GDT: May 17 Seattle Mariners at Toronto Blue Jays (Game 2/3) 7:07 ET

[Spanky99]

Series W locked in... Sweep their ass tomorrow!!!

[Omar]

Woooooooo... great W Birds!!!

 

 

[BuckHenry]

Berrios won us this game !

[Spanky99]

 

Love this Gif... 100 wins incoming.

[Effit]

Lol.. water bottles tonight. Guess Vladdy wanted to give Hazel a break this time.

[JaysAllMighty]

[Stangstag]

 

Love his energy. Jason Grilli 2.0 less Ks and more grounders

[jaysblue]

Love his energy. Jason Grilli 2.0 less Ks and more grounders

 

Jason Grilli was a 40-year old man haha.

[M.E.]

The springer triple doesn’t feel like it would have dropped in over the last month. Finally got the luck versus the diving catch which has been happening.

[G-Snarls]

The springer triple doesn’t feel like it would have dropped in over the last month. Finally got the luck versus the diving catch which has been happening.

 

Yes

 

In Tampa the RF will always catch that ball when we're playing there

 

Or it hits a pelican and is deemed a ground rule double play or some stupid ass lame stadium s***

[G-Snarls]

Berrios won us this game !

 

Yes

 

Huge huge game for him

 

We need him to be good

[Jimcanuck]

Did the Berrios haterz shut up?

[BigCecil]

Did the Berrios haterz shut up?

 

Was he good? Didn't see. Was listening some to game at a practice. A good line but not many K or much swing and miss. What did it look like? Phelps unsung hero last night. That was huge.

[max silver]

Was he good? Didn't see. Was listening some to game at a practice. A good line but not many K or much swing and miss. What did it look like? Phelps unsung hero last night. That was huge.

 

Berrios was quite good. As you mentioned he didn't strike out many batters but he was able to limit the hard contact for most of the start. It was certainly a step in the right direction but Seattle didn't exactly have a murderers row lineup last night.

[Laika]

Was he good? Didn't see. Was listening some to game at a practice. A good line but not many K or much swing and miss. What did it look like? Phelps unsung hero last night. That was huge.

 

he was pretty good but it's a s***** offense, and he got saved from a potential blowup inning with a 1 out, bases loaded double play

 

the K numbers remained underwhelming.

[THANOS]

he was pretty good but it's a s***** offense, and he got saved from a potential blowup inning with a 1 out, bases loaded double play

 

the K numbers remained underwhelming.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with him. Great stuff but poor game plan is my guess. Also, the FB, from the eye test, seems slower, but I haven't checked, to be fair, if that's true.

 

I heard Carlos Pena prior to the season mention that he believed for Berrios to be elite, he'd need to change his game plan and toss 4SM FB up and in to LH and RH and reduce the reliance on the 2SM FB. The 2FB seems to run out over the plate to LH and get smoked, which isn't ideal.

 

From what I've seen, I would agree. High 4FBs up and in, which CH darting down and away from LH/down and in to RH, as well as the CV down and away to RH/down and in to LH is the magic plan to work for him.

 

Same thing we used to say about Stroman to be honest. He's very similar to him on the field. Though couldn't be any more different off of it.

[Terminator]

Berrios got 4 whiffs the entire game. He’s struggling to miss bats big time. For comparison Gilbert had 16 whiffs.

[max silver]

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with him. Great stuff but poor game plan is my guess. Also, the FB, from the eye test, seems slower, but I haven't checked, to be fair, if that's true.

 

I heard Carlos Pena prior to the season mention that he believed for Berrios to be elite, he'd need to change his game plan and toss 4SM FB up and in to LH and RH and reduce the reliance on the 2SM FB. The 2FB seems to run out over the plate to LH and get smoked, which isn't ideal.

 

From what I've seen, I would agree. High 4FBs up and in, which CH darting down and away from LH/down and in to RH, as well as the CV down and away to RH/down and in to LH is the magic plan to work for him.

 

Same thing we used to say about Stroman to be honest. He's very similar to him on the field. Though couldn't be any more different off of it.

 

I don't think his stuff is much different from previous seasons, velocity is very close to previous years and vertical/horizontal movement looks to be pretty much the same as previous seasons as well. To me his issues look to be stemming from poor command within the strike zone.

[THANOS]

I don't think his stuff is much different from previous seasons, velocity is very close to previous years and vertical/horizontal movement looks to be pretty much the same as previous seasons as well. To me his issues look to be stemming from poor command within the strike zone.

 

Those are my thoughts, poor command and poor game calling (something Pete, Jose and the C need to work on overhauling).

[Laika]

So he is trying to throw more 4 seamers than 2 seamers this season. Maybe that has him a bit uncomfortable.

 

The 2 seamer is such a crutch pitch for some of these guys like him and Stroman who came up being told day in and day out that you needed to keep the ball down, and groundballs are an amazing result, etc.

 

Here is the only thing I can find - the movement profile on his breaking ball seems a bit different. Curveball has always had vertical movement of -4.6 inches or more (vs average) but this year is is -3.2.

 

And on Pitch Info shown in Fangraphs it's even being classified as a slider! for the first time!!!

 

But the whiff rates on ALL OF HIS PITCHES are down....

 

So the best guess really does just remain that his command is off and he's not missing bats because of that.

But the other possibilities are he is trying to throw more 4 seamers and it is f***ing him up.

Or his curveball movement is a bit different and it's not working.

[Laika]

It's mostly the 4 seamer that is getting rocked.

 

Maybe he is tipping pitches???????

[BigCecil]

It's mostly the 4 seamer that is getting rocked.

 

Maybe he is tipping pitches???????

 

Good discussion from all. That's what I'm wondering on tipping. With his movement and repertoire, the lack of whiffs is hard to understand. Just smacks of non filth or tipping. LHH are crushing him but better last night. His FB is getting lit. The average fan will say great start last night and I'll certainly take it but I still find his performance concerning. This is the honeymoon period in this deal.

[THANOS]

So he is trying to throw more 4 seamers than 2 seamers this season. Maybe that has him a bit uncomfortable.

 

The 2 seamer is such a crutch pitch for some of these guys like him and Stroman who came up being told day in and day out that you needed to keep the ball down, and groundballs are an amazing result, etc.

 

Here is the only thing I can find - the movement profile on his breaking ball seems a bit different. Curveball has always had vertical movement of -4.6 inches or more (vs average) but this year is is -3.2.

 

And on Pitch Info shown in Fangraphs it's even being classified as a slider! for the first time!!!

 

But the whiff rates on ALL OF HIS PITCHES are down....

 

So the best guess really does just remain that his command is off and he's not missing bats because of that.

But the other possibilities are he is trying to throw more 4 seamers and it is f***ing him up.

Or his curveball movement is a bit different and it's not working.

 

Thanks for this Laika. Very informative.

 

That is interesting with the 4SM being used more and getting rocked. I'm definitely leaning more towards your point on the command being off, and a change to his delivery or mechanics being a potential solution (which I think is being done according to Shulman I believe).

 

Without knowing for sure, I wonder if throwing the 4SM more is impacting his feel for his Slurve pitch? Maybe it's leading more towards Slider and being more Horizontal instead of Vertical because his finger grips are getting all confused together or something.