2023 Off-season and Portal Recruiting

[pogo]

I thought we were at risk of having you and JJ trying out for the team.

If we had, the average age would have increased 2-3 years per player

[Shockersdad]

I don't know man. There are only 3600-ish pitchers in D1 baseball. Ignoring redshirt math, that means each class is about 900 students deep, give or take a couple hundred either way. If you are in the top 99.33% of your class, you're one of about 9 guys that can throw as hard as you can. "Dime a dozen" seems very flippant for an incoming freshman that can throw 93 before even stepping on campus.

Candiotti had a great year and was 87-90. Obviously every starter needs a great secondary if not 2 good secondary pitches but 92 is plenty good enough

[Kung Wu]

Candiotti had a great year and was 87-90. Obviously every starter needs a great secondary if not 2 good secondary pitches but 92 is plenty good enough

I think I underestimated the number of pitchers in NCAA D1 ball, and it's closer to 7000. So this kid is 1 of 12 kids in his class throwing at 93 or better. That's got to be an exciting starting point for any pitching coach.

[Kung Wu]

Question for you baseball gurus: If I am an elite pitcher -- I mean super, duper good ... as in one of the top 10 pitchers in D1 -- do I really care if the batter is right-handed vs left-handed?

[shoxlax]

Question for you baseball gurus: If I am an elite pitcher -- I mean super, duper good ... as in one of the top 10 pitchers in D1 -- do I really care if the batter is right-handed vs left-handed?

Percentages say you do care just due to batter picking up release point easier from the opposite side but if you have a large array of arm angles you can employ or the ability to throw nasty stuff that dives and tails a good pitcher can dominate anyone. Also if the batter can’t distinguish between your fastball and change up on release, because you hide it so well, it doesn’t matter what side you face.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

Question for you baseball gurus: If I am an elite pitcher -- I mean super, duper good ... as in one of the top 10 pitchers in D1 -- do I really care if the batter is right-handed vs left-handed?

There is a lot that goes in to that question. While I am no guru, I have some thoughts. Right handed pitchers tend to throw harder and lefties tend to have more movement. I think it depends on the pitcher. Certainly I think you want to approach it from a mechanics perspective in a consistent manner regardless of whether it is a righty or lefty hitter. Where you might want to think about it is in the pitch selection. Conventional wisdom says you should throw more change-ups when facing an opposite handed hitter. I have more thoughts but that is the gist of it from my perspective.

[shoxlax]

Watch highlights of Mariano Rivera pitch against lefties to understand why he was so dominant

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

Watch highlights of Mariano Rivera pitch against leftiest to understand why he was so dominant

That cutter was a thing of beauty. Nobody had seen anything like that before.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

Also, I absolutely love Trevor Hoffman, but he had some issues against lefties at times. Mostly because his FB didn't move much and while devastating to righties, his off speed pitches didn't break away from lefties all that much. Nevertheless, he was an all-time great and a very down to earth cool guy on top of that.

[ShockTalk]

Question for you baseball gurus: If I am an elite pitcher -- I mean super, duper good ... as in one of the top 10 pitchers in D1 -- do I really care if the batter is right-handed vs left-handed?

To be one of the top pitchers at any level, you don't have to be a flame thrower if you have an array of pitches and good/great command. Not saying it isn't a big plus, however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Maddux

No doubt, Maddux was an exception and not the rule among major league pitchers.

[1972Shocker]

Watch highlights of Mariano Rivera pitch against leftiest to understand why he was so dominant

Good example. I was going to say that a lot depends on what pitches you have in your arsenal. A righty with a cutter that gets in on the hands of a lefty hitter can be very effective (i.e. Rivera) and vise versa.

As a general rule righty vs righty and lefty vs lefty is more advantageous for a pitcher, sometimes decidedly so depending on their stuff and what they throw. I think one of the biggest factors is that most good breaking pitches are moving away from the hitter in a in righty-righty and lefty-lefty match ups. However, there are always exceptions to the general rule. As shoxlax mentioned good pitchers can dominate anyone. Which brings up another general rule: good pitching beats good hitting.

Is also true that fans like scoring and home runs so if the pitching gets too dominant the rules get changed. This has happened in both baseball and softball.

The 1968 season became known as "The Year of the Pitcher", and the Cardinal's Hall of Famer Bob Gibson was at the forefront of pitching dominance. His earned run average was 1.12, a live-ball era record, as well as the major league record in 300 or more innings pitched. It was the lowest major league ERA since Dutch Leonard's 0.96 mark 54 years earlier. Gibson threw 13 shutouts, three fewer than fellow Nebraskan Grover Alexander's 1916 major league record of 16. He won all 12 starts in June and July, pitching a complete game every time, (eight of which were shutouts), and allowed only six earned runs in 108 innings pitched (a 0.50 ERA). Gibson pitched 47 consecutive scoreless innings during this stretch, at the time the third-longest scoreless streak in major league history. He also struck out 91 batters, and he won two consecutive NL Player of the Month awards. Gibson finished the season with 28 complete games out of 34 games started. Of the games he didn't complete, he was pinch-hit for, meaning Gibson was not removed from the mound for another pitcher for the entire season.

After the 1968 season, a Major League rules panel got together and voted to lower the mound from 15 inches to 10, shrinking the strike zone to the top of the knees to the armpit (rather than shoulders and knees) and to be extra vigilant against doctored baseballs. Although I don't thing Gibson was ever accused of doctoring the baseball.

Here is the history of the strikes zone over the years: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/strike-zone



While this is the rule book strike zone, my observation has been the high strike above the top of the uniform pants is not consistently called a strike. In fact, seems to m it's rarely called a strike. If it was you would have more pitchers, especially the hard thowers, living there.

[1972Shocker]

Now what pitchers really hate facing, either righty or lefty, are guys like Eddie Gaedel:

[1972Shocker]

To be one of the top pitchers at any level, you don't have to be a flame thrower if you have an array of pitches and good/great command. Not saying it isn't a big plus, however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Maddux

No doubt, Maddux was an exception and not the rule among major league pitchers.

Maddux, a righty was great, and his lefty teammate, Tom Glavine, was pretty much his equal with both throwing fastballs in the 85-89 range (if that). But there is a reason they are called pitchers and not throwers. And these two guys could pitch in the truest sense of the word.

This should have been their theme song:

[1972Shocker]

Question for you baseball gurus: If I am an elite pitcher -- I mean super, duper good ... as in one of the top 10 pitchers in D1 -- do I really care if the batter is right-handed vs left-handed?

Now look what you did.

[shoxlax]

Now look what you did.

Just my thoughts, 72’. Kung floats a question out there and goes AWOL while we are crafting well reasoned responses.