Left-hander Tony Watson has been working very hard at getting the ball in, Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said on the rookie’s recent success.
Coming off a rough month of August, where Watson allowed 11 earned runs on 13 hits over 8.2 innings, the 26-year-old is getting more confident with pitching inside again.
“It was just something I kind of got away from for a little bit,” Watson said. “I’m finding success back in there again so I just got to keep pounding it.”
“One of the big things was needing to throw inside to open up the plate a little bit more,” Watson said. “Make them aware that you are going to throw in, throw in for effect, throw in for strikes. It just opens up the outside of the plate, the other half and it makes life a lot easier.”
Watson has made seven scoreless outings in relief in September. Over that span (5.0 innings), Watson has allowed just two hits while striking out four.
“It’s aim,“ Hurdle said. “It’s getting comfortable. Getting the ball in, pitching to your glove side, pitching in off the plate, not worrying about the repercussion. The hardest thing for him is, ‘well, if I miss, I miss back over the plate.’ They’ve got this mentality, ‘I’ll just get it in there.’ You’ve got to find a way to pitch strong to the glove side of your plate. Especially when you have a good changeup like he has. It becomes much more of an effective weapon.“
Not only has Watson been throwing inside more effectively, Hurdle mentioned that it is something they are trying to address throughout the Minor Leagues as well.
“They’re not taught to do it in little league,“ Hurdle said. “They’re not taught to do it in amateur baseball. They’re not really taught how to do it in College. They’re taught to get outs…But as you continue to move up, the quality of the hitter gets better and there’s different ways that more often than not, that your going to have to go about it.”
“It’s a mentality as much as it is anything else. It is something that we’re definitely going to readdress and re-strengthen our whole mentality next year in our Minor League system and on up. I think it’s all something we all feel it’s time to be re-addressed and re-identified, the purpose, the meaning and the fact that it’s a mentality more than anything else.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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