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Gordon had a huge FAIL this morning ... failing to put THIS POST and THIS POST on the front page, that is.  He failed; I won't.

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Pitch #3:  Super-Slider

G sez,

I'm not really sure why you [poster X] think he throws 90-ish.  He does, but it's with his MOVING fastball, not his straight one.  He's not fooling people out there, he's brutalizing them. - See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/90729#comment-90729

Right, Poster X saw Farquhar's slider/cutter and figured that was his fastball.  An understandable mistake, since Farquhar throws his slider at fastball speed.

As it pertains to that "cutter," I refuse to call it that because it moves wayyyy too much.  In fact we rolled our ol' F/X zone chart out of dry dock for the occasion:

 

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See the problem?  If Felix Hernandez throws a pitch that moves like a splitter but is thrown as hard as a fastball, do you call it a fastball just because of its velocity?  If R.A. Dickey can throw a knuckleball at slider speeds, does that make it a slider?  :- )

I go by movement.  Felix throws a "real hard splitter" (changeup), not a fastball that rolls off the table.  R.A. Dickey throws a "real hard knuckleball," not a slider that dances like a butterfly.  And for me, Danny Farquhar throws a 91 MPH slider, not a cut fastball.  Cutters don't move the width of three baseballs.

To boot, "cutters" are thrown as jam pitches -- meant to break just in off the barrel of the bat.  Farquhar throws his slider back door, breaking hard to nip the black on lefties for called strikes.  That ain't a cutter, man!

Call it what you want, though, there are 5 right hand starters in the big leagues who throw Sliders/Cutters at 88 MPH+ and who use them frequently.  Those are:

• Yu Darvish
• James Shields
• Clay Buchholz
• Zack Greinke
• Josh Beckett

There are a total of 6 more RHP relievers who throw sliders/cutters at Farquhar's velocity:

• Mariano Rivera
• Brian Shaw
• Logan Andrusek
• Jason Motte
• Casey Janssen
• Jamey Wright
• Carlos Torres, almost (88 MPH)

Motte and Janssen are premier relievers; Shaw uses that one pitch alone (Rivera-style) to stay in the big leagues; Jamey Wright has built a career off the pitch.  Logan Andrusek is a work in progress, especially with his control.  Would be interested to hear Gordon's analysis of Torres' plateau leap this year (Torres used to pitch in Colorado where Gordon watches baseball).

Anyway:  when Gordon says "he's brutalizing people" it's because of that super-slider that there can be no question of a smoke-and-mirrors situation.  I dunno whether the 77 change curve is going to hold up against lefties.  Maybe it will.  But it doesn't look all that critical.

The slider looked reallllly good from the CF camera, but cutters and sliders ... that's a pitch that's kinda hard to "see" on TV.  Last night I overstated the role of his change curve, some.  The difference?  This morning I grok'ked the F/X on that slider.

What. A. Pitch.

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Farquhar vs Tom Wilhelmsen

Gordon says,

 

Farquhar is for real. Now that he's comfortable throwing the breaker (btw, Doc, he never threw it before, it was all fastballs up in the zone and away) he's demolishing people, as he should with a FB that runs away, a cutter that runs in, and a breaker that cuts the zone like a slow samurai sword.

He has Wilhelmsen's heat with a cutter on the fists to righties and a breaking ball he can actually throw for strikes.  No trickery involved, Doc, just eviscerations.  When people sit on your 96 MPH heat because it's the only thing they have a prayer of putting wood on, life is pretty good.

- See more at: http://seattlesportsinsider.com/comment/90729#comment-90729

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It's a funny thing, because the same thing occurred to me (independently) when admiring this chart:

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Hmmmmmm.  Who was it, that was getting all this hype as a future star, because his curve ball was -20 MPH off his fastball?

So here you've got Danny Farquhar reproducing The Wilhelmsen Concept ...

• Mid-90's heat
• 70's curve ball

But!  Wilhelmsen is working on a changeup.  Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which TW's third pitch was already functional er, spectacular.  Imagine further that Wilhelmsen had control of his pitches.  Imagine further if Tom Wilhelmsen enjoyed the game of baseball.

Creating:

• Mid-90's heat
• 70's curve ball
• #3 pitch, verrrry plus pitch
• Reliable STRIKE ONE YOU IDJIT
• "Gamer" mentality

True, Wilhelmsen throws harder than Farquhar.  That can't be minimized and won't be minimized.  But he was made the closer when his velocity was pegged at 95 MPH.  (Farquhar has also been touching 98 MPH at times.)

Nobody is saying that Farquhar is everything that Wilhelmsen is, plus other stuff.  Wilhelmsen has a pretty unusual arm.  But Farquhar looks like the Wilhelmsen concept, done right.

.............

I cheerfully accept Gordon's correction.  At first glance, Farquhar's game appeared to be based a little bit too much on that DARING change curve.  But at second glance, it's really not.

Farquhar is not a star yet.  He's just a guy with 13 strikeouts per game, who is earning them with nuclear stuff and a real enthusiasm for using it.  Whichever team he played for, he would be one of the electric bullpen discoveries of the 2013 season so far.

Now, let's talk about that 6' 6" flamethrower in the rotation, can't we....

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