I didn't watch the game, but did quickly peruse the gameday pitch results, as well as the comments at LL and USSM. I thought it was funny the number of comments stating that his slider was a meh pitch when the hitters were consistently swinging and missing even when the pitch was in the strike zone.
Generally, I think the average viewer (I'm thinking of myself here) has trouble assesses two critical features of a pitch -- deception and late movement. It is easy to see that Bedard has a great curve ball, but to my eyes Felix also has a great curve. The results, however, (via fangraphs) show Bedard's curve to be a great pitch and Felix's to be merely good. My point is that earlier breaking pitches often look impressive to my eyes, but they must be easier for the hitters to track and therefore are consequently less effective. Pineda's slider doesn't have hugh break, but must have a decent combination of late break and deception, or he wouldn't have achieved the results he did. Just food for thought.
It looked like the umpire wasn't giving Pineda the bottom of the strike zone (Not sure if it was the umpire in general of a rookie zone.). My guess is that rather than buckle down and battle the Brewers and the umpire for his 75 pitches he stuck to his plan and continued to pound what was in fact a small strike zone. If I'm Pineda's coach I sit him down with Erik Bedard because he never gives up a part of the strike zone, largely independent of the umpires zone.
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