Not much to talk about in a positive light in the game against the Rays this evening. Sloppy defense, a great outing by Kazmir, earning his first win since may 9th and pitching a season high 7+ innings (why he had to pick tonight to have arguably his best outing of the year just stiffles me) and lack of offense left the Yankees on the unfamiliar losing end. 6-2 was the final.

On a much more eventful note was White Sox pitcher Mark Buehlre making his first start since his perfect game against the Rays. Remarkably, he remained perfect through 5 and I was honestly beginning to believe that I was going to witness (via espn gamecast) the unthinkable: two perfect games in a row. Unfortunately it never got to that: he gave up a walk, followed by the single two outs into the 6th. But he still has something to cheer about, setting the all time major league record by retiring 45 straight batters. Many congratulations to Buehlre, you’re still a god in my eyes even without the two perfect games. Also, I bet a lot more people can now finally spell your name, so thats pretty nice, huh?

In the spirit of dominant pitching, I figured I’d blog tonight about an article that I came across a few weeks ago analyzing the curveball.

It is identified that when the batters initially see the pitch, it looks like its going straight, but then as it gets closer it looks like it changes direction, the deception making it hard to hit. Psychologist Andrew Shapiro offers insight into why that is. According to him and an animation he created, when you look at a ball head on with spin on it thats moving straight down, it appears to do just that. But to those viewing the ball from the corner of the eye, the ball appears to be moving downards at an angle. The conclusion can be made that when we use our peripheral vision the overall direction as well as motion of the spin are taken into account, causing the ball to appear to be spinning downwards towards one side. While the ball starts out in the center of the batters eye when first released from the pitchers hand, it moves into our peripheral system as it approaches the batter, causing the allusion of the ball moving to one side.

I know thats a handful to grasp, but this animation will clear things up and be more comprehensible than my explanation, I promise.

Click Here for the Animation 

Click Here for the Full Article

Signing off for now

-Inside the Thought Bubble