July 21, 2006
Right Foot In
Joel Zamaya pitched two strong innings for the Tigers yesterday, helping to take two out of three from the White Sox to extend Detroit's AL Central lead to 5 1/2 games. It's a case where the pitching coach made a difference:
Soon after Joel Zumaya let a three-run lead get away last Friday, Tigers pitching coach Chuck Hernandez pointed out something to the hard-throwing rookie right-hander.
"His foot position on the rubber," Hernandez said. "Before, his whole foot was on the rubber. Now his toe was the only thing touching the rubber. I thought it was creating too difficult of an angle to get the ball away to a lefty batter. Plus, it created too difficult of an angle for his curveball."
On Thursday, Zumaya pitched for the first time since Hernandez suggested he get his whole foot back on the rubber. Zumaya pitched two scoreless innings, allowed one hit, struck out three, regularly threw 101 m.p.h., spun beautiful curveballs, got the win and looked his overwhelming self.
Zumaya's three strikeouts bring his total for the season to 59 in 47 1/3 innings. That's nearly twice as many as the hits he's allowed (31). He's still walking a batter every other inning. If he gets that under control, he'll be something special.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:18 AM
|
Pitchers
|
TrackBack (0)
but what is his long term potential?? is he a closer in training, or is he really a starter just working out in the bullpen, a la papelbon and liriano??