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Comments
If folty doesn’t throw hard he doesn’t have a career. As @GeorgiaGirl said, if he is 90-93 he isn’t a good major league pitcher anymore. There are plenty of pitchers who don’t throw that hard or have nasty stuff, they just usually aren’t very good. Telling pitchers to be less good isn’t something I think any of them will be on board for.
You can still succeed while averaging 92 but you need better command and even good command Folty is more effectively wild than pinpoint.
But Folty needs the heat so he can get in the zone whiffs and lead to his slider getting swings out of the zone. He's had neither that heat or the slider. Since his heat is not as fast, it's easier to foul it off, so teams ignore the slider unless they're hangers. Hopefully he's experiencing dead arm, but he seems to have changed the movement of his slider too (it had basically no horizontal movement today and much less in his first start compared to 2018), indicative of the elbow still barking?
If it's not dead arm, he's ded for 2019 because his path to success was the big fastball getting in zone whiffs so teams can't ignore the slider. Hopefully it is.
The Braves will tease then disappoint. I wish i was wrong.
Kirbstoomper. Folty is dependent on having velocity at all times because that is how pitchers are being trained. Name some top pitchers today who don't reach 94 to 98 with their fastball on a regular basis.
Here are a few as measured by Fan-graphics.
Kershaw . 96-97 ( when healthy)
Scherzer. 96-98
Degrom. 96-100
Sale. 97-100
Kluber. 94-95
Verlander. 97-100
Bumgarner. 93-94 ( when he was great)
Blake Snell. 96-100
Trevor Bauer. 96-99
Mike Mikolas. 96-99
Mike Clevinger. 94-98
Patrick Corbin. 93-96
I listed the greats of this era first, then the last 5 listed were among the top performers last year.
I DID NOT cherry pick either, I went down the line.
Between 2002 and 2016 the average fastball thrown in MLB increased 3.1 mph, I'm betting that trend has only accelerated over the past 3 years.
As I mentioned here the other day, pitchers will reach the bigs earlier and burn out earlier because they don't have to learn to be as crafty as a Maddux or Glavine was. When they lose a bit of velocity it's don't let the door hit your ass on the way out and send in the fresh meat.
@WCDawg @GeorgiaGirl I think we are all saying the same thing. Folty is bad at 90-93 because he doesn’t have command or other good secondaries or a real full arsenal of pitches. He has always been a power pitcher and not much more. As @GeorgiaGirl said if he doesn’t get whiffs on the fastball or chases with the slider what about him screams mlb caliber pitcher? Probably nothing
no doubt people are throwing harder, harder fastballs are harder to hit. It makes sense that stuff is prioritized because pitchers developing into Greg Maddox is like a 0.5% outcome. Why not hope the guys with big stuff figure out the nuances of pitching as opposed to betting on the guy with average stuff doing it?
I agree it has taken a lot of the art out of the game due to certain things not being prioritized in coaching, but having a big fastball and good command/crafty pitching strategy are not mutually exclusive. Someone like soroka is a good blend of both. All in all I think the Braves actually just **** at developing pitchers and their entire rebuild strategy was potentially the worst thing they could have done. /rant
Soroka has excellent movement and seems to have the makeup as well. If he can stay relatively healthy I like his chances to be our ace soon. Could he succeed with an 88 mph fastball though ?
If he has command of that 88 mph fastball then yes.
If he needed to, he'd probably do OK but it'd diminish his upside and his other fare would have to be decreased as well (slider can run up to 87, maybe even 88). His IQ is fantastic but he's evolved quite a bit since he was drafted as well, now the guy that you have might actually be an ace if the change up can catch up to where the slider is now.
Cute Orlando. Seriously though, mid-90s velocity is pretty much a dime a dozen at the MLB level now. What sets Soroka apart from the pack is command and movement on his pitches. The guy seems to have the makeup to command Mike Soroka, which is really what it's about.
Just saying, command is everything. Having control at 95 is good but I’d take a guy that can spot 88 every time. Maddux wasn’t a flame thrower but he could put his pitches thru a key hole. Soroka has some similarities.
Orlando. I agree. Maddux had command in every way...except his verbal temper ''F...…….k'' could be heard from the cheap seats when he made a mistake, not that he made many.
He not only spoted inside, outside, up or down at will, he had very underappreciated movement on his pitches. Add in his ability to set hitters up not just from pitch to pitch, but also from at bat to at bat and even game to game and we had a once in forever package in Maddog. Man what I'd give to be able to follow a pitcher like that again.
What a performance by Soroka tonight. Does he ever throw a flat and straight pitch ?
Not often. Sure wish we could play the fish 81 times a year.
I haven't watched a lot of Braves games yet. Been more focused on Georgia Spring Ball and the draft. But I was pleasantly surprised this morning that we came back from 2- 0, and walloped Miami 9 - 2 last night. But it was Miami.
Just as impressive was Minter. One inning of relief and 3 K's. So much better than his last outing: 4 ER's and no outs as I recall it.
Mark. Soroka didn't give up an earned run. Both of The Marlins' runs came off 2 errors. The positives I see is hitting, defense and several of the young starters look really good so far.