azdad1978
Championship!!!!
By Jack Magruder, Tribune
TUCSON - The TV camera caught Diamondbacks righthander Brandon Webb in a revealing moment late last season.
With a runner on first base, Webb had given up a hard ground ball close enough to an infielder to expect a double play. The ball instead got through for a single, putting two runners on base instead of making for two-thirds of a routine inning.
As Webb trudged back to the mound after backing up third base, he seemed to be talking to himself.
What he said was impossible to read.
What he might have been thinking, the D-Backs believe, was that he had to be too fine to take best advantage of his state-of-the-art sinking fastball.
Webb led the major leagues with 119 walks last season, but the D-Backs believe that will all change behind a reconditioned infield defense this year.
"He’s going to get as many ground balls as any starting pitcher in the National League when he is right," D-Backs manager Bob Melvin said.
"It is demoralizing when you get a ground ball and you say to yourself, ‘Yeah, it’s a double play,’ and you turn around and it’s first and third. Therefore, at times you want to pitch away from contact, and I think at times maybe he did last year.
"He’s a guy who needs to pitch to contact. We’re going to try to cut down on his walks, and I think our defense is going to be big for him."
Webb, third in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2003, had as frustrating a season as many of his teammates last year, going 7-16 despite a 3.59 ERA, which ranked No. 15 in the NL. He led the league in wild pitches, also perhaps the result of trying to be too exact.
While not trying to pass the buck, Webb admitted that he might have changed his focus, "trying to make perfect pitches."
"That would account for some of it (control issues). That’s definitely something I want to work on and minimize this year. It makes you use a lot of pitches and makes you work out of the stretch that much harder," he said.
"I’m just going to try to force contact this year instead of trying to avoid it."
Webb had the highest ratio of ground balls to fly balls in the major leagues last season, getting 3.12 grounders for every fly, and his sinker has such movement that, at times, he can rely on it almost exclusively in a game.
"There would be times where it would be the sixth inning and we’ve thrown nothing but his sinker for five innings," D-Backs catcher Koyie Hill said.
"He changes speeds off of it. It moves so much that it is like a different pitch every time. He has a lot of variations off of it. It’s his pitch. It (breaks) so late and it drops so much, it is hard for the hitter to know what it is going to do.
"I think he feels a lot more confident about the way things are going to go. He’s more confident putting the ball in play and not feeling he has to do so much himself."
Melvin reinforced the notion when he talked to Webb following his first spring throwing session Friday, telling Webb what Seattle players told Melvin after they faced the D-Backs in a spring training game last year.
"We had guys coming back to the bench shaking their heads, saying he could tell you that sinker was coming and you still can’t get it in the air," Melvin said.
"That’s pretty cool to hear," Webb said.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36729
TUCSON - The TV camera caught Diamondbacks righthander Brandon Webb in a revealing moment late last season.
With a runner on first base, Webb had given up a hard ground ball close enough to an infielder to expect a double play. The ball instead got through for a single, putting two runners on base instead of making for two-thirds of a routine inning.
As Webb trudged back to the mound after backing up third base, he seemed to be talking to himself.
What he said was impossible to read.
What he might have been thinking, the D-Backs believe, was that he had to be too fine to take best advantage of his state-of-the-art sinking fastball.
Webb led the major leagues with 119 walks last season, but the D-Backs believe that will all change behind a reconditioned infield defense this year.
"He’s going to get as many ground balls as any starting pitcher in the National League when he is right," D-Backs manager Bob Melvin said.
"It is demoralizing when you get a ground ball and you say to yourself, ‘Yeah, it’s a double play,’ and you turn around and it’s first and third. Therefore, at times you want to pitch away from contact, and I think at times maybe he did last year.
"He’s a guy who needs to pitch to contact. We’re going to try to cut down on his walks, and I think our defense is going to be big for him."
Webb, third in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2003, had as frustrating a season as many of his teammates last year, going 7-16 despite a 3.59 ERA, which ranked No. 15 in the NL. He led the league in wild pitches, also perhaps the result of trying to be too exact.
While not trying to pass the buck, Webb admitted that he might have changed his focus, "trying to make perfect pitches."
"That would account for some of it (control issues). That’s definitely something I want to work on and minimize this year. It makes you use a lot of pitches and makes you work out of the stretch that much harder," he said.
"I’m just going to try to force contact this year instead of trying to avoid it."
Webb had the highest ratio of ground balls to fly balls in the major leagues last season, getting 3.12 grounders for every fly, and his sinker has such movement that, at times, he can rely on it almost exclusively in a game.
"There would be times where it would be the sixth inning and we’ve thrown nothing but his sinker for five innings," D-Backs catcher Koyie Hill said.
"He changes speeds off of it. It moves so much that it is like a different pitch every time. He has a lot of variations off of it. It’s his pitch. It (breaks) so late and it drops so much, it is hard for the hitter to know what it is going to do.
"I think he feels a lot more confident about the way things are going to go. He’s more confident putting the ball in play and not feeling he has to do so much himself."
Melvin reinforced the notion when he talked to Webb following his first spring throwing session Friday, telling Webb what Seattle players told Melvin after they faced the D-Backs in a spring training game last year.
"We had guys coming back to the bench shaking their heads, saying he could tell you that sinker was coming and you still can’t get it in the air," Melvin said.
"That’s pretty cool to hear," Webb said.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36729
double-play combination of Counsell and Clayton should make a big difference in Brandon cutting down his walks and returning to form.
