It drives me crazy, when pitchers get way ahead in the count, and ruin it by throwing a fastball to a location they think is a great “put-away” location, only to see that plan blow up in their face.
Time and time again, I watch the catcher move to the outside part of the plate, and stand up out of their crouch, to throw the easiest pitch a defensive hitter can get some wood on.
The fastball up and away .
Last night, I watched three different pitchers throw a fastball up and away in “pitcher’s counts,” only to see two of them pay dearly.
One of those to pay dearly was Rockies reliever Jason Hammel, who decided to put Martin Prado away with a fastball up and away. Prado took the eye-high and away heater over the center field wall… on a 1-2 pitch.
So much for being ahead in the count!
The biggest miscue came from Neftali Felix, the Rangers closer. He decided that on an 0-2 pitch, he would throw a fastball up and away to The (Real-Life) Natural, Joe Mauer. The result: laser up the middle, AND the end of the no-hit bid… in the ninth inning.
Not exactly a put away (or even set up to the put away) pitch you’d expect a solid closer to throw in an 0-2 count, is it?
I just don’t get it!
As a hitter, I was always taught to protect the plate when behind in the count. That meant being very aware of the outside part of the plate. Sometimes this made me a little vulnerable to the inside part of the plate, but living a double life as a pitcher, I knew that most pitchers try to get their outs on the outer half of the dish.
When they made a mistake up and away, it was like getting your favorite toy on Christmas morning when you went to bed the night before not expecting any presents!
Even a “strike out guy,” like Ryan Howard looks to drive the ball to left field with two strikes!
Don’t get me wrong. I love it when a pitcher can climb the ladder and blow a hitter away with some “high cheese.”
But up and away isn’t the place to do that!
Up and in definitely sends a message, AND sets up a fair share of “other pitches,” you can put hitters away with rather easily.
Even middle-up is very effective. Actually, middle-up is a pitch that is very tempting and extremely hard to lay off. (I vividly remember Randy Johnson striking out Eddie Perez on a middle-up heater to finish his perfect game.)
But up and away is quite frankly, an easy pitch to foul away and earn another pitch to swing away at, and possibly just flat out destroy.
(Does anybody remember last year in the playoffs when Angel’s reliever Brian Fuentes tried to go up and away to Alex Rodriguez?)
On the flip side, John Lackey struck out ten hitters in eight innings, by keeping the ball down and away with two strikes. (If you caught ESPN showing off their fancy bottom-of-the-strike-zone yellow line, you could see just how well Lackey did keeping the ball down there.)
Now Lackey is a sinker ball type pitcher. Sinker ball pitchers want to keep the ball down. Sadly I watched a great sinker ball pitcher in Tim Hudson try to go up and away (with his sinker!) more than once last night too!
Like I said, I don’t get it.
I’m all for working every part of the strike zone – and beyond. I fully recommend changing eye levels, moving the hitter’s feet, knocking hitters back, freezing a LOW fastball off the outside part of the plate, the whole nine yards.
But throwing a fastball up and away when you have a hitter on their heels is basically saying you don’t have a nasty pitch to finish him off with!
Pitchers: Don’t be fooled into thinking that the up and away fastball is the way to get hitters out. I’m guessing this trend stems off of the silly pitch-to-contact theory. (Oh yeah, I will be proving how silly this theory is before the end of the big league season.)
Hitters: Make sure you say thank you to the pitchers who don’t heed my advice, and throw you a “cookie” when they have you backed into a corner!
Coach Bones
