Cody Allen on His Weird Year (2016 Version)

Last September, we ran an interview with Cody Allen that was titled A Cleveland Closer’s Weird Year. At the time, his BABIP was .366 (it was .342 at season’s end). Despite his balls-in-play issue, opposing batters hit just .219 against him (with a .305 SLG). He finished with 34 saves, a 2.99 ERA and a 1.82 FIP.

The 27-year-old right-hander is having another weird year. His ground-ball rate is up almost 10 points and his infield-fly rate has plummeted from 15.4% to 4.1%. Counterintuitively, his BABIP has plummeted to .248. On the season, Allen has 27 saves, a 2.70 ERA and a 3.24 FIP. Opposing batters are hitting .184 against him, with a .333 SLG and a much higher HR/FB rate (14.3% versus 3.1% a year ago).

Allen’s repertoire hasn’t changed, and his pitch ratios and velocity are essentially the same. His strikeout rate remains high. All in all, he’s the same pitcher he was a year ago, so why are some of the numbers so markedly different? Allen did his best to explain — and expounded on a variety of other pitching subjects — this past weekend.

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Allen on his numbers: “As a reliever, your numbers can change quite a bit, because your innings aren’t that high. One or two blowups can really inflate some of them. I had one against Chicago where I gave up five and got only one out. My ERA went way up in one game. As for explaining my numbers the past two years — the ones you’re asking about — I’m not sure if there are any simple answers.”

On locating arm side and glove side: “One thing that has changed a little bit is, in the past I’ve kind of had reverse splits. I’ve had better numbers against left-handers than I have right-handers. This year, it’s gone the other way. I think that’s because I’ve been able to pitch in better to righties, but haven’t pitched in as well to lefties. I haven’t been as good arm side. That’s with my fastball. I don’t know how that would affect some of the other numbers, though.

“Things just kind of take shape. If I felt like I was struggling getting extension… in spring training, I really worked on that. Sometimes getting that extension will help you get on this side of the plate. This year, that wasn’t much the case. It was moreso getting angle on the ball — getting the ball downhill. Sometimes when you’re trying to focus on getting the ball downhill, your arm works in a way where it’s more comfortable to ride the ball on the arm side of the plate than it is to get it to the glove side of the plate. It’s just baseball. If you struggle with one thing last year, you’re probably not going to struggle with it the next year. You’re going to struggle with something else.”

On working down and his higher ground-ball rate: “At times during the season, I’ve thrown more strikes down. At certain other times of the season, I haven’t. I think it’s just one of those ebbs-and-flows kind of things.

“I don’t know exactly why I’m getting more [ground balls]. I think some of it might have to do with facing hitters over the years. They’re accumulating a lot more at-bats against me, so now it can be more like a game of cat and mouse. They kind of figure out what I’m trying to do to them, and I try to change that up a little bit. That could be conducive to guys trying to cover a certain pitch, which might result in me getting a ground ball out of it.

“I know if I can throw a couple of fastballs down in the zone, early in the inning, the hitter has to respect that. You can look at it like tunnels. A fastball up is going to be a breaking ball for a strike. In other words, a curveball for a strike is going to be out of that same tunnel as fastball up. A breaking ball in the dirt is going to be in the same tunnel as a fastball down.

“If I’m really getting the ball down that day, I can effectively bounce breaking balls, because of that tunnel. They have to respect your fastball down; they have to respect that it could be a strike.

“Also, too, if I’m throwing fastballs up and they’re taking them, then I know I can dump some curveballs in for strikes. Once they see a pitch out of that higher tunnel, it’s probably going to look… I throw the curveball and they’re thinking fastball up. If they’re swinging at that one, I probably don’t want to throw the curveball up because they’re going to see it and recognize it.”

On his lower infield-fly rate and lower BABiP: “A few times this year when I’ve pitched up to guys, I haven’t really gotten it where I wanted. Infield flies happen in on the hands and up more so than away and up. There have been a couple of times where I’ve tried to go up and in to maybe get that result, and I’ve gotten it away a little bit and they’ve been able to put it in the outfield a little bit.

“For the majority of this year we’ve had an infield defense of Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli. Last year we didn’t have that same defensive alignment until about halfway through. It’s baseball. The game kind of evens itself out. For my career, I’ve probably given up seven homers a year, and last year I gave up two. Now I’m back to seven again. But at the same time, guys are hitting ground balls at people. Last year it seemed like every time a ball was put in play on the ground, it went through.

“You just go out there and try to make good pitches. I’m sure there have been times this year where I’ve given up… the game where I gave up five in Chicago, it was infield hit, infield hit, bloop single, grand slam. And I’m sure there are games where I’ve given up three absolute laser beams that were hit 390 feet to the warning track, and they were caught. Which games did I pitch better in? I don’t think you can tell me it was the laser-beam games.”

On pitching carefully to certain hitters: “There are times where you’re in a certain spot in the lineup… when you’re in the ninth inning, you have the luxury of sometimes pitching to the score. Say it’s a one-run game and I have two outs, and… we’re in Minnesota right now, so say Miguel Sano is up and Eduardo Escobar is hitting behind him. In that situation, Sano’s job is to hit the ball out of the ballpark. Escobar is more likely to just get a base hit. If I fall behind Sano 2-0, I don’t want to give in to him and just try to buy a strike. If I walk him, I walk him. Moving on to the next guy is better than throwing a pitch in his wheelhouse and giving up a home run.

“You are going to give them up. Like I said, I’ve given up more home runs this year than I did last year, but when they happen matters. In certain situations they hurt a lot more.”

On bullpen usage and leverage: “The way Tito has been doing it… he hasn’t just gotten crazy to where it’s the fifth inning and he puts in Andrew Miller. He knows he can’t warm up Andrew every time a hairy situation comes up. But I think [using your best relievers in high-leverage situations] provides value to a club. That’s especially true when you have a couple of guys willing to do it.

“Of course, Andrew matches up well against anybody, whether they’re right-handed or left-handed. Like I said, I’ve fared better against righties this year, but it’s not as though lefties have hammered me. It’s one of those things where, is Andrew going to have more success facing this group, leaving [Bryan] Shaw and me to piece together the rest around him? If we need a strikeout in a big spot, who is our best strikeout guy? That’s Andrew Miller. He’s one of the best in the league.

“So, I’m all for it. If you’ve got guys on board, and it’s done within certain parameters, it’s really beneficial. Look at the numbers since Andrew got here. I think Shaw’s numbers have been a lot better. I’ve thrown the ball a lot better since he’s gotten here. I think a lot of it is because we’re able to put guys in spots where we can have more success.

“In the grander scheme of things, the way Kansas City has won the last couple of years has kind of changed the landscape in terms of bullpen value. Their best bullpen guy was Wade Davis and for the longest time he was pitching the eighth inning. A lot of times, that’s where you’re going to get the meat of the order. I’m absolutely fine with coming into the game in the seventh or eighth.”

On routines and role expectations: “I think happens a lot is that guys get tied to a certain role, and there’s a dollar figure attached to that role. It’s tough for some guys to come out of that mindset. They want things a certain way.

“Pitchers do have routines. They like to do certain things a certain way, and if you’ve done that for a couple of years… let me tell you my routine. I do all my stuff — the stretching and getting prepared — in the sixth inning. Before Andrew got here, I did that in the seventh inning, because I knew I wasn’t going to pitch until the ninth. Now, I could very well be pitching in the eighth. The way Tito has been doing it, you can kind of look at the lineup and know there’s a decent chance, ‘OK, Miller will have these guys and I will have these guys.’

“It’s one of those things where a pitcher just goes out and pitches, and he does well wherever he pitches. And if it’s in a tight spot, late in a game, you’re going to be especially valuable, regardless of the exact inning.”

On closers getting in work, and struggling in non-save situations: “It depends on the guy. Personally, I’ve kind of adapted a little bit. This year, there have been times I haven’t pitched in three or four days and I’ve been OK my next outing. In the past, that wasn’t always the case. It was a lot harder than when I had one day off or pitched in back-to-back games.

“It’s a feel thing. It’s similar with hitters. If you took Mike Napoli and said, ‘Hey Nap, you’re not going to see live pitching for four days,’ then you throw him out there. He could have success — he could hit three homers — but it could also be difficult. Just getting into a big-league baseball game, even if it’s not intense and the adrenaline isn’t there, helps keep you in sync.

“I don’t know that I’ve really struggled in non-save situation. That’s something John Axford really helped me with a couple years ago. He told me that if you pitch in 70 games, there are going to be 30 where you feel really good, 30 where you feel not great, and 10 here you get work in — kind of meaningless innings. Those 10 innings that are meaningless can be the difference between a really good statistical season and an average statistical season.

“Also, if you don’t take a game seriously enough and you get banged around the ballpark, you’re going to upset the rhythm you’ve had going on. You’ve been grooving and you want to keep that up — you want to keep that rhythm — as opposed to having to start over with that rhythm. Axford’s whole thing was, if you’re throwing well, keep throwing well. This game is hard enough. Don’t take anything for granted.”