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Can soft-tossing pitchers survive in the era of the strikeout?

47930 / Reuters

Odrisamer Despaigne nearly threw a no-hitter on Sunday afternoon. Lots of pitchers get two outs in the eighth inning before they surrender their first base hit. Most pitchers do not pitch like Despaigne, however.

In throwing 7.2 brilliant innings against the Mets, he struck out five batters to bring his season total to 17 in 34.1 innings. 17 strikeouts is two more Ks than Clayton Kershaw managed when he no-hit the Rockies in June. The Padres’ Cuban import has allowed a grand total of five runs in his five big league starts, so something he’s doing is working.

The absence of strikeouts and triple-digit fastball heat makes Despaigne an exception in today’s game, where big arms earn big bonuses and every opportunity to prove they can make it work at the big league level. Though he does average around 90 mph with his cut fastball, he’s able to add and subtract with it, getting as high as 95 mph at times while also dipping down as low as 85 mph, as Jack Moore demonstrated after his first big league outing.

It isn’t a pitch designed to miss bats as much as keep batters off-balance and induce weak contact, setting up his other pitches. It's the calling card of a different kind of pitcher, one that seems to be achieving a strange sort of success in 2014 - the kitchen sink junkballer.

It isn’t an accident, many smart people spent significant amounts of time studying baseball results and it’s clear that velocity makes pitches tougher to hit. But as the game is overtaken by huge fastballs and injury concerns in equal measure, is there more space for soft-tossers who simply “know how to pitch”?

Yes and no. For every six inning start Mark Buehrle robotically files away and with every outing in which Chris Young bends but doesn’t break, there is room in the game for those who simply know how to pitch.

Location matters. Forcing hitters to think matters. Stuff matters more, but that isn’t to say there’s no room in the game today for a pitcher who, perish the thought, pitches.

Maybe guys like this have a shorter shelf life. They certainly get hit hard when they miss the microscopic window for success. But as a change of pace, less conventional pitchers willing to live on the edge can absolutely work.

It’s a risk - the risk of a blowup start and the risk that if the location isn’t there, the outing ends in a hail of line drives and tears. Even Buehrle, blue collar hero to all, has run into tough times over the last few months, allowing too many base runners and too many line drives. Among the 135 starters to throw 60 innings or more this season, only seven boast a fastball velocity below 88 mph and a below-average ERA.

It’s tough, but it can be done. There is room in the game for players who cheat their way around the plate, for those who know how to place their pitches in key spots, and when. “If you throw the ball where you want, you can get outs” as Young, he of the 86 mph fastball average, told Eno Sarris of Fangraphs earlier this year.

Selection bias might keep these soft-tossers out of the first few rounds of the draft, but after a while, pitchers who miss barrels but not bats can’t help but demand attention. Nobody can pass up a bargain, and finesse guys with iffy stuff just might be it.

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