TwinTownBisonFan wrote:Z's latest reply...
THIS.
Looking at that chart - by my count CC had 6 strikes called balls.
Verlander had 4...
Verlander got 8 strikes on the left that were balls.
Sabathia got 3.
Here's the difference - Verlander wasn't getting MORE calls - he was just hitting that corner consistently - CC wasn't.
Where CC got "squeezed" is upper right - however... at a certain point - the ump isn't giving that spot - give up.
Verlander has a bunch of close pitches called balls up there too... however he seems to have figured out that you can get more down and away...
either CC didn't want to go there - or he couldn't hit it... and looking at his spray - he just wasn't that sharp.
Stop making excuses - Verlander wasn't all that sharp either - he just found a way to gut through it (and so did CC - save for one bad pitch to young)
See, you can't reason any of this from the chart, because only called pitches are shown. You have no idea as to a pitcher's overall pitch location, because the location of swinging strikes or batted balls is not reflected.
It tells you one thing: not the pitcher's location tendency, but the umpire's tendency re: ball/strike calls. This chart reflects only the UMPIRE's TENDENCY.
And this shows when he made a call, Davis favored Verlander. Way too may Sabathia balls in the strike zone. Way too many Verlander strikes outside the box.
Oh, and BTW, the reason that Verlander's "close pitches" on the upper right were called balls is because they were ALL outside the box. CC was in the box in that location. That's the difference. On the upper right, there isn't a single green box inside the strike zone.