Posted by Jeremy Greenhouse
A common mistake made by baseball fans is to call a pitcher unhittable when that pitcher is not Matt Thornton. His stuff is the best in baseball, and today, he demonstrated why his fastball is truly unhittable.
Thornton entered the ninth inning to face three very accomplished hitters in Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, and Travis Hafner. One problem. They're all left-handed. Zero. Chance.
Nice. Although when I checked the data, it seemed like Thornton had a lot less movement on his fastball than he had last season.
Posted 04/05 at 08:27 PM
Kampfer said...
exactly what I am thinking. 8” of movement is pretty average.
Posted 04/05 at 08:45 PM
Jeremy Greenhouse said...
RZ and Kampfer, I’m not sure what you guys mean. Movement isn’t linear in that it can be less or more. In what way was the movement different? Anyway, the velocity and location alone are astounding.
Posted 04/05 at 09:58 PM
Jimbo said...
I see a guy who completely ran out of gas there vs Hafner. Four pitches AND he made contact.
Nice. Although when I checked the data, it seemed like Thornton had a lot less movement on his fastball than he had last season.