Forget This Pitch! Week 5 5/2-5 /8

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May 8, 2022
Seattle Mariners non-roster
Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners.

Every week we’ll be looking at some MLB pitches that get absolutely destroyed.

This weekly article will look at some poorly performing pitches that MLB batters take full advantage of. Not every selection is going to be a home run. It can be extra-base hits or hard-hit singles. Our criteria are that the pitch didn’t go as planned, with negative consequences.

We do our best to provide you with some information on the pitcher and the pitch. For example, how the pitch should have been executed and performed. Also, if possible, we’ll provide the spin rate of the pitch.

Does the pitcher have control issues, or is this a new pitch he’s working on, or did he just miss? We’ll also point out the location of the pitch, where the catcher wants it, and where it ends up.

Let’s get into it.

First of Many

Seattle Mariners rookie Julio Rodriguez finally hit his first major league home run. His big-league career has gotten off to a peculiar start. Battling a much larger strike zone than any other MLB player. He hasn’t expanded his strike zone as a result of it, thankfully. Now he finally got to reap the first reward of his hard work. Prior to Rodriguez’s success, Miami intentionally walked the batter in front of him, Abraham Toro, as if J-Rod needed any more motivation to do damage.

Sandy Alcantara fell behind in the count, 2-1 to Julio. Jacob Stallings calls for Alcantara’s 103rd pitch to be a 97 mph sinker low. Instead, Alcantara throws it low and inside. JRod gets his first chance to say #ForgetThisPitch as he sends the sinker 450 feet out of the park at 110.4 mph for a three-run home run. Alcantara’s sinker’s spin rate was slightly up (2281 rpm) in this game compared to his seasonal average (2279 rpm). Unfortunately, for Alcantara, this home run pitch came in at 2236 rpm. It just didn’t have its normal break (18.1 inches of vertical break) he was expecting it to have (16.8 inches of vertical break).

The Other Top Seattle Prospect

Jarred Kelenic has struggled to find any consistent success at the MLB level. And unfortunately, he might be entering a platoon role with the Seattle Mariners. However, here is Kelenic facing off against Shawn Armstrong in the top of the ninth with Miami up 8-3 and runners at the corners. Armstrong is in a good position as he has Kelenic in a 1-2 hole at the plate. Miami’s catcher calls for the 14th pitch to be a 92 mph cutter low and inside to JK.

Armstrong instead delivers the cutter up and in for Kelenic to rip a double down the right-field line at 81.7 mph. Ironically, Armstrong throws a very tight spinning cutter (2553 rpm)at Kelenic, compared to his normal spin (2436 rpm). All of the metrics are in line with their normal rates for Armstrong’s cutter. I’m not sure if the ball maybe slips out of his hand a bit and that’s why he badly misses his location. Regardless, Armstrong allows Kelenic to let Armstrong know he can #ForgetThisPitch.

Robot Umps’ Case gets Stronger

This isn’t one of the normal entries here for #ForgetThisPitch. However, it is something that needs to be addressed. MLB has a problem. Well besides offenses and hitting all being down. One of the reasons for the aforementioned problems is the ever-changing, never consistent strike zone. Listen Boomer I understand human error is part of the game. And that baseball is a sport as a whole that promotes failure.

However, the strike zone the umpires are calling is ridiculous. Here we see New York Mets starter Tylor Megill get a strikeout on Atlanta’s Marcel Ozuna. What’s incredible is none of these pitches is a strike. They’re not even close to the zone and Megill misses each one of his locations. The only reason none of these pitches were missed is because they’re all balls. The case for robot umpires is growing. And this is just another example as to why they are needed over the human error, I mean the human eye.

Until next week. If you have any nominations send them to me at @C_Phillips_13 and we’ll do our best to feature them all.

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