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Posted at 10:45 AM EST

1:05 PM EST. It’s not easy to pull the trigger on the Blue Jays here spotting 1½-runs after they couldn’t get to the hittable Mike Pelfrey yesterday but James Shields makes Pelfrey look like Nolan Ryan. Way ahead of the rest of the world once again, we told you how bad James Shields was three years ago and we’ve been fading him ever since. Off Since April 16 with a right lateral strain, James Shields makes his first start in two months and we’re not about to miss out on another chance to fade him. Shields’ is pitching today because a couple of idiots on the South Side and San Diego figured paying this stiff another 44 million over three years was a good idea. Since everything is about money, James Shields has a job pitching and we’re going to attempt to take advantage of that flaw.

Since the beginning of last year, James Shields’ numbers are one of the very ugliest we’ve ever seen. It is, very genuinely, just about unbelievable. Over a recent span of nine games, Shields yielded a 1.441 OPS. Barry Bonds, in 2004 — when he walked more than 200 times — finished with a 1.411 OPS. James Shields strung together nine starts of turning the opposition into prime Barry Bonds. Shields’ has always had durability on his side, but durable pitchers are only durable until they aren’t. Think about Bronson Arroyo. Think about Jon Garland. There comes a time when a pitcher is no longer effective and even though he’s just 35, an arm is only an arm. It’s not a machine and after some extensive mileage, that arm turns into a dead one. James Shields has a dead arm and it’s not like Shields is trying to get back to where he was a few weeks ago. It’s more like 23 or 24 months ago. In other words, it’s not happening.

Shields started to lose strikes last year. He started to lose the zone last year. Now he’s getting more swings at his strikes without a corresponding increase in swings at would-be balls. This is probably a consequence of Shields falling behind, and his fastball isn’t good enough for him to get back into counts. Shields never had a great fastball. He was, for a while, carried by his changeup. Somewhere in 2014, the changeup started to get away from him, and he turned to his cutter. Now the fastball isn’t real good, and the changeup isn’t real good, and the cutter isn’t real good. All that’s left is a curveball that Shields struggles to throw for consistent strikes. Gradually, baseball has eaten away at his arm and it’s not coming back. FADE. 

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