how good is matsuzaka's fastball?

[tripledup22]

from what i here it is as straight as an arrow. and does not move at all. is that true?

[SwissRedSoxFan]

Don't believe everything u hear...

Armstrong also wasn't on the moon...nobody was till now...

[Williamsburg2599]

Not sure, but it's faster than one might think. He was the first player in NPB history to hit 100mph on the guns, and I think they've been recording pitcher velosity in Japan longer than they have in America.

[Seattle1]

What about the "Gyro - Ball"?

[KCGHOST]

We will begin to find out on 04-05-2007.

[jean]

I'm anticipating his debut today. I was wondering what all the hype was about? Is Matsuzaka supposed to be one of the best pitchers ever?

I am very new at stats so if you could explain it to me as basically as possible I might understand it better.

J.

[Jager]

Basically he was completely dominant in High School. Including pitching a 17 Inning, 250 pitch, Complete game that his team won 1-0. Then the next day pitched again to save the game.

Then he dominated in Japan, with an ERA around 2.30, more than a K per inning, and many complete games every year. I think last year he had 17 complete games.

Then in the WBC he was the MVP, with an ERA around 2.

Now in ST he looked very solid, and hitters have called some of his pitches "dust ball", and "fog ball" because you can't really pick it up good.

[FlashGordon]

If today was only a "satisfactory" start in his estimation, I can't wait to see what he's like when he hits his stride. Ten K's, one HR/ER, one BB...:clapping

I know it's "just KC," but his start makes for a nice contrast to Schilling's.

[Huntington Avenue]

His fastball looked great to me. Not as much "pop" as some of the other great fastballs in the league, but it seemed to work great for him. He threw an awful lot of strikes with it, IIRC.

[Dirt Dog]

Yesterday, Dice-K threw a fastball clocked around 95 mph. Piching coach John Farrell thinks that only about 55% of his pitches are fastballs. The MLB average is about 66%.

By his own count, Matsuzaka throws a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a cut fastball, a hard sinker that cuts left to right (called a "shuuto"), a curveball, a slider, a splitter and a changeup which many say is his nastiest pitch because he imparts a rare screwball action to it.

Tec's going to run out of fingers calling all those pitches. :D

[sharrock]

First of all, I didnt get to see the game yesterday but rather highlights and what not.

But it looked like he had good location and ability to work up and down, in and out with the fastball. Some nice movement as well. With his array of breaking pitches, he works off of them (as most Japanese do) which allows his low-mid 90s fastball to appear much faster to lineups.

[SirBLaUghs]

His fastball seems straight only because he throws 4 different other pitches.

...after watching the video highlights, this guy so far is impressive.
we'll see.

:p

[19th Century Indiana Jones]

I saw one pitch where his fastball just rose up. That was a NICE pitch. They showed a slo-mo replay of the batter whiffing, but the game announcers didn't mention it other than it was a high fastball.

[PhilWings24]

from what i here it is as straight as an arrow. and does not move at all. is that true?

very untrue. its not very fast, but it moves alot and he has great control of it.

at least that's the impression i've gathered from the 2 starts of his i've watched. the movement of a fastball is a tough thing for me to gauge, but it typically strikes me if a fastball moves remarkably little or much. he hasn't thrown a single fastball that's flatness has really struck me, and he's thrown a couple that have had striking movement, in my opinion.

[Jager]

[QUOTE=PhilWings24;871233]very untrue. its not very fast, but it moves alot and he has great control of it.
QUOTE]


Since when is 95 "not very fast"?

[Seattle1]

Since when is 95 "not very fast"?

Try as I might, I could only ever throw a baseball about 60, 65 m.p.h. tops.

:ughh

[Jager]

I used to throw 85. I was the catcher though, mainly because I couldn't throw a curve. lol.

[malt-tones]

Basically he was completely dominant in High School. Including pitching a 17 Inning, 250 pitch, Complete game that his team won 1-0. Then the next day pitched again to save the game.

Then he dominated in Japan, with an ERA around 2.30, more than a K per inning, and many complete games every year. I think last year he had 17 complete games.

Then in the WBC he was the MVP, with an ERA around 2.

Now in ST he looked very solid, and hitters have called some of his pitches "dust ball", and "fog ball" because you can't really pick it up good.

Wow, when I read this post I could not help but think of Hayden "Sidd" (short for Siddhartha) Finch, a rookie pitcher with the New York Mets in the mid 80's.


"He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga —and his future in baseball."


The first letter of each of these words, taken together, spells "H-a-p-p-y A-p-r-i-l F-o-o-l-s D-a-y."

デトロイトトラは5月14日および17日の間にボストンのろばを蹴る

[Mattingly]

As usual, a typical Yankee fan comes in and hijacks the thread ... so what else is new? :D ;) :p :laugh

So what the heck's up with the 1st inning of his on Thursday? He was fine afterwards, but what happened in the 1st? Only 1 strikeout today, unlike the 7-10 he'd had in other games.

[VTSoxFan]

It was very strange. He couldn't throw any one pitch consistently for strikes, and then a couple of close pitches were called balls, and he seemed to get rattled. He settled down after that inning and retired several in a row, but got wobbly again in the 5th.

It's very strange. I don't think he lacks for confidence... I don't know! :shrug: It's really far too early to judge how his season will be.

[Jager]

Someone needs to tell DiceK to grow a pair. If you get flustered every time you don't get a call, then you will never be successful in the bigs. DiceK needs to understand that he has to earn some strikes, and once he commands the strike zone by throwing strikes, then he will get call. Not as a rookie that has been walking quite a few guys per game.

[SoxSon]

Someone needs to tell DiceK to grow a pair. If you get flustered every time you don't get a call, then you will never be successful in the bigs. DiceK needs to understand that he has to earn some strikes, and once he commands the strike zone by throwing strikes, then he will get call. Not as a rookie that has been walking quite a few guys per game.

Please tell me we're not back to discussing people's pairs. :ughh :silent:


I agree with the principle, though. Dice-K should have long ago gotten past the nerves concerning runners on base or what calls he's getting on pitches. I have been wondering (as was mentioned somewhere else in the forum) whether the strike zone is approached differently at all in Japan. Even a slight shift would make things difficult for Matsuzaka.

[hellborn]

Please tell me we're not back to discussing people's pairs. :ughh :silent:


I agree with the principle, though. Dice-K should have long ago gotten past the nerves concerning runners on base or what calls he's getting on pitches. I have been wondering (as was mentioned somewhere else in the forum) whether the strike zone is approached differently at all in Japan. Even a slight shift would make things difficult for Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka has already come back after tough innings and pitched well in several games...I don't think that it's fair to question his ability to keep his composure based on that horrible inning. I think that he was flummoxed by his own poor control and then had a natural reaction after finally getting the ball around the plate and not getting calls (and, it is natural for umps to tend to not give those calls to pitchers struggling with their control, too). Most pitchers pull faces and act up when they think they're being squeezed, but anything that Dice K does is magnified 100X by everybody.
Good for him that the team is playing well, or the buzz about his struggles would also be 100X what it is now.

[Jager]

It is fair to question his ability to keep his composure though. Obviously not throughout a game, because he makes the adjustment, and pitches well, but in that inning. In all of his starts, there seems to be one inning where he walks a few guys, and gives up some runs, even though he's not getting much. Yesterday, he gave up 5 runs on 1 fricken hit. That's very tough to do. lol. I think it's very encouraging that he can come back and pitch great for the rest of the game, but at the same time, he needs to figure out what he's doing in those innings, and find a way to get through it.

[Charger567]

I am sure the single K had something to do with his control problems last night.

[SoxSon]

Matsuzaka has already come back after tough innings and pitched well in several games...I don't think that it's fair to question his ability to keep his composure based on that horrible inning. I think that he was flummoxed by his own poor control and then had a natural reaction after finally getting the ball around the plate and not getting calls (and, it is natural for umps to tend to not give those calls to pitchers struggling with their control, too).


I think you and Jager are both right, to an extent.
Dice-K has pulled himself together after bad innings, I agree, but it's the bad innings themselves that worry me. Five runs on 1 hit is generally a sure sign of a pitcher losing his concentration and/or composure. Tack that on to what I've watched so far from his other bad innings, and as much as I hate to say it, Matsuzaka is getting rattled in tense situations.

[Boston Red Sox]

i was in amerca in april, im british by the way and apparantly it doesnt matter about the fast ball as they are all the same, oh by the way ive heard it doesnt move at all the fastball and i think fox had proof it didnt, but it looked like it moved in another direction when i watched it

[Jager]

Whether it moves or not, they can't seem to hit it very well.

[SoxSon]

i was in amerca in april, im british by the way and apparantly it doesnt matter about the fast ball as they are all the same


I'd have to say there's a big difference between a 90 mph fastball and one clocked at 99 mph. Even if both were without movement, that 9 mph difference would still make them different pitches entirely.