Sarris @The Athletic: Burnes #1, G-Rod #6

[interloper]

6 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think it was more about preserving fastball velocity.

This rings a bell. 

Personally, and maybe subconsciously due to this Duquette-era narrative, I have mild disdain for the cutter. Obviously for guys like Burnes it's his whole thing, and that's great. But for guys like, say, Kremer or Irvin, they never seem to recognize early enough when it's going to be a meatball pitch for them that day.  

Edited April 19 by interloper

[btdart20]

No surprise here.  If Bradish wasn't hurt, there's a good chance he'd be in the discussion too.  Still might be by the AS break.

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

No surprise here.  If Bradish wasn't hurt, there's a good chance he'd be in the discussion too.  Still might be by the AS break.

Lots of guys would be on the list if they were not hurt.

[Jim'sKid26]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

I’m interested in an article about which pitches are easiest to throw, with the least amount of stress on the body. That would minimize arm injuries, I bet. A terrific pitch that ruins an arm quickly isn’t a good thing. I wonder if a big part of why Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins etc were so reliable was because their pitches were just simpler? It’s the contortion, and not the strength, that rips up an arm.
Whatever GRod is throwing, I sincerely hope he’ll  Limit use of the complicated stuff.

I believe that it is not a specific pitch or pitch-shape that is the culprit. I think it is the desire to throw harder and to spin the ball more. Check out this discussion:

 

[btdart20]

26 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Lots of guys would be on the list if they were not hurt.

Haha, true.  Just sticking to my Bradish is a TOR arm.

[MTMan13]

4 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

This is how statcast classifies his pitching repertoire. It seems he has gone from a slider to a cutter this year. Much less horizontal drop. Not sure why since his slider was very effective last year. Both his fastball and cutter have been hit a bit this year when you look at XWOBA.

Ben talked about a new grip on one of Graysons breaking pitches maybe two starts ago. Perhaps this is it? 

[Philip]

17 minutes ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

I believe that it is not a specific pitch or pitch-shape that is the culprit. I think it is the desire to throw harder and to spin the ball more. Check out this discussion:

 

Interesting, and Smoltz’ point is not just valid, it illustrates a terrible tendency throughout society. And the pitch clock theory is ridiculous. But the problem isn’t hard throwing, but the twisting motion of the arm. Try just going through a throwing motion and at the end, sharply pronate or supinate your arm. Then do it at whatever your individual max effort is. I’m not even sure how to do it. But that extreme twisting movement can’t possibly be good.

[jabba72]

4 hours ago, Philip said:

I’m interested in an article about which pitches are easiest to throw, with the least amount of stress on the body. That would minimize arm injuries, I bet. A terrific pitch that ruins an arm quickly isn’t a thing. I wonder if a big part of why Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins etc were so reliable was because their pitches were just simpler? It’s the contortion, and not the strength, that rips up an arm.
Whatever GRod is throwing, I sincerely hope he’ll  Limit use of the complicated stuff.

Yeah I'm a bit concerned that GR's new slider is reportedly 5 mph faster than last years version. Sounds a bit ominous to me. 

[Jim'sKid26]

On 4/19/2024 at 1:44 PM, Philip said:

Interesting, and Smoltz’ point is not just valid, it illustrates a terrible tendency throughout society. And the pitch clock theory is ridiculous. But the problem isn’t hard throwing, but the twisting motion of the arm. Try just going through a throwing motion and at the end, sharply pronate or supinate your arm. Then do it at whatever your individual max effort is. I’m not even sure how to do it. But that extreme twisting movement can’t possibly be good.

Did you see this? He makes your point extremely well.

[Bemorewins]

On 4/19/2024 at 11:49 AM, interloper said:

This rings a bell. 

Personally, and maybe subconsciously due to this Duquette-era narrative, I have mild disdain for the cutter. Obviously for guys like Burnes it's his whole thing, and that's great. But for guys like, say, Kremer or Irvin, they never seem to recognize early enough when it's going to be a meatball pitch for them that day.  

It seems like Grayson has eliminated his cutter from his arsenal/repertoire and found greater success. I wonder if Kremer and Wells can be talked out of their cutters. It is both of their worst pitch and usually serves the opposition better than it serves themselves. 

[btdart20]

17 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

It seems like Grayson has eliminated his cutter from his arsenal/repertoire and found greater success. I wonder if Kremer and Wells can be talked out of their cutters. It is both of their worst pitch and usually serves the opposition better than it serves themselves. 

For Kremer, the cutter is his primary pitch RHH.  Savant says it's worked well for him.  .188 BA, .313 SLG.  His 4S is getting hit harder though.  Could be sequencing, could be how his mix plays/complements each other.  Cutter has more movement too.  He dropped the CH and Sweeper and added a splitter.

Wells looks rough.  Not sure his deal is.

[Bemorewins]

3 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

For Kremer, the cutter is his primary pitch RHH.  Savant says it's worked well for him.  .188 BA, .313 SLG.  His 4S is getting hit harder though.  Could be sequencing, could be how his mix plays/complements each other.  Cutter has more movement too.  He dropped the CH and Sweeper and added a splitter.

Wells looks rough.  Not sure his deal is.

Wells is simply not a starter. He was able to get by last year and succeed for almost a half of the season (similar to 2022) until he couldn't. I hope that he can help us in the pen. But even in that I am not confident about because of his penchant for giver up long ball.

Kremer is what he is at this point - a decent back end of the rotation starter. From the one start that he made, I liked the way the ball came out of Suarez's hand a lot better than Kremer or Wells to be honest. Hopefully Bradish can come back by early May to give us 3 good consistent starters.

Right now we only have 2 and that is not enough. (Too early to tell with Suarez) Especially when you consider we only have 3 reliable BP arms. Maybe if Wells can return to the pen and less is being asked of him, he can give us a 4th good BP piece? Webb is decent but the rest are mediocre to below average.

[btdart20]

39 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

Wells is simply not a starter. He was able to get by last year and succeed for almost a half of the season (similar to 2022) until he couldn't. I hope that he can help us in the pen. But even in that I am not confident about because of his penchant for giver up long ball.

Kremer is what he is at this point - a decent back end of the rotation starter. From the one start that he made, I liked the way the ball came out of Suarez's hand a lot better than Kremer or Wells to be honest. Hopefully Bradish can come back by early May to give us 3 good consistent starters.

Right now we only have 2 and that is not enough. (Too early to tell with Suarez) Especially when you consider we only have 3 reliable BP arms. Maybe if Wells can return to the pen and less is being asked of him, he can give us a 4th good BP piece? Webb is decent but the rest are mediocre to below average.

I was talking about their cutters.