There's an outstanding piece by Eric Liu in Slate today, in which he meets up with Seattle Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price to learn how to throw a circle change. As he warms to his topic, Liu brings up one of my favorite pitchers:
Today's pitchers are the latest in a long line of men who've taken the mound as professionals, and nearly every motion they make is inherited, the accreted sum of many generations of incremental tinkering. When you see someone come along like Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, the fabled Cuban defector and onetime Yankee whose knee-to-nose leg kick strained the groins of people watching him, you realize how conservative an institution pitching usually is. El Duque is the exception that proves the rule.
El Duque's leg kick is a tool in his deceptive arsenal. Like other pitchers with unconventional deliveries -- I'm thinking of mainly Japanese throwers like Hideo Nomo -- the leg kick serves to hide the ball from the hitter, and prolong the period of anticipation before the pitcher throws the ball. It also distinguishes him from others, which can be a major advantage: if his pitches are thrown in a different way from everyone else's, he has a moment of confusion that he can work to his advantage. If everyone adopted a high leg kick or a karate-style crane pose, however, that advantage would gradually dissipate.
As Liu works on his change, he (naturally) finds frustration making it consistent:
After a few dozen pitches, my change-up was getting somewhat better but it was still very inconsistent. So Bryan asked me to start throwing straight four-seam fastballs. The good news here was I threw my fastball to the same spot consistently. The bad news was that the spot was where a right-handed hitter's face would be. I could feel the spiral of criticism start again. Why do I keep throwing it there? Why? Can't I get out of this rut?Just then, Bryan abruptly asked me to throw a change-up. I did, and to my surprise, I nailed it. It was the same change-up, same grip and delivery, as before. But the context was different. Now I was thinking of the change-up as an antidote to my wayward fastball. And now I was able to reel off three, then four, then five perfect change-ups, down and over the plate with perfectly deceptive presentation.
It struck me only later what Bryan Price had done. He'd used the fastball interlude as a distraction and had gotten me back onto my original objective -- throwing a good change. Like any good teacher, Bryan is a master of misdirection: working on a fastball to improve a change-up, using dry work without a ball to sharpen performance with a ball, and talking about how to keep a quiet head when, in fact, we were talking about how to keep a quiet mind.
Misdirection, alternation, unpredictability: essential tools in the pitcher's repertoire, and the teacher's. Juxtaposing a slow curve with a mediocre fastball makes both pitches better, simply because they are not the same. Timing and expectation is everything. There is a parallel to the visual arts, in which contrast is a vital element. A painting done in pure reds and browns is dull, boring, uninspired. But paint the corner with a splash of yellow, and your audience buckles its knees.
Posted by Chris at January 14, 2005 07:26 AM | TrackBackRemember when El Duque was a rookie? He was really something then. He still has an impressive delivery, but ever since he came to the U.S. and started "weight training" (steroids), he can't get it up like he used to. Same thing happened to Pedro Martinez. They all look like the guards from Ultima III now.
Posted by: Mr. Ambassador at January 16, 2005 05:02 PMIn El Duque's case, he was (officially) 29 when he defected, and perhaps even older. (There's some uncertainty about his actual age.) His first-year ERA of 3.13 was pretty amazing, then it jumps up to 4.12 the following year. I think the first year is either an outlier (MLB hitters couldn't figure out his leg kick) or a career peak year. Most players crest at 27 or 29. And pitchers tend to decline more rapidly than position players.
Pedro's career is more consistent; his ERA only rose (to a still-outstanding 3.90) in 2004. Again, can be explained by his age (33). He's also very skinny, and doesn't have the steroid look, to my eyes. Roger Clemens, now there's another matter.
At any rate, I doubt steroids would help a pitcher that much. You might gain a couple MPH on the fastball, but effective pitching arises from many other factors (mechanics, trickery, control, etc) that just aren't strength-related.