What a difference a year makes.
In The Little Things, we discussed the HUGE offseason move the Tigers made this year - hiring pitching coach Rick Knapp from Minnesota’s minor league system. Knapp came into the program with Minnesota’s simple ideology - throw strikes - and it has started to pay off.
Detroit’s ace, Justin Verlander, was his first and most important project. The Tigers’ former pitching coach, Chuck Hernandez, had instructed Verlander to push the ball back into the palm of his hand in an attempt to limit his tendency to overthrow his fastball. The trade is typically velocity for control, but it didn’t seem to work out that way with the Tiger fireballer. He lost 2 mph on his heater (95.5 to 93.6), but his percentage of pitches in the strike zone hit a career low (50.0%) while his BB/9 hit the highest mark (3.9) since his rookie year.
Knapp, a simple man with a simple view of baseball, simply told Verlander to go back to the grip he was used to. Now, his fastball is back (95.3 mph) and blowing hitters away. Including tonight’s game, he has logged at least 8 strikeouts in 7 of his last 8 starts - 77 in 56 1/3 innings overall. Knapp also instilled in Verlander the Minnesota philosophy. He’s now locating 54.2% of his pitches in the zone (good for 7th in the Majors) and posting a 3.04 BB/9.
And Verlander isn’t alone. Detroit’s ERA is a much improved 4.04, good for 7th in the Majors. Their K/BB ratio is at 2.02, good for 8th and just barely behind Minnesota’s 2.08. And the Tigers currently sit in first with a 1 1/2 game lead in the AL Central.
Pitching coaches get no love among most fans. I just hope those in Mo-Town know what they’ve got. Justin Verlander certainly does.
