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Felix, Verlander
From Brooks Baseball pitch f/x:
Verlander: 77 FB, 4 CH, 25 CB
Felix: 69 FB, 8 SI, 5 SL, 22 CB
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Twittah
For the first 4 innings last night, I was wondering how anyone ever scored any runs off of Verlander. He seemed to be mixing pitches, his curve was really moving and he was throwing it for strikes. The combination of a high 90’s fastball and a slower curve that breaks a lot and is a strike was very nasty.
Then, what happened? Did he change his approach? Suddenly there were some balls that were hit hard off him.
Maybe there is something there that Felix could learn from?
I believe last night falls into the “winning on you shouldn’t” category. I thought the Mariners were done, so I got ready to go to the grocery store, and on my way out saw the mariners score 3 in the 5the and heard the other 2 on the radio. Great game!
I have a guy at work who is from Detroit, and has been telling the Tigers are going to sweep the M’s. He was bragging about Verlander, but for some reason when he said Verlander, Nate Robertson came into my mind. So I wrote him off when he said Verlander was they ace (because I was thinking Robertson).
After the first inning I remembered who Verlander was and thought we were screwed. I didn’t even think small ball and bunting would save them last night, but they won. Verlander will have a great season though!!!
No one was swinging at the first pitch so I think Verlander got comfortable and started pitching nice first pitch strikes. In the fifth the M’s went out and hit every first pitch… the first two being fastballs and the third being a curveball he left way up to Lopez. Just a change of strategy by the M’s. Way to go Wak for noticing that!
Actually he didn’t change his approach at all. But the Mariners’ lineup did. They took the first pitch on every at bat for four innings and received almost all first pitch strikes, mostly on fastballs. Then in the fifth they started swinging early in the count so Verlander didn’t have time to set them up for that nasty curve. He pitched a great game, just took a time or two through the lineup for the guys to figure him out.
Not to mention a few very lucky breaks for us, such as Verlander diving for a bunt off the mound from Gutz when there was nobody covering first base if he came up with it anyway. And the drop at the plate by Laird on Branyan’s trudge home.
I was wondering what happened to Felix in the second. You look at Brooks Baseball’s pitch FX tool, and you don’t see Felix doing anything different. His pitch mix was the same, the pitches had the same break on them, and his location was similar.
Yeah, the Tigers came up with a couple of lucky hits, but they hit a few balls hard, too. Just luck that they all got strung together like that?
Of course, Cabrera was hitting rockets off of Felix all night long. He had a night, didn’t he?
Such a shame too because Felix was making the Tigers look silly when he did throw uncle charlie. I actually laughed a couple times at how the Tigers were diving out of the box when he threw the curve. If that doesn’t get him to throw more curves, I don’t know what will…
Unless he decides it’s because he set it up with the fastball.
That sounds like a good point, Luc
I was at the game – Felix in the second gave up one hard hit ball to Cabrera, then a couple infield “singles” (Betancourt paid off the scorer for this inning), a hit batter, and Felix tried to glove flip a bunt home and forgot the ball. But still, only one ball hit with any authority (Miguel actually had the only 3 good hits against Felix… other 2 were a seeing eye single and IF hits). He just got a little unlucky in the 2nd.
As far as Verlander, he was throwing 1st pitch fastballs pretty much right down the middle. Effective enough for a while, but for one inning, but it seemed to rattle him enough. He looked a lot like vintage 07 era Verlander though, if I was a fan of Los Tigres, I’d be really very happy with that outing.
What is SI?
Sinker.
Fastball, changeup, sinker, slider, but what’s CB?
Wabbles, that’d be a curve.
I think those sinkers are actually changeups, because I’ve never heard of Felix throwing a sinking fastball before. I’m not an expert on pitch types though, so maybe it could go by either name. (For what it’s worth, Jeff’s analysis lists 8 changeups.)