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The Dontrelle slow down

By craig

This has bothered me all season long about how Kranitz messed with Willis's delivery.  I don't have time to go and find a link to original article where Kranitz admits the slow down is by design.  But I hated the idea from the start.

It was also noticed by ChadBradfordWannabe of THT and he was kind enough to post a diary about it here at FishStripes.

Now, Jayson Stark's scout buddies are reporting about the disastrous idea of slowing his motion down.

You hear a lot of speculation these days that one of Dontrelle Willis' problems is the lack of 1) a pennant race and 2) interested human beings in the seats in Florida. But scouts who have been watching Dontrelle are skeptical of that hypothesis. Their theory is that the Marlins tried to calm down his delivery to improve his command. And instead, said one scout, "He's lost what made him so good. He was all butt, elbows, arms, legs, deception. He was herky-jerky, and he had great finish on his pitches. Now, it looks like they've smoothed him out, and everything is flat. He might have better command. But for me, he was better off without command and with more movement. He hasn't lost velocity. He's still pitching at 90-91. He's just lost his sinker."

Actually his motion was calmed down to increase the movement on his pitches.  The original goal was to get him to throw in the mid to upper 80's and he has just recent started throwing in the 90's again.  When Willis was consciously trying to throw in the 80's he pitches did move, but he couldn't get them over the plate with any regularity.  

The reason that some of his pitches are flat here of late, now that he is throwing in the 90's again hasn't to do with him increasing velocity, it has to do with him still trying to be in "control" while still throwing his normal velocity.

The Scouts and ChadBradfordWannabe are right: this has been a catastrophe from the start.  I have no idea why a pitching coach would want to dramatically mess with the ace of the team.  But he did.

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