Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Isn't that the whole idea behind good knuckleball (or sinkerball) pitchers? Don't let batters get good contact on balls so they hit mostly pop us, weak grounders, or foul balls. But that isn't really cool anymore so no one really tries mastering it. Nowadays seems like everyone wants the studs throwing 100 MPH that strike everyone out, so are more and more the kinds of pitchers you see coming up.
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I've watched enough baseball games to be pretty damn sure there are pitchers who are harder to hit solidly whether you put the ball into play off them or not, but maybe it's all an illusion. Incidentally Maddux' BABIP for his career was 9 points below the league average, and if you exclude his end of career seasons probably a bit better than that. That seems significant to me but I don't know. Kershaw -- 23 points below.