http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:30:58 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/15/210926.php#comment-576970 At MLB.com, Will Carroll put together a video comparison of Matsuzaka and Clemens. Once you get past the fluff of the early delivery, everything involving the push from the rubber forward is identical. Considering how often Ryan and Clemens are stapled to each other and presented as a set, the comparison of Matsuzaka and Ryan intrigues me. 576970@blogcritics.org Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:30:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/15/210926.php#comment-576883 I agree that Maddux was never a strikeout pitcher, but his K rates were pretty respectable, usually around 6-7 per 9 IP. But you're absolutely right about his pitch counts being low because of the contact he induced (and his miniscule walk rate). Now I would be very interested to see how many pitches it usually took to Maddux to strike out a batter. I'm going to look for this, as even though Maddux is an extreme example, it could be an interesting stat to see. As for Ryan and Matsuzaka, the results weren't all that similar (high K's aside if we compare across leagues), although Ryan had some low WHIP years due to minimizing hits despite his high BB/IP rate. But approach? That's kind of interesting actually. Ryan's heater was great, sure, but he got pretty good later on in studying hitters but not compromising his stuff (i.e., if he knew someone couldn't his a change, he wouldn't rely on that information if his change wasn't working well on a particular day). From what I've seen of Matsuzaka, he's similar in approach in that he seems to have a very distinct game plan when he pitches. Ryan, of course, did like the high heat, which apparently Matsuzaka does as well. The key there is control of course. Miss high and they don't swing, miss low and the hitter punishes you. If you've seen the analysis of his delivery on Hardball Times, it would be interesting to compare his time to the plate with Ryan's - it strikes me (harr harr) that they would both have very quick deliveries after the windup. 576883@blogcritics.org Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:13:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/15/210926.php#comment-576874 Maddux was never a strikeout pitcher, really; he 'pitched to contact', getting hitters out on weakly-hit balls and keeping the ball in the park. That keeps pitch counts down. How do you think Matsuzaka and Nolan Ryan compare in approach and results? 576874@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:42:17 EDT