Author Archive: David Laurila

Tony Perez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, a reward for 23 years of productivity, the first 16 of which were spent with the Cincinnati Reds. A respected hitter from 1964 through 1986, the native of Cuba was a renowned run-producer. A .279/.341/.463 lifetime hitter, and 7-time All-Star, he ranks 28th all-time with 1,652 RBIs. Now 70 years old, he serves as a special assistant to the president for the Miami Marlins.

Perez talked about the approach he employed as an RBI machine, and what it was like hitting in his era, when the Marlins visited Fenway Park in June.

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Tony Perez: “I see the ball, I hit the ball. That was my approach. When I started out, we didn’t have a hitting coach. You had to be your own. I made my adjustments through the years, but I was always a good hitter, so I didn’t have to make too many.

“We didn’t have a batting cage in the stadium, or anything like that, into the 1970s. By the 1970s, I already had six or seven years in the big leagues. Really, I didn’t hit as much as the guys do now, but I never had a problem with not hitting a lot. I had my regular batting practice, and that was it.

“I’d learn about the pitchers. I’d learn how they were trying to get me out, and I’d see the ball. The [data] is valuable to the guys who are playing now, but in my time we didn’t have that. We just picked it up from the other players. We talked a lot. We talked to the veterans. When I came up, I had Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Tommy Harper and guys like that. I did my asking about pitchers.

“With two strikes, we used to say that we had to protect the plate. You make the plate bigger and anything close that you can get, you swing at it. I struck out a lot, but I never took too many third strikes. I would swing at anything close that I could hit. Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Naquin has “future batting champion“ written all over him. The Cleveland Indians selected the 21-year-old outfielder with the 15th-overall pick of this year’s draft, and his sweet, left-handed stroke was the primary reason. He hit .381 over his sophomore and junior seasons at Texas A&M, prompting Baseball America to rate him the best pure hitter in the college ranks.

Naquin, who received a $1.75 million signing bonus, is beginning his professional career with the short-season Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Last week he sat down to discuss his bat, his defense, the draft, and his first month of pro ball. In separate interviews, Indians scouting director Brad Grant and Scrappers manager Ted Kubiak shared their thoughts on the club‘s top pick.

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THE BAT

NAQUIN on how he learned how to hit: “I’ve never had a hitting instructor in my life. I’ve never gone to any type of hitting camp, or anything like that. I’ve only had baseball coaches. It has mainly been my dad. He’s always said, ‘Hey, slow and easy feet, pick it up and put it down, swing the bat.’

“I’ve been blessed. I’ve always had kind of a natural way of swinging a baseball bat. When I was younger, I used to hit a lot of rocks, using a broomstick. My best friend and my brother would flip me rocks.

“People sometimes say I’m a bad-ball hitter. If it’s a low pitch, I can still flick my hands down there and shoot a line drive. It’s all hand-eye coordination, to be honest.”

On his hitting approach: “My approach to hitting is very simple: Read the rest of this entry »

Few people in baseball understand the ins and outs of scouting and player development better than Terry Ryan. His expertise in those areas helped turn the Minnesota Twins into a model small-market franchise — six playoff berths from 2002 to 2010 — and it will be needed if the team hopes to revisit its first-division status. He returned to the general manager’s chair in November after serving for four years in an advisory capacity.

Ryan talked about his approach to scouting and development — and included his thoughts on statistical analysis — at Target Field in late June.

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David Laurila: How would you define what is typically referred to as “The Twins way?”

Terry Ryan: There’s no such animal. It’s just the right way. It’s not the Twins Way, or it’s not the Baltimore Orioles Way, which used to be regarded as tremendous development and scouting, and how they go about their business. Our way isn’t any different than any other organization; we just believe that it’s the right way to play the game. That stems from the days when Tom Kelly was in our system — in the minor leagues and major leagues. Just play the game right. Get an out. Make the routine play. First-pitch strikes. Run balls out. Hit the cutoff man. Take the extra base. That’s just the way we’ve always described how we want to go about our business. But it’s not any different than the other 29 clubs. We do stress a lot of those types of things — there’s no doubt — but so do other teams. It’s just the right way to play the game.

DL: How willing is the organization to adapt to the needs of individual players?

TR: Every player is different in how you treat them and how you develop them. How much work they can handle. How much playing time they can handle. What they should do nutritionally. How much and what kind of rest you have to give them. Every player is a little different, up here and in rookie ball. After you get to know those guys… you know, some guys can’t play a day game after a night game. I don’t know why that is, but it happens. Read the rest of this entry »

The numbers show that Glen Perkins has been an effective pitcher since moving from the starting rotation and into the bullpen. The Minnesota Twins southpaw knows those numbers as well as anyone, and not just his won-lost record, his ERA and his WHIP. He’s also aware of his BABiP, his FIP and his WAR, as well as most anything that can found in his PITCHf/x data.

Prior to a recent game at Target Field, the 29-year-old talked about his move to the bullpen, his repertoire and his interest in stats.

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Perkins on his success pitching out of the bullpen: “A big reason has been more confidence, and the mental side of it came with the physical side. Going to the bullpen allowed me to get healthy. As a starter, I had just worn down.

“A positive was that pitching with inferior stuff taught me to be able to command the ball. It also taught me to set up hitters and recognize what they’re trying to do. There are nuances in the batter’s box that I can pick up on now that I never used to be able to. I needed to get any kind of advantage when I had bad stuff.

“My stuff got better when I went to the bullpen. I got healthy and started throwing harder. I actually kind of went back to my first year in the big leagues. In 2007, I was a reliever and was throwing a lot harder than I did in 2008 and 2009. Along with the increase in fastball velocity, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with my slider. I have a two-pitch mix that I’ve learned to work with. When you throw 95-96 [mph], hitters can’t stay on a fastball that quick, and then a slider.

“I got pounded pretty good in 2009, my last year as a starter in the big leagues. Read the rest of this entry »

Giancarlo Stanton can make hitting look easy. At just 22 years old, the Miami Marlins slugging outfielder combines prodigious power with an ability to hit for a solid average. Last season he belted 34 home runs, and this year he boasts a .283/.365/.555 slash line and has 19 long balls on his ledger. His current-season numbers would be even better were it not for a 12-for-64 stretch from June 1 through June 20.

Currently day-to-day with a balky knee, Stanton will represent the Marlins in next week’s All-Star Game and — health permitting — participate in the Home Run Derby. He discussed his hitting approach during a mid-June visit to Fenway Park.

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Stanton on hitting: “The first thing you need is a good pitch to hit. You can feel as good as ever, but if you don’t swing at strikes, you’re not going to be successful. There are times that hitting is very interesting. It’s also a long process. You can feel great and swing at strikes and still make outs, so it’s about consistency. You have to make sure you’re doing the right things and not changing just because you’re not successful for a short time.

“For me, it’s about staying inside the ball and not trying to hurry up on a pitch inside. That’s one of the things when you’re not hitting well, you see the ball inside and think, ‘Boom! I have to get to it real quick.’ It’s more the opposite. You want to be smooth and soft with your body to get to that ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Logan Morrison isn’t capable of producing the same type of offensive fireworks as Giancarlo Stanton. The 24-year-old “LoMo” doesn’t have his teammate’s light-tower power. But he can go yard. His left-handed stroke produced 23 long balls last year and his slugging percentage was a solid .468. Swinging for the fences simply isn’t his modus operandi.

Morrison doesn’t fashion himself a home-run hitter. The Miami Marlins first baseman goes up to the plate with an opposite-field line-drive approach that helped him post strong OBP numbers in the minor leagues and in his 2010 rookie season. Since then, his results have been mixed.

Two-plus seasons into his Marlins career, Morrison is seemingly caught in between. Hitting in the middle of Ozzie Guillen’s order, neither his on-base nor his slugging numbers are up to snuff. With the All-Star break looming, he has 10 home runs and a .242/.317/.433 slash line.

Morrison is capable of much more, but first he has to find himself. When he does, will he be a middle-of-the-order run producer? Or will he be more of a batting average-OBP guy? Could he be both?

Morrison talked about his approach when the Marlins visited Fenway Park in June.

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Logan Morrison on hitting: “I’ve pretty much tried to keep the same approach my whole life. Growing up, my dad was big into the art of hitting. It was Charlie Lau, then Tony Gwynn and reading his book. That turned into me going to Kevin Seitzer and getting lessons from him. He was always up the middle and the other way.

“I’ve also worked on learning how to pull the ball and when to pull the ball. That’s something I’ve tried to develop, but right now I’m trying to get back to up-the-middle and the other way. My approach has always been up-the-middle and the other way, but whether it’s timing — my contact point — I’m pulling a lot of balls this year. That’s OK with me as long as I’m getting hits, but I’m not getting enough hits.

“I was pulling the ball last year too, but not to the extreme that I am now. Why? It could be the pitching. Read the rest of this entry »

Savvy baseball fans know the difference between a cutter and a slider, but what differentiates the two pitches is a mystery to many. Roger McDowell and Randy St. Claire understand the nuances of both. Former big-league relievers, they now serve as pitching coaches for the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins, respectively.

McDowell and St. Claire discussed the ins and outs of the cutter — and its hybrid cousin, the slider — in separate interviews last month.

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THE CUTTER

St. Claire: “For me, a cutter is a fastball that’s moving. It runs in on that left-handed hitter’s hands. There is velocity to it, and there is no spin to the ball that you can pick up. A slider has spin and usually a tight dot to it. It’s usually when you throw a poor slider that it gets hit. On a cutter, the hitter does not pick up the spin on the ball. At the last, just before contact, the ball is sliding. For a left-hander it’s sliding to the right, and for a right-hander it’s sliding to the left. It’s very short break, too. A cutter is a contact pitch that makes them mis-hit the ball.”

McDowell: “Basically, you just take a four-seam fastball and offset it. It’s a very small offset from your four-seam fastball. You make a very slight turn — I guess it would be horizontal. You basically turn the seams. On a four-seam fastball, you’re gripping across the seams, and a cutter would be a slight angle off the four seams. You get a natural movement from that without having to do anything at the end, like on a curveball or a slider, where there’s a turn in your wrist. There’s more of a turn in the wrist on a curveball than a slider, but you can get away from that, just by off-setting a fastball, and hopefully it will cut.”

ACCIDENTAL CUTTERS

St. Claire: “The more you start manipulating the ball to get it to cut, the more velocity you lose on the ball. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Hudson has had a long and successful career. The 36-year-old right-hander owns a 187-100 recrod and a 3.41 ERA in 389 big-league appearances. Now in his eighth season with the Atlanta Braves — after six years in Oakland — he has accumulated 50.5 WAR. Primarily a sinkerball pitcher, Hudson has been a consistent front-line starter despite a pedestrian 6.11 K/9.

Hudson talked about his repertoire, and how it has evolved over the years, when the Braves visited Boston earlier this month.

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Tim Hudson: “When I first signed, I was sinker, slider, split — mostly sinker, split. I didn’t really throw much of a breaking ball; it was kind of a show-me type of pitch. That was pretty much all I had up until I got to Triple-A. Then I started working more on a changeup and a little bit of a bigger breaking ball.

“When I got to the big leagues, I was still mostly sinker-split, with an occasional slider. After about a year or so, I started relying more on a bigger breaking ball that I could throw more often when I was behind in counts. I also started throwing an occasional changeup, which was a different look than my split.

“My breaking ball went from being more of a cutter to more of a slider — just a bigger break. I needed something with a little more depth, something with a little more swing-and-miss potential. I needed something that would move away from a right-handed hitter a little more. The [pitch] I had been throwing had a smaller break, because it didn’t have slider rotation.

“A cutter is just an offset fastball that looks like a fastball and spins like a fastball, but at the very end cuts like a small slider. Read the rest of this entry »

For the Baltimore Orioles to stay in contention in the American League East, they probably need to get better pitching performances out of Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz. Each has been inconsistent, as evidenced by their combined 17 losses and ERAs over 5.00. They’ll also need Wei-Yin Chen to keep up his good work. The rookie southpaw has been a pleasant surprise with his 7-3 record and 3.38 ERA.

Rick Adair, the Orioles pitching coach, gave scouting reports on the threesome when the team visited Fenway Park earlier this month.

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Read the rest of this entry »

On October 20, 2004, Derek Lowe had what might be the greatest pitching performance in Boston Red Sox history. It’s certainly the most underappreciated. Facing the New York Yankees in a classic Game 7, Lowe allowed one run and one hit in six innings. And he did it on just two days of rest.

The Red Sox won the game 10-3 and completed a stunning comeback from a three-games-to-none deficit against their hated rivals. They went on to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and earned the franchise’s first title in 86 years.

Lowe talked about his historic outing when his current team, the Cleveland Indians, visited Fenway Park earlier this season.

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David Laurila: Your performance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS is arguably the greatest in Red Sox history. Do you agree with that?

Lowe: “I don’t know. There have been a lot of games in the franchise’s history. Maybe the magnitude makes it that big. It was a perfect storm. I had competitive stuff that day and we scored a lot of runs. I had just pitched against them 48 hours earlier, so I had a fresh thought of what I wanted to do.

Our game plan was to throw a lot of breaking balls. We threw a lot of them and I was fortunate enough to have good command of my off-speed stuff that day. We figured they’d be ultra-aggressive, because it was kind of how the series had gone. They had been up 3-0 and we had clawed our way back to Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. We felt they’d be over-aggressive and maybe force the issue. Our game plan was something we were going to live and die by.”

DL: How good was your stuff that day?

Lowe: “Oh, God. I’ve had better. Read the rest of this entry »