One of the best things that came out of DanO's pitch to contact stuff was that it lead to a lot more pitchers that were going to come out and put the ball past guys for strikes on the first pitch. Aaron Harang's success was based a lot on this last year, I remember reading an article that said he lead the Reds in this category, and maybe was high up in the NL lead.
Ok, found some stuff to back this up... although this is from the Enquirer on May 7, 2005:
Today I noticed the same thing comming from Bronson, a lot of 0-1 counts, which I think really contributed to his stinking sweet outing. He rarely ever fell behind, and only walked one.Quote:
Aaron Harang is second in the major leagues in the percentage of first-pitch strikes. Of Harang's 147 first pitches, 106 (72.1 percent) have been strikes. Minnesota's Brad Radke is first, with 152 of 199 (76.4) first pitches going for strikes.
This can backfire if your stuff isn't working, but it seemed to be very beneficial for Aaron last year.
Thoughts?
