Lost in the hoopla of trade talk and minor league roster alignments was a game. The spring training finale finally occurred, and the only thing worth while discussing - other than Carlos Pena and Pat Burrell homeruns - is Grant Balfour. Remember all that off-season discussion about throwing a non-fastball pitch? Well, today he threw 19 pitches, and only 16 were fastballs. That's 84%, about 7% lower than last year. The other 16% were sliders. Of course, it's only three pitches, and we're talking spring, but still, here are the results of the sliders:
Groundout
Ball
Ball in dirt
Could use some work. Even the batters who saw a slider weren't fooled on the next pitch, in both occurrences a fastball. Miguel Cairo fouled one off and Matt Stairs doubled.