Colon flings all fastballs, all the time
Bartolo Colon of the New York Mets knows what his bread-andbutter pitch is. In fact, no starting pitcher in the major leagues throws his fastball as often as Colon.
Nobody else comes close.
According to Fangraphs.com,Colon used his fastball for 85.5 percent of his pitches last season with Oakland.
Cleveland’s Justin Masterson was second, at 73.3 percent.
Tyler Kepner of The New York Times wrote the choice may not appear to be the smartest one for the veteran.
“This strategy would seem to have made more sense for Colon when he was young, and could throw about 100 mph,” Kepner wrote. “But Colon turns 41 in May, and his fastball averaged 89.9 mph last season. Everyone else in the top 10 in fastball percentage threw harder.”
“You know what’s coming, but it’s all about where you’re starting it and what you’re trying to accomplish with each pitch,” said Mets outfielder Chris Young, Colon’s teammate on the A’s last season. “He thinks about that when he’s on the mound. He’s accomplishing different things, moving in and out. Even though it is just the fastball most of the time, he still keeps guys off balance somehow, and he breaks a lot of bats.”
“You know what you’re getting, and there’s no question he’s able to make what he has work - and that’s throwing a fastball to anybody at any time,” said outfielder Curtis Granderson, who played with Colon on the 2011 Yankees.
“But he locates it, and he’s got a lot of movement on it. It would be so amazing when I was behind him, just watching balls go inside, outside, up, down - same pitch - and next thing you know we’re in the fourth or fifth inning, there’s no runs and very few hits.
He’d get touched up from time to time, but he was that kind of competitor.”
Colon is not known for displaying that intensity.
Young compared him to Livan Hernandez, another oversize right-hander who seemed to pitch forever. Under pressure, Young said, Colon can sometimes be found casually flipping a ball on the mound, composed and carefree.
“It could be a couple runners on, two outs, but he’s not going to start choking the ball off,” Young said. “He knows what his strengths are, and he sticks to them.”
Reggie, Reggie
From Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind.:
Former NBA player Dennis Rodman said he will not go back to North Korea if the American people don’t want him to go. As long as Rodman goes away, I’m not sure most people have a real preference for the location.
Former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson might return to basketball for a front-office job with the New York Knicks. I truly believe Jackson could fix the Knicks, assuming he has a time machine and access to Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in their 20s.
Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler told ESPN The Magazine that he hopes his former team, the Texas Rangers, go 0-162. Informed of his comments, the Houston Astros said, “Wait, we called dibs on that record.”
The NCAA tabled an idea that would have slowed college football offenses by requiring 10 seconds to run off the play clock before a snap. Alabama Coach Nick Saban, one of the rule’s proponents, will be forced to try to promote another alternative, such as allowing coaches of big, slow, lumbering defenses 25 timeouts per game.
Reading Reed
Patrick Reed won the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral on Sunday, pocketing $1.53 million in the process.
But he admits he did not get to this point in his career by working out.
“I’d rather lay in bed and watch TV than get in the gym,” Reed said. “I’m not a workout junkie.
Don’t really watch what I eat. Just kind of live life.”
Sounds like our kind of guy.
Quote of the day
“Here is the deal: We’re not just happy to go. We’re going to get on the bus, and we’ll have a plan.” Charleston Coach B.J. Ross on reaching the Class 3A final
Sports, Pages 20 on 03/12/2014