© Neville E. Guard | 2018 Jul 5
Also notable was the dip in Cueto’s fastball velocity. According to Fangraphs, Cueto’s fastball averaged 87.9 MPH on Thursday, nearly three MPH slower than his 90.8 MPH average this season.
Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow is not concerned about that, however, and explained why on Murph & Mac Friday morning.
“Here’s the deal with velocity,” Kruk began. “If you have a great changeup, which he has, you have to have enough velocity so that if a guy looks changeup, and you throw him a fastball, he can’t hit it. If your velocity falls down so low, that a guy can sit there on a changeup, and then when you throw a fastball he can hit it, you’re screwed. Then you pretty much are done. But with him, 88, 90, that’s not a bad spot to be in velocity-wise when you have his type of changeup. He’s also got a little cutter, so those three pitches alone — and all the varied motion types he can give you — is more than enough.”
The average velocity on Cueto’s changeup was 81.1 MPH on Thursday, nearly seven MPH slower than the fastball, and two MPH slower than his 83.1 MPH average on the changeup this season.
“I’m not eaten up with velocity,” Kruk continued. “If you have command, and you have a guy that can read hitter types, if your velocity is down you can still be effective. I’m not concerned about that with him. I would be concerned about that with a guy that doesn’t have his command. If you had a guy like say, Derek Holland, if he got down to low, mid-80s I would be concerned, but I’m not that concerned with a pitcher-type like Cueto. He can pitch effectively below the hitting speed.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Krukow on Cueto, start from 3:40.