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Q.  I can't believe they haven't remade this movie.  Is there a current Mariner who could pull off the Tuco role?

A.  Looking up and down the 40-man ... ::taps chin::  it's a tough, tough sombrero to fill.  How about

Danny Farquhar?!  Or possibly Charlie Furbush.  No, Farquhar.  Maybe Buhner could come out of retirement.

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Q.  Level 201 Scan -- what was 101?

A.  Level 101 was our scouting report after seeing Farquhar for the first time, 1.0 IP.  Sometimes scouts have to do this.  We'd like to think that our own 101 scan holds up pretty well ... as you know, this is SSI.  You be the judge.  ::ties blindfold, lights up, bares shirt to machine guns::

We've had a chance to see Farquhar half-a-dozen times now.  Level 201?, here y'go amig-O.

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Q.  The man is striking out 13.92 batters per game -- and his walks and homers are low.  You gotta work real blinkin' hard to find an "Ugly" here.  Just how much do you worry about LrKrBoi29?

A.  Farquhar does have an Ugly, and it makes me flinch on about 50% of his pitches.  

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Q.  What might that be, pray tell.

A.  He's pitching stupid.   He HURRIES.

Not Brandon League stupid -- stubborn, fingers in ears, NAH NAH NAH NAH I Won't Listen stupid -- but pitching as though it doesn't matter what he throws.  He grabs the ball and hucks it.  Superfast pace.  But also a CARELESS pace. 

Nothing a chessplayer hates more than carelessness.  Carelessness = Recklessness.  "Karpov hurried his opening moves... so that he'd have plenty of time to regret his mistakes!"

Capablanca, the 2nd-fastest Grandmaster who ever lived, put it best.  Play Quickly But DO NOT HURRY.  The difference between "quickly" and "hurried" should be an entire self-help book in itself.  Danny Farquhar hurries.  

You are hurrying (= BAD) when you act just a little before you are ready -- you are committed to a fast pace as your first priority.  You are being quick (= GOOD) when you act the moment you are ready.  Get it?,  "Got it!," Good.  

And!  "Ready" doesn't mean "having fun and feelin' it out there."  READY means that --- > you have thought it through, reached a conclusion, and are ready to act.  This might take two seconds, or four seconds.

When you're hurrying, the clock is controlling you.  When you're playing quickly, you are controlling the clock.  All the difference in the world, babe.  Very often, the only difference between AAA and MLB, in a lot of life contexts.  The right tempo.

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Q.  Give me some facts.

A.  Okay, consider this split chart:

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The first time he pitched the first time he pitched in a game that Dr. D observed ...  Dr. D wailed, what is he doing throwing that slider to challenge locations, middle-middle?  Is it even POSSIBLE to swing behind a slider?  And that "challenge" slider/cutter has just kept right on blooping down onto the barrels of RH's bats -- out and over the plate.

Now, if he throws the cutter to logical places to RHH -- say, either edge for a strike, or to break off the plate away, or to drop below the zone -- it is extremely effective.  (It's also great thrown under LHH's hands, or back door for a called strike.)  

But Farquhar refuses to adjust, even a little bit -- in fact, his slider/cutter % is going UP, day-by-day, and Willis is hitting him in the face with a golf shoe to throw his curve instead.  It's not working.

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Q.  How is this possible?  Why would Farquhar pitch so recklessly?

A.  Two things.

(1) He's winning, winning huge, WITH the handicap.   Think about that one for a moment.

(2) The Mike Marshall 33-33-33 pitch selection is, fundamentally, a very Feng Shui attitude and disposition.  No doubt it feels goooooooOOOOOD! to grab the ball and huck a random pitch.  And it should feel good.

I wish that he'd wise up about a few things, but ... man.  If he can do this, with his brain turned off, what happens when he stops shooting himself in the foot?

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