=== IP 4 - Trevor Plouffe - Routine SS Groundout ===

Does it seem dreary that we bring up that inscribed circle again?  And that the count was 1-and-5, one "just missed" Catfish pitch and five strikes -- despite nothing to hit?

If it feels dreary and monotonous to you, imagine the dreariness for ML hitters.

Michael Pineda isn't getting outs by accident.  He's getting outs because he has velocity intersected with command on a game-in, game-out basis.

WHAT PINEDA DID THAT EDWIN JACKSON WOULD NOT HAVE DONE:  In this at-bat, I'm particularly taken with Pineda's unpredictability.

Not only does pitch 1 not signal pitch 2, and pitch 4 not signal pitch 5... but the overall sequence and strategy itself is nothing that I recognize.  ... this AB "recipe card" is not a recipe that you've probably seen before.  Pineda's weapons are seemingly unlimited.

........

Okay, pitch 1 is a fastball away... pitch 2 is a slider to the same exact spot.  

That's weird.  The hitter has muscle memory to that spot.  So here it is again... but whooooooops, it pops a parachute, swinging strike.  Weird.

..........

Pineda goes to 0-2, then a foul ball ... then a tantalizing Catfish pitch, Plouffe holds up but the "victory" to go 1-2 probably feels like a paper cut.

1-2, what's Pineda going to throw?  (Put your hand, down, Brandon, it's not a splitter.)    Vicious slider down, under the bat, for a K... Plouffe, protecting 95, just fouls it off.

........

1-2, what's he throw now?    We start to see the problem, that it could be anything?  Where do you set up to defend, if you're Plouffe?

Jam pitch!  (+96 mph) (+2 mph) for it being inside, on the handle.  (+2 mph) for Pineda being huge.

It amazes me that big league hitters can make contact with these pitches, doesn't it you?  But Plouffe does, though it's an easy out.

........

We can all see from the cheap seats that --- > Plouffe's BABIP is not .300 on that 96 jam pitch.  It's hard to hit the ball hard when you're just trying to make sure it doesn't go through to the catcher's mitt.

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