Today, Carig writes about another Yankees starter who reintroduced a pitch to his arsenal that led to big things last season. That pitcher is Javy Vazquez, and the pitch was his curve.
Prior to the '09 season Vazquez's father told him he needed to use his curve more. It was a good pitch and his father didn't understand why he stayed away from it. So, Vazquez took his fathers advice and ended up having his best season as a pro.
Here's more from Carig:
Vazquez arrived in camp last year determined to throw more curveballs. And by the end of the regular season, he had thrown more hooks than he had since 2003. The result was arguably the best season in Vazquez's big league career.
"I just think that throughout the years, I've counted on it less," said Vazquez, who went 15-10 with a 2.87 ERA. "And last year I counted it on it more. I trusted it more than I did in the past, I guess. It just worked for me."
...
FanGraphs, through the use of pitch f/x data provided by Major League Baseball, attempts to measure the effectiveness of certain pitches. According to their data, Vazquez saw an across-the-board jump in the value of all four of his pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, changeup). Clearly, the use of his curveball was only one part of Vazquez's improvement in 2009.
Yet, no pitch in Vazquez's arsenal saw as much of a drastic bump in value as his curve, which according to FanGraphs ranked as one of the game's nastiest.
Vazquez's curveball saved a career-high 17.2 runs above average last season, putting him behind only the Astros' Wandy Rodriguez (23.9) and the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright (23.3).
... In fact, it even ranked slightly ahead of new Yankees teammate A.J. Burnett, who finished fourth in baseball at 15.4 runs above average...
Carig goes on to explain how during his first stint with the Yankees he was mostly a fastball/changeup guy, but since his time here he's relied more on his slider and now his curve.
"I used to use my changeup more than my curveball," Vazquez said. "And in a tough situation I threw my changeup more than my curveball. Now I'm trusting more of my other pitches instead of just the changeup."The main reason I bring this story up is because it shows what one extra pitch can do for a pitcher. My main concern with Burnett using his changeup more is that it could take away from his other pitches. But as we can see from Vazquez's performance last year, throwing more curves didn't hurt his other pitches, it helped them. When a batter must keep another pitch in the back of their mind, for example Burnett's changeup, it will make it harder to adjust to his fastball and curve. Vazquez's curve took his game to a new level, hopefully the changeup can do the same for Burnett.
