Is the cutter a breaking ball? Topic

You're saying that couldn't happen?   The other fact of the matter is that the TV camera is offset behind the pitcher, not straight on, so it can be visually deceptive in terms of the break.  I'm not about to claim pitch F/X to be perfect, but it is an actual technological measurement, so I'm going to believe it's not going to register 6 inches when it was actually 18.  At even 18 inches, you're saying that Rivera could start a ball at one corner and get it just off the plate on the other.  That's absurd, especially with it moving that fast.
6/28/2013 10:19 AM
Catchers glove. That's not affected by camera angle. The pitch starts out right at the glove and the glove slides 6-8 inches to our left to receive it
6/28/2013 10:26 AM
Your sense of measurement is off, never believe the wife, she's just trying to make you feel adequate. believe me, I know.
6/28/2013 10:33 AM
Meh.  If I'm getting mine, I don't have to feel adequate. 
6/28/2013 10:51 AM
I will say that if you go back a few years (pitch f/x only goes back about 5) you do seem some pitches getting 12 inches going left and 7-8 going right, so he might have used to have more break on it, but everything is still strongly clustered inside 5-6 inches. 
6/28/2013 10:53 AM
From the other thread:

"Yeah, I'm not afraid to admit I'm retarded.    I'll scale it back to 12-18.   Maths is hard."

6/28/2013 10:58 AM
I still think that's generous, but at this point there's not much else to say.
6/28/2013 10:59 AM

MAIS, OUI!

6/28/2013 11:24 AM
If you look at pitch f/x for all pitchers (who throw a cutter) going back to 2010 with a min 100 IP, average horizantal movement on a cutter is 1.5 inches. The average velocity is 89.

Compared to a slider which, using the same parameters, breaks an average of 3 inches and has an average velocity of 83.

It looks like the cutter is a fastball.

6/28/2013 12:00 PM
Hitters miss the sweet spot on the bat with Rivera by 10 inches with regularity.   Are all professional hitters ******?
6/28/2013 12:07 PM
Cutter is a modified fastball.

Case Closed.
6/28/2013 12:16 PM
You're assuming all hitters time each swing perfectly. Do all hitters hit every fastball down the middle off the sweetspot? You're falsely assuming every swing at a Rivera cutter, if it stayed straight, would connect on the sweet spot. Not true.

You're also not taking into account that Mo has one of the best cutters in the game. I'm willing to bet very few ML pitchers get that kind of movement on a cutter.
6/28/2013 12:24 PM
Posted by MikeT23 on 6/28/2013 9:51:00 AM (view original):
But, even so, if you've ever seen Rivera pitch, professional hitters get sawed off 12 inches above the hands.   Assuming a 34 inch bat, they're missing the "sweet spot" by about 18 inches. 
Again, more flawed logic. For most ML hitters, "above the hands" probably starts 6-8 inches up the handle of the bat. Add 12 inches to that and you're at the 20 inch mark, which leaves about 10 inches to the sweet spot.
6/28/2013 12:25 PM
Posted by MikeT23 on 6/28/2013 12:07:00 PM (view original):
Hitters miss the sweet spot on the bat with Rivera by 10 inches with regularity.   Are all professional hitters ******?
Are you saying that the only good reason for missing the sweet spot by a wide margin is horizontal movement on the pitch?  You've never seen guys get sawed off or badly jammed with a four-seamer?
6/28/2013 12:30 PM
There's a gif in this article that overlays 6 pitches where Rivera broke bats this year.   Interestingly enough a few of the hitters were righties but all of the bat breaking occurred on the first base side of the plate.

http://mlb.si.com/2013/05/16/gif-mariano-rivera-breaking-bats/
6/28/2013 12:37 PM
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Is the cutter a breaking ball? Topic

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