Posted by Matt Sisson on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 9:58 pm

Neftali Feliz pitched again today.  In fact he pitched two full perfect innings against the Cleveland Indians.  In those two innings he managed to strike out 5 batters. Pretty impressive.  So, how is Feliz doing it?  With a four seam fastball that topped out at 98.4 today, with a curve that he throws around 79mph, with a cutter that topped out at 98.6 mph and with a two seamer that sits around 95.

Here’s what the four seamer, cutter and curve look like from both the birds eye and first base view:

The differences in the four seamer and the cutter make the pitches that much better.  They appear to be the same pitch for a majority of the path towards home plate and then finish differently.  By that time its too late.  Now lets not forget about the curve Feliz throws.  The pitch starts out similar but then soon takes a slightly different path in.  Once the batter realizes its a breaking pitch, the bottom’s already fallen out across the bottom of the strike zone and its too late.