Sunday Notes: Ziegler’s Change, Catchers at Coors, Saves, Milone, more

On Friday, shortly before it was reported that the low-arm-angle righty would be signing with the Marlins, Dave Cameron wrote that Brad Ziegler is a Freak. Not only does Miami’s new bullpen piece induce worm-killers with an 84-mph fastball, he gets hitters to swing at a high number of changeups below the zone.

Ziegler doesn’t consider himself totally unique, but he does recognize what sets him apart.

“I don’t think I’m much different than other submariners,” Ziegler told me in September. “My sinker and slider are pretty similar to (Darren) O’Day’s. I’d say the movement is pretty standard from where I throw them. But I am different in that I have a changeup — a lot of submariners don’t have one.”

Ziegler throws “a standard circle change” from his down-under slot. It’s a pitch he’s worked diligently to perfect — primarily as a weapon against lefties — and gripping and ripping isn’t an option. Precision is essential.

“It’s the same as overhand in that you’re killing velocity,” explained the 37-year-old hurler. “And if you don’t throw it hard enough, it’s not even going to get to the plate in the air. That’s the first thing. It also has to get it there in a way that’s it’s not sitting on a tee. You can’t just float it in there, so there’s kind of a fine line.

“I have to be very precise when I let it go. My release point has to be dead on. If it’s not, it’s either going to bounce or be thigh high, and neither is a good scenario. The one that bounces, they don’t even flinch at, and the one that’s thigh high gets a lot of damage done to it. Over the last few year, I’ve been able to find that in-between line a lot more consistently.”

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Ben Rowen is still searching for that in-between line. The 28-year-old righty has never quite mastered a changeup, which is one of the reasons he has just 12 big-league appearances under his belt. A true submariner — “I’m more of a (Chad) Bradford-type than a Ziegler” — Rowen spent most of 2016 in Triple-A with the Blue Jays. After closing the campaign with a four-game cameo in Milwaukee, he joined Escogido in the Dominican Winter League, where he played for Luis Rojas, who manages in the Mets system. Earlier this week, Rowen inked a minor league deal with the Mets.

When I interviewed the former Texas Rangers prospect early in 2014, he told me he was working on his changeup. That hasn’t changed.

“I’m not done trying to figure that out,” Rowen told me on Saturday. “I’ve seen how well it works for Brad (Ziegler) and I’d love to emulate that. I’ve tried a ton of things, but it’s really just manipulating the baseball in your hand and keeping your arm speed. The circle change seems to be the most conventional, so I don’t think I’m going to stray too far from that. What I’m throwing now is a modified circle.”

He doesn’t throw it often. Rowen admits he’s “thrown a successful changeup in a game only a handful of times” in each of the past few seasons. Having a third pitch to augment his sinker-slider combo could only help, but he has had success without one. He has a 1.85 ERA in 270 minor-league innings.

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Tommy Milone will be throwing his changeup — a good, old-fashioned overhand changeup — in Milwaukee next season. The Brewers signed the 29-year-old southpaw to a one-year deal on Wednesday. Milone threw his primary secondary offering 33.8 percent of the time with Minnesota in 2016. Among pitchers who worked at least 60 innings, only Fernando Rodney had a higher ratio.

“I throw a lot of changeups because it’s my best off-speed pitch,” Milone told me earlier this year. “When I have a good one, and can throw it in the right spot, I generally get good results. I don’t want to throw too many, though. If I’m just throwing changeup after changeup, eventually guys are going to start sitting on it.”

As is the case with most pitchers, Milone’s changeup is most effective when he’s locating his fastball well. It’s not a fast fastball. Its average velocity is a pedestrian 87.6 MPH, and Milone isn’t a sinkerball specialist. He rarely throws two-seamers.

“I just throw four-seamers, for the most part,” said Milone. “The only year I really threw a two-seamer was 2014, when I was with the A’s. Coming out of spring training that year I felt like my command wasn’t as good, so I wanted something that moved a little bit. Once I started getting my command back, I mostly stopped using it. I found that I make more mistakes with my two-seam, as I can’t locate it as well.”

Milone repertoire also includes a curveball — “something to keep hitters honest” — and a cutter. He estimated that he throws the latter “about 15-20 times out of 100 pitches,” even though it doesn’t always look like a cutter.

“Sometimes it’s the same speed as my fastball,” explained Milone. “Once in awhile, I’ll glance up and see that it’s in the 87-89 range. Some people probably think it’s a fastball, but it’s actually a cutter. I don’t know how that happens. But it’s been a pitch that’s comfortable for me, so I just grip it and rip it.”

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Don’t expect Bruce Bochy to employ Mark Melancon in an Andrew Miller-like, high-leverage role. Unless something changes, the San Francisco Giants manager plans to use his new closer in a conventional manner.

“There are times when you use a closer maybe for four or five outs, but I need to sit down with him,” Bochy said during the Winter Meetings. “For the most part, he’s going to pitch the ninth. If it’s something he’s capable of doing, or is comfortable doing, you know, we would like to stay open-minded about it.”

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AJ Hinch was asked about the save rule when he met with the media at the Winter Meetings. Not surprisingly, the Houston Astros manager had an erudite answer:

“I probably shouldn’t say this out loud — this is my inside voice talking — but things that are important to your players have to be important to the manager to some extent,” said Hinch. “I say that knowing that you’ve got to create a culture and environment that your players buy in on.

“The way we compensate saves, it’s very hard for anybody not to be attracted to that. The saves stat is what it is. You know what I like about the saves stat? If we get it, we won. And I spread it out over three or four guys last year. Some do it out of performance and some do it out of choice. You have to balance that just enough.

“If we played in a nonemotional, non-compensated neutral environment, I think we would flush that stat saves down the toilet. But we don’t. There is always going to be a constant pull and tug between players, compensation, manager, analytics, what’s the smart thing to do.”

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Much is made of how difficult it is to pitch at Coors Field. The topic has been discussed ad nauseam, with almost all of the focus on the pitchers themselves — their stuff, their repertoires, their resilience. Relatively scant attention has been paid to the importance of the men crouching behind the plate.

That isn’t to say Colorado catchers haven’t been criticized for their defensive limitations. They have, as fans of Wilin Rosario can attest. But has enough emphasis been placed on the position as a whole? As they work hand-in-hand with every pitcher on the staff — and a nuanced approach is needed at Coors — are high-quality defensive catchers not essential to the club’s success?

Colorado’s new manager thinks they probably are.

“A generation ago, we talked about,’The guy can block and the guy can throw,’” Bud Black told me recently “How he received the ball wasn’t talked about. It is now being talked about — at length. I understand what that means, because I lived it. A catcher would say the same thing. What that position can do for a team — how it can help a pitcher, help a team win — is real. It’s real.

“As for how it relates to Coors, absolutely. How it will help 81 times — and 162 times overall — for Rockies pitchers, and Rockies outcomes, we take that very seriously.”

The catchers currently on Colorado’s roster are 29-year-year-old Dustin Garneau, 25-year-old Tom Murphy, and 24-year-old Tony Wolters. The trio have a combined 116 games of big-league experience behind the dish.

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Nine years ago, I interviewed Brian Bannister, who at the time was pitching for the Kansas City Royals. One of the things I asked him about was a home run he’d given up to Dustin Pedroia a few days earlier. Predictably, there was a thought process behind the pitch.

“On the 3-2 count to Pedroia, just in my own research — my own study of him — it was a case of where throwing a strike doesn’t always mean throwing a pitch in the strike zone,” said Bannister. “If you know that a hitter has a tendency to swing at a pitch out of the zone, to a pitcher that’s a strike. What I was trying to do with that pitch, which ninety-five percent of the time is going to be a fastball — and the hitter knows that — was to throw a pitch that was elevated. Getting a hitter to swing at a pitch that is elevated will help you get him out, because it’s a ball; it’s a lower-percentage pitch to hit… He hit the pitch I was trying to throw.”

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Brian Dozier is known more for his power than his speed, but he’s by no means a plodder. The Twins — at least for now — infielder swiped 18 bases in 20 attempts this year, and he’s averaged 16 steals over his four full seasons. He aspires to increase his pilferage.

Dozier had a green light in 2016, but his confidence level held him back at times. That was particularly true early on, with only six of his thefts coming before the July 4 holiday.

“Sometimes you go through slumps,” explained Dozier. “People don’t realize you can go through slumps on the base paths, as far as stealing bases. That doesn’t inhibit you from being a good base runner — not by any means — but you do go through them. I felt more comfortable in the second half, and I’d like to steal more next year.”

Whether or not that happens in a Twins uniform remains to be seen.

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The Yankees had four players taken in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. They also had three taken in the Triple-A phase. Lurking behind the departures (some of which may be temporary) is good news: New York’s American League entry has a deep farm system.

Thanks to the efforts of GM Brian Cashman, amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer, and VP of player of development Gary Denbo — not to mention ownership’s willingness to take a step back in order to go forward — the pipeline is once again flush. As the rival Red Sox have been selling off future assets, the Yankees have been stocking them en masse. Assuming the vast majority of them won’t become Kevin Maas, the future is bright.

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The Red Sox are reportedly adding 78 seats — at a hefty price of $225 per ticket — between the two dugouts. The additions will shrink Fenway Park’s foul territory from 18,118 square feet, making it the smallest in MLB. Wrigley Field has previously held that distinction. Fenway fair territory, already the smallest in MLB at 102,855 square feet, will remain unchanged. More information on the renovations can be found here.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

Over at ESPN, Mark Simon gave us The Danny Espinosa All-Stars — position by position, a squad of .230-and-under hitters more talented than their batting averages suggest.

Also at ESPN, David Schoenfield wrote about How No One Hits Like Rod Carew Anymore.

Alex Speier of The Boston Globe looked at the Chris Sale trade through the eyes of the people involved.

At Our Game, John Thorn entertains and informs us with Jim Bouton: An Improvisational Life.

At The National Pastime Museum, Tim Wendel took a look at the 1968 exploits of Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich. The former won 30 games, while the latter was an unlikely hero with a potbelly and big ears.

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Hitters slashed .187/.262/.296 in 3,600 plate appearances against Billy Wagner. He allowed 601 hits and fanned 1,196.

Hall of Fame first baseman George Sisler batted .340 and twice hit over .400. Bobby Grich batted .266 and hit over .300 once. Each had a career OPS+ of 125.

Colorado outfielder Charlie Blackmon slashed .313/.363/.563 on the road in 2016. Seventeen of his 29 home runs came away from Coors Field.

Jose Bautista is 30 for 86 with 14 home runs at Target Field. His slash line at the Twins’ home park .349/.429/.895.

Mets pitchers threw the highest percentage of fastballs this past season (65.4%, at an average velocity of 92.7 MPH)). Yankees pitchers threw the lowest percentage of fastballs (47.4%), at an average velocity of 93.7 MPH.

Reds hitters saw the highest percentage of fastballs this past season (60.1%). Orioles hitters saw the lowest percentage of fastballs (53.3%).

On this date in 1993, Yankees pitching prospect Brien Taylor — the first-overall pick in the 1991 draft — badly injured his pitching shoulder in a fight. Considered one of the best high school pitchers ever, Taylor never reached the big leagues.





David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.

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Mark Davidson
7 years ago

That Mets fastball stat really surprises me!

Ivan_Grushenkomember
7 years ago
Reply to  Mark Davidson

Yankee starters threw the hardest fastballs in MLB and threw them the smallest % of pitches. Yankee relievers also threw the hardest fastballs, but the highest % of pitches.

Yankees could throw more FB this year if Mitchell and Severino pitch more. Eovaldi won’t of course. Betances threw 98 MPH FB but only 43% of the time.

Bartolo Colon threw 90% fastballs at an average of 88 MPH.

Shirtless Bartolo Colon
7 years ago
Reply to  Ivan_Grushenko

Jayson Werth threw 0% fastballs and averaged 105 MPH.

Good thing he makes even more money than I do.