FWIW, neither Fangraphs nor Statcast have a category for "two-seam fastball." They have a four-seam fastball category along with sinker, slider, cutter, slurve, sweeper, changeup, etc.
Let's Talk About Bello
- Thread starter BaseballJones
- Start date
Yeah, this is where I'm at. Guys have 2 seamers that sink more or less, but it's all thrown basically the same way.
Do guys get finger injuries? Seems like it’s mostly arms and elbows and fingers are mostly blister related.
Glad they are trying it, but I wonder if there’s added risk in ‘lab generated’ pitches. I guess maybe every pitcher is on cusp of grenading and they’re all looking for an edge anywhere.
Thanks @Fishy1 i didn’t know that. Really assumed a splitter (even though I kinda knew it was short for split finger fastball) was something else.
Moving this post over from the March/April thread. It's about his not throwing the 4 seam.
Still no 4 seams from Bello last night. There were seven balls hits with a 100mph EV or over.
Here's his line from Baseball Savant:
Two of the hard hit were crushed for two run homers.
The first was to Langeliers on a slider that didn't:
The second was to Bleday on a change right in the middle of the zone:
Here's his line from Baseball Savant:
Two of the hard hit were crushed for two run homers.
The first was to Langeliers on a slider that didn't:
The second was to Bleday on a change right in the middle of the zone:
One bright spot today was the performance of Bello in a day game against a very talented Orioles team. He went 5.1 IP, giving up 1 ER and 2 unearned, thanks Duran*, on 89 pitches.. He also threw 15 first pitch strikes to 23 batters.
*he gave up the two unearned runs when Duran, with two out in the fourth, dropped a fly to left that loaded the bases. Cowser then hit a double that scored the two runs. He then gave up another hit before Kemp popped out to end the inning. The error also added nine pitches to his pitch count.
Obviously, we all wish that he could have gotten out of the inning with no damage, but compared to last season, I'll say that this was a step forward in his growth on the mound.
It is only one game, but last season he had terrible Day/Night splits. He's slated to pitch in another day game this weekend against the Angels, so we'll have another chance to see how he does in another day game.
Here are his 2023 Day/Night splits
*he gave up the two unearned runs when Duran, with two out in the fourth, dropped a fly to left that loaded the bases. Cowser then hit a double that scored the two runs. He then gave up another hit before Kemp popped out to end the inning. The error also added nine pitches to his pitch count.
Obviously, we all wish that he could have gotten out of the inning with no damage, but compared to last season, I'll say that this was a step forward in his growth on the mound.
It is only one game, but last season he had terrible Day/Night splits. He's slated to pitch in another day game this weekend against the Angels, so we'll have another chance to see how he does in another day game.
Here are his 2023 Day/Night splits
I was at the game today. Bello was quite good. The Duran thing in particular was inexcusable..should’ve been out of that inning. He was in line to easily go 6 with where his pitch count was at up to that point.
First 5 starts, pre-injury:
26.2 IP, 26 K : 7 BB, 3.04 ERA, 4.04 FIP
Last 6, post-injury:
31.4 IP, 25 K : 14 BB, 6.25 ERA, 5.13 FIP
That K:BB ratio is really concerning.
What do the underlyings say - velocity, spin, etc.?
26.2 IP, 26 K : 7 BB, 3.04 ERA, 4.04 FIP
Last 6, post-injury:
31.4 IP, 25 K : 14 BB, 6.25 ERA, 5.13 FIP
That K:BB ratio is really concerning.
What do the underlyings say - velocity, spin, etc.?
Really hoping this poor performance is injury related. He definitely wasn’t right his first few starts off the IL but he’s still really struggling with feel/command. That AB to Julks was a big drag yesterday. This team has no choice but to keep running him out there but I really hope we see some marked improvement soon.
A lot of the recent poor starts (Bello and others) are all on one horrible inning with 0’s before and even some after. He probably should have been pulled but I don’t think it’s a Cora goof- just in retrospect.
,,,or if Bello is hurt, put him on the IL again and let him get well. This season is going nowhere with respect to wins, but is very important in terms of assessing/developing young talent. They should do nothing to impact his development, confidence, etc. and if he is hurt, let him heal.
There's no indication that he's hurt though. Struggling after returning from an injury could be as simple as the injury caused a slight change in his mechanics and he hasn't quite figured out how to correct it. That's the sort of thing for which he probably needs reps to get it right. Speaking of...
This also feels like something that can only be fixed through experience. The ability to buckle down and pitch out of jams or minimizing the damage in a bad inning is as much about experience as it is about raw ability and execution. The more opportunities Bello and others get, the better they'll get in those situations.
I recall a lot of discussion the last few years about Houck and his poor numbers/results when trying to go through the order a third time. My contention was always that the way for him to improve was to get more chances to face a lineup a third time (as opposed to pulling him after 18 hitters or making him a reliever). Lo and behold, with more experience under his belt as well as mastering another pitch, he's been so much more effective third time through the order (.614 OPS against compared to over .800 OPS prior to this season).
As long as these guys aren't reporting ailments, they need to be out there every five days and experiencing the growing pains.
I felt like Bello got squeezed a little on a couple of calls in that big inning - the 3-2 pitch a couple of batters before the HR could easily have been called a strike.
Of course I completely agree here. The pitchers that get themselves into these jams need to figure out how to get out of them. A lot of those "big" innings have been in the 2, 3 or 4th innings. Too soon in regular season play to pull them and hand it to Bernardino to wiggle out of a jam.
But what's causing those big innings? A few times it's seemed like a poor call gets a guy on base and then some poor pitching afterwards that leads to a HR. Sometimes it's a friggin error. But I can think of 3 times just off the top of my head that Crawford, Pivetta and Bello all just had a meltdown inning (4 runs or more) and the game gets completely away. With Crawford recently it was a BB then he seemed to lose focus and gave up a GS.
Cora wasn't happy with Bello slamming his glove on the ground on Saturday so he called him into his office on Sunday for a talk.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/09/sports/red-sox-bello/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/09/sports/red-sox-bello/
That’s a great pep talk by Cora. Take the kid out of his immediate funk. Kind of reminds me of Pedro’s quote of when he was sitting under a Mango tree with, what was it, 50 cents (or Dominican equivalent) in his pocket.
And it was probably delivered in Spanish. A lot of people here like to shit on Cora but I think he's really good with his players. He's getting paid this winter.
Funny, I was going to mention in my post “probably in Spanish “ also. We do always hear that the players really like him.