69 mile (111 km) curve and 72.1 mile (116 km) sweeper. Even in the major leagues, where the 160km fastball wages a ‘missile war’, there is an ‘aesthetics of slowness’.
Chris Bassett (34, Toronto Blue Jays) started the 2023 major league home game against the Seattle Mariners held at the Toronto Rogers Center in Ontario, Canada on the 1st (Korean time), 5 innings, 2 hits (1 home run), 7 strikeouts and 4 walks. 4 lost.
He can’t be said to be good just by looking at the results, but after hitting a grand slam in the first inning, he led it well up to the fifth inning. Average ERA of 5.18 with 3 wins and 2 losses in 6 games in April based on local standards. Considering that he was recruited for 3 years and 63 million dollars (approximately 84.4 billion won), it is not a bad move.
Toronto recruited Bassett in the 2022-2023 free agency market because it needed a pitcher to fill the back of the starting lineup. Considering the sluggish 2022 season of some trusted starting pitchers and Ryu Hyun-jin’s hiatus in the first half of this year, Bassit was necessary.
In his official debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on the 3rd, it was sluggish with 10 hits (4 home runs) and 9 runs in 3⅓ innings. However, his 5 game performance minus this record is 29⅔ innings with 10 earned runs, 3 wins and 1 loss with an average ERA of 3.03, which is in compliance. Rather, Bassit shows the ‘aesthetics of slowness’ in the era of 160km missiles.
Starting with the Chicago White Sox in 2014, the Oakland Athletics, and the New York Mets in the 2022 season, he occasionally threw a slow ball. He averages between 93 and 4 mph on a heavy fastball and is in the low 90s. In order to maximize the power of this ball, Bassit throws the breaking ball more slowly, stealing hitters’ hitting timing with a restraint car. Sophisticated commands and control are essential.
It was like that on this day too. In the first inning, Eugenio Suarez used a sweeper in the 5th pitch, and the speed was a whopping 72.1 miles (116 km). Has there ever been a pitcher who used the major league sweeper so slowly? Sliders have been slow in the past, and this happened when sweepers became official. Teosca Hernandez also used a 73-74 mile sweeper. The curve was 69.6 miles (112 km).
He even threw a 69-mile (111 km) curve in the first pitch to lead batter Sam Hegetty in the second inning. The follow-up, Colton Wong, also used the same 69 mph curve. Seattle hitters couldn’t even hit the bat and became a mess. This is the survival method of the dog Bassett, who induces a ground ball to third base with a 94-mile four-seam.스포츠토토
It was fatal that the bases were loaded as the changeup thrown to Hernandez became a ball that hit the body. He landed a good changeup on Taylor Trammel, but bowed his head with a superior grand slam.
Still, after this one shot, he cruised up to the 5th inning, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings. They met the conditions for victory by receiving 3 points in the 2nd and 3rd innings, but it was a no-decision due to the bullpen hunting. There are pitchers like this in the major leagues, and even Ryu Hyun-jin’s Toronto. Ryu Hyun-jin is also not on the fast side of the ball itself, so if he returns in the second half, the back end of Toronto’s starting lineup will be interesting.