Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Ken: catfish AT zombia d.o.t. com
Ryan: rarmbrust AT gmail d.o.t. com
Philip: kingchimp AT alamedanet d.o.t net
Just watched Rich Harden's start against the Rockies today on MLB.tv. Nine strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings. Absolutely filthy. He gave up his first run of the spring, but it was from two wild pitches and a groundout--he wasn't hit hard at all. Harden was throwing 98 mph fastballs on the corners, followed by 89 mph sliders just off the black or those 86mph backup-floaty-knuckle-splitter thingies--the Rockies had no chance.
For the spring, he now has 18 strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings, with just one walk. Yowza, what talent. Oh, man, what a pleasure it would be to see him stay healthy for a full season. I just hope there's nothing to that voice inside my head that keeps saying, "this is too good to be true."
Update: Carlos Gomez breaks down Harden's delivery over at THT.
It was funny in the first inning that the Rockies color guy was describing Dan Haren for about half the inning before he realized he had prepared for the wrong guy and Harden was pitching.
But, yeah, too good to last.
The term "electric" can be overused, but Harden was absolutely electric today. He might have even been plasmatic, if I can invent a term.
The Lincecum one is sweet too. Good shots of him just leaping off the rubber.
Cool, thanks for the suggestions.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.