5/8-5/10 Red Sox @ Yankees Series Thread

Behind Tyler Austin, of course, who is in his own category and thusly doesn't need to be mentioned as most hated.

As long as they don't give away any games I'd settle for 1 of 3. Unless Pomeranz and Price figure things out, the pitching matchups don't favor the Sox this series and the bullpen is due to have a rough game, especially Kelly and that's going to be one hostile crowd. Just don't get swept and move onto Toronto (I think that's where they're playing next?).

Interesting thing is Price is throwing his curveball 2 percent of the time this year. I don't even think he threw a curveball in his last start.

The curveball is the pitch you avoid throwing because of arm injuries. The scope on Price isn't looking good right now, to be frank.

I thought it was sliders and cutters that are much harder on an arm than a curve. Pomeranz has been pitching through his arm issues and throwing a curve more than anyone.

I also doubt Mookie is playing tonight after getting hit in the shoulder, which is a letdown.

The conditions are right for a BennyBreakout™ week in NYC!

Agree. However, even with a 92 MPH final pitch last outing I don’t think Pomeranz is ready for this game. These aren’t the Royals, and since getting past their rocky start, this team has been destroying LPH. I am hoping for a complete Severino meltdown, a ton of batted ball luck and really sloppy field play by the home team to win this one. Make it so.

Evan Drellich on CSNE.

Edit- Here's tweets he posted. He didn't make the connection to injury in these tweets, but he made the connection on the CSNE network.

Regardless of injury, a breaking pitch seems essential as Price's velocity dips and the effectiveness of his changeup diminishes. Needs something else to get hitters off balance

I’m scared about Pomeranz tonight but think we can get some off Severino.

Really hoping JBJ is sitting in favour of Moreland tonight.

When I was pitching before most of you were born, I had no talent, but I studied pitching and developed a very good curve that I threw a lot. I don't recall it causing any problem with my arm. I hurt my elbow throwing screwballs, and still have chips in that elbow. That put an end to my pitching. The screwball requires twisting the wrist counter-clockwise, which is not a natural motion for most of us. The curve requires a clockwise twist of the wrist, which is a natural motion. A good curve usually will spin and break on a 45 degree angle, give or take a few degrees.

Cutters and sliders use finger pressure rather than twisting the wrist and usually are thrown harder than curves. With a slider finger pressure is put on the right side (or the left for a lefty) of the ball, causing it to spin clockwise for a right-hander and counter clockwise for a lefty. With a cutter, pressure is put on the left side by a right-hander or the right side by a lefty. Neither pitch is particularly hard on the arm but both require strong fingers. Sliders tend to break on a lower angle than a curve and poorly thrown ones frequently end up in the outfield stands. Cutters usually just break sideways, or slightly down, and late. Until the last fraction of a second, it looks like a fastball to the batter. It is a very hard pitch to master, but good ones are very hard to hit.

I don't believe Price is avoiding the curve to protect his arm. He probably is avoiding it because it isn't working.