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Bonderman's a two-pitch guy, and as you know, Dr. D is partial to these amigos.  As a general rule, they can execute their pitches more consistently than average, and also they can get a very fine feel for when to whipsaw a batter with the "wrong" pitch.  And they can get a feel for just how much of the plate is viable, at any given time.

Lots of two-pitch starters dominate, and dominate consistently.  Randy Johnson, of course.  Curt Schilling.  The young CC Sabathia, and Clayton Kershaw, and any number of high-octane lefties.  Michael Pineda provided Seattle bloggers an object lesson in the fact that a right hand pitcher does not need three pitches to embarrass lefty batters.

In recent years Josh Beckett, AJ Burnett, Gio Gonzalez, the young David Price, the young Johnny Cueto, and many Opening Day starters have used two pitches to chomp innings and mulch batters.  It's all about execution.

...........

Dr. D's fondness for the template aside, there are pitchers who are poster boys for the old-timey "that's why you need three pitches" boys.  Jeremy Bonderman is one of these.  He has parlayed one excellent pitch, and one good one, into a massively disappointing career.

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=== Fastball ===

When Bondo left the game in 2010, he had an 88-91 fastball that showed a really unusual armside swerve.  He's always had this tight spin and this hilarious run on the ball.

The first pitch on this video will give you a feel for it.  The ball acts almost like Iwakuma-san's shuuto; even if the batter could get the barrel to it, he wouldn't do anything with it.

Back when Bonderman could throw 92-96, it was a ferocious weapon.  Later, when he was down to Aaron Sele velocity, the fastball was still very serviceable.

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=== "Slider" ===

JB's slider is flat out fun to watch.  (I don't know why they call it a slider; we used to use that term for 82-85 MPH hard curves that tilted on two planes.)  He gets world-class arm action on it, it pops a parachute and draws garbage swings by the dumpful.

This video will get the point across.  The arm action is comparable to Trevor Hoffman's changeup ... hey, already, are you thinking what I'm thinking?  ... Naaahhhhh....

Bondo's slider checks out statistically too.  Despite the fact that he uses it a ton, and despite the fact that his meek little fastball doesn't have his slider's back, the slider generates excellent results.

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=== Mystery Meet, Dept. ===

So, huh.

You've got a guy who by all rights should be Aaron Sele, plus a good bit -- even in 2009-10 after JB had lost the fastball.  (Sele was down to 85-87 MPH in his later years, and his fastball didn't bite like that.)  

And yet, the guy's ERA was poor, his whole life; his career ERA was 4.89 and he was generally regarded a #2 starting pitcher.  ... and in 2009-10 his ERA's were 8.71 and 5.53.

What gives?

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