Just wanted to clarify one point about Pujols. Pujols is very goos at hitting- perhaps the best in the business- he is gonna hit balls outa the park that other guys pop up to the second baseman. As for pitchers blazing a pitch down the middle, it happens in the big leagues more often than we tend to give credit for, and even then it usually doesn't amount to a base hit, most of the time. The pitcher thus has the advantage with getting away with either a well placed pitch finding the middle of the plate or misplacing one that finds the same result. My point about Pujols was that he is often looking for something to clobber that is anywhere close to his ginormous crush zone.
In no way do I advocate throwing a lot of pitches down the middle, I am just stating, as the evidence seems to clearly point, it's ok and even good practice in certain situations to call a pitch down the middle and thus- WHY I ADVOCATE, throwing bullpens where the pitcher and catcher work on throwing a small percentage of throws down the middle. The odds are clearly in the pitchers favor, from one pitch to the next, that even an errant pitch down the general middle location will not be hit for a base hit.
We tend to think that MLB pitchers throw well placed pitches, with somewhat pin-point control all around the strike zone and not much in the strike zone. I guess if we were to clone Maddux, that may be the case. the reality though is that far more pitches than we think- be it purpose or mistake, end up in the strike zone and in the batters hit zone.
Speaking of contact pitching, in order for that to happen, a higher percentage of pitches thus must be thrown in the strike zone. this being the case, contact pitchers are going to end up throwing a higher percentage of pitches around or in the heart of the plate. But, because they have "stuff", the batters will struggle making good square contact even when that pitch ends up right down the middle occasionally.