Tampa's side of the game wrap had some interesting comments from the Rays:
Fister threw only five innings, but he gave up just four hits while moving to 3-1 and lowering his ERA to 1.72 on the year. The right-hander gave the Rays fits by mixing up his speeds, making up for his lack of high-velocity fastballs by keeping his opponents guessing.
"That's how he has success. He understands speeds. He knows how to use his fastball in different locations, varies his looks," Pena said. "He doesn't have to throw 100, and he'll still get some late swings because he keeps you honest, us lefties at least, with that fastball away. And then he'll come in and bust you in, and you look at the board and it's 89 [mph], and yeah, you were late.
"He understands how to grab a hitter's attention and slowing them down, speeding them up then slowing them down again."
SSI counts the ways in which the batters loathe Fister.
Blowers, on TV, referred to this as "not doubling up" — that most pitchers go to a bread-and-butter weapon, and if you foul it off, they come right back at you.
A few guys, you'll never see the same thing twice; it's a crapshoot as far as sector of the strike zone and depth.












May 15th, 2010 at 6:50 am Quote
At this point, if you haven’t bought in to Doug Fister…you’re way behind. I doubt he’s a sub-3 ERA pitcher, let alone 1.72, but the man can pitch…he’s beaten good teams and bad ones…he’s doing it with astounding consistency. I consider him just as valuable (when looking at the scheduled starters) as the Felix/Lee/Bedard trio…not because he’s as good as them…but because I feel like we’ve got a great chance to win when he’s pitching.