After reading Josh Kalk’s pitch f/x examination of Brett Myers’s post-AAA resurgence I was contemplating his conclusions — disagreeing a little, actually, when I remembered something from the time he was sent down.
Like a lot of people I’m not a big fan of Myers, not only because he slapped his wife around in public, but also because he’s been about as maddening a fantasy player as there is over the past three years. For these reasons I tend to follow what he does. After a terrible start to the year he was sent down, but not before he got a stern recommendation to begin a long toss program from Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee. There were some other minor disagreements about pitch selection and conditioning, but it was clear Manuel wanted Myers to throw long toss between games.
Of course this is a constant in baseball played in Asia, where you’ll almost always see pitchers doing long toss prior to games, and occasionally even between innings — that is, if they aren’t throwing off a mount to a standing catcher.
I was never clear on what Myers program was other than he did it. He may have made other adjustments (the above link mentions he was studying film), and as Kalk illustrates, he definitely changed his pitch selection. But what jumps out first and foremost is that prior to being sent down Myers fastball was 90.12 mph, and once he came back it was 92.23 for the rest of the year.
That’s quite a difference. Kalk emphasizes that Myers pitch selection was the key to his success, but the ability to change his pitch selection has a lot to do with the increase in velocity. The velocity on his curve, slider and his changeup also increased.
At any rate, I don’t know if we can directly credit Myers long toss program with his successful return, but I’m guessing it didn’t hurt.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Chady // Nov 13, 2008 at 2:49 am
Like you, I’m not a big fan of Brett Myers. The only game I went to Wrigley this year I had to watch Myers dominate the Cubs lineup with fastballs that regularly clocked 95 mph on the park-gun.
I think Peter Gammons said that it was Brett Myers tendency to throw his cutter, which he apparently loved to throw, that affected his fastball velocity. I guess that the grip and arm motion required to throw a cut fastball ultimately affects the way a pitcher throws a four-seam.
I’ve also heard Bob Brenly give this as an explanation for why Sean Marshall lost 3-4 mph on his fastball between 2006, when he regularly threw 90-91 mph as a starter, and 2008 when he maxed out at about 88 but usually stayed in the 86-87 range on his four-seam.
2 Shinsano // Nov 13, 2008 at 7:44 am
Kalk kind of mentions that too. Makes sense, although I still wonder if it has something to do with the long toss program. But no one seems very quick to credit it. Myers strikes me (and looks) like the kind of guy who doesn’t exactly stay in peak physical condition. Maybe a little toss went a long way. *ahem*
3 Chady // Nov 13, 2008 at 11:20 am
I imagine that the long toss program had a great deal to do with his recent resurgence. I was surprised at how chubby Myers looked in person, at least relative to someone like Ted Lilly, who pitched for the cubs that day.
Didn’t mean to sound like i was disagreeing. I was just interjecting something I’d heard earlier; the Peter Gammons bit was actually from the end of the 2007 season or the beginning of 2008, when Myers was struggling, so it might not have had anything to do with his success later on.
4 Shinsano // Nov 13, 2008 at 1:57 pm
No Chady. My *ahem* was just for my lame pun.
But hopefully you will disagree with me and others on here down the road. Especially Jackson.
5 Ironchef // Nov 13, 2008 at 9:01 pm
the only thing Brett Myers should be tossing is the salad.
6 Fred Knows Best // Nov 14, 2008 at 3:26 pm
“Tossing his salad” would be better than tossing his wife around. Not a nice man obviously. Unless she deserved it of course. Here in Europe, such inappropriate behavior would not be condoned from any persons and especially a well known sportsman. Ban him to the dungeon.
7 DJ // Nov 14, 2008 at 6:41 pm
So the enlightened people of Europe would ostracize and imprison a guy for getting drunk and hitting his wife? Unless she had it coming? How progressive of you!
Maybe you can toss Brett Myers into that dungeon where they threw Andy Cole. You know, the legend:
http://www.manchesterunited.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=131832
8 Chady // Nov 15, 2008 at 1:44 am
There’s been some interesting discussion for quite some time about how we treat athletes differently; not just when comparing athletes to non-athletes, but also in examining the way that top-tier athletes are handled differently than their lesser-talented peers.
One example could be Charles Haley, former all-pro defensive end/linebacker for the 49ers and Cowboys. Stories are rampant of his off-field violence, sexual harassment, and general deviance (some of it is almost unbelievable) but he largely escaped getting in trouble. Of course the fact that he could get to the quarterback and contributed to 5 superbowls helped his case. If Haley had been a third-stringer he would have been kicked off the team and most likely admitted to some kind of institution.
Just one of the many quirks of American morality.
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