CRAIG KIMBREL PITCHING REPERTOIRE HOW TO
They’ve learned how to get on top of balls so you’ve got to do some different things – change eye levels, give them different looks to kind of throw them off the scent.” It was a similar thing with Kenley in years past. They’re doing a much better job of teaching and relaying to their hitters how to approach different types of pitchers, where before it was about groove your swing. “Even just in my short time since I started here … you’ve seen a drastic change in hitting philosophy and the ability to teach how to get on top of balls and how to attack guys who are attacking the top of the strike zone. “I completely agree with that,” said Prior, who joined the Dodgers as bullpen coach in 2018 before succeeding Rick Honeycutt as pitching coach in 2020.
Related Articlesĭodgers’ postseason pitching plan will be ‘unconventional’ But his recognition of how hitters have adjusted in recent years is one Prior shares. Kimbrel has maintained his velocity better than Jansen. Kenley Jansen has tried to evolve in recent years, no longer able to rely exclusively on beating hitters with his cut fastball thrown to the top of the strike zone. The Dodgers also saw it with their previous closer. The cat-and-mouse game that has prompted Kimbrel to adjust his game is a familiar one. “For us, over the next couple weeks we’ll kind of see how he pitches – is he using it more early? Is he using it more late? Just trying to understand the dynamic of that.” We have to really understand what he thinks about it, where his confidence level is in certain situations rather than be, ‘Hey, we want to restructure this completely.’ Unless we see it’s a real blatant thing like, ‘This is a really good pitch we’re not exploiting.’ One thing we never want to do is make it such a black-and-white thing. “Okay, when are those usages? Is it early (in counts)? Is it late? Is it middle? Is he ahead? Is he behind? Obviously, there’s a lot more nuances to it. Then it’s breaking it down layer by layer,” he said. “When you look at it in a vacuum and you look at usages, that’s one thing. The Dodgers plan to dig a lot deeper than that. The percentages only show one part of the picture, Prior said. “With most things, we do have this, like, orientation-type period where we know what our numbers say but we want to see what he feels and what he thinks. I think we kind of want to see where it plays out,” Prior said. But there is a grace period before they offer Kimbrel their spin on how he uses his pitch mix. Prior and the Dodgers’ staff know the numbers and what they show about the changes in Kimbrel’s plan of attack over the past few seasons. And it’s really just staying in control and making sure I can throw all my pitches.” I had outings where I got out of it and threw just fine. “I think at times, not being able to throw my breaking ball for strikes when I knew they were gonna give it to me, not be able to do that, I think I kind of put myself into a hole. When I do it effectively, it works just fine.”
It’s where I’ve really gone a lot in my career and to combat that I’ve just had to throw my offspeed pitches more. “I think the game – some guys’ swings have really shifted to hit the ball at the top of the zone. “When guys hit the fastball you have to throw the breaking pitch,” Kimbrel said of the change. Last season, he used it just 59% of the time. He once threw the fastball 70% of the time or more. Only eight players have saved more games than Kimbrel (373) and half of them are in the Hall of Fame.īut the 33-year-old Kimbrel has gone through some rough patches in recent years and he is evolving in response.Įach of the past four seasons, Kimbrel has relied less on his fastball – still powerful at an average of 96.5 mph last season – and more on his sharp-breaking curveball. Kimbrel has taken the ball for six different clubs now – riding into the ninth inning for the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox before this – and closed out 521 games (37th all-time). “Just give him the ball and get out of the way.” “I mean, he’s been doing it for a long time so there’s not much to do,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said.
DENVER - When the Dodgers traded for Craig Kimbrel, they got themselves a “turn-key” closer, ready to move right in.
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