MLB Power Swing Part 2

Just a quick post. Actually, this is more accurately a follow up to my previous "MLB power swing" post. This past Saturday, Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in MLB history. What made this even more unique was the fact that Dallas Braden threw a perfect game just 3 short weeks ago on Mother's Day. This feat hasn't happened in professional baseball since the late 1800s. Going a step further, Ubaldo Jimenez threw a no-hitter earlier this year as well. So if you're scoring at home, that's 3 separate games where the opposing hitters have failed to get even one hit. I'm not sure of the statistics on this particular situation, but I'd venture to say this doesn't happen very often.

So, I reiterate my initial thesis. I believe the balance of power is shifting back to, at least, even. Where it was recently a hitter's game, the pitchers are beginning to really reclaim some of their territory. I don't expect to see a 50 homer season and especially not more than one. Perhaps we haven't seen the last no-hitter this year either. I will check back in toward the end of the year to see just how these stats have played out. I am projecting that starting pitching innings pitched, complete games, shutouts, and strike outs will all be up this year.

Stay tuned for more info!!

Until Next Time!!

Pitching to the Ball Park

Much to do is made about the ball park in which a pitcher is pitching. Fenway in Boston is known for being a great place for lefties to pull the ball and righties to hit high towering balls over the monster. Yankee stadium, new or old, is notoriously easy to hit balls out of the yard. The left field line is only 314 ft. There are middle schoolers who can clear that distance. In Houston, the left field fence is so far forward that the left fielder has to adjust where he normally stands to adjust for how the ball will come off. The question becomes, though, does a pitcher need to adjust how he pitches based on the field in which he is playing. The quick answer is "no." That is to say, a pitcher should not alter the pitches he throws or how aggressive he is based on the stadium. Sure, the possibility exists that hitter could hit a less than towering drive and it might slip out of the park. However, that kind of happening cannot always be controlled. By altering what pitch you throw because of the park, a pitcher is more likely to loose his rhythm and his ability to put away a hitter once he is ahead. As I've said many times, a pitcher must always lean toward pitching to his strengths. If you have a "plus" fastball, then you want to stay with that pitch even if the hitter is a power guy.

That being said, making "adjustments' that play into your pitching strategy are always a plus. For example, focusing on locating pitches down in the zone is a strategy that is good for any pitcher to adopt. It also would serve the purpose of keeping balls in the yard more frequently. Pitching on both sides of the plate and changing speeds with all of your pitches are also great philosophies of pitching that also will help keep the hitter from squaring up pitches.

As we get more advanced, certain situations and hitters in the lineup can dictate pitches are thrown and when based on the pitcher. This requires a pitcher to be able to throw multiple pitches for strikes in any count. The situation could be when a number 3 hitter is at the dish with 2 outs. You don't necessarily want to challenge this guy inside early in the count. As a generally, staying away here to get ahead and get to a two strike count is a good idea. Similarly, if you have runners on first and third, with one out, using your ground ball pitch to get the double play is another way to pitch well in any park, not just a hitters park.

So let that be your guideline. If the philosophy matches up with overall good pitching strategies, then it is good to use to keep hitters in the park. Keep the ball down, change speeds, and attack the hitters!

Until Next Time!!

Never EVER Walk the Lead Off Hitter.

The Baseball Gods are a very strict bunch. They have very defined guidelines that decide what constitutes quality baseball. They are also relentless. If a player crosses one of these guidelines, the vengeance is usually swift and severe. Case and Point. Last night, Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals was pitching a gem against the Washington Nationals. It was the 8th inning and the Nationals managed to scratch out a run to tie the game at 2 - 2. The momentum was swinging back to the Nationals as they took the field to start the 9th inning. Tyler Clippard took the mound for the Nationals to face the lead off hitter...

One of the most important rules held by the Baseball Gods is NEVER WALK THE LEAD OFF HITTER...especially when your team has just come back to tie or take the lead late in the game.
What did Tyler do? He walked the lead off hitter. Now, the Cardinals tried to bail him out. First, Felipe Lopez attempted to bunt him over to second. Instead, he popped the bunt up for the first out of the inning. Then, the runner at first was picked off by Tyler. (A another offense to the Baseball God's, but not as severe). So, the situation now looks pretty darn good for Clifford. He has two outs, nobody on base, and Ryan Ludwick is at the plate with a 1-1 count when the runner was picked off. All Tyler has to do is get this last out. But the Baseball God's wouldn't allow it. The very next pitch after pick-off, Clippard hangs a slider and Ludwick deposits it roughly 20 rows back over the left field wall. Cardinals win 3-2. Carpenter gets the win and Franklin gets a save. (This has nothing to do with my point except both Carpenter and Franklin are on my fantasy team...holler).

I'm not saying the Baseball Gods made him throw a bad slider. I am not even saying the Baseball Gods exist. What I am saying is that more often than not, walking the lead off hitter will come back to haunt a pitcher. Usually, it is the lead off hitter that scores. I believe the percentage is around 70% of the time. Granted, the example here has nothing to do with that. But isn't it interesting that some how things went foul for Tyler after walking the lead off hitter. If you're team has worked hard to gain the lead or tie the game, the best thing you can do is attack the hitter and prevent giving back that run. Late in the game, it becomes even more pertinent to hang a zero up after a great come back.

This story goes well with my over all philosophy on pitching. Always be on the offensive. Attack the hitter. Don't allow the hitter to ever be comfortable in the box. Throw strikes early and often and control the game!

Until Next Time!!


Image Source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thearchnemesis.com/images/Baseball%2520Gods.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thearchnemesis.com/Baseball%2520Gods.html&usg=__O_mrdefMJlGnEnqQNE-5wDuWzmQ=&h=321&w=455&sz=45&hl=en&start=1&sig2=uzyOw_NIkboS8CeC-BmqCA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=L2_Vd5up1Bq0qM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbaseball%2Bgods%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DWTG%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=l5n0S9OtI460tgPNvcmHBQ

Major League Power Swing

I know this blog's title might sound like it is about hitters. It is actually about the balance of power between pitchers and hitters. It is safe to say that from the mid 90's to the mid/late 2000's, there was NO balance. What is now referred to as the "Steroid Era," was undboutedly the most prolific decade for hitters ever seen. Just from the broken records alone one can see how hitters flourished. The formerly unbreakable single season home record was shattered three different times in the span of a couple years (Sosa, McGuire, and Bonds). The second most hallowed record in all of baseball (behind perhaps Dimaggio's hit 52 game hit streak) was broken a few short years later with Bonds surpassing Hank Aaron for the ultimate home run record. All the while, these records were considered tarnish by the terrible, steroid-induced asterisk.

However, Major League Baseball finally got its act together and implemented a much stricter drug testing policy and the over-arching the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program was adopted in 2006. Since then, the balance of power has begun to shift. It is my opinion that MLB has actually achieved what it set out to do. That is, they have shifted the power back closer to even between pitchers and hitters. It is my opinion, of course, that this is a positive change. As a self-proclaimed baseball purist, I think a 3-2 pitcher's duel is baseball at its best. I agree that home runs are wonderful and a lot of fun to watch, but when baseball scores began to look as though they were achieved with 50 yard bombs to the end zone, I think everyone knew something was wrong. Thankfully, that aforementioned changed did occur, and the steroid era appears to be over. Case and point, from '95 to '07, the average number of homeruns hit by the league leaders was well above 50. In fact, 15 times in that span, a home run leader broke the 50 home run mark. Of course, there was a handful of years where the number crested 60 with others in the 50 range and culminating with Bonds' 73. However, in 2008 and 2009, the leaders hit only 37, 38, 48, and 47 respectively. Now I realize that two years is hardly a trend, but it is my belief that 2010 will show similarly lower numbers. Of course, this is good news for baseball purists near and far. For, if those numbers did not decrease, there would be little reason to believe steroids had anything to do with the power surge.

So, heres to the conclusion of the steroid age, and the dawning of a new age of balance. I look forward to the next few 20 game winners. Perhaps now, there will be more than just one or two in each league. 2009 had none and 2008 only had Webb and Lee, Mussina, Halladay and Beckett. I suspect these numbers will increase as well over the years.

Stay tuned and let's see if I'm right.

Until Next time!!

Big Leaguer Breakdown: Dallas Braden

Happy Mother's Day from Less Is More and what a day it was. Dallas Braden's grandmother got one of the most unique and rare gifts ever given on a Mother's Day, a perfect game. Only the 19th such accomplishment in MLB history! The lefty faced the minimum, walked none, and his teammates made no errors on his way to beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0. What made the feat even more incredible is that the Rays only swung and missed at 5 pitches that Braden threw; the fewest in a no-hitter since 2007. Dallas improved to 4-2 on the season by punching out six hitters and of course, walking none. His perfect game did as much to establish himself as a bonafide star as it did to quelsh some of the negative attention that had been simmering since his lashing out verbally at Alex Rodriquez after AROD trotted over the pitcher's mound after getting out in a game earlier in the season. Side Note...I think it shows a lot about Braden's fire and determination on the mound that he felt the need to "defend his territory" after Rodriquez essentially disrespected his mound by jogging across it. I like it and I think every pitcher can learn from it. Either way, Braden was awesome today and he is this week's Big Leaguer Breakdown.

Check out this video of Dallas Braden from my favorite youtuber, laflippin.

You can see right off the bat that Braden comes set with the glove far away from his body and his feet wide on the mound. I have always been a fan of looking imposing on the mound and applying this stance is a great way to do so. As he starts his delivery, we see him utilize a very long side step (instead of a drop step back). As a general rule, I prefer a drop step to stepping to the side because it makes finishing toward the target more difficult. However, Dallas uses the side step to create some misdirection and deception in his delivery. He repeats this very well and it does a lot to disrupt a hitter trying to track the ball.

At the :23 mark, we see Braden's foot almost disappear behind his back side. This position tells us that his leg lift well above average in height. As long as the pitcher's body (legs and core) are strong enough, a high leg lift that is controlled can help a pitcher generate more momentum in his delivery while staying taller longer. What how Dallas accomplishes this from the :23 mark to the :32 mark. We can see a lot about his delivery in this segment. From the leg lift, we see the glove and front leg work in perfect unison down and out toward the target. All the while, his back leg does not collapse much at all. While all this is happening, Braden does close off his front shoulder some, showing his back to the right handed hitter. You can't see this in the video here, but if you watch him pitching from behind, you can see what I mean. At the :32 mark, we see how Braden's elbows have elevated to a perfect power position just before the front foot hits the ground. Notice also how the back foot has begun to rotate, which indicates that the hips have turned as well. With the hips firing, but the elbows are still closed, the pitcher can really generate some power in delivery.

The :33 mark shows an absolutely picture perfect chin position, glove turn and front leg bend. This tells us a lot about how consistent Braden is with his delivery. At 36 seconds, we can see his body is almost entirely parallel to the ground at the ball comes out of his hand.

Overall, there's not much negative about Braden's delivery and this tells us quite a bit about how he was able to throw a perfect game. If I'm being picky, there isn't a ton of tempo through his delivery. He seems to be moving a touch slower than the average pitcher, but then again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So, it goes without saying, Dallas Braden has a good idea about how to deliver the baseball. We here at Less Is More tip our caps to you Dallas. Congrats on your fantastic game!



Image source: yahoo sports - http://sports.yahoo.com/

The Curse of the Knucleball

Every now and then I feel the need to rant a bit about some of the things I see going on in a certain aspect of the game of the baseball. Today is one of those days. I'm not really that upset mind you, just a tad bit frustrated about the over use of the knuckleball by littler leaguers in the Williamsburg area. It's not that I think the knuckleball is necessarily a bad pitch. The problem I have is the fact that many very talented young pitchers are wasting time working on an aspect of pitching that has very little chance of helping them in their future careers. Quick, name more than two knuckleballers who have pitched in the Bigs in the last twenty years. Tim Wakefield is one...the most obvious choice. How about another... waitng ... waiting... Tom Candiotti anyone. Most of my pitching clients have probably never even heard of him and past that, I can't even name another.

The point is there is a less than 1% chance that a youngster will end up throwing a knuckleball later in life. Now, it wasn't that long ago that I was a little leaguer. I can remember how much fun it was to try and make the ball dance as I played catch with some of teammates. As best as I can tell, that is the main appeal of the pitch. The problem with this is that it requires a pitcher to completely change his delivery to throw the pitch correctly. For anyone who knows my philosophy on pitching, it goes without saying that I am completely against changing ones delivery, arm slot, or arm speed to throw a pitch. It is this philosophy that explains why Big League knuckleballers only throw fastballs and knuckleballs. To make matters worse, the coaches of these kids are neither encouraging or discouraging this practice.

I think it is time that we take a position on the over use of a pitch that really has no benefits in the future games of these kids. I guess I tend to be a baseball purist. I would much rather see I young pitcher continue to develop useful pitches (fastball, change-up, breaking ball) at the expense of some early success with a trick pitch. I just put more value in the development of the pitcher than a few little league strike outs due to a knuckleball.

I'd love to hear any contrasting opinions from players and coaches out there. Feel free to post and I will respond.

Until Next Time!