Duquette on O's pitching philosophy: "We don't like the cutter"

[ofahn]

The O's did get off to a hot start and have played .500 ball ever since. I don't consider this team as presently constituted legitimate contenders.

I posted that a month ago and nothing has occurred since then that would change my mind. So far we've had the benefit of very good field management and the soft part of our schedule. If the team is still ten games above .500 in mid September then I will admit I was wrong.

[ofahn]

The team's performance did result in us hanging on to potential trade chips

I posted a couple of months ago that DD would face a difficult decision in July if the team looked like it could win 81 or more games. I'm sure he felt he owed it to the fans. At least he didn't gut the farm system.

[Old Sneakers]

I honestly suspect DD would take that interview back if he could. If Dylan Bundy's Cutter is that good. There is simply no way in all of creation it is forever shelved.

BTW: How come Don's website doesn't have a banner anywhere in sight? I look forward to his posts when I check in here.

[Matt P]

Yeah, I was listening to that episode too. Honestly, if you take his condescending tone out of the comments, he actually didn't say much that I disagree with. The O's did get off to a hot start and have played .500 ball ever since. I don't consider this team as presently constituted legitimate contenders. The team's performance did result in us hanging on to potential trade chips, and also giving up a pretty good prospect to acquire Jim Thome. I don't think the O's are better than Tampa, Detroit or Anaheim. So ultimately, I'm kind of on the same page with him, but I wish he could state his opinion less dismissively. It wouldn't be hard to say, "I don't really think they're a good team, but if they find their way into the playoffs it doesn't matter how they did it." He's just a bit too dogmatic in his devotion to sabermetrics, even though I agree with virtually all of his general positions.

Here's the thing about Bundy's cutter: it was his best pitch. Some scouts said it was an 80 on the scouting scale. If they want him to put it away while he really develops his three base pitches, I think that's reasonable, as long as they eventually let him throw it again. But simply saying no one can throw a cutter-- across the board, without exceptions-- doesn't make any more sense than any other level of fundamentalist thought.

I agree, he isn't wrong in what he says it's just the way he says it that makes him sound like such a douche. He also has Yu Darvish as the #2 AL ROY with Chen not even on the list lol. He hates the Orioles.

[Don]

You guys have to turn off the sound. There is a great deal of respect for Palmer and he is one of the best pitchers in the history of this great game, but if he was saying that Tillman was throwing a cutter, he is missing the mark.

I saw maybe 2 or 3 over his entire starts in July, out of at least 400 pitches. He has almost no horizontal movement on the pitch and a 4S grip with a twist. I am not a fan of how Chris Tillman throws his cutter, I rather have him throw the slider with snap, even though I discourage both with anyone I work with on pitching.

I wait for pitch f/x to come out over his last start, which really pains me to say because it is not the gospel and people treat it as such.