jung

Actually 4 seam FB movement is critical to the pitcher's success which is why Kelly throwing 100 is usually still a fail. His FB simply leaves his hand and finishes where it started. If that is the 4-seam FB you have it does not matter how hard you throw it, hitters will catch up to it. That said, his curve does not do a darned thing either. The reason the rising 4-seam is successful for example is because it starts in one place and finishes in another. The hitter simply can't lay off the thing if it has enough movement. It is difficult for the hitter to deal with a pitcher featuring a 2-seam and 4-seam because the 2-seam bores in on the RH hitter from the RH pitcher and the 4-seam rises. If said pitcher can combine those with a hard sinker away, he might not have to throw anything else all day long. If said pitcher can successfully mix in a change, he might pitch a perfect game. The cutter add a little more variety to the mix but its usually used by pitchers that can't throw a 2-seam inside without hitting the batter. At least IMO the hardest thing in organized team sports is hitting the competently pitched baseball from the best pitchers your particular level of play has to offer. How MLB hitters do it at all is beyond my feeble talents and even in some ways beyond my feeble understanding as is the case for all of us that have not been there. Having the hand/eye coordination to recognize what is coming and combining that with the physical quickness needed to get the bat to the hitting zone against the variety of pitches and quality of the ML pitcher is simply something otherworldly. Take it for granted that all hitters are trying to think along with the battery and all hitters should be looking to narrow the hitting zone down to something they can drive with less than 2 strikes.

Sale can be pushed to 120 pitches post season. Porcello might make it there. As we witnessed tonight Price goes to pieces in the last ten pitches of his starts. That is not unusual for him. So maybe Cora can push him to 110 pitches....MAYBE. E-rod...no way. Evo won't even be on the roster I would bet. Gotta' get outs on batted balls to go deep into games if everybody is going to throw FB's as hard as they throw them now.

I think the real problem is the hard FB. I refuse to believe these pitchers are throwing breaking stuff with more movement than the great spin merchants of the past. But everybody is throwing a FB as hard as they can throw it. The result is that a decent pen is no longer a luxury. Its a necessity. There are maybe 4 starters in all of baseball that will get through the 7th regularly. Most of them are done at 6 and the rest are done at 5!

Give it a few minutes and we will asking the same question about Thorny.

Agreed Live by the sword...die by the sword. Live by the K is fine. But good luck going 7 complete throwing that many pitches that hard. Then to your point, you have the added post season pressure and its even harder to go 7.

There was an excursion into BrasierWorld as well and that failed. Then Kelly had an epic fail...very Kelly-like

I have no idea what is going on here with Cora and Kelly. Is Cora trying to see if he can get three outs before they get 4 runs? Is that it? Great experiment Alex.

Been where we have been all season long. Playing crud teams week after week just masked it to some extent. But really watching them, you could tell this pen was a train wreck in progress. You are right about the starters needing to go 7. Only way this pen has a chance. But they have to get outs on batted balls to get 7 innings. Our crack broadcast team raves about the K's. Well K's build pitch counts like it or not.

Just get him outta' here before I throw up.

Nice pitch Joe

Want to explain to me how they were going to turn 2 out of that Eck? Kelly...his pitches are just too flat. Where they leave his hand is where they end up at the plate and it just does not matter how hard he throws it.

too many K's drive up their pitch counts and they can't get through 7. At some point one of them besides Porcello has got to develop a way to get outs on fielded baseballs. Even leaving 3 innings for this pen is a risk. When we leave 4 innings its just a walk on the wild side.

Yea I get that. Funny how Price like loses 50% of his command on about the last ten pitches he throws in a game. It just all goes away. Almost got to 7. But I have no problem with Cora taking him out there.

At least the rotation is coming back together and does look right now with Sale like a monster.

No matter how much we want to hope for better, its still the same story. Best place for this pen to be is out there in the bullpen throwing sunflower seeds at each other.

Flips the bat away...stupid Grudgingly have to admit that was in the end a good piece of hitting

My God what an awful swing from Reddick. Started it on Friday night and the bat arrived in the hitting zone on Saturday morning

So this is setting up so interesting for us going into the post season. Obviously the strength of this team is its rotation and it is coming back together just in time for post season play. Yet, there is nobody and I do mean nobody in the entire rotation that has a shred of post season success on his resume. If anything they have a bunch of epic fails on their post season records. No telling what the future holds. But imagine how much better it would feel if even two of them had any post season success.

Big news from Eck and OB. O's are losing again tonight. I saw a piece today about the O's on one of these last home stands this year will be featuring a jersey that spells out the Orioles in brail. My God...what a year for the O's to feature that promotion!

Geez X's swing looks good. He just could not catch up to 99 there. But his swing right now is the best I have ever seen it.

What a second half by X. What a season.

They had decades to do the right thing with regard to the water table and they chose the corrupt thing. Don't see them doing it any better the second time around.

Do yourself a favor and pick someplace above sea level because they are not going to solve the problem they have in Houston.

Funny...with all this rest Kimbrel's FB is moving a foot but his curve is not so hot

Braves must be stunned.