Forrest Whitley vs. El Paso: 4 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 4 K, 49 pitches (32 strikes) The run came when he served up a home run to David Dahl to start the game.
My reference to that is for heaters specifically. Sliders and Curveballs come off your fingers much differently than fastballs increasing spin. Also could differ as well on how guys use their wrist with their release etc. Overthrowing is a misconception in regards to Velo. Usually when you are overthrowing the ball you are sacrificing location(biggest factor) and some guys will overthrow by “choking” the ball(too much grip strength) killing spin. Another issue is that overthrowing is very arm dependent causing mechanics to get out of whack, and you will see a lot balls left up arm side. Just things you learn as you get older. I went from throwing 87-88 to 94-95 my sophomore year in high school when I learned I was always “choking the ball.” I was a constant overthrower. When I stopped trueing to throw hard I threw harder…very common velo hack in high school for anyone that has kids that old. Rotator cuff surgery x2 killed my career, but I was lucky enough to play with some guys who are playing in the bigs today. We got exposed to some good former mlb players on the way up who had plenty of great insight.
Bielak is our new Odorizzi. We need someone like him to eat innings with around a 4 ERA. I am hoping whitley can earn a role at some point too.
It’s hard to eat innings though when you get shelled. Yesterday was probably the best outing Bielak will have for Houston this season. Maybe they can piggyback the two so each doesn’t need to go more than 3-4.
Including camp Whitley has almost matched his innings workload for the previous 3 seasons combined. Lets just see him have decent results for a spell without his paper mache arm falling off.
Mid 90s in highschool. That's crazy. Then again, maybe that is what caused your injury. People that young shouldn't be throwing that hard.
Also, nice to see he's raking on the road, so no Asheville effect. Think he makes it to Corpus this year?
What killed my career was my arm that lagged behind my body from poor mechanics built my whole life. My travel league coach thought I would be sitting high 90's one day if I ever got my arm to fully sync with my body. It was a cool experience. My dad was being handed cards my sophmore summer from the Pirates, Giants, Orioles, Cardinals, and Astros. Little did I know that would be the peak. LOL. Its a great what could have been, but yall have no idea how many guys were absolute studs who never made it to the MLB due to arm issues. I used to play with this lefty named Matt who threw 92 mph as a freshman in high school. He went to TCU and was drafted top 10 in the MLB draft. He was sooooooo good even as a 14 year old. He never made it due to shoulder issues in the minors. I remember one summer we were playing a team from San Antonio who was very chirpy while he was on the mound. He wasn't very fiery, but they got under his skin this game. He threw this kid on the other team two off speed pitches for strikes. Had him 0-2 and literally as he was landing his plant foot on the third pitch, he blurted out "SEEE YAH" and cocked a fastball right by him. Was one of the more disrespectful, cool things I have ever seen on a baseball diamond. Thats what people don't realize... there are a lot of guys that can light up the radar gun. The rare few are the guys who can locate it and stay healthy long enough to make it. They are freaks from durability alone.
xERA doesn't mean anything on the scorecard, ask Rafael Montero. Will his results continue being as good as they've been thus far, probably not, but he hasn't been shelled. He has been called upon 3 times, and pitched 3 competitive games.
Another multi-hit game for Zach Dezenzo, who has a hit in 7 of the 8 games he's played this month. He has a hit in five straight games.
3rd straight game with an RBI for Gilbert; he had RBI singles in both games of a doubleheader yesterday
