dontrelle willis: a barracuda amongst guppies

[sinicalypse]

i'm starting this thread to give me a place to make my incredibly impulsive comments regarding my new favorite young pitcher, dontrelle willis mcgahee. for some reason, i've got a feeling that this guy is going to storm through MLB his first time through... his windup looks like that of a kevin brown.. he's pretty athletic (that HR he hit where he picked up his leg and dropped it was sweet), and what the hell, he's from the cubs system.. their scouts have been striking gold over the last few years (although i dont credit them much for prior, as he wasn't as much of a find as a sure-thing)

if he can give up 2 ER or less with 7 or more strikeouts, i think we're looking at a bonafide young stud who has no chance of going back down when the mighty josh beckett returns. heck, i think this guy has done so much in his 5 starts that it looks like he has more upside than any young pitcher on this side of mark prior.

there's plenty of room on the bandwagon, so hop on everyone!

[Super GM]

I love this guy too, as I posted earlier! I dropped Billy Koch for him. Koch was starting to piss me off, cause he's blowing more save than notching them... I might add Koch to my roster again after he clears waivers and drop John Lackey. Willis is amazing though. He has 17 K's in his last two outings while allowing only a total of 4 ER. That's impressive.

[Guest]

so how do you feel about his chances against the A's tonight?

[sinicalypse]

what's more amazing about dontrelle is that he did it back to back against the reds. even some of the better pitchers give up a run or two more against a solid offense that just saw them some 5-6 days earlier... but dontrelle came right back at the reds and mowed through them.

i like his chances against the A's. while he can get hit, he's basically struck out one per inning or (usually) more in each of his starts. even when he gave up 5 ER in 3 innings, he still had three Ks. personally, i'm hoping for the kid to step up and strike out 14 or something ungodly. he has movement, he's a lefty (and the A's have a good chunk of lefties) and he's got that kevin brown type delivery.

i'm thinking 6-8 IP, 3 ER, 1.33ish whip, and about 6-9K, depending on how much of a roll he gets on. i've got him and vazquez going tonight, so i'd love to notch about 17Ks between the lot of 'em, and a 2 win 3-4 total ER performance would really help me out.

maybe its sad, but i've been looking forward to dontrelle willis starts more than anyone else's... even prior. what the cubs are not doing for him offensively is pretty sad.

[Super GM]

The A's are tough team, but they can be beaten. They don't have THAT GREAT an offense. They rely more on their pitching. Like the Braves used to. Of course they have guys that can smoke any team. (Tejada,Chavez), but I see his chances realisticaly good

[sinicalypse]

welp, i'm here, and so goes the dontrelle willis watch. 2/3 of an inning, 1K. way too premature, but hey, i'm here in my cheerleader outfit and these pom-pons are addictive. go dontrelle!

check that, one inning, no balls hit out of the infield. woohoo! i might have to upgrade my forecast to 2 ER over 7-8 IP =D

[sinicalypse]

welp, the high K rate isn't there... but so far, he's pitching pretty well against the somewhat vaunted A's lineup:

5 IP, 81 pitches, 5H, 2 BB, 3K, 0 runs

so it looks like a 6 or maybe 7 inning affair for mister willis, hopefully the florida bullpen can hold it up for a win. he doesn't look to be the answer in terms of whip, but he looks like he can hold it down against some pretty solid teams thus far.

[sinicalypse]

more updates that nobody cares about:

7 IP, 110 pitches, 5 hits, 3 BB, 4 K, 0 runs

dontrelle is 4th up this inning.

now, ordinarily i would say this is it for dontrelle. but we have a few factors going: 1) lilly is pitching one hell of a game, arguably better than dontrelle, despite giving up one run. 2) these are the marlins so maybe this can be a CG for dontrelle... i certainly don't think that they'll let it happen with the somewhat ballyhooed story of aj burnett... but it will be interesting to see what happens.

either way, the dontrelle willis express is gaining steam. is anyone else hopping on for the ride to armsurgeryville?

[Transmogrifier]

I dropped Fossum in one league for him and Kielty in another. In both cases, I figure Willis' potential outweighs the others--and they ride the bench most nights.

In one of my other leagues that is very pitching strong (Pedro, Unit, K. Brown, Hudson, Prior, Meche, Myers, Peavy), should I drop Peavy for him?

Thanks.

[sinicalypse]

i'd do it. i think this guy has the upside that most hope that peavy would have.