Much had been made — and continues to be made — about the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting pitchers shifting towards a breaking-ball centric approach. While the fastball certainly isn’t going anywhere, the idea is that Pirates pitchers won’t have to come into the zone as much to be effective.
But what about when they do? Getting a hitter to look foolish on a looping curveball or sharp slider that drops out of the strike zone looks great, and it will probably land you on Pitching Ninja’s twitter feed. But the need to challenge a hitter with a pitch in the zone is still very real.