Author Topic: Cubs in '20  (Read 49107 times)

craig

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13097
Re: Cubs in '20
« Reply #2685 on: August 05, 2020, 05:09:06 pm »
Hitters have less than 1/2 of a second to determine what a pitch is, if it is going to be a strike and if the should swing.  If Kimbrel is tunneling his pitches hitters will have a lot harder time determining all of that and somebody would chase at a bad curve ball in the dirt at least once.  If the curve is coming at a different angle they can just ignore it and wait for a fastball.

That's a great point.  Still, hitters are pretty quick at using that 1/2 of a second to diagnose stuff. 

One of the things they tend to be good at is discerning whether fastballs are on trajectory for the strike zone or not.   I think part of the issue with Kimbrel's curve is that even if a hitter doesn't realize it's curve out of the hand, his curves don't look like fastballs that are on trajectory to be swingable strikes.  Mondesi, Kimbrel got two strikes on him.  He was in swing mode, and almost swung far enough that it was *almost* strike three; far enough that it was worth an appeal.  But the pitch bounced in front of the plate.  I don't think Mondesi held up because it was tipped and he knew it was a curve coming; I think he held up barely in time because he knew that even if it was a fastball, it was on trajectory to be a ball low and he shouldn't swing at it, fastball or whatever.