Snell Splattered By Yanks
Q. What happened out there?
A. In no order of importance, since all of these things converged, to form an unseemly puddle of raspberry jelly on the pitcher's mound:
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1. The Yankees came in 20-6 since the break. They are mulching everybody.
This was pro's against Joes on Thursday, with a $180M pitcher ahead 5-0 by the third inning.
Against a $200M+ roster that is as red-hot as this, you need a Felix Hernandez or Erik Bedard out there if you don't want to feel like a bikini'ed coed lost in Jason territory.
A merely-decent pitcher is going to need a double-reinforced cup and softball helmet against these guys right now. Snell isn't the only guy they're going to blast.
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2. The Yankees had a murderer's row of power lefties against Snell, who has a (legitmately) unbalanced game, tough vs RH and weak vs LH.
They ranged Jeter - Damon - TEX - Matsui - Swisher all in a row. (Jeter is an inside-out guy tough on RHP.)
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3. The ump forced Snell to come wayyyyyyy up into the zone, as pointed out by Malcontent in the comments.
Damon has a good eye and is tough to hit corners against, even with a pitcher's ump. Mark Teixeira is a nightmare in terms of trying to get him to fish. Matsui and Swisher, of course, also have superb strike zone control.
You get those guys with an ump who FORCES you to throw waist-high, and you can literally expect an ERA of 6.00, 7.00 in those games.
Seriously. This ump ... that zone ... these LH hitters ... a RH pitcher ... you're going to get a 6.50 ERA.
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4. Snell wasn't selling his offspeed.
His arm action, or whatever, was poor. I could toss a kernel of popcorn at you from across the room, and you'd flinch more than Matsui did on that first-pitch slider in the third inning.
I didn't see a Yankee "half-position" a change all night long. They read his offspeed stuff very easily.
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5. Snell's three offspeed pitches were all 83 mph.
It's getting so I don't know why some of these pitchers call one pitch a slider and another one a change. Same velo, same shape, why do you call it a different pitch? I don't care how you hold it.
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Q. Does that mean he'll be okay next game?
A. If he throws a 91-95 fastball with good late life, and one 83 offspeed pitch that he telegraphs, he's going to scuffle for a 4.50, 4.75 ERA against the league. And get blasted by good hitters.
He's got work to do on that offspeed stuff. More separation, better sales technique.
He's done it before! For entire seasons at a time.
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Q. Any good news? As far as Thursday night?
A. The FB had hair on it. The Yanks sat FB, got FB and fouled them back over the dugout.
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He didn't have command, but he did have control, both of his FB and his offspeed. Nice progress from last start in terms of control.
For example, the changeup that Damon blistered in the 3rd before Matsui's homer .... outside black, right where it's supposed to be.
Snell was getting a lot of the plate, yeah, but you have to consider the ump.
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Q. What's he need from here?
A. To get a third velocity and/or to get the snap back on his slider .... to sell his offspeed better .... and to get some lineups that aren't the Yankees.
I like Snell as much or as little as I ever did, but he IS farther away from his 06-07 form than we'd hoped. Ian has got some work to do. We're sure that he and Adair will get 'r dunn.
Cheers,
Dr D