Musings 1.0

So as I was catching up on this week's baseball games and matchups earlier today, I had one thought crossing my mind as I watched Chicago White Sox pitchers Fransisco Liriano and Chris Sale pitch against the Yankees. The thought is this: what makes very much equivalent pitchers who throw very much the same pitches and rely on the same pitches so darn different? Liriano and Sale both throw 95 mph fastballs and wicked sliders, and rely on the fastball to get ahead and the slider to put away hitters. But one has a 5.12 ERA (Liriano), and Sale? He's got a 2.65. Huge difference. Obviously there is more to pitching than having nasty stuff. Here's more overlooked reasons that can make or break a pitcher:
   1. Pitch location: Hitting your spot is huge. Unless you get lucky or can consistently get batters to look at it passing by, you're gonna get hit hard because batters can just sit on that 3-1 fastball that you HAVE to pipe. This year's Tim Lincecum is a good example. His stuff is flat filthy. He's striking out over a batter an inning. But the guy can't hit his spot, leaving bad pitches over the middle and good pitches miss. Therefore he has a 5+ ERA.
   2. Pitch selection/sequence: I was watching Jason Marquis (San Diego Padres SP) pitch against Atlanta's Chipper Jones. Marquis threw a slider. Swing and miss. He threw another. Same result. He threw two more for balls. He threw his fifth slider in a row. Chipper deposits it in the seats in left. In other words, Marquis threw one too many sliders. That's what is going to happen in the MLB when you face good hitters. As a pitcher, deception isn't only the break on the pitch but mostly the pitch selection itself. Throwing 2 fastballs and then a change (or something off-speed but change-up works best) is gonna be much more effective based on the speed difference and also the movement on the change--a pitch that looks almost identical to the fastball coming out of the pitcher's hand.
   3. Mental: Coolness on the mound when an outing starts to go south is key. Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are the kings of cool. Liriano is the polar opposite. As much as I love the guy, he's certifiably a headcase. Now there are variable reasons for this, but that's for another day. But the ability to shrug off a hit batter, an error in the field, or another unfortunate occurrence can mean the difference between an inning-ending double play or a lead-killing homer.
And that's all I got.