Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lukas Berger
Neither BA or MLB.com list him with a curve, so he may have stopped throwing this.
|
Good point. I was going off local media reports and didn't check his latest scouting report in BA. BA's 2023 report reads like he's stopped throwing it. Makes sense-- a lot of pitchers adjust their arsenal after tommy john.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lukas Berger
It seems Fernandez didn't use the curve at all last year, so it doesn't really make sense to give this to him imo.
The cutter is a tricky one, because oftentimes guys like Fernandez don't really throw a cutter and a slider, it's just a slider that gets classified as a cutter sometimes or vice-versa. If we give guys too many pitches when in reality they throw less, this can actually make each pitch lower quality and make them less effective in-game, especially if they get used as a RP.
So it's a bit of an art to know when to classify a pitch like this as two different pitches and there's not necessarily a one-size fits all solution. Reasonable people can differ.
|
This makes sense; wasn't sure, but figured I'd mention it since I've seen scouting reports with the curveball and referencing it as a cutter and not a slider.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Lukas Berger
Kind of similar to my comments on Fernandez, given that this is a bad pitch that he already rarely throws, he'll likely throw this less as he (seemingly) gets pushed more toward relief, and all this will likely do is make him less effective in-game as a RP, I think it's questionable if it makes sense to give him this pitch. Again, a judgement call here.
|
Gotcha. This was based on scouting reports as well, but I agree with the decision not to include it, especially if it ruins effectiveness in-game.
Thanks for all the hard work that you guys do every year. I can't imagine doing this for every MLB team.