Pittsburgh getaway game

[Redsfan1507]

Simon v. Morton

Can Alfredo hold up again in a start ? He's looked like a guy on a mission, and frankly, has been probably the 2nd best SP for the Reds so far. Morton is one of those unimpressive soft tossers the Reds often struggle with.

You just never know what the Reds offense or the bullpen is going to do, but I like the matchup in the Reds favor for another getaway series win. Bruce looks like he's starting to heat up. Hamilton is getting on in a regular kind of way now. The catchers are hitting everything.

 

[JohnU]

Word on Simon is that he's one of the few guys who has mastered the cut fastball.
A lot of guys throw it and it's usually a mistake.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Actually tomorrow is the getaway-it's a 4 game series...sucks, because of possible split.

 

[Redsfan1507]

A cutter is designed to make a flat fastball run some, usually away from a like sided hitter. Guys that get in trouble with it are guys that start it inside and run it into the fat part of the bat...or start it over the plate and it doesn't cut. They used to say the cutter reduced velocity on the normal fastball...but actually, most with a superior fastball didnt need the cutter. Aroldis doesnt need a cutter, in other words. Mariano Rivera almost never threw anything but a cutter, but he had incredible control, and could actually add and subtract, and get one to back up sometimes. He owned the pitch. As a reliever, he didnt need more than 1 superior tool. Most aren't in his class. To be honest, I'm not sure Cueto needed to add a cutter, but it seems to be serving him well so far.

 

[JohnU]

I think I read where the only other guy who has a destructive cutter is Kenley Jansen with the Dodgers.
It's the pitch that's currently trendy, not unlike the splitter a few years back. The problem is that it's the 4th best pitch some guys have and they try to throw it instead of something that serves them better.

 

[JohnU]

I do see that we are 5 games into the season and not one single Parrots fan has bitched about Brandon Phillips yet.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Remember Juan Marichal ? His catcher must've had to take the mitt off and use two hands for signals. The guy threw a 2 seam and 4 seam fastball, 2 curves, a change, a slider, a screwball, a splitter and a couple I couldn't identify. He threw them all for strikes...and he had that huge high kick so it hid the ball. Amazing.

 

[JohnU]

Simon attempting to be just like Marichal.

 

[WvuDieHard]

Simon settled down and pitched quite effective last night. Marshall was stellar facing his 2 lefties while Leclure was solid. Then came Broxton who let the tieing run come to the plate in the form of McCutchen with a 5-2 lead in the 9th. Need Chapman back as soon as possible to strengthen a clearly weak bull pen.

 

[JohnU]

I have just gotten too peculiar lately about Broxton and the Parrots. I fully expected Cutch or somebody to tie that thing up and have the Reds go 15 innings on what was left of the bullpen -- and lose it.

The 4 guys behind Broxton are:
Parra
Ondrusek
Hoover
Christiani ....

none of these guys has pitched worth a damn lately, or have pitched as well as they can.

 

[chico ruiz]

"the cutter." having seen mariano throw the 'thing' 1000's of times i can write with some authority on this subject. naked eye authority anyway. the lethal part of the pitch is it's late (very late compared to other breaking pitches) movement. hitters just can't square it up. you'd have better luck against a chapman #1 or a fernandez #2. a lot of foul offs when you can't get the barrel on it. he must hold some sort of record for foul tip k's. and, as 1507 points out, he had remarkable control, and could throw it in and out. his formula was beautiful in it's simplicity. he would get batters 0-2, 1-2, or 2-2 with several cutters (90-91 mph) that were either fouled or a swinging miss. then, he would go 'up the ladder', as they say, with a 93-95 mph fastball that they had to swing at -to protect- with no hope of catching up to it. they just couldn't lay off of it. letter high fastball. end of game. if he wasn't confident in his fastball, he just threw cutters. same results. the thing that i appreciated the most, as a baseball fan and purist, was the hitters knew what was coming.
but, from what i understand, it's not an easily taught pitch. in fact, it's more something that comes naturally to a pitcher. getting a pitcher to feel comfortable throwing it seems to be the biggest stumbling block. i don't know how cueto throws his running fastball. i just know it's effective. it doesn't have the late movement of a rivera cutter, but johnny has more in his trick bag that includes a change as an out pitch. i love it when you see a pitcher with confidence enough to throw 3 different pitches in any count.
by the way, and speaking of pitches, this fernandez kid has an ungodly hook. doesn't have the bite that mr. blyleven's did, but holy toledo.

 

[JohnU]

Morton was throwing some around the bend last night too. Not enough other stuff to make him a H of F pitcher. Difference this year for the Reds against Morton is they are a much more patient team and don't pound away at off-speed stuff. Even Frazier has done better. He just isn't having any BABIP luck.

Rivera was a treat. I recall watching him in the All-Star game one year and the hitter kept backing out, looking down at the coach, rubbing his balls and bat ... I was saying 'geez, get in there and hit. He only throws one pitch!'

I have heard, yeah, that the effective cutter is something that comes natural for guys, depending on the size of their hands. Too many pitchers are trying to use it as an out pitch because they believe it's not easy to hit.

It's not easy to hit but it's easy to screw up, and the resultant pitch IS easy to hit.

 

[JohnU]

Heisey leading off in CF today for the Redlegs.