Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello has been at his best during his 33 starts with Boston when he has relied on his sinker, Scott Lauber of ESPN.com details. During his first 20 starts last season, Porcello threw his sinker 28 percent of the time against lefties and 41 percent versus right-handed hitters – down from career rates of 42 and 52 percent, respectively – and he pitched to an ugly 5.81 ERA. After a stint on the disabled list, Porcello returned and finished the season strong (3.14 ERA in eight starts) while throwing sinkers 44 percent of the time to lefty batters and 58 percent against righties. He’s at 49 and 57 percent this year, respectively, and has been among the top pitchers in baseball with a 2.76 ERA, 9.92 K/9, 1.65 BB/9 and 49.4 percent ground-ball rate over 32 2/3 innings (five starts). “He had to work extremely hard to get the sink back, to get that mindset back, because he had gotten away from it a little bit,” pitching coach Carl Willis told Lauber. “But once you get to that point, I think it’s simple because it allows him to then be himself and pitch to his strengths.” In addition to throwing more sinkers, Porcello helped his cause by changing his arm slot late in Spring Training after he raised it slightly thanks to an increased use of four-seam fastballs, per Willis.
More from around the American League…
- White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams says the team has gotten over the Spring Training Adam LaRoche saga, which isn’t a surprise considering the club’s AL-best 17-8 record. “I had to do what was best for all parties. I’ve tried to stay above the fray and chose the road less traveled — the high road. We don’t talk about it anymore,” he told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Williams, of course, took plenty of heat from White Sox players when he told LaRoche that his son had to spend less time in the clubhouse, leading the first baseman/designated hitter to retire in March with $13MM left on his contract.
- Yankees third baseman Chase Headley failed to amass a single extra-base hit in April while batting .150/.268/.150 in 71 plate appearances, and his struggles are thanks in part to his home ballpark. “Everybody talks about how good of a ballpark Yankee Stadium is to hit in, but it’s pretty big with the exception of right field,” he told FanGraphs’ David Laurila. “The rest of it plays as big, or bigger, than most yards. It’s maybe a better fit for guys who hit the ball high down the line than it for guys who hit the ball like I have for a lot of my career.” Headley is “working on” hitting the ball in the air more to right field and wants to increase elevation in general to combat defensive shifts. The 31-year-old has a 46.8 percent ground-ball rate and a fly ball percentage of 29.8 percent this season. Both of those numbers are worse than his career rates of 44.6 and 33.6, respectively.
- Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton began a minor league rehab assignment Saturday in Double-A and totaled two at-bats, per Dave Sessions of MLB.com. Hamilton, who missed all of Spring Training with left knee problems, will need to accrue at least 20 to 30 ABs during his rehab assignment before rejoining the Rangers, manager Jeff Banister said. It’s unclear how Hamilton, who hit .253/.291/.441 with eight home runs in 182 plate appearances last year, will fit into the Rangers’ outfield plans when he returns. In addition to Hamilton, Shin-Soo Choo should come back later this month month from a calf injury to join an outfield that has mostly relied on Nomar Mazara, Delino DeShields and Ian Desmond this year.
Headley didn’t have to take the contract offered if he felt he couldn’t manage in Yankee Stadium. I’m not all that sympathetic. As for Porcello, he’s always been a competent pitcher. He’s just never been particularly outstanding. I’m not sure a moderate run of success portends future first ballot HOF status.
Porcello was deemed a failure after 13 starts in Boston, his last 13 starts he’s pitched to a 3.00ERA. Anybody with a little success gets the FHOF treatment from Yankees fans.
It was only a few days ago that you buried Kaprielian, who had the misfortune of being injured while wearing a Yankee’s uniform, and gave you another target to vent about.
Porcello, I said, was competent. In his career, he has over 200 starts, had averaged about 6IP per start, has an ERA+ of 96. That’s the definition of OK, not spectacular.
Give it a rest. You obviously know enough about baseball to write more incisively.
Who buried Kap? I said it was unfortunate he got injured. The raise in velocity to his fastball was likely the cause. I would never take a shot at a player who is injured. Especially one as young.
kenny williams deserves a raise, getting a dh w/ a 78 OPS+ last year to retire w/ 13mil left on his deal was pure genius. Executive of the year canidate imo.
Agreed on LaRouche. I’d love to see Danks replaced in the rotation, though. Add a Matt Kemp or Carlos Martinez trade mid-season and I’d be a happy Sox fan.
Oops, meant Carlos Gonzalez.
If only Danks were a 50/50 pitcher we would be 20/6 – He is agree at guy but, he isn’t a Moyer. Need to upgrade.
I think the best thing that will occur is Danks being moved to the BP. JR (Sox owner) will simply not eat that salary, at least he has not done such things in the past.. The only hope would be if the Sox could trade bad contracts and move Danks for maybe an overpriced hitter with an expiring contract, but then who replaces him? Fulmer is not ready. Johnson they have no faith in and Gonzalez got smacked around by a team he should have beat, according to the org. Dnaks is just horrible, but unfortunately he is stuck right where is is at for the time being.
Hindsight. If LaRoche was still a run producer, youd want him on your team badly. At some point the ChiSox pitching will falter, then what?
At some point Abreau & Frazier won’t hit .220, then what?
Lots of ebbs & flows in all aspects of baseball.
If you’re expecting the white sox pitching to plummet, don’t. They’ve gone from one of the worst D’s to one of the best. Lots of skill talent there that was getting killed by the former now soaring cause the latter.
Very talented staff from SP to RP
It is not hindsight, not when LaRoche was god awful last season and to start the Spring. To hear players say your leader was a 13 year old kid? Someone had to go, and LaRoche decided to take his ball and go home.. Fine with me.. My guess is it was not just KW that made this decision but many players going to him saying enough is enough.. heck maybe Renteria went to KW as well. LaRoche was horrible this season and by all appearances was not going to be good this season either.
Also the pitching is good and has been the silver lining over the past 3-4 seasons. Pitching has not been the issue. timely hitting and defense was the issue, both have been taken care of. Plus your assumption must be that LaRoche comes in and hits .300 and bashed 10 homers by now? What kool aid are you drinking?
Time for A-Rod to dust off his glove and take some infield practice.
I heard the Braves said they were interested in taking on bad contracts in exchange for prospects. What would it take for them to take on Headley?
The Yankees can afford Headley. Why would they pay the Braves with prospects to take his contract on? And that’s the flaw in the Braves’ theory…the teams with the picks that can be traded are the teams that need those picks. The teams with over-priced players can afford them.
One of the problems the Sox had the last few years was a nice, comfy clubhouse where where everyone was happy in the losing. They wisely parted ways with clown-in-chief Alexei Ramirez and brought in some much needed fresh blood from the outside.
Numerous players complained about Laroche because the situation was ridiculous…the kid was even getting practice reps. Those players are now the leaders on this team.
Ken Williams had to step up and take care of it because Ventura certainly wasn’t going to.
Alexei Ramirez was an all star in 2014. What are you talking about? He had a rough 2015 so thats why hes on another team. This is Chris Sales team and he was the most outspoken in favor for LaRoche. Everyone falls in line behind Chris Sale. As for the others complaining? Who? Half of the lineup has been replaced.
Sox are doing well only bc pitching has been stellar so far
Fairly sure that it has been documented that a number of players (Im guessing the new guys, maybe with some others that may have been afraid to challenge Sale) complained to KW that Drake had no business being in the clubhouse that much (guessing Renteria may have too).
LaRoche and his kid were a distraction, nothing more. Call it hindsight or whatever, but when a guy hits below .200 and 11 homers (as a DH) you have to wonder what is contributing to this. Eaton called the 13 yr old a ‘leader’ in the clubhouse. This shows how soft this team once was, and maybe even Sale if he really needed a 13 yr old in the clubhouse to be a ‘leader’. Guess what? Once the new leaders spoke up, and this org got the 13 year old ‘leader’ jettisoned along with his sub par hitting father (bonus), the team started playing better all around and had its best April since 05.. Imagine that. Not the sole reason Im sure, but Im guessing it surely did not hurt that he was out of there.
As for Alexi, sure he was an all star, during a season where the bar was set low. Alexi, more often than naught, took plays off, would make errors on routine plays and was clearly an unmotivated player once Ozzie left. He was an up and down player in his best and was a poster child for how the Sox were the past 4 seasons.
Headley blaming Yankee Stadium for his pathetic output has to be one of the biggest jokes I’ve heard all year. That’s like Sandoval trying to blame the team dietician for his weight gain.
Not picking on the park here, only pointing to headley must find another way to get his XBH..
LH power hitters over the years at Fenway, such as Yaz, Ortiz and Williams have totaled HUGE numbers of doubles. Both Yaz and soon Ortiz will be over 600 for their respective career numbers and Williams was well over 500 and because of the wall when they were pitched outside. Can’t really aim for a shorter LF porch at either of the Yankee stadiums of course, because it’s always been further than right..
Yankee LH power hitters have always had to adjust positioning at the plate, mechanics, aim for gaps, or flat out just hit it further for those XBH and that’s what Headley needs to do and pretend he’s back at Petco when pitched outside.. No excuses, just play like that.
Williams was a dead pull hitter what are you talking about
Good points. Imagine you were either Topping or Yawkey who, in a night of too much “elevation” swapped DiMaggio and Williams.. Came to their senses (or sobriety) the following day. Yawkey apparently wanted a little extra–the “little left fielder” who later grew up to be Yogi Berra.
I’ll still won’t see Ortiz as a hall of famer, it just won’t happen. When your name comes out on that Mitchell report that’s going to be used against you. And even if he does then what about Clemens and bonds and even arod. At least arod admit he took it then the others. When you have that natural talent of being a superstar ball player you shouldn’t need anything to have an edge. Willy mays took peds during his time. Again I love baseball but when you hear about these guys for PEDs or whatever..its just sad to say. I’m a Yankees fan, we are still early into the year and still have another 5 months left of the season because we all know as fans anything can happen.
Ortiz deserves to be a hofer, if not should be a retired number in Red Sox history. He has never been caught with peds so to deny his place due to speculation is bogus.
ARod admitted it when he was backed into a corner following extensive public denial of PED use. Not sure how the two cases are at all comparable.
A lot of people still wished Williams would have gone to Toronto!