Quote:
Originally Posted by OldFatGuy
Sorry, Syd, I see you posted while I was. Again, it makes perfect sense to a certain degree. I mean I really think it's possible, and have said so before, that a guy throwing BP fastballs could throw three perfect innings. And most of that would be the randomness thing.
However, whenever you watch a pitcher in the 7th or 8th inning of a no-no or a perfect game there is one thing you'll notice, an awful lot of those balls aren't hit hard. How many times have you announcers during a real gem of a pitched game talk about "Wow, and there's really only been two or three balls hit hard all night."
This is what I'm talking about. If you can keep hitters off balance, behind in the count, and can pitch to specific locations I believe you can induce weaker contact. And I believe weaker contact has less of a random chance of a hit than a hard hit ball. Thus, the pitcher CAN control that randomness somewhat. That's what I'm trying to say, but perhaps am still not getting it out quite right.
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But how many times do you see a jam shot or an "excuse me" hit fall in when the batter is overmatched and basically the ball hits the bat. Fielders will always tell you they are the tough ones to get.
OTOH how many times do you see a guy hit a screaming line drive right at someone. In the boxscore it's an out.
I wonder if it is possible that good pitchers somehow avoid contact that causes fielders to misread the ball. If true you may find the counter intuitive result is "good" contact results in more outs.
Just my crazy.
