Sunday Notes: Felix, Shark, Archer, Sale, Castellanos, more

My first piece for FanGraphs was an interview with Felix Hernandez. That was in May 2011, when Hernandez was 25 years old and coming off a Cy Young season. Four-plus years later, I’m still here and King Felix is better than ever.

Earlier this summer, I asked the Seattle Mariners ace to compare then to now.

“I’m a little different,” Hernandez told me. “I don’t throw as hard anymore. I was 95-96 (mph) back in 2011, and I’m 91-93 now. But I’m a little smarter. I try to throw on the corners and down in the strike zone, and I mix with my breaking balls.”

I reminded Hernandez that he called himself smart in our earlier interview. In retrospect, was that accurate?

“I would say yes,” responded the righty. “I knew what the hitters were looking for back then. But I do read hitters better. I throw a lot of changeups and breaking balls now, and with two strikes they’re looking for my changeup. I see that and will throw them different pitches.”

Hernandez has the same 8.6 K-rate he had in 2011 – it was higher in the interim – while his ground ball rate has jumped from 50.2 to 55.9. That’s by design.

“I’m trying to get people out quick,” said Hernandez. “I get a lot of ground balls on my sinker, but I also get a lot on my changeup. I get more ground balls on the first pitch. Hitters know me. They know I’m going to attack, so they come up there and hack.”

Four years ago, Hernandez offered a classic line, telling me “I don’t try to strike out people, but sometimes they swing and miss.” He smiled when I brought that up, then told me it’s still the case. After a brief pause, he admitted it’s not always true.

“Sometimes I am trying to get a strikeout,” said Hernandez. “I hear the King’s Court going, ‘K,K,K,K,K,’ so I try to get a strikeout. But do you know what? I’m trying to not throw a lot of pitches. I’m trying to stay in the game as long as I can.”

He still doesn’t pay much attention to video or scouting reports – “I just go by my strengths” – and he still long tosses at a great distance every day. And despite how easy he makes it look, he still considers pitching complicated.

“That’s probably what I said (in 2011),” said Hernandez.”You can’t think too much when you’re on the mound, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple. You don’t know if they’re going to swing or take a pitch, so every pitch has to be a perfect pitch. That makes it complicated.”

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Barring an extension, Jeff Samardzija will be a free agent at season’s end. The 30-year-old right-hander will be a hot commodity. His career record stands 44-53, but he’s no sub-par hurler. An established workhorse, he’s gone at least seven innings in 13 of his previous 14 starts for the resurgent White Sox.

Several factors will influence where Samardzija signs. One of them is the pitching coach he’d be working with.

“That plays into it, for sure,” Samardzija told me. “When you’re making a decision to go somewhere, you’re looking at everything, and coaches are part of it. You want to be with someone you’re comfortable with and respect. When they get on you, you want to know it came from a good place.”

Samardzija doesn’t expect that to happen very often. He considers himself “a pretty low-maintenance guy” and prefers pitching coaches who are hands-on only when needed. He cited Chris Bosio and Curt Young as previous mentors who were “big stand-and-watch guys,” who “mostly talked about how to approach hitters.”

The free-agent-to-be is of the opinion that “You talk mechanics with them when you need to,” and once upon a time, that’s exactly what was in order. The Yankees’ current pitching coach was with the Cubs when Samardzija broke into the big leagues on the North Side.

“I have to tip my hat to Larry Rothschild,” said Samardzija. “When I first got called up, I had good stuff but my mechanics were a little shoddy and I wasn’t repeating my delivery. We made a couple of large changes to my delivery and they paid off a lot.”

Samardzija will be paid handsomely this winter, and the team that inks him to a contract will need more than a fat checkbook. When it comes time for him to weigh his options, Samardzija will be very cognizant of who the pitching coach is.

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Chris Sale leads AL pitchers in FIP and K/9, and his current performance is no anomaly. The southpaw has been dominating hitters since breaking into the White Sox rotation four years ago. His three-pitch mix is pure filth.

Per PITCHf/x, Sale throws his fastball 53.8% of the time at an average speed of 94.4 mph. He throws his slider 17.6% at 79.0 mph, and his changeup 28.6% at 85.2 mph.

Tyler Flowers has caught Sale more than anybody, so I asked the backstop about the movement and velocity of his batterymate’s pitches.

Flowers on Sale’s four-seam fastball: “He’ll throw one that sinks and then he’ll throw it again, at 97 mph, and it will cut. Then he’ll throw one that’s straight as an arrow. He just throws the ball and it comes out different ways. Maybe he tries to manipulate it a little. If I really want a two-seamer, I’ll call it, but I rarely do. I just let him throw his four and it does what it does.”

On Sale’s slider: “The movement on it hasn’t changed, but I see a little more add-and-subtract velocity-wise than I used to. The majority of the time, that’s him doing it, although I’ll call for a slower one on occasion.”

On Sale’s changeup: “He gets fade and sink, and every once in awhile it will have split-like action, kind of straight down. I have no idea how he grips it, but it’s got the reverse spin you’d expect from a changeup or screwball-type pitch. His good ones are becoming more like a split.

“I would put his changeup above his slider as far as quality, command, and effectiveness. Worst case, I would say they’re even. There’s no reason to back off how much we’re using it.”

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Chris Archer is throwing his slider 40.1% of the time – only Tyson Ross gos to the pitch more often – and that’s not likely to change. The Rays righty is scorching opposing hitters with his signature offering. Paired with his mid-90s fastball, the pitch has propelled the 26-year-old into elite status. Archer is second to Sale in FIP and K/9, and only Francisco Liriano has a slider that grades out higher.

Archer is essentially a two-pitch pitcher, but only if you consider his slider one pitch. Its average velocity this year is 87.9, but much like Sale, the righty will add and subtract. Archer also alters movement.

“Situations and strengths of hitters call for different speeds,” said Archer. “They call for different shapes and locations. We call it one pitch, but if you take a deeper look, some of them probably act more like curveballs.”

As for variations in velocity, timing is everything.

“You see it with heaters,” said Archer. “Jake Odorizzi will throw his fastball 88 mph, and he’ll throw it 93 in the same game. It may seem strange to see my slider range from 85 to 90, but it’s the same (5-mph difference). Pitching is upsetting timing, so the same pitch at a different speed serves the purpose of a different pitch.”

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Which team made the best trade deadline deal this past week? I’ll go with Cleveland, who acquired pitching prospect Rob Kaminsky from the Cardinals in exchange for Brandon Moss. The latter will turn 32 next month, and while he’s a solid player, he hasn’t been himself since having hip surgery. There’s a good chance that his best days are behind him, and he’s arbitration-eligible to boot. Meanwhile, Kaminsky’s future is bright. The 20-year-old lefty was sparkled since being drafted 28th overall in 2013 out of a New Jersey high school. He has a 2.15 ERA in 217 professional innings.

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Billy Pierce, who died Friday at the age of 88, is a White Sox legend. Regarded as one of the best pitchers not in the Hall of Fame, the erstwhile southpaw earned 186 of his 211 career wins with Chicago’s South Side squad.

He could have been a Tigers legend.

A native of Detroit, Pierce broke into the big leagues with his hometown team. He wasn’t there very long. Just 27 games into his Tigers tenure, he was swapped to Chicago in exchange for 33-year-old catcher Aaron Robinson. The deal ended up being a steal for the Comiskey-owned club. Robinson had one good season in Motown and was released two years later. Fronting the White Sox pitching staff, Pierce was an All-Star seven times from 1953-1961.

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When I wrote about Cameron Maybin a few weeks ago, I didn’t include what he said about his original organization. The Atlanta outfielder was drafted by Detroit in 2005 and debuted two years later. Maybin played in 24 games for the Tigers before being traded to Miami.

“I got my professional career started with a great organization,” Maybin told me. “It was pretty awesome to get called up at 20 and play with veteran guys like Pudge (Rodriguez), Magglio (Ordonez), Carlos Guillen, Kenny Rogers… I could go on and on. (Gary) Sheffield. It was pretty cool to have that experience. Of course, it was short.”

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Nick Castellanos hasn’t been a Detroit Tiger for very long. The 23-year-old third baseman debuted in September 2013 and is in just his second full big-league season. His best days are ahead of him.

They can’t come fast enough for many who follow the Tigers. Castellanos is hitting .240/.293/.395, with a 25.3% K-rate and a 7.3% walk rate, and patience is wearing thin. On a recent trip to Michigan, I heard more kvetching about Castellanos than I did about any other Tiger. If my fan-interaction experience was indicative, the former first-round pick is becoming a whipping boy.

Count me among those who believe Castellanos will eventually emerge as a productive bat in the middle of the Detroit lineup. It may happen sooner rather than later. The still-young slugger has shown glimpses of his potential in recent weeks. Six of his 11 home runs came in July, as did 10 of his 27 walks. Plate discipline remains his biggest hurdle to success.

“When I struggle, it’s because I’m not swinging at good pitches,” admitted Castellanos. “It’s not because my swing isn’t working, it’s because I’m not getting a pitch to drive. If I swing at good pitches I’m going to have success. If I chase, the pitchers are going to have success.”

Castellanos has always had a simple hitting approach. He looks for pitches in the strike zone that he can attack. He told me little has changed for him beyond continuing to try to mature as a hitter. As for the reaction of fans and the media, he’s learned what to expect.

“Reporters are pretty much all result-based,” Castellanos told me. “If they see good results, they ask me what’s going well. But a lot of time, results are really luck. No one comes up and says, ‘You’ve had a great week at the plate’ when you’ve hit .100, even though you made good contact and drew some walks. But if you have three a**-out singles and a broken-bat knock up the middle, everybody is like, ‘Oh man, you’re seeing the ball extremely,’ even though that wasn’t the case at all.”

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“The Quote Game” is an offbeat interview approach I’ve employed a handful of times over the years. It’s simple. I take famous baseball quotes and have my interview subject interpret them. Nick Swisher can usually be counted on for some good quotes of his own, so invited him to share his thoughts on five catchy pieces of baseball wisdom.

Hitting is an art, but not an exact science (Rod Carew): “There’s more than one way to skin a cat. There are eight million different ways to do it. No two guys have exactly the same stance. You’ll see guys who are 6′ 8” and you’ll see guys who are 5′ 4”. That’s what makes this game so intriguing as an athlete. There’s not one right way to do it. ”

A baseball swing is a very finely tuned instrument. (Reggie Jackson): “Your bat is your weapon. It’s your instrument. You’re never going to see a musician go out there without his guitar, and you’re never going to see a baseball player go out there without his bat. That’s his art. That’s his world.”

I don’t have evil intentions, but I guess I do have power. (Harmon Killebrew): “When he was going to strike that baseball, he was going to bring everything he had. Harmon Killebrew was a big, big man and he had the power. I remember when I was playing high school football. When you were having a bad day, you were able to take it out on somebody. His thought process was, ‘I’m going to take my anger out on the baseball.’”

It’s only a hitch when you’re in a slump. When you’re hitting the ball it’s called rhythm. (Eddie Mathews): “When you’re not hitting, everyone thinks there’s something wrong with your swing. If you’re hitting .300, people think everything is absolutely perfect, even if you have the worst swing in baseball. Again, there are a gazillion ways to do this. But in the end we’re all taking a round bat and a round ball, and trying to hit it square.”

I never took the game home with me. I always left it in a bar somewhere. (Bob Lemon): “That’s a good one, dude. Yeah, there are times where you have to drink that pain away a little bit. Sometimes this game can get the best of you. This game can put you on top of the mountain, and it can put you down in the valley. Sometimes you need those soda pops to help you forget about it.”

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Tampa Bay’s Kevin Kiermaier leads all players with 24 Defensive Runs Saved and 10 triples.

Boston’s Xander Bogaerts leads all players with six four-hit games. The 22-year-old shortstop is hitting .391 (34 for 87) with RISP and .319 overall.

Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals leads NL rookies with a .555 slugging percentage. Carlos Correa leads AL rookies with a .571 slugging percentage.

Jeff Samardzija has gone at least seven innings in each of his last 10 starts. The last White Sox pitcher to do was Mark Buehrle, in 2004-2005.

On this date in 1979, Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died when the Cessna he was piloting crashed short of the runway at Akron-Canton airport. The seven-time All-Star was 32 years old.