Bad Pitching in the era of the Nuclear Ball

Another double digit shellacking of an opponent by the Jays.

A few years back Bill Lee was quoted as saying that the explosion of home runs during the Barry Bonds Mark McGwire era was the result of bad pitching. His take I think, was a function of a great pitchers' attitude (or understanding) that good pitchers have many, many more tools to get outs against any batter; that with discipline and right thinking, any era of baseball can be dominated by good pitching. He was talking about the steroid era coupled with MLB's latest Juiced Ball (or Nuclear Ball era - still ongoing).

He may have been wrong.

The Jays have scored double digits in 11 games this year when they win; and the opponents only 3 times against the Jays when they win. (Those are analog stats by the way - scrolled through the schedule and counted.  :) 

Jays pitching doesn't have to be as good as Buehrle's performance tonight - but there is the added pressure that effects the other bats when they're down by 5 runs or more, a situation that makes even good starting pitching better that it might be in a close game otherwise.

It's been all about the Jay's line up so far this year - with surprise replacements coming up all over the place - getting, and keeping, their spots in the line up with timely batting - s o while I hate to admit it John Gibbons has done a great job creating team - but what about the pitching (which he abuses mentally - regularly)?

More on that next time.


References:
ESPN Box Score (the accessible box score*) | Rangers at Jays - June 26 2015 | http://espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?id=350626114

* (Boxscore at MLB is up quick tonight - but I can't copy and paste names and stats from it ... off to espn's box score once again).

Bill Lee quote: can't find it - Google Search Engine is fouled up with real time results and branded marketing by Big Media. (but I think you can find the quote here: http://www.chriscomerradio.com/bill_lee/bill_lee_archives.htm - will check it later when I can listen, and I'll point you to it.)



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