Location is important but how it got there versus where it ends up is even more important. Rivera’s success (as I’m sure it was with Koufax’s power curve) lies in the hellacious movement his cutter undergoes through the hitting zone. That’s why you can throw a breaking ball behind in the count. If you’ve got a good one. You can expect Guidry’s slider to be on your shoe tops but no one has the eye hand coordination to hit that pitch solidly and fair. Unless, of course, it stops spinning. And, as Pettitte demonstrated, you’ve still got to pitch to both sides of the plate…just in case you run into a batter who does have those kind of hands.

FWIW, I’ve heard stories that Koufax always tipped his pitches – and it sure didn’t hurt him. If your stuff is unhittable, like Mo and Sandy, it really doesn’t matter.

However, that said, if your FB is in the low 90′s and your slider is flat, then I would guess that tipping would be a big issue.

On the drive home I heard them talking on the post-game about how Torre was talking to Sandy Koufax on Randy tipping his pitches. Koufax said that it’s all about location. You can tell the batter what pitch is coming next, but if you locate properly you’ll be fine (or something to that effect, I was trying to avoid pedestrians at the time.) Makes sense I guess. Everyone knows that the cutter is coming from Mo, and he still gets guys out. Guess when Randy concentrates on execution instead of whether he’s tipping his pitches or not, which is what I assumed happened today, things work out nicely.