![]() Over the years I’ve started to figure out how to leverage the ball in my hand a little bit better, to add more pressure to my middle finger, which allows the ball to spin better. Laurila: What is your greatest strength as a pitcher?Īntone: “Probably the ability to spin the baseball. The game is changing, and I want to evolve with it.” I used to throw sinkers, and I wanted to go seven innings every single time I wanted to be efficient and try to have 10-pitch innings. Laurila: Would you have said the same thing a few years ago?Īntone: “Nope. He asked me, ‘What about being efficient?’ I mean, you can go down a rabbit hole and talk about individual situations all day, but I’m trying to strike out every single person, no matter what.” I’m trying to strike out every single person, in every situation. In spring training, Nick Castellanos asked me, ‘Do you try to strike out every single person you face?’ I said ‘Absolutely.’ There’s no other choice. I’m spinning it like 3,000.”Īntone: “Oh, for sure. “I’m looking it up now, and I’m getting like negative 19 inches of horizontal on the curve, and then anywhere from negative 11 to 13 vertical. If you’re taking away movement for more velocity, that could be a good trade off, but I have this arm slot, and this arm speed down, so I’m just going to stick with the big-moving curveball. If it gets shorter, tightens up the movement… it really just depends. Laurila: Going back to the challenges of locating a big-breaking curveball, I asked Stripling why doesn’t he a throw a shorter version that he can command better?Īntone: “For me, I don’t want to be taking away from swing-and-miss. I hurt my finger and was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to throw this.’” I’ve tried the spike, but it’s just not comfortable in my hand. I throw a conventional slider and a conventional curve. Laurila: Has anything changed with the grip?Īntone: “No, same grip. But I’m actually getting… my release point is a couple inches further out front.” So I guess it is a mental cue too, because I am thinking that. I’m not really thinking about my hand at all. I’m trying to like get my shoulder - my throwing shoulder - out front. Laurila: Was it a mechanical cue, or a mental cue?Īntone: “It was definitely mechanical. It helped me be able to get on top of it, and get better spin efficiency, which makes the ball move, too.” I couldn’t really figure out how to get my hand out front, so he kind of gave me some mechanical cues to get it out front, and to get my shoulder out front, so that the ball is coming out in the same spot every time. My curveball is very sweepy, very lateral. “ Trevor Bauer being with us last year… he had a 12-6 curveball that he drops in quite a bit for a strike. They helped me a ton with that, and just getting the feel for it over the years, and being able to command it… and then the curveball has always been there. I went to Driveline a few years ago and did a pitch-design session on the slider. I’ve always had a decent curveball and a decent slider. Laurila: Your four-seamer had been getting cut and sink?Īntone: “Yeah. While it’s not perfect - it’s still work in progress - I think it has been a lot better this year.” One of my goals this past offseason was getting better spin efficiency on my fastball so that it would ride better. I was trying to go top-shelf, and the ball wasn’t riding true through the zone. “I was trying to throw fastballs up, because I had velocity. The ball looked like it was cutting, but it was actually sinking, which in itself could be a little effective. The tilt axis and gyro degree was causing the ball to actually sink it was like a cutting sinker. Last year, I had some pretty poor spin efficiency. So I have seen my velocity climb each year, for probably the past three years. That’s where the game plan comes in: how do we execute, use, and sequence all of our pitches?”Īntone: “Yes. It’s, ‘OK, I’m getting way more whiffs on my curveball,’ or ‘I’m getting lower exit velocity every time I throw a curveball, compared to when I throw a fastball.’ I mean, any smart human being would be like, ‘OK, let me throw the curveball more so that I can have more success.’ At the same time, you can’t throw it every single pitch. But yeah, data does play into it, because you see - at least I see - batting-average-against on certain pitches, swing-and-miss against on certain pitches. Has that been data-driven, or is it more intuitive?Īntone: “It’s more intuitive than data. ![]() Laurila: You’re throwing more off-speed this year. ![]()
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