pitching Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Chart: MLB Strike Zone Keeps Expanding
This chart from Jon Roegele of The Hardball Times shows the MLB strike zone for right-handed hitters has expanded 46 square inches since 2009. And this season had the largest single-year increase of the PITCHf/x era as the zone grew 16 square inches expanding from 459 square inches to 475....
When Do Most No-Hitters Get Broken Up?
No-hitters have hit dead ball era rates, and every other week it seems like some random pitcher is staring down a chance at a no-hitter late in a game. So Zachary Levine of Baseball Prospectus did the grunt work of tracking down just how likely a no-hitter is to be broken up on any given out, and ho...
How Corey Kluber Started Kicking So Much Ass
Cleveland Indians starter Corey Kluber shredded the Seattle Mariners last night, shutting them out over nine innings and striking out eight, and taking just 85 pitches to do it. It wasn't an aberration, either: Kluber has been spectacular all year, which is hard to believe considering that he was a ...
Cubs Catcher Is Winning Pitcher, Scores Winning Run In 16-Inning Game
I do not envy the hardy fans who watched all 6:27 of the game between the 43-63 Rockies and the 44-61 Cubs, including 12 straight scoreless innings. But those who did stick it out saw something rare: Chicago catcher John Baker pitched a scoreless top of the 16th, and became the winning pitcher whe...
Matt Joyce Hits Ball Back Into Pitching Machine; Machine Fires It Again
Your latest baseball oddity comes courtesy of Matt Joyce. During Thursday's batting practice, the Rays designated hitter fouled a ball that bounced off the top of the cage and right back into the pitching machine's loading slot. The machine then zipped another strike before Joyce realized what had h...
Justin Masterson Pitched An Immaculate Inning
During the fourth inning of last night's game between the Red Sox and Indians, Justin Masterson did something that is pretty damn incredible: he struck out the side on just nine pitches. It was as perfect an inning as a pitcher can possibly have....
Pedro Martinez Says Pitching Is All About Properly Sexing The Baseball
Our pals at Fangraphs got Pedro Martinez to sit down with them and wax on about his thoughts on pitching, and the results are fantastic. You should read the entire interview—Martinez is one of the smartest pitchers to ever play and he says a lot of wise and illuminating things—but we felt compelled ...
A Major League Pitcher's Guide To Doctoring A Baseball
The old saying says that it's not illegal if you don't get caught. In baseball, sometimes it isn't illegal even if you do....
When Should Managers Pull Their Starting Pitchers?
"A Data-driven Method for In-game Decision Making in MLB" is easily the worst title of the eight Sloan paper finalists, which is a shame, given that it's actually an interesting application of machine learning that's directly related to one of the most important aspects of baseball game management. ...
Unspinning The Mythical Gyroball, The Demon Miracle Pitch That Wasn't
Once feared, now largely forgotten, the gyroball retains a stubborn hold on the baseball imagination. Perhaps Red Sox closer Koji Uehara can put the pitch to rest:...
Journeyman Baseball Player Gets Hurt While "Trying To Be A Gentleman" To A Pitching Machine
On Friday, Casey Kotchman signed a free-agent deal with the Marlins, his seventh team in 10 MLB seasons. He was brought on, at least in part, because Logan Morrison is coming off knee surgery. Only now Kotchman will be out for at least a few days, too. During a drill yesterday, he accidentally ran i...
Don't Be Terrible, Be Good, And Win: How To Pitch, According To Fox Game Of The Week Scouting Reports
Originally published in Baseball Prospectus....
Watch A Kentucky Student Do The World's Worst Job Of Pitching A Tent
Every year, UK students camp outside Memorial Coliseum in Lexington for a chance at tickets to Big Blue Madness, the introduction ceremony for the Wildcats' men's and women's basketball teams. (It can get violent—Kentucky stations medical personnel at the race to the campsite—and that all this is ...
MLB Speeds Up Games By Sending Strongly Worded Letters To Slow Pitchers
Over at Baseball Prospectus, Adam Sobsey got hold of a letter from MLB disciplinarian Joe Garagiola Jr. to Colorado Rockies pitcher Mike Ekstrom. (Click to enlarge.) In two consecutive appearances against the Phillies, Ekstrom took more than his allotted 2:25 to warm up—going over by nearly a full m...
The Rockies Go To A Four-Man Rotation
Coors Field is being Coors Field again, with balls flying and batters partying like it's 1999. Despite the best efforts of the magic humidor, numbers are cartoonish and the only proffered explanation is that it's been extra dry in Denver this spring. Whatever the cause, the Rockies can't pitch. They...
Bartolo Colon Is Getting People Out
Have you seen Bartolo Colon pitch? He is worth seeing. Last year, it was amusing to watch the portly ex-Cy Young winner's return to adequacy, in his late 30s, after missing an entire season. It was a funny little joke about the vagaries of sports, or of life....
How A Career Ends: Mike Marshall, Ph.D., The Outcast Screwballer Turned Outcast Pitching Coach
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today: Mike Marshall, the rubber-armed screwballer who won the 1974 National League Cy Young Award and who now believes his unconventional methods could eradicate pi...
Michael "Cy" Cuddyer Was The Twins' Best Pitcher Last Night
I think it's safe and hyperbole-free to say there's nothing we enjoy more in professional sports than when a position player has to come on to pitch. There's always a mix of emotions - the game's already a blowout, so most players just want to get it over with and go home. But for the spot relieve...
Jo-Jo Reyes Can't Win
We don't know if Jo-Jo Reyes was watching Wilson Valdez celebrate an unlikely W after six seasons as a non-pitcher, and we don't know if he's reading about it right now. We do know that if we were in his position, it would make us want to throw a goddamn chair through the window....
Here's A Cartoon Rendering Of Roger McDowell's Recent Conversation With San Francisco Giants Fans
Noted prankster and Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell has been placed on something called "administrative leave" while the team looks into the anti-gay slurs and gestures he publicly offered the other day. This video from ckettering should help the probe....