Volquez game 1 - Tipping pitches?

[frenetic wave]

I noticed the Phillies hitters fouled off every pitch Volquez threw, whether it was 78mph or 95mph. Then Wood came in and the same hitters who were on every pitch that Volquez threw were swinging and missing, losing their balance on their swings and looking overall pathetic. Also last night, they looked the same as they did in every inning that Volquez didn't pitch- guessing, striking out, swinging unbalanced. Has there been any discussion about perhaps that the Phillies hitters knew what pitches were coming and that is why they seemed to take great swings at everything Volquez threw?

[Vottomatic]

I'm sure they were cheating. The Phillies are pretty well established as cheaters.

[webbbj]

well i dont think if the phillies picking up on the fact that volquez was tipping pitches is cheating.

i dont know if he was tipping pitches but it aint cheating if the phils knew he was.

but anyway i dont think that was the problem. i think the problem was volquez couldnt locate his pitches. his fastball was either high or outside and all of his breaking balls were missing low. and he was in a lot of predictable counts b/c of his inefficeincy to throw strikes early in the count.

[FlyerFanatic]

yep, volquez just fell behind the hitters way too much. cant do that against a lineup like the phillies

[frenetic wave]

I'm obviously not saying they were cheating. Just that Volquez wasn't hiding his pitches.

I'm just wondering because there was a quote from Price or Baker about Volquez tipping pitches earlier in the season and I was pretty intrigued by how great the Phillies' swings were in those 2 innings. Usually good hitters will take good hacks but still be thrown off by off speed pitches and changing speeds, but whether Volquez threw a curve or a fastball they had him perfectly timed EVERY pitch. I think he only got 1 swing and miss.

[Vottomatic]

......and I was joking anyway.

Phillies have the better offense and 3 top starters.

It was going to take our best games to beat them, and we've played 2 of our worst games of the season, so we deserve to be 0-2.

[stammer]

When a pitcher has location issues, it impacts almost every aspect of his pitching performance.

As a Phillies partial-season ticket holder, I was able to get tickets in the upper deck along the first base side. Even from that angle, you could see early that he was way out of the zone as I watched Hernandez' glove fly high and outside.

When a pitcher is that far off, not only do the strikes stop being on the corners and dive for the heart of the strike zone, but it impacts the movement of the pitches as the hurler loses confidence in his stuff and starts trying to place the ball rather than just letting it fly. As a result, what would have been swings and misses become foul balls.

When I saw the rotation, I felt that Volquez and Cueto were the biggest concerns because they were such wildcards with incredible stuff. Yes, Arroyo is the established, 17-game winner with post-season experience. But I couldn't see him dominating the way Volquez and Cueto, when they have their top-end stuff, have the potential to do.

I'll be interested to see which version of Cueto we get. Either the crowd will get him so pumped up and he'll overthrow the ball, or he'll lock in the way Ubaldo Jimenez did against Philly in 07 and we'll have a gem of a pitching duel. Should be fun.

[Krawhitham]

If he was tipping pitches it is NOT cheating if the batters notice it