April 22, 2017

Fixing Pitching

Mark Simon dissects the changes the Twins made over the winter to improve the quality of their pitching. Note they made very few pitching personnel changes. They moved some fielders around to improve the defense, changed the way the staff works a plate appearance, and now use analytics to give pitchers scouting reports based on that individual pitcher’s strength. The big personnel move was behind the plate. They brought in catchers who cheat better with pitch framing, but even that contains an element of better communication:

“In spring training, [Castro] had pitcher-catcher relationship meetings,” Twins pitching coach Neil Allen said. “He talked to each guy about this pitch and that pitch, how he was going to receive it and how he was going to let the ball travel and not reach for it. He opened up the eyes of our guys. He’s been fantastic in how he communicates with our pitchers.”

Confirmed Santana: “We’re on the same page all the time. We worked in spring training and we’ve brought that to games.”

The story is a great example of getting the most out of the players on the team.

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