Enough with the crappy cutters in the 1st inning. THROW THE FASTBALL

[interloper]

Just a little mini rant here. I've seen this in multiple starts this year, mostly from Kremer but now from Wells last night. It looks like they have some kind of early gameplan where the pitch mix is cutter-heavy, which backfires, and then they switch back to pitching off the fastball, and have much more success the rest of the outing. 

It drives me nuts. The cutter is a fine pitch if you have a great one, or when you use it sparingly to give the batter another look. But the cutters from Kremer and Wells have just been absolute meatballs. You could even see Wells coming off the mound in the 1st saying something to Adley about "the fastball" - it was unclear exactly what he said, but I feel like he was telling Adley we gotta go back to the fastball, and sure enough the next inning he threw a lot more fastballs and was able to turn his outing around. I've seen the same thing from Kremer a few starts back.

Whatever this weird strategy is, it sucks. And it makes me question Chris Holt a little bit. Especially now that I've seen it fail multiple times with multiple different guys. Our guys have good, effective fastballs. Let them throw the damn thing! 

Edited May 3, 2023 by interloper

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

[emmett16]

From Verducci's Article:

It may seem counterintuitive, but as pitchers throw faster, they throw fewer fastballs. The use of fastballs (not including cutters) was as high as 58.4% in 2009. Last season, it fell below 50% for the first time, to 48.5%. This year, it is down further, to 46.9%. At this rate, hitters will see 80,886 fewer fastballs than they did 14 years ago, even though the average velocity of those fastballs has gone up 1.9 mph.

 

But what biomechanics have done for velocity, technology has done even more for spin. Breaking pitches have become so nasty that, this year, a run-of-the-mill slider is tougher to hit (.218) than a fastball at 99 mph and above (.232). For example, St. Louis righthander Jordan Hicks has thrown the most 100-mph pitches this year (110). Hicks hit 100 mph more times in April than the entire league did in April just five years ago (92 in 2018). And yet, batters hit .333 against his triple-digit fastballs.

[sportsfan8703]

15 minutes ago, interloper said:

Just a little mini rant here. I've seen this in multiple starts this year, mostly from Kremer but now from Wells last night. It looks like they have some kind of early gameplan where the pitch mix is cutter-heavy, which backfires, and then they switch back to pitching off the fastball, and have much more success the rest of the outing. 

It drives me nuts. The cutter is a fine pitch if you have a great one, or when you use it sparingly to give the batter another look. But the cutters from Kremer and Wells have just been absolute meatballs. You could even see Wells coming off the mound in the 1st saying something to Adley about "the fastball" - it was unclear exactly what he said, but I feel like he was telling Adley we gotta go back to the fastball, and sure enough the next inning he threw a lot more fastballs and was able to turn his outing around. I've seen the same thing from Kremer a few starts back.

Whatever this weird strategy is, it sucks. And it makes me question Chris Holt a little bit. Especially now that I've seen it fail multiple times with multiple different guys. Our guys have good, effective fastballs. Let them throw the damn thing! 

With the new remote pitch calling does Holt call the pitches at all?  

[interloper]

Just now, emmett16 said:

From Verducci's Article:

It may seem counterintuitive, but as pitchers throw faster, they throw fewer fastballs. The use of fastballs (not including cutters) was as high as 58.4% in 2009. Last season, it fell below 50% for the first time, to 48.5%. This year, it is down further, to 46.9%. At this rate, hitters will see 80,886 fewer fastballs than they did 14 years ago, even though the average velocity of those fastballs has gone up 1.9 mph.

 

But what biomechanics have done for velocity, technology has done even more for spin. Breaking pitches have become so nasty that, this year, a run-of-the-mill slider is tougher to hit (.218) than a fastball at 99 mph and above (.232). For example, St. Louis righthander Jordan Hicks has thrown the most 100-mph pitches this year (110). Hicks hit 100 mph more times in April than the entire league did in April just five years ago (92 in 2018). And yet, batters hit .333 against his triple-digit fastballs.

That's all well and good, and our guys have good breaking pitches. But I don't want Kremer and Wells starting games by pitching off of their worst pitch. 

[interloper]

1 minute ago, sportsfan8703 said:

With the new remote pitch calling does Holt call the pitches at all?  

Not saying he's calling pitches at all. I think it's like a gameplan thing they come up with ahead of time, like a general pitch mix. Overall I like Holt, I just don't understand what this strategy is. The fact that we've seen it fail multiple times, and then the pitcher adjusts and salvages his outing, is weird!

Edited May 3, 2023 by interloper

[sportsfan8703]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

Not saying he's calling pitches at all. I think it's like a gameplan thing they come up with ahead of time, like a general pitch mix. Overall I like Holt, I just don't understand what this strategy is. The fact that we've seen it fail multiple times, and then the pitcher adjusts and salvages his outing, is weird!

I think the strategy is to miss barrels, but the pitcher has to execute the pitch.  I like that they're constantly adjusting.  

[emmett16]

3 minutes ago, interloper said:

That's all well and good, and our guys have good breaking pitches. But I don't want Kremer and Wells starting games by pitching off of their worst pitch. 

If they land this pitch in inning 1 it opens up a whole host of options....of course...you have to land the pitches and they are not.  But at end of the day, I think with all the advanced scouting they are just trying to give as many different looks as possible to not be easy to read. 

[interloper]

4 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

I think the strategy is to miss barrels, but the pitcher has to execute the pitch.  I like that they're constantly adjusting.  

I definitely give them credit for pulling the parachute when it doesn't work. Just seems to me a cutter isn't useful UNTIL you're landing good fastballs. But I'm no expert, I'm just ranting about meatball cutters. It's such a risky pitch IMO. Not many guys have great cutters, and it's easier to get away with a mistake on a heater than a cutter IMO. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by interloper

[BRobinsonfan]

22 minutes ago, interloper said:

Just a little mini rant here. I've seen this in multiple starts this year, mostly from Kremer but now from Wells last night. It looks like they have some kind of early gameplan where the pitch mix is cutter-heavy, which backfires, and then they switch back to pitching off the fastball, and have much more success the rest of the outing. 

It drives me nuts. The cutter is a fine pitch if you have a great one, or when you use it sparingly to give the batter another look. But the cutters from Kremer and Wells have just been absolute meatballs. You could even see Wells coming off the mound in the 1st saying something to Adley about "the fastball" - it was unclear exactly what he said, but I feel like he was telling Adley we gotta go back to the fastball, and sure enough the next inning he threw a lot more fastballs and was able to turn his outing around. I've seen the same thing from Kremer a few starts back.

Whatever this weird strategy is, it sucks. And it makes me question Chris Holt a little bit. Especially now that I've seen it fail multiple times with multiple different guys. Our guys have good, effective fastballs. Let them throw the damn thing! 

Dean Kremer is throwing more fastball's this year than last year - 40.1% to 32.7%.  Batters are hitting .390 off his fastball.  Unfortunately, he's not that much better with his cutter -  allowing a .333 batting average.  He's only throwing the cutter 13.3% of the time.  

[interloper]

Just now, BRobinsonfan said:

Dean Kremer is throwing more fastball's this year than last year - 40.1% to 32.7%.  Batters are hitting .390 off his fastball.  Unfortunately, he's not that much better with his cutter -  allowing a .333 batting average.  He's only throwing the cutter 13.3% of the time.  

I'm not saying these guys are throwing more cutters than fastballs, just that they seem to be starting games using the cutter over the fastball, and I think that's a silly thing to do. 

[interloper]

And while I'm at it - what was the Perez 3-run homer off Baumann? 91 down the middle, so either a bad cutter or a bad changeup. On a 1-2 count. Guy throws 97. Guy throws a devastating curveball.

What are we doing? 

Getting too ******* cute, that's what. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by interloper

[Frobby]

There’s no worse pitch than a bad cutter.  I tend to agree with you that the FB should be established early.  Then you can throw the cutter when the hitter is looking FB.  I don’t think there’s a one size fits all strategy, but generally I think that’s the best approach.  

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

There’s no worse pitch than a bad cutter.  I tend to agree with you that the FB should be established early.  Then you can throw the cutter when the hitter is looking FB.  I don’t think there’s a one size fits all strategy, but generally I think that’s the best approach.  

I don't know, a sinker that doesn't sink is right up there.

Saw a lot of those when Andy was in charge.

[emmett16]

Slider/cuter/sinker that doesn’t move is a BP fastball.  I bet if you watch next few starts it will be a different pattern.  The  individual matchups, individual tendencies, & your previous few weeks start’s patterns dictate the pitching cadence on any given night.