Sarris: Every pitch is bad for you
From SABR member Eno Sarris at FanGraphs on December 20, 2012:
The Orioles — and to some extent, the Royals — have sworn off the cutter. Now it looks like the Red Sox are eschewing the slider. The curveball is probably bad for you. If you throw the changeup one way, you might be at risk for injury. We’re years ahead of a stream of knuckleball copycats, and there’s only one screwball pitcher in the big leagues. Maybe one day we’ll find those pitches lead to injury, too.
Maybe using any pitch too much is a problem?
First, Dan Duquette made his organization’s argument against the cutter. His specific examples may have been specious, but the overall idea — that certain cutters may be detrimental to a young pitcher’s development — was defensible. When Rick Peterson added the idea that cutters kill fastball velocity, it didn’t seem like there was evidence of the fact, even after the different types of cutters were separated. Jon Roegele, at Beyond the Box Score, some evidence that it might be the fact that the Orioles are getting worse results from their cutters than any other organization. Maybe it’s just their cutters are terrible — or maybe just certain cutters are bad for you.
Read the full article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/every-pitch-is-bad-for-you/
Originally published: December 21, 2012. Last Updated: December 21, 2012.