Bradt walks batters twice with bases loaded ..

[smilinjoefission]

The inability to throw strikes is one of the things I can't abide.

We might have to become more accepting of that. The Cards have acquired a ton of guys who can light up the radar gun - Molina being one of them. But can they find the zone consistently?

Don’t get me wrong: it’s great to finally have guys in the system with K/9s north of 9.0. The pitching side of baseball has spent a great deal of resources on getting guys to throw 100 mph, but you rarely hear equal amount of excitement about command.

That’s where I’m interested in learning more about this player development overhaul.

When people talk about the triple digit throwers I ALWAYS bring up Maikel Cleto. Back when 100+ was rare the Cards had this guy who wasn't a pitcher, he was a thrower, and it showed...walked a ton, gave up bombs, hit alot of batters, and the Cards realized this and moved him on down the line. Now everyone and their mom throws 100+ there is ZERO need to settle for one who can't pitch, only throw. As people said Molina has about as much chance as pitching in a regular season MLB game as I do, but still how can someone be a pitcher and not throw strikes?

[VegasVinny]

The inability to throw strikes is one of the things I can't abide.

We might have to become more accepting of that. The Cards have acquired a ton of guys who can light up the radar gun - Molina being one of them. But can they find the zone consistently?

Don’t get me wrong: it’s great to finally have guys in the system with K/9s north of 9.0. The pitching side of baseball has spent a great deal of resources on getting guys to throw 100 mph, but you rarely hear equal amount of excitement about command.

That’s where I’m interested in learning more about this player development overhaul.

When people talk about the triple digit throwers I ALWAYS bring up Maikel Cleto. Back when 100+ was rare the Cards had this guy who wasn't a pitcher, he was a thrower, and it showed...walked a ton, gave up bombs, hit alot of batters, and the Cards realized this and moved him on down the line. Now everyone and their mom throws 100+ there is ZERO need to settle for one who can't pitch, only throw. As people said Molina has about as much chance as pitching in a regular season MLB game as I do, but still how can someone be a pitcher and not throw strikes?

Nightmare flashbacks with Cleto. Eek. The pendulum of the game is still on the side of velocity for pitching and home runs for batting. It's what front offices have prioritized for awhile now as evidenced by the money and opportunities given to the Joey Gallos and the Robbie Rays of the world. (And why we're seeing Gorman get another season of runway in STL).

If front offices unilaterally decided that hit by pitches was what they're going to value most, we'd all see a lineup of guys crowding the plate like Anthony Rizzo. It's created a duller version of the game, but strikeouts and home runs are the carrots being dangled in front of modern players. I don't particularly care for it, but I don't blame the players.