Mariner Talk Chat Forum

DavidGee24 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:45 am

Uh, guys, I already started the game thread. I even preceded it with the date to make it super-duper easy. It had the best thread title of the season too (Moore Moore Moore How Do You Like It). I've since deleted it and just as well, all I do is make the team lose anyway.

Wait a minute...am i dead?

Instead of pontificating on my own, I went and asked Marco Gonzales about the situation. Conversations with Gonzales are rarely dull and usually interesting. He answers questions willingly and honestly.

But let’s do a quick data check on this question with the help of Brooks Baseball.

2018 — Four-seam fastball (90.9 mph), two-seam fastball (90.8 mph), changeup (84.3 mph), curveball (78.7 mph), cutter (87.8 mph)
2019 — Four-seam fastball (88.9 mph), two-seam fastball (89.0 mph), changeup (81.1 mph), curveball (76.1 mph), cutter (85.2 mph)
Gonzales’ velocity is down a few ticks on his pitches. Though it might be starting to trend up.

“My last start was my best velo,” he said. “It was 90-91 mph, it’s going up.”


Indeed, Gonzales’ fastball and sinker averaged 90 mph, respectively, and touched 91 mph multiple times in his outing against the Rangers on Tuesday. He also gave up eight runs on eight hits in the game.

While much attention is paid to the radar guns, Gonzales can’t allow himself to get caught up in the difference between an 88 mph sinker vs. a 90 mph sinker.

“I can’t be concerned about velocity,” he said. “I’m a left-handed pitcher with movement with five different pitches. Velocity should be the last thing on my mind. Location and command and difference in pitch speed is the main focus.”

There are many pitchers that devote their offseason to gaining 2 to 3 mph for that extra edge. Gonzales said he could try and pump it up on his fastball and gain a few extra ticks of velocity to maybe 92-93 mph, but it wouldn’t be sustainable.

“I would get worse,” he said. “That’s asking me to throw away everything I’ve worked on my entire life to now focus on velocity, which has nothing to do with success in the big leagues. The people who have trained their whole life to throw hard, they continue to throw hard. But the people that have trained to pitch their entire lives as I have, same as Wade LeBlanc and Mike Leake and even Felix (Hernandez), there’s not an ounce of us that believes that velocity is the main factor of our success.”

And the guys that throw hard?

“People who throw above 95 give up homers still,” he said. “It’s about the people who know how to pitch, command a zone and get guys off balance. Everyone can hit a homer now.”