Perez trying to work out kinks in delivery
Pirates Notebook PITTSBURGH (AP) – Turns out Zach Duke isn’t the only Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher whose inconsistent delivery is a concern to manager Jim Tracy and pitching coach Jim Colborn.
Even as the Pirates work to get the 22-year-old Duke back into the same, dependable release he had while going 8-2 as a rookie last season, left-hander Oliver Perez’s always-a-work-in-progress delivery is being tinkered with, too.
The difference, of course, is that the Pirates have been trying to smooth out Perez’s oft-erratic motion since he arrived in 2003. Duke’s adjustments began only during spring training, raising concerns among some fans that he is being taken out of the very rhythm he had in nearly every start last season – even though Duke himself said he is having problems.
Tracy said the difference in the 24-year-old Perez’s release point from his first start to his second couldn’t have been more noticeable. The left-hander struck out nine in 5 1-3 innings in an opening-day start in Milwaukee, only to give up eight runs, five earned, in 3 1-3 innings in Saturday’s 7-6 loss in Cincinnati.
“He gets himself in trouble if his arm doesn’t get up where it’s supposed to be, and he ends up leading himself to home plate with his elbow,” Tracy said Wednesday. “You may throw from a slope downhill but, because of the position of your elbow, you’re pushing the ball out of your hand uphill – and, when you do that, the ball will go up.”
Tracy blames this very flaw for the significant variation in velocity that was such a concern with Perez last season and again during spring training.
Perez threw regularly in the mid-90 miles-per-hour range while having a 2.98 ERA and striking out 239 in 2004, but was mostly in the 88-mph range when his ERA was nearly three runs per game higher last season.
Perez (0-1, 6.23 ERA, 11 strikeouts in 8 2-3 innings) threw again in the low- to mid-90s against the Brewers, only to fall back into some of his bad habits against the Reds.
“When your timing is off and you’re pushing the ball instead of throwing the ball, there will be a decrease in velocity,” Tracy said. “If the timing is off or the arm slot is off, you won’t see the same thing.”
The Pirates’ goal is to get Perez back to the way he was throwing against the Brewers in time for Thursday afternoon’s start against the Dodgers.
“The life to his pitches was good and it was probably what you saw two years ago when he struck out 239,” Tracy said of that April 3 start. “His pitches were down in the zone, with terrific movement and great bite on his breaking ball.”
WELL, IT’S A START: With first baseman Sean Casey held out again Wednesday with a sore rib cage, Craig Wilson made his fourth start in the Pirates’ 10th game of the season. To him, it’s not quite as good as 2004 – when he didn’t miss a game until July – but perhaps better than he might have expected.
Wilson’s challenge is trying to keep his swing and his rhythm while not starting every day.
“It’s definitely not much fun, but what can you do?” said Wilson, who hit a team-high 29 homers in 2004. “All you can do is, when your name is called, try to get the job done.”