Grayson Rodriguez 2023

[Malike]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I can’t say I noticed a lot of prolonged at bats, other than Rizzo’s.  

4 pitch K to Rortvedt, 7 pitch AB to Torres, 7 pitch AB to judge, 11 pitch AB to Rizzo. No player got a hit but he threw 29 pitches.

[RZNJ]

He changed something.  I’d love to see him asked about it.  Before the changes.  He’d be off balance post delivery falling off towards 1B.   I don’t see that now.  A lot of uncompetitive fastballs high and almost no fastballs below the waist.   His command of the changeup was poor and it had more fade than drop.   I believe they said something about just getting on a better, more direct line, to home plate in his delivery which, in turn, has him on top of the ball and able to get his pitches down in the zone more consistently.   His delivery looks even easier and with less effort than before but he’s getting behind his pitches better.   A lot to like.  Thank God, he and the coaches, figured that part of it out.  He’s gaining confidence but getting more consistent on a 3rd pitch would be icing on the cake.

[Malike]

2 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

He changed something.  I’d love to see him asked about it.  Before the changes.  He’d be off balance post delivery falling off towards 1B.   I don’t see that now.  A lot of uncompetitive fastballs high and almost no fastballs below the waist.   His command of the changeup was poor and it had more fade than drop.   I believe they said something about just getting on a better, more direct line, to home plate in his delivery which, in turn, has him on top of the ball and able to get his pitches down in the zone more consistently.   His delivery looks even easier and with less effort than before but he’s getting behind his pitches better.   A lot to like.  Thank God, he and the coaches, figured that part of it out.  He’s gaining confidence but getting more consistent on a 3rd pitch would be icing on the cake.

He went from this

To this

To this

[George Zuverink]

29 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

He changed something.  I’d love to see him asked about it.  Before the changes.  He’d be off balance post delivery falling off towards 1B.   I don’t see that now.  

I didn’t get to see the game on MLB.COM. Last night because my VPN spoof didn’t work. I’m glad to hear his delivery looked more solid. I noticed exactly the same thing when he was up the first time, even mentioned it to my wife, who now wants to watch every game.  In his first stint, his delivery had a “I’m good, all I have to do is flang it up there” quality. Not saying that was his mindset, but it just looked a bit careless to me.

[Malike]

He just looks more relaxed in his final (so far) iteration of his set position. He's tinkered a bit this year and hopefully, found the one that works for him. The second photo was his set in May when people said he might have been tipping pitches, you can see the ball pretty clearly in his glove, glad they went lower to the belt since coming back up.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Malike

[Just Regular]

Ye olde NIck Pollack write-up - BSB is Pitcher List lingo for Blake Snell Blueprint, which I believe is fast pitches high, offspeed low.     It can be just that simple if the talent is big enough.

Grayson Rodriguez (BAL) vs NYY (ND) – 6.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks – 12 Whiffs, 29% CSW, 97 pitches.

 

Yay and nay? He’s going more BSB, which is wonderful, but the low secondaries were inside the strikezone. Isn’t that good? Don’t you want strikes? Sometimes, but I want those secondaries under the zone to get all the whiffs and turn those four strikeouts into eight or nine. It’s why he went just 4/36 whiffs on sliders + changeups. That said, he was cooking at 98.3 mph on the heaters (that’s over a tick up) and keeping them mostly upstairs as the pitch carried him throughout the game. Steps, not leaps. He’s getting there.

[Ven6]

36 minutes ago, Malike said:

He went from this

To this

To this

 Not entirely fair comparisons since he’s holding a runner on in that first one. The key differences going from the 2nd to the 3rd one seem to be the glove height and his feet are tighter together. Can’t tell from this but is he also standing in a different spot on the rubber?

[Malike]

7 minutes ago, Ven6 said:

 Not entirely fair comparisons since he’s holding a runner on in that first one. The key differences going from the 2nd to the 3rd one seem to be the glove height and his feet are tighter together. Can’t tell from this but is he also standing in a different spot on the rubber?

Thanks, didn't notice that I'll check that first batter again.

Yeah, it looks like he just went from the 2nd to the third set, thanks for the catch, I thought I started the game with the first batter. This is that same game. Possibly holding the ball a little lower than in May.

He has changed with runners on by making no change, it appears. Ever so slight right knee bend.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Malike

[Pickles]

4 minutes ago, Malike said:

Thanks, didn't notice that I'll check that first batter again.

Yeah, it looks like he just went from the 2nd to the third set, thanks for the catch, I thought I started the game with the first batter. This is that same game. Possibly holding the ball a little lower than in May.

He has absolutely lowered his starting point with his hands, both from the windup and from the stretch.

When I first saw him pitching that way this spring, I was surprised they let him go through the system like that.  Perhaps he didn't.

It was just terrible from a fundamentals standpoint.

For one, it made tipping more probably by exposing more of the ball and your hand to view.

Two, it wasn't natural or one would presume comfortable.  I compare it to shooting free throws.  You want to have the same routine before each shot, so the routine should be as simple and quick as possible.  This was not that.

[Malike]

Just now, Pickles said:

He has absolutely lowered his starting point with his hands, both from the windup and from the stretch.

When I first saw him pitching that way this spring, I was surprised they let him go through the system like that.  Perhaps he didn't.

It was just terrible from a fundamentals standpoint.

For one, it made tipping more probably by exposing more of the ball and your hand to view.

Two, it wasn't natural or one would presume comfortable.  I compare it to shooting free throws.  You want to have the same routine before each shot, so the routine should be as simple and quick as possible.  This was not that.

You'll get no argument from me, there. Everything looks more controlled and relaxed.

[baltfan]

59 minutes ago, Malike said:

Hence my stating that going through an order 3 times is already a very difficult thing and if you can command only 1 pitch, it's going to be darn near impossible. 

Except he had command of the others as well just not to the exquisite level he had for the fastball. He was confident that he wasn’t going to get hurt on his fastball, so he kept throwing it.  A lot of this is kind of semantics.  I agree his curve and slider need to be better and commanded a bit better as well.  Good news this time was the he did throw them for strikes. The past two games teams just didn’t swing at those pitches because he couldn’t throw them for strikes. 

[Malike]

2 minutes ago, baltfan said:

Except he had command of the others as well just not to the exquisite level he had for the fastball. He was confident that he wasn’t going to get hurt on his fastball, so he kept throwing it.  A lot of this is kind of semantics.  I agree his curve and slider need to be better and commanded a bit better as well.  Good news this time was the he did throw them for strikes. The past two games teams just didn’t swing at those pitches because he couldn’t throw them for strikes. 

I think the bolded is the important part. Most MLB batters are not swinging at pitches that are balls out of the hand. Sure, some do, but good teams make you throw strikes and if they know you have just the fastball, you can get in trouble.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Malike

[baltfan]

1 minute ago, Malike said:

I think the bolded is the important part. Most MLB batters are not swinging at pitches that are balls out of the hand. Sure, some do, but good teams make you throw strikes and if they know you have just the fastball, you can get in trouble.

They clearly have in the past been told he can’t throw the curve or slider for a strike so just let it fall out of the zone.  You can see by the takes. 

[Baltimorecuse]

2 hours ago, Malike said:

I still feel like Santander is criminally underrated by a lot of people. I have more faith in him than just about anyone on the team in big situations.

I did a long post about how much I like AS.  He's way underrated as an outfielder.  

[Billy F-Face3]

6 minutes ago, Baltimorecuse said:

I did a long post about how much I like AS.  He's way underrated as an outfielder.  

I mentioned I voted for Anthony Santander for the All Star Game, and someone ridiculed me. It's criminal.