Why the quick tempo? To avoid overthinking things.
"If I'm working quick, I'm not going to think too much and hopefully the hitter's not going to think too much, because I don't really want them to," Biddle (2-5, 4.78) said in a recent interview. "I know what pitch I want to throw and I want [the hitter] to be guessing. When they don't have any time to think at all, they're not going to have time to react, either."
He's been good-to-brilliant in four of his last five starts. The one hiccup came May 13, a loss to Hagerstown in which he allowed four earned runs in six innings. Even that start wasn't a disaster: He gave up all four runs in the second inning and was otherwise solid. He has been dogged in a few of his starts by one bad inning. He found that when he ran into trouble, he tended rush things. In other words, he needed to maintain his tempo.
Opposing hitters and even the umpires aren't thrilled with the brisk pace. Against Delmarva, his quick work led to several delayed calls from the plate umpire. The man in blue nudged catcher Torre Langley to have Biddle slow it down a bit.
It's safe to say he has no regrets about his snappy tempo. "It makes me feel good, it makes me know they're a little off balance," he said of the hitters and umps. "It's a pace I feel comfortable with."
Quick update: Biddle pitched again yesterday at West Virginia, with decent results. He went five innings, allowed three runs and three hits, but walked five in a no-decision. He did avoid a big inning, despite allowing quite a few baserunners, and Lakewood won it, 6-5.
VALLE BACK
