And IMO, short pitchers need to pitch up in the zone more than tall ones. Doc talks about effective velocity being different when you're Doug Fister and releasing the ball 9 feet in the air. That whole throwing downhill thing does matter. Short guys throw straighter-looking fastballs because the change in height coming to the plate is not as great, and so the hitters get more time to react. 96 from a short guy isn't like 96 from Randy Johnson. Them's the breaks.
But little guys can defeat that by throwing up in the zone, because it's an angle that most batters don't see often. They see tall pitchers work low, but not short pitchers work high. And it just seems to me that all the little-guy pitchers who immediately come to mind as being good weren't afraid to throw the high heat. When you can't throw downhill (though some shorter guys like Oswalt released the ball pretty high and got on top of it well) then you'd better do something else to change the eye angle.
Neither Farquhar nor Erasmo are afraid of the upper parts of the zone. IMO that's a good thing.
~G
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