When it comes to the aesthetics of pitching speeds, paces, and approaches, Jimmy Cordero joyously occupies the end of the spectrum opposite to Pedro Martínez or, more contemporaneously, Johnny Cueto. Cordero doesn’t dance lightly on the mound, painting corners like it’s a video game with the controls set to easy. He cuffs his jersey sleeves at the biceps and hurls the ball into the same general area as the strike zone, a less-wild right-handed disciple of the José Alvarado school of “good luck getting a piece of the ball, because everyone involved is mostly guessing.”
Tomorrow, I’ll be bringing you some more technical, less badly-poetic details about how Cordero, whose ERA still sits at a solid 3.