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Friday, June 19, 2009
Why things are not always exactly as they seem and an amusing broadcasting comment…
First the broadcasting comment:
I was watching the ATL/PIT 16 inning (or however long it was) game the other day. Late in the game (extra innings), every time the HP umpire called a marginal strike, one of the announcers (I forget who) would say something like (you often hear the same thing in a similar circumstance):
“Well, they (the umpires) have been out here for 6 hours already. You’d better be swinging the bat.” They are implying of course, that the umpires want to go home, and understandably so.
What is (glaringly) wrong with that statement and logic?
OK, things that are not always exactly as they seem…
In a couple of pitch f/x articles, it has been shown that the high inside fastball or just the inside fastball is a very good pitch, if you throw hard that is. In fact, the more speed on the pitch, the better the inside pitch is. Even an inside breaking pitch is a good pitch I think (according to the pitch f/x data), probably because it surprises the batter, especially the same-side batter who is likely bailing out unless he is definitely expecting that exact pitch. Anyway, with regard to the inside fastball, you also often hear commentators wax about how pitchers don’t like to pitch inside anymore or that so-and-so does not like to pitch inside (and that it is a bad thing).
My second question (this is like a dual question of the day) is:
Even though the inside or high inside pitch may be a very good pitch when you look at it through the lens of the pitch f/x data, why might it be a bad pitch in reality? And let’s forget about the fact that most, or at least some, pitchers have to mix up their locations in order to keep the batter from keying in on a certain location or locations.
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