The Philadelphia Phillies jumped ahead to a 6-0 and stayed ahead of the New York Mets in their 14-8 victory last night.
Here are seven takeaways from last night’s shellacking.
Addison Reed Looking Sharp
Although he allowed some hard outs, Reed showed a quick, corky and deceptive delivery, hiding the baseball well from hitters with an explosive fastball and sharp slider located low in the strike zone.
Reed’s fastball clocked in at 93 mph but it stays fast through the strike zone. Radar guns pick up fastballs out of the pitchers hand but fail reading the pitch as it crosses home plate.
As scouts say, a fastball thrown “with life”, “staying quick or strong through the strike zone” or “accelerating through the strike zone” is a fastball coming out of the pitchers hand at 93 mph and crossing home plate at 93 mph as opposed to slowing down when crossing home plate. This is the reason Reed’s fastball looks comparable to Matt Harvey’s and Jacob deGrom’s.
Reed is a nice addition to the backend of the Mets bullpen, seeing strong seventh and eighth inning work moving forward.
Jon Niese’s Third Inning
Simply, Niese threw far too many pitches over the middle third of home plate.
Freddy Galvis’ leadoff line drive double into the right field gap was off a belt high fastball located in the middle third of home plate. Francoeur’s RBI single was a curveball splitting the middle of home plate. Darin Ruf’s three-run homerun was a curveball splitting the middle of home plate.
Even the two fastballs thrown to Ruf leading up to the homerun pitch were belt and belly high over the middle third of home plate.
Darnell Sweeney: 2 H, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 SO, 1 BB
Phillies switch-hitting leadoff batter Darnell Sweeney, is the bright spot for an otherwise bleak Philadelphia roster. He produces a fluid, short swing and good eye for the strike zone with visible confidence and composure.
Michael Conforto Showing Five Tools
In the past two games, Conforto has:
- Fielded the baseball perfectly of the left field corner wall to throw Darin Ruf out at second base (Fielding and Arm, Check and Check)
- Stolen second base (Speed/base running, Check)
- Hit an opposite field homerun (Hit for Power, Check)
- A multi-hit game (Hit for Average, Check)
Yoenis Cespedes Shows Intelligence at the Plate
Cespedes had two swinging strikeouts and a check-swing strike in his third at-bat on chest high fastballs. Then Phillies pitcher Aaron Harang tried inducing another swing and miss on a chest high fastball.
Impressively, Cespedes was one step ahead, turning on the high fastball hitting an absolute missile into the left field bleachers for a homerun.
Bobby Parnell: 3 BF, 0.0 IP, 2 R, 2 BB
Parnell needs to throw 98 mph to be successful. Not 92. Not 95. Not 96. 98 mph or above.
Simply, his fastball command and sharp movement in his secondary pitches are not apparent. Lacking a 98 mph fastball, fastball command and sharp second pitches, he produces no swings and misses. This translates to a lack of confidence inside the strike zone resulting in more walks as Parnell tries placing or nibbling around the corners of home plate.
Parnell needs to be one of those erratic, 100 mph relievers, like he was prior to arm surgery. See Craig Kimbrel.
Carlos Torres.
This will be the third and final time I speak about Torres. Very little fastball command, far too many fastballs over the middle third of home plate and erratic secondary pitches. Even his outs are line drives.
Terry Collins challenged him last night. And Torres failed. Again. Hopefully, Collins continues to insert Torres when behind in games.
Follow Chris Zaccherio on Twitter @ziography for more Mets insight going beyond statistics.
