Price vs. Moyer

I've pitched for the majority of my life, roughly 13 years, and I am still no closer to understanding this intricate art than the day I threw my first pitch. I've gone out on days when my right arm was probably more fit to be in a sling than hurling baseballs and shut decent hitters down, only to trot out full of confidence with my best stuff three days later and not make it through a full inning. I've snuck fastballs past professional prospects and given up 400 foot shots to 9-hole McLovin lookalikes... many times in the same game. I've been perplexed to the point of insanity watching games in which a 5'7, 160 pound kid in Rec Specs scatters six hits over nine innings against a solid top-to-bottom lineup, while the opposing team's 90 MPH-throwing ace gets chased his second time through the order.

The game I'm watching right now is a perfect example of this madness. Rays' phenom David Price has the best stuff he's shown all year. His fastball consistently comes in at 95 and his slider is sweeping about three feet. The Phillies' Jamie Moyer, his opponent, is 43 years old and has topped out tonight at 84, which even the commentators call a generous reading. Yet who was winning 10-1 in the 5th inning? Moyer, who keeps making Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena look like fools on inside changeups, a pitch a left-handed pitcher typically does not throw to lefty hitters. On the other side, Price is giving up monster bombs to Phillies 7-hole hitter John Mayberry, Jr. How does this sort of thing consistently occur in baseball?

Moyer certainly has the upper hand in pitching knowledge and experience on the 23 year-old Price. He has been pitching with efficiency on both sides of the plate, coming in effectively on hitters he should have no business throwing inside to with his lack of velocity. But by coming inside, Moyer changes the hitters' approach and their eye level and plants another seed in their minds. I've always thought pitching inside is like having an extra, 4th or 5th, pitch. Price has done a poor job with his pitch sequencing. He speeds up the Rays' bats with sliders after pumping fastballs by them. His 0-2/1-2 pitch selection has hurt him too. He offers up pitches that are too fat and catch too much of the plate, probably because he is looking for strikeouts. He has also failed to pitch inside, which would maximize his velocity. Many people stress keeping the ball down to prevent giving up hard hit balls, but many hits Price has given up have been on well-placed pitches.

Pitching is an extremely nuanced art that frequently defies logic. Moyer clearly has a better understanding of it than Price does at this point, certainly a better one than I ever approached... and perhaps that is why he is still pitching in his 40's and I am sitting at home at age 22 with a career ERA approaching double digits.