Friday, March 21, 2008

Hideo Nomo





I caught this from MLB.com about Hideo Nomo trying to earn a spot on the Royals:

...

Nomo pitched two innings and retired all six batters, three on strikeouts, in an 11-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

"Three strikeouts in two innings -- that's pretty good," manager Trey Hillman said. "He's still missing bats."

Nomo, attempting a comeback after not being in the Majors since 2005, was dropped from rotation consideration after giving up five runs in three innings to the Brewers last Saturday.

"He was very effective," Hillman said. "He continues to locate his fastball. He got it up to 88 [mph] today. He's elevating when he needs to elevate it to change eye levels, and it's very effective, because of what the split does. Sometimes, they're looking for the split and he doesn't throw it."

Nomo was famous for his split-finger pitch in his glory years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and other clubs.

"He did a good job. It's still intriguing to us and he's still very much in the mix for a bullpen position," Hillman said.

...

I've always been a fan of Nomo. I liked his dance and delivery. I liked his reliance on the split (a hell of a pitch). I liked the 8.74 K/9 average (there abouts.) A good deal of baseball is bullpen, and with the bullpen it is usually great to have a change of pace kind of thrower. Nomo could be great, even with the ever-shrinking (called, at least--on paper, not supposed to be) strike zone that I think contributed to his downfall over the years. I look forward to seeing him on the club sometime this year.


The video is a Nike commercial from the way back. I didn't know that he had a shoe made for him to pimp, but there it is.


Just a couple more days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4E7uY_Tl7g

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