Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Genius Maker #16

Wow, Bartolo continues to impress. Not only is he throwing strikes, he has very good movement (run) on his fastball especially on the 1st base side of home plate and he throws the fastball up to 96 at times; in fact he reached 96 in the 8th inning! He pitched really well and he didn’t have good use of his slider and even didn’t use his change too much.

After the Cano 3 run homer the Yankee offense went to sleep again though. The lack of run scoring is a concern, but this team has too much firepower for it to continue. I just think they don’t like slop pitchers.

The Genius Maker did his job. I do get the feeling he will not be as sharp as the past 2 years, but then again, could you predict that same performance for anyone? The way I see it, a little less movement and a little less control should be the items we see as he continues to age (then again do Cyborg’s age?) He already has seen his velocity drop 2 MPH so maybe he can keep it around 91? I still have a lot of faith in him…I know, not exactly stepping out on a ledge there.

Swisher had another bad game swinging at balls, especially one that was way out of the strike zone on 3-2 in the 1st inning.

Cano was our offense today, but he is swinging at everything. He also just missed another good play in the field; he was making more of them in the past.

Jeter fielded a play to his left and threw wild to 1st on a play I would expect my SS to make 80% of the time, especially with a slow runner.

I thought Martin and the pitchers called a very good game. I was in agreement far more than I normally am. I also agreed with almost every Rivera pitch of when to go in and out. BTW, when I say this, it does not always mean I think I am right or they are wrong; there are times in the count, in fact many, where multiple pitches can be the correct call, but the pitcher needs to execute. For example, I might say I would go up and in with a fastball, but there is nothing wrong with throwing the slider low and away either. Usually, the next pitch ends up being one I am more forceful on.

Boston scored 4 in the 8th to tie the game against Baltimore, but the O’s scored one in the bottom of the frame to win 5-4!

2 comments:

  1. It was perhaps noteworthy that Mo threw 2 4-seamers to the outside corner to a left-handed batter. My impression was the he used to throw all cutters to the lefties. I guess you could say that as his cutter becomes a bit less effective, he is compensating by mixing up his pitches more.

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  2. Last year Rivera reinvented himself by using the 4 seamer mostly against righties inside, but he actually threw it with a little run into them. He has not thrown that much this year thus far. I think as the weather warms up he will use it more.

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