Chronicles of the Lads

IMPOSTER!
Who started for the Lads last night? Whoever it was pitched an excellent game, as you well know. Picking up on my silliest feature:

BARTOLO COLON'S RUNS PER INNING AGAINST OUR FIRST BASEMEN'S OPS AND WALLY JOYNER CAREER SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
Player -- R/IP, OPS, or SLG
Colon --- .669
Erstad -- .646
Wally --- .440

Wow, Wally's getting creamed now! I might have to switch to his OPS ... but at 802 it's a bit high. Oh, well ...

Rob reports that last night's telecast indicated that Colon has abandoned his four-seam fastball (I was watching the game in a bar sans sound so I didn't hear this for myself). I had noticed that he was using the two-seamer more frequently, but not that the four-seam had been dispatched. The two-seam fastball, of course, has a bit of a downward tail to it, and travels about 4 or 5 mph slower than its "rising" four-seam counterpart. The two-seamer draws more groundballs, the four-seamer more flyballs.

So why the hell did Colon give up 11 flies to 5 grounders? Well, small sample size, obviously, but I went to check out the game on the MLB archive ... I have some results at the end of the post, because I don't want to stick it in the middle and bore the brains out of everyone, but there was infrequent use of the four-seamer, if any (it can be hard to tell which fastball it is from the centerfield camera). The most important thing was his location; Colon kept the ball belt and below for most of the game, and even the hits he allowed were on balls down. He started getting the ball up and giving up hits as he tired, which is to be expected.

Colon's key last night was his command, and if he has better command right now of the two-seamer, so much the better. He's getting the ball down and getting outs, and looking like the guy he's supposed to be.

OK, here's that boring part I warned you about. This is every out Bartolo recorded and on what pitch. The key should be obvious, the number is mph, "2-FB" is the two-seamer, "4-FB" the four-seamer, and "OS" off-speed, the last is the scorekeeping code for the play. It can be hard to tell exactly what the pitch is doing when its hit, so a lot of the guesswork was based on location and speed. But you'll note the consistency of the location as much as anything.

1: Eric Byrnes, 93, 2-FB, knees away, P-4
2: Mark McLemore, 93, 2-FB, knees in, K looking
3. Mark Kotsay, 94, 2-FB, shins in, L-9
4. Jermaine Dye, 93, 2-FB, knees in, F-7
5. Scott Hatteberg, 93, 2-FB, knees away, F-7
6. Erubiel Durzao, 95, 2-FB?, knees away, F-7
7. Bubba Crosby, 95, 2-FB?, knees away, F-9
8. Adam Melhuse, 94, 2-FB, thighs, F-7
9. Marco Scutaro, 93, 2-FB, thighs away, F-9
10. Byrnes, 94, 2-FB, thighs in, K looking*
11. McLemore, 95, 2-FB?, belt away, K swinging
12. Dye, 94, 2-FB?, belt away, FP-3
13. Hatteberg, 85, OS, knees, 3U
14. Durazo, 85, OS, dirt away, K swinging
15. Crosby, 88, OS, dirt away, K swinging
16. Melhuse, the broadcast messed up but a FB belt in, P-5
17. Scutaro, 94, 4-FB?, up and in, K swinging
18. Byrnes, 94, 2-FB, thighs away, 5-3
19. Kotsay, 90, 2-FB, knees away, 3U
20. Dye, 94, 2-FB, knees away, L-8
21. Hatteberg, 94, 2-FB, belt in, 3U
22. Durazo, 93, 2-FB, up and in, P-6
23. Scutaro, 94, 2-FB, knees away, 6-4 FC

*Colon was aiming for the knees away, and the pitch drifted in and hit the inside corner. He basically missed his spot by 17 inches. Physioc called it a "high riser," but I'm not buying it; I think Colon's shoulder flew open just a bit early so the two-seam tail tailed further in than expected.