Pitchers come and gone

Yusei Kikuchi had his first public bullpen work-out yesterday and, judging by the number of videos posted, he got a lot of attention.  And given the publicity surrounding the M's successful bid to bring him from Japan to the US, that makes sense.  There is no question general manager Jerry Dipoto sees Kikuchi as a critically important piece in rebuilding the team, enough so to trade off ace James Paxton.

I had not seen video of Kikuchi pitching and I was surprised by a couple of things (I'm avoiding posting links in the blog, you can easily find these videos and any other thing I cite by simply typing in the player's name to Google).  He has an easy fluid motion that seems to generate a lot of power.  The surprise is that he lifts his leg in a funny kind of double kick.  He raises it, then drops it a little, and raises it again before completing his motion.  Is this legal?  Is this a balk?  Can't wait to see how umps handle this once the games start.  I looked at some of his archival video from Japan, his double clutch wasn't as pronounced, so maybe he just warms up that way.  

Sad to see the retirement of Doug Fister.  I always liked him.  He broke in with the Mariners in ten years ago.  He didn't do much with them in three seasons, going 12 and 30, but he matured and had some decent years with the Tigers and Nationals. He went 4 and 2 in post-season and the press in Detroit wrote a nice tribute to his years of service there (in the shadow of Verlander and Scherzer). 

Fister was tall, 6-8, but he had an easy, coordinated motion and you could see he had a "good head," he was always in the game.  I think it was that concentration, that composure, that caught my attention.  He was traded for a bunch of Tiger junk in mid-2011, another Zduriencik blunder.

Baseball fans go through this their whole lifetime: a players comes up, you like them for the unlikeliest of reasons, they retire.  Sometimes as stars, sometimes as busts.  Usually with a career of up-and-downs with a couple of moments of glory...  he once struck out nine consecutive batters in a row.  You can look it up.