't Look Like the Same Pitcher" tossed around a lot ... 

18 months on, Taijuan has got all the leverage he needs.  100% of it and then some.  How he was ever throwing 96 MPH before, without leverage, is anybody guess.  But now he's throwing 96 in repeatable fashion, doing it with authority. He's not leaning back and screaming as he throws, not pulling a Troy Percival.  But he grabs the center fielder with the back shoulder, he dips the back knee, and gets just a picture-perfect, starter's-rhythm worth of "gather" on the backstroke.

Here he was in June 2012, about six weeks earlier than the first vid, with his "gather" project about 80% complete.  Some hilarious yakkers on this vid, too.

The body language is completely, totally dominant.  You've got the hooded eyelids, the loose-and-jangly shoulders, the little lean of the head in as the ball flies into the mitt, the staredown and the "whattaya gonna do about it" press toward the batter's area as the strike is called.  His shoulders are hunched like a Mafia enforcer's.

The body language reminds you of Bob Gibson's, back in the day.  Not sure that isn't becoming the early comp for Taijuan.

Felix' body language, at 18-19, was carefree and confident.  Taijuan's is airily confrontational.  The kid owns the stadium.

Dr. D signs off, with gusto, on Taijuan's MLB(TM) motion.  As compared to Felix Hernandez when Felix came up, Taijuan looks more ready.

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It's not good enough to just roll with Taijuan's K/BB from 2012 ... "Okay, we're done.  See you later."  (Especially since he tired in the second half last season.)

Taijuan has been a SCOUT'S call from the early days, when they slammed him the #1 prospect in the MWL over James Paxton.  And the scouts have nailed it.

Looking at him with a scout's eye, the motion, the finish, and where that leaves his developing command ... he's ready to go.  Anything from here can be learned on the fly.

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Zduriencik said that the names were not accurately reported on the Upton deal.  Man, let's hope not...

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What the Mariners will choose to do, that is an entirely separate discussion.  You'll always hear, with any kid, that he could stand to work on this or that.  As with Capps, they'll talk about throwing the curveball "consistently" for strikes (as if Hector Noesi and Blake Beavan do that).

We're telling you here and now, the kid would be fine, Safeco on Opening Day.  If Lou Piniella were here, that is exactly where Taijuan would be. 

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