thavoice;790613 wrote:I think Voquez hair, crooked and unbent bill of his cap is making him off balance and that i messing with his control!!!!!

Ya would like to see him do well at AAA before coming up but look at Leake...two terrible outtings and then good one when he came up

Also, Cueto wasnt pitching well in his rehab stints and has been gold since coming up.

I agree though...I would like to see Volquez go 6 + with 2-3 walks. Also what the club can look at is how deep is he going into the counts. We dont get to see that just in the box score. He may have 2 walks and we think he did well but was consistantly beehind in the count and that is not good facing major league hitters.

Also hitting his spots......that is a bone of contention with me when people only lok at the box score. It is mostly with releivers but also with starters too. I have seen pitchers consistantly miss spots in a game and get guys out just because that is the nature of baseball.....batters get themselves out, and then the next guy hits his spots, makes nasty pitches and they get a few hits and it looks like he pitched poorly but in reality he didnt.

When I watch games I like to look at those small things. If the catcher is away does he hit his spot? Or is he not close. If the catcher is seting up down an away, and the pither throws it up and in and gets s swing and a miss.....most will say good pitch, but I will say lucky becausee the ball went no where near where he wanted it to go.

All good points, especially about the non-walks, but being behind in the count like: 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2

Lots of times they'll say a pitcher made just one mistake, such as the one over the middle that got hit for the GW HR. Often there were more than one other pitches that really missed the spot that didn't get hit.

A lot of it also is what kind of "zone" the hitter is in and if he's able to hit the mistakes. One such player who was in the zone is Bruce for the last couple weeks or so. John Fay says: Bruce said the key to his success was swinging at the right pitches. I agree that is one big key, but the other is that when you swing at the pitcher's mistakes you need to convert and he is doing that and that is when you "are in the zone". Oft times players are swinging at the right pitches, but cannot hit them, then they get frustrated and start swinging at the wrong pitches, then they get so fouled up they don't swing at the right pitches, such as Gomes. So the key to hitting is in being consistent in swinging at the right pitches and try to maximize the percentage of time you spend "in the zone". And likewise the key to pitching is to have command and recognize to pitch around those who are in the zone when the situation warrants it, and to make quick work of those that aren't "in the zone".

How many times do you see good pitchers nibble around on two hitters that are in the zone, like Votto and Bruce, and then strike out the next hitter on 3 pitches?

mhs95_06;790641 wrote:All good points, especially about the non-walks, but being behind in the count like: 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2

Lots of times they'll say a pitcher made just one mistake, such as the one over the middle that got hit for the GW HR. Often there were more than one other pitches that really missed the spot that didn't get hit.

A lot of it also is what kind of "zone" the hitter is in and if he's able to hit the mistakes. One such player who was in the zone is Bruce for the last couple weeks or so. John Fay says: Bruce said the key to his success was swinging at the right pitches. I agree that is one big key, but the other is that when you swing at the pitcher's mistakes you need to convert and he is doing that and that is when you "are in the zone". Oft times players are swinging at the right pitches, but cannot hit them, then they get frustrated and start swinging at the wrong pitches, then they get so fouled up they don't swing at the right pitches, such as Gomes. So the key to hitting is in being consistent in swinging at the right pitches and try to maximize the percentage of time you spend "in the zone". And likewise the key to pitching is to have command and recognize to pitch around those who are in the zone when the situation warrants it, and to make quick work of those that aren't "in the zone".

How many times do you see good pitchers nibble around on two hitters that are in the zone, like Votto and Bruce, and then strike out the next hitter on 3 pitches?

Bingo on the ONE BAD PITCH comment. I hear it way too much by an announcer or read it in teh paper but reporters who are supposed to be smart.
maybe if the guy pitched only one inning you can get away with that...but not a starter. Pitchers throw many bad pitches...some go as base hits, some go as a take, some go as a swing and miss, some go as a foul ball...and some go as an easy out..and some are outs as result of atom balls.

Now...when a guy is hot....like bruce....you dont hit many of those 'bad' pitches by the pitcher. I have even seen bruce swing through a FB down the middle of the plate, that if the ball was hit the announcer mentions how it was a bad pitch...but if he swings and misses it was a good pitch as he blew it by him