Vazquez threw his first bullpen session of the spring today, and when he glared in from the mound and saw Posada’s familiar face behind the plate, he felt a sense of comfort.As Feinsand mentions in his post, it doesn't look like we'll be dealing with any pitcher-catcher controversy with these two, which is always good. The less controversy, the better.
“I asked him, ‘Do you remember the way I pitch?’” said a smiling Vazquez. “I’ve known Jorge for a while now. It’s good to have him back there.”
Posada was equally pleased to see his former teammate back in pinstripes.
“It’s good to have him back,” Posada said. “He really cares and he really understands how we do things here.”
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“It’s easy for me to call his game,” Posada said. “He has four outstanding pitches, so you can’t go wrong with any of them when you call it.”
Posada also said that Vazquez has matured as a pitcher, and is now using his slider and changeup more to compliment his fastball and curve. I haven't noticed this because I stopped paying much attention to Vazquez once he was shipped out of here after his ALCS disaster. But I think this change will help him a lot in his second go around with the Yanks.
To me it looked like he became far too predictable in 2004, especially in certain counts and oddly enough, when he got ahead of hitters. 14 of his 33 home runs came when the batter had two strikes on him. In 2004 and 2005 he allowed 33 and 35 home runs, his two highest totals of his career, and one of those seasons was with Arizona so it wasn't an AL-NL thing.
Since then he's gotten those home run numbers down and last year allowed a career-low 20. He's also mixed in two of his best seasons of his career ('07 & '09). Keeping hitters guessing and keeping the ball in the yard will be a big keys for Vazquez this season, especially in a hitters park like the new stadium.
