Here's Where Jimenez Went Wrong

In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down the playoffs from a scouting perspective.

Early on during the first day of the 2009 playoffs, it looked like Ubaldo Jimenez and his 100 mph fastball would rule the day. But it turned out that the experienced Phillies' lineup came back to punish Jimenez for some poor pitch selection, and from the middle innings on it was clear that the day in fact belonged to Cliff Lee.

In the early innings, Jimenez was downright electric, pounding the fastball at 98-100 mph. Somewhere along the line, however, he seemed to lose faith in his heater, which may be the best in baseball. Looking at the damage done, be it the Raul Ibanez double down the line in the sixth inning or the Jayson Werth triple in the ninth, Jimenez was repeatedly hurt on the second and third pitches in his arsenal.

As we touched on in the Rockies' playoff preview, Jimenez has the tendency to lose feel for his mechanics at times. It appeared that's what happened as he lost confidence in the command of his fastball.

Credit also needs to go to the Philadelphia hitters for being ready for the off-speed offerings even while having to respect the right-hander's fastball. But, the key to the day was still ultimately his loss of faith in the fastball and being overly aggressive with sliders in the zone. He'll learn as he continues to mature as a big-league pitcher that if you are going to make location mistakes with off-speed pitches they had better be out of the zone or heavy-hitting teams like the Phillies will do damage.

On the other side, there was the brilliant performance of Lee. When he's at his best as he was Wednesday, Lee can locate his fastball on a dime. We didn't see many of those big curveballs from Lee, as he relied mostly on his fastball and cutter. He proved once again that plus command of the fastball is as important as any secondary pitch. He kept the Rockies on their heels all day as he pounded the fastball and put them in an immediate hole. Also of note was Lee's velocity, as he touched 94 mph in the ninth inning of his complete game masterpiece. From the downward angle he creates and with the fastball command with which he throws, pitching at that velocity made Lee tough to get any kind of aggressive swings off of for Colorado.

Turning Point: Rockies vs. Phillies

Perhaps most obvious among Ubaldo Jimenez's mistakes in Game 1 was the Carlos Ruiz shot to the gap in the fifth inning. In the at-bat, Jimenez had Ruiz late on the fastball, then slowed down the bat on a slider. He then followed up with yet another slider with too much plate on a 3-2 count. When you are a pitcher with perhaps the best fastball among starters in all of baseball, you do not want to get beat on an off-speed pitch in a 3-2 count against a bottom-of-the-order-hitter.

This was either a case of not reading the hitter's swings well enough or just not trusting the fastball. 3-2 breaking pitches naturally back pitchers into a corner. Naturally, he doesn't want to walk the batter so it needs to be a strike. And, most often the best breaking pitches are the ones out of the zone. Bottom line: this was probably a fastball situation in which one of the weaker hitters in the Philadelphia lineup was allowed to beat them with less than their ace's best offering. These can be the little choices, or in this case pitch selections, that can turn the tide of a game.

Quick Hits

• It was a small moment but Joe Mauer showed on Wednesday night just why he's able to hit .365. After a steady diet of 94-95 mph fastballs, Mauer took a curveball at the knees on the outside corner and lined it up the middle. There's no way to sit breaking ball in that situation; it's all about Mauer's bat speed and ability to wait back. You won't see too many hitters, if any, hit that very same pitch in that situation with authority. In Game 1, the Yankees appeared to try and move the ball in and out on him, having their best success on pitches moving down and away.

• The Minnesota Twins had their shot at CC Sabathia in Game 1 and let it slip away. The big Yankee lefty did not have his pinpoint command early on Wednesday night, and was unable to locate his key pitch, the changeup, in the early innings. Before they could do any damage, Sabathia had settled into his typical groove. Once he's locating the fastball on both corners, his changeup is extraordinarily difficult to read out of his hand. The changeup is always the pitch to keep an eye on early with Sabathia; if he's spotting that against the righties he's just about unhittable given his mid-90s velocity.

• Conviction in one's fastball can't always be learned by a pitcher. But in all cases it can be one of the most significant components to whether or not a pitcher can be successful. Phil Hughes throws his fastball with as much confidence as any reliever out there -- consistently at 94-96 mph. Hughes is going to continue to be a weapon throughout the playoffs if he throws the way he did on Wednesday evening. Pitchers like to flaunt their secondary pitches out of the 'pen, but pitchers like Hughes are proof that the well located fastball can still be one of the best pitches in baseball.

• Chris Carpenter ran into a problem early in Wednesday's action that a pitcher never wants to run into in a playoff game – wildness in the strike zone. Hitters like Matt Kemp, whom he surrendered a two run home run to, rarely miss mistakes in the middle of the zone. Carpenter typically thrives on expanding the zone and having a feel for just how far out of the zone a hitter will go. Despite having good velocity, touching 95 mph with ease, the tall righty looked a bit strong and left some fastballs in the middle of the plate.

Frankie Piliere spent the last three seasons working as a scout, most recently in the professional scouting department for the Texas Rangers in 2009. He now serves as the National Baseball Analyst here at FanHouse.