Just about everyone has weighed in on David Price and his mechanics over the last week, but only one piece of analysis came from one of the most decorated pitchers in baseball history.
Former Boston Red Sox ace Roger Clemens spent an inning in the NESN booth Thursday night, and the conversation obviously shifted to Price. The new Boston ace rebounded against the Houston Astros, striking out 12 in 6 2/3 innings and helping the Red Sox extend their winning streak to five games in a 11-1 victory.
The focus on Price centered around some slight mechanics in his windup. Price, with the help of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, noticed his leg kick wasn’t as high as it once was, and his hands also weren’t as high as they could be. Price did some work on the side in between starts and displayed his “new” windup against Houston.
The results speak for themselves, and Price’s velocity also jumped, as he hit as high as 96 mph on the Fenway Park radar gun. With the split screen cued up, Clemens gave a fascinating breakdown of Price’s mechanics.
“You can see where his hands are at and what it’s allowing him to do is to break his hands over his knees and get there on time,” Clemens told Tom Caron and Jerry Remy. “It’s probably helping him stay over the rubber, too. These mounds are supposed to be 11 inches — you’ll see the same thing from (Houston starter Dallas Keuchel)Â tonight a little bit.”
“But what I love, “Clemens continued, “what you love about pitchers right now is what you teach. See the tilt on the right side of the screen? The tilt and he’s closed. That left side is his power side. This is what hopefully will keep you healthy. It’s not Sandy Koufax, but you’ve gotta have a little shoulder tilt. David’s right side, that’s his steering wheel.”
“You’ll notice it’s pointing down the white stripe of (the left-handed batter’s box),” Clemens added. “You love that. He’s going to hide the ball. That’s what makes his ball explode and a hitter not to see his ball until extremely late. If you look, for example, if you find video of (Jake) Arrieta in Chicago right now, tremendous tilt, tremendous close on the ball, and you won’t see the ball come off his fingertips until late.”
NESN’s Jim Rice recently noticed something similar in Price’s delivery, explaining that part of the lefty’s problems might have stemmed from showing the ball to the batter too early, allowing the hitter to get a good look at the offering, as opposed to “hiding” the baseball.
“We’ve got guys in the league who throw extremely hard and the guys I play with, and (when I was playing) I’d run in the outfield the next day and I asked hitters why guys throwing 98 mph with a great hook (would get hit), but the guys say ‘We see the ball extremely well off them,’ because they’re not staying closed,” Clemens said. “That steering wheel’s not staying closed.”
In addition to being blessed with a powerful right arm and devastating secondary stuff, Clemens also was a student of the game. He did a lot of studying, breaking down photos and videos between each start in an attempt to find even the slightest tweak that could give him an advantage.
“I’m extremely visual,” he said. “That helps, and that is fantastic for me. I was able to look at still photos, and now obviously you go down to a clubhouse now, it looks like NASA. Not that it’s too much. The guys I have an opportunity to talk to or work with, I’ll TiVo two or three innings when they’re really on target and go watch that.”
Here are a few more highlights from Clemens’ time in the NESN booth Thursday night.
On facing hitters who use the whole field
“Tell the college guys there’s a lot of money that way. They are difficult when they hit that way. The same thing with a lefty when I’m facing a lefty. When he starts driving the ball in the gap the other way, I’ve got a problem because he’s covering the plate, and if I can’t consistently pitch inside for strikes, I’m in trouble.”
On getting used to pitching for a new team
“It sure could be, but (Price has)Â been in the (American League) East. He knows what baseball’s like in the East. It’s a little different, but you’re going to have to some speed bumps, and you’ve gotta work your way through it. You’re going to have to win some 5-4 ballgames. You’ve gotta grind your way through those. That’s how you become a 20-game winner and you stay a No. 1 starter and help your guys.”
On today’s pitchers’ reliance on throwing cutters
“I try and watch guys who throw cutters, and you just wanna keep an eye on their velocity. Some guys throw a lot of cutters — a lot of cutters that don’t ride their fastball in there — and you see their fastball velocity drop over a couple of years. You always wanna keep that in mind.”
