Don't Give Up On Brandon League

What is it about Brandon League?  Every season I want to like this guy.  I want to see him come in late in the game and show off the skills that have kept him around.  The heat.  The diving splitter.  The insane movement.

But for some reason every time I see him enter a game I cringe.  I forget about the two very solid seasons he has posted thus far (2006 and 2008), and all I see are the wild pitches.  The unearned runs.  The game slipping away.

Then every once in a while he does what he did against the Yankees on Monday.  And we're lucky enough to be able to watch him do it.

League came in to pitch with one out in the seventh, and the bases loaded.  And Nick Swisher hit his first fastball sharply up the middle, scoring two.  And I hung my head and thought the Jays were in for another come from ahead loss.

But then, with two runners on and Mark Tiexiera in the batters box (with Alex Rodriguez on deck, no less) we got to see what has to be one of the most impressive sequences of pitches ever.

Tiexiera watched a 95 mph fastball at the bottom of the zone for the first strike, then chased a change up in the same spot and a splitter that dipped just low and in.  Struck out on three pitches.

And with A-Rod coming up I thought, "Maybe we'll get lucky and see a sharp ground out."  But League had other plans.  This time he started with the change up (watched for strike one), and followed with that mid-nineties fastball (swung at), before finishing with that nasty splitter (also swung at).

Six straight pitches against two of the top sluggers in the game.  And they couldn't get a bat on the ball.  This is what League is capable of.

We see a lot of pitches in the dirt from him.  But that comes with the package when you have a guy who throws with the kind of late movement League has.

Every one of his pitches looks deceptively low.  And it seems when batters adjust he just keeps dropping farther and farther.  The instant replay on the third strike splitter he threw to Rodriguez showed it was clearly in the strike zone.  And then suddenly it wasn't.

I would love to have the batters perspective, and get a look at what they see up there.  From watching the reactions of Tiexiera and Rodriguez I can only assume it must be deceptive.

And this is the point about Brandon League.  Remember, he's only 26, and he has a lot of potential to realize still.

And while he's doing it, every so often, we get treated to a show like we saw on Monday.