He's one of the few pitchers that should live on the outside of the plate. If he's spotting that fastball on the corner, the change is unhittable. Then, he can mix in some cutters and 4 seamers up and in. If he can do those things, he's going to have a very long career as a number 3 or 4. 

7 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

maddux was pretty bad in his first full season, FIP 4.50, ERA 5.61, WHIP 1.64, HR/9 about 1.  that was 1987. he had a cup of coffee in 1986, 31IP, numbers were about the same

after maddux 2nd season, he was more/less dominant every single year until 2003 and he was still pretty good that year

my point being, it's way too early to start overanalyzing Thorpe.  he doesn't have the experience, plus he probably won't have the tutelage here either, which is unfortunate.  i kinda wish they would fire Grifol and just promote santos

 

Thorpe will probably deal with Katz much more than Grifol. I've never heard anything bad about Katz and his relationships with pitchers. 

2 hours ago, GGajewski18 said:

I thought Thorpe was good to great at times last night.  Thought his stuff looked good, but you could visibly see he was shaking his head with some of his off speed pitches, due to the fact he was probably a bit amped still.

Change up is devastating, fields his position well, and I think he probably could have gone 6 if his defense helped him out.  Those two errors cost him 20 pitches. 

 

It was such a terrible error by Lopez too he played himself into the intermediate hop and then just flubbed it. To his credit Thorpe didn't get flustered like we've seen from some of our starters over the years and just kept pitching.

The play he came off the mound down the 3rd base line was pretty incredible. A rare moment where you see elite athleticism from a pitcher. He fired that ball falling away and put a strike to first.

If he wants to have a higher ceiling he'll need to either gain a few ticks of velocity or really dial in a breaking ball. His floor however seems like a 2 WAR 4th starter that will give you a decent chance to win, assuming you don't have the 2024 White Sox team around you.

21 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

maddux was pretty bad in his first full season, FIP 4.50, ERA 5.61, WHIP 1.64, HR/9 about 1.  that was 1987. he had a cup of coffee in 1986, 31IP, numbers were about the same

after maddux 2nd season, he was more/less dominant every single year until 2003 and he was still pretty good that year

my point being, it's way too early to start overanalyzing Thorpe.  he doesn't have the experience, plus he probably won't have the tutelage here either, which is unfortunate.  i kinda wish they would fire Grifol and just promote santos

 

Pedro probably has very little to do with the starting pitching.  That is guys like Bannister and Katz.

26 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

maddux was pretty bad in his first full season, FIP 4.50, ERA 5.61, WHIP 1.64, HR/9 about 1.  that was 1987. he had a cup of coffee in 1986, 31IP, numbers were about the same

after maddux 2nd season, he was more/less dominant every single year until 2003 and he was still pretty good that year

my point being, it's way too early to start overanalyzing Thorpe.  he doesn't have the experience, plus he probably won't have the tutelage here either, which is unfortunate.  i kinda wish they would fire Grifol and just promote santos

 

You mean I should stop comparing rookie pitchers to HOFers after one start?!?! ?

Totally agree, was just a fun start to watch a guy with an elite pitch like that right out of the shoot.  Hope he sticks and has some success here.  

Since the change up is the least sexy pitch in baseball, I don't think some people recognize just how impressive his change up can be. He's going to strike a lot of hitters out. If he threw 97 or 98, you're looking at the number 1 prospect in baseball. 

1 hour ago, TaylorStSox said:

He's one of the few pitchers that should live on the outside of the plate. If he's spotting that fastball on the corner, the change is unhittable. Then, he can mix in some cutters and 4 seamers up and in. If he can do those things, he's going to have a very long career as a number 3 or 4. 

With his stuff and control he shouldn't mess with the middle of the plate at all.  He doesn't have blow you away stuff like that.  But if he spends his career on the out edges and up/down, he will be just fine.

3 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

With his stuff and control he shouldn't mess with the middle of the plate at all.  He doesn't have blow you away stuff like that.  But if he spends his career on the out edges and up/down, he will be just fine.

He def left a few changeups up right, that the scoreboard was classifying as "cutters" but they were just changeups up no? They were up but the velocity change was still fooling guys, Gio when he was on his game would get the same results even when he left them up. If the motion and everything is exact as the fastball and spin similar sometimes doesn't even matter if it's grooved.

7 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

He def left a few changeups up right, that the scoreboard was classifying as "cutters" but they were just changeups up no? They were up but the velocity change was still fooling guys, Gio when he was on his game would get the same results even when he left them up. If the motion and everything is exact as the fastball and spin similar sometimes doesn't even matter if it's grooved.

I think the TV was having trouble picking up his change up at times, because they also kept talking about a sinker that had a lot of the same movement and same speeds.  I think he did throw something with a little more side spin to the edges of the plate that might have been a cutter, but I am not positive not having seen him before.

for anyone who didnt see the mariners broadcast, they thought he was 100% legit, had nothing but praise for him all night