when i was little and growing up watching the late 90s mets, he was my favorite. his intensity on the mound was like nothing i had seen at that point and i loved his post-game interviews. he was so in depth with his answers and it was obvious to me he was a really smart man. i said to myself a million times "he better become an announcer or stick with baseball somehow" after he retires and im so glad hes been working with the MLB network. ive been a fan of al for over 20 years now! crazy
I think that's the great thing about MLB Network in general. It feels like everyone is genuinely in love with the game and not only talking about it but explaining it with their experience. A lot of other sports shows with ex-pros feel like a lot are there for a paycheck, obviously there are exceptions but for the majority.
I wish that in every sport, more shows did in-depth analysis like this as opposed to creating controversy, spinning their own narratives, and the two second sound bite that our culture is used to.
I could listen to Al Leiter talk and teach about pitching all damn day. No BS just straight facts. MLB network needs to keep Al on the air and teaching.
These segments on MLB tonight are always awesome and I love them, but he’s just basically peaching to hit your spots, because the same could be said for the low pitch. It’s a really small window where it’s effective vs it’s a right down the middle homer vs a ball. I get what he’s trying to illustrate but with the batters emphasis on launch angle it’s going to change the game to prioritize both levels of the strike zone. That’s what I really love about the game, it’s so old yet there’s a constant back and forth between batters and pitchers to have an upper hand.
analytics are great but i think that taking metadata over a large group (how many batters league wide hit balls in which areas) when you are trying to decide what an individual should do. instead, get a sample of their behaviors and their stats when changing that behavior, then use that data to fine tune the man. you tune a car's engine timing with its engine.....not with the 'average national settings for that car'.
Good on Al for exposing the idea of throwing fastballs up as dangerous (especially if, as with Porcello, it's not your strength). Pitching in the majors is hard, and this is one good reason why.
I love mlb’s attempt to cover up the juiced baseballs. They have created balls that are less dense that allow for more carry and compression. I wish they would just come out and admit it.
5:50 A changeup is not a breaking ball, it is an offspeed pitch. In baseball, an off speed pitch is a pitch thrown at a slower speed than a fastball. Breaking balls and changeups are the two most common types of off speed pitches. ... Virtually all professional pitchers have at least one - pitch in their repertoire. its true that breaking balls (slider, curve etc.) are also off speed pitches, that doesnt make the changeup a breaking ball.
Velocity I think widens that margin of error, a fastball right down broadway is still a tough pitch to hit if it’s 100 and you aren’t sitting on it, porcello of course is not a hard thrower
Those middle two white line separate the boundaries behind what gets called strike or sometimes a strike is the why MLB needs automated strike zone calling.
That's good for what the strike zone ought to be. What I see when I watch games is every ump has a different strike zone and is never consistent. 3-in outside is a strike one call and the next batter up it's not a strike. Until MLB goes to some kind of computer or robot umpires I can't watch the garbage that they let go. The umps decide the game, not the players!
that being said, it is disingenuous to suggest that throwing at the knees is a safe location in today's game, even below the zone gets hit on the park all the time now. Miss slightly up and it's more of a nitro zone than missing down slightly at the top of the zone.
@@davidhume8640 I think hes saying that if you miss a pitch that is in the bottom part of the strikezone you're throwing what launch-angle batters are looking for and the ball is going to get blasted.
It's like they're trying to universalize pitching strategy and that just doesn't work. I understand using metrics but a pitcher should use the strategies that legitimately work for them.
this is awful..... 1. You should throw up in the zone IF you have a high vertical break FB (Cole, Verlander, Hader, etc...) 2. High VB FB are correlated to higher swing and miss % and higher Fly ball %-- Meaning that the pitcher has a higher chance of influencing his outcomes. 2. Sure you can miss "middle-middle" when throwing the FB up in zone, JUST like you can miss when aiming for the corners and throwing a juicy FB right down the middle! 3. Aiming up and missing in the middle are not mutually exclusive. Like stated previously you can aim down and away and still miss middle. 4. Every batted ball has a "Launch Angle"--> Launch angle is a batted ball metric, not a swing metric.... A grounder, Pop up, fly ball, and line drive ALL have "launch angle"...
The ball is flying out at historic rates because MLB has decided more homers is good for viewership on TV and attendance in the ballparks, so they started juicing the ball. Apparently steroids are only bad when players do them.
