Pitch to Upton on the grand slam

[Erstad Grit]

Props to Upton, not taking away from him...

That might have been the worst MLB curve ball I've ever seen in my life.

[Lou]

This is the "with all due respect..." of threads. 

[Taylor]

Good hitters take advantage of bad pitches.

[tdawg87]

25 minutes ago, Erstad Grit said:

not taking away from him

Yes you are.

[Second Base]

He was sitting curve, and he got the exact pitch he was looking for and did exactly what he wanted to do with it. 

It's a tactic that many great hitters employ. Some are "read and react" hitters, Vlad Guerrero Sr. comes to mind. Others, like Trout have such insane quick twitch ability that they'll sit breaking ball and react fastball. 

Most major league hitters do not sit fastball unless a pitcher is missing bad or is 3-0. They're always looking for off-speed stuff, and 99% of them got to the big leagues because of their ability to punish mistake pitches, meaning bad location. 

Simply put, Upton got the exact pitch he was expecting and the pitcher put it in a mistake spot, and Upton punished it. 

Edited April 17, 2021 by Second Base

[TroutCron]

2 hours ago, Erstad Grit said:

Props to Upton, not taking away from him...

That might have been the worst MLB curve ball I've ever seen in my life.

It looked like Slo-Pitch Softball. To Upton’s credit, he did crush it. 

[ukyah]

nothing more than a classic hanger. i've seen countless of them over the years. it's the downside of a curveball. i give upton credit for being able to stay back on it and not pulling it a mile foul.

[tdawg87]

Slumpton would have popped it up to short. 

[zenmaster]

The bat flip/toss was epic. 

[St1ck]

 

[oldguy]

The pitch to Walsh was not much better.

[WicketMaiden]

It doesn't look that bad of a pitch to me. It's not brilliant but it's around shoulder height when Upton starts his swing, then the ball drops precipitously and ends up in the top of the strike-zone. I couldn't hit that even if I knew it was coming. Seems more like an elite hitter punishing a pitch he was waiting for like others have said above. Nice work J-Up, hope it kicks off a long hot streak. 

[failos]

18 minutes ago, st1ckboy said:

 

That really was a horrible pitch...but Upton capitalized on it. Good stuff.

[tdawg87]

I know he would never do it, but if Trout ever did an epic batflip after launching one I'd nut so hard my balls would explode.

[CaliAngel]

I thought Upton took a really good swing on a mistake hanging pitch. 

Although I don't know why you wouldn't just throw a fastball down the pipe, he seems to swing right through those.