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I would much appreciate a detailed explanation of how Looper is succeeding thus far in his role as a starter. I have not seen him pitch, and generally know very little about his repertoire. Can someone who really understands pitching please give his/her perspective on what he is doing to keep hitters off balance and induce outs?

Many thanks,

HJ

1. He's hitting his spots

2. He has good movement on his pitches

3. His splitter has been very good

4. He's not walking anyone

5. He's not allowing home runs

6. The defense that plays behind him gobbles up his ground balls

There ya go. It's really quite as simple as that.

I always thought he found some magic beans. Maybe he found a little man to grant wishes.

I think he is executing Duncan's plan and trusting Yadi/Gary

I think a lot of it is the chip on his shoulder that he's got something to prove.

Can he keep it up? I don't know, but I sure am enjoying watching him pitch right now.

Add to Snayke's list...

7. He never lost velocity when he stretched out.

8. Outstanding gameplan and gameplan execution.

He was a reasonably effective relief pitcher, good enough to hold down a closer's job for several years. He's been able to work an entire game one inning at a time and each batter like he did as a closer. That kind of pitching usually doesn't translate from relief to starting, but in Looper's case, it's worked well so far.

When does he pitch next??

He's always had good stuff, he's simply been locating things very well. The starter role allows him to show off his repertoire more than relief did, and that has allowed him to get through the 2nd and 3rd times through the order. His mistakes have been mostly out of the strike zone.

jim wrote:He's always had good stuff, he's simply been locating things very well. The starter role allows him to show off his repertoire more than relief did, and that has allowed him to get through the 2nd and 3rd times through the order. His mistakes have been mostly out of the strike zone.

ie, Derrick Lowe.

I'm looking at my six reasons, then looking at Fat's other two reasons, and I have concluded that the Cardinals were able to replace Jeff Suppan with Jeff Suppan's age-equivalent version of Shrek. They are so similar I don't know how I didn't see it before.

And by similar, I mean similar in their approach to being successful. Control, control, control, keep the ball in the park, keep the ball on the ground, pitch to the plan. They are not similar in their repertoire, because Suppan has like eight pitches and none of them go over 90.

We've seen that Looper can be effective against good-hitting teams in the month of April, but are we sure he's going to be effective when it's August 5th and he's already thrown nearly double his average amount of innings? Or maybe in October when he's put on 170-180 innings?

GatewaySnayke wrote:
We've seen that Looper can be effective against good-hitting teams in the month of April, but are we sure he's going to be effective when it's August 5th and he's already thrown nearly double his average amount of innings? Or maybe in October when he's put on 170-180 innings?

That's the million dollar question. Or, whether his command will just disappear on him for a stretch and we will be sitting here in June wondering where the "old" Braden Looper went.