Davidi on Jays: Jays’ pen strength is numbers
Posted February 2, 2012 9:39 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – The ability to adapt is crucial for survival on the pitcher’s mound, a quality everyone from the youngster struggling to establish himself in the big-leagues to the veteran trying to keep his job in the majors must have to find and maintain success.
The Toronto Blue Jays will feature plenty of hurlers among the former category when spring training kicks off later this month, and in reliever Francisco Cordero, whose US$4.5-million, one-year deal was finalized Wednesday, they have an intriguing option among the latter.
Cordero, who turns 37 on May 11, is in the midst of a late-career transition from a fastball-slider power guy who would blow away hitters to a more nuanced pitcher who relies on movement and location to induce ground balls and weak contact for outs.
In recent years he’s added a changeup and a sinker to his repertoire, and last season introduced a curveball he threw 5.1 per cent of the time to the mix. He used his fastball just 37.4 per cent of the time, averaging 93 m.p.h. in 2011 according to FanGraphs.com, and more than doubled his changeup usage (up to 22.2 per cent of the time from 8.5 in 2010).
In part, that helped Cordero record a career-best 50 per cent ground ball rate and a career-low batting average on balls in play of .214. But his strikeouts per nine innings also dropped from 7.3 in 2010 to 5.4, a number that combined with the dip in fastball velocity lead some to see a pitcher in decline.
Whether or not that’s true will depend on Cordero’s ability to continue adjusting his game in a tougher division with deeper lineups than those he’s faced the past four years with the Cincinnati Reds.
Either way, the looming adaptability test for the Dominican right-hander – along with the bevy of young arms led by the likes of Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez and Kyle Drabek – will go a long way in determining the success or failure of the 2012 Blue Jays.
Manager John Farrell and pitching coach Bruce Walton can only hope the rest of their staff is as open-minded as Cordero is.
“When you get older, you’re not that young kid anymore that’s used to throwing 100 m.p.h., you have to learn how to pitch, and that’s what I have been doing,” he said on a conference call. “For the past few years, I’ve been learning how to pitch – in and out, moving the ball a lot better, throwing a lot of sinkers.
“I’m not worried about getting a lot of strikeouts. It’s good to get a strikeout, but sometimes when you get a strikeout, you throw a lot of pitches, and if you become a ground-ball pitcher, you save yourself a lot of pitches and you can pitch a lot more in a series.”
That combination of mound-smarts and durability – Cordero has pitched in at least 66 games in each of the past nine seasons – will be welcomed in a Blue Jays bullpen that was too often a weak point for the club last season.
Cordero is the final piece added this winter by general manager Alex Anthopoulos to address the problem, joining closer Sergio Santos, left-hander Darren Oliver and the reacquired Jason Frasor to bolster a group of incumbents that includes Casey Janssen, Carlos Villanueva, Jesse Litsch and rookie Joel Carreno.
On paper it’s a much better group than the one fronted by Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel, and if everyone can pitch to their capabilities, Farrell may be able to use his bullpen to shorten games, and make up for possibly inconsistent starting pitching the way the St. Louis Cardinals did on their way to a World Series championship.
Farrell has been stumping for the addition of a reliable, innings-eating starter since the final day of the 2011 season but Anthopoulos has to this point been unable to find one of sufficient quality at the right price.
The revamped relief corps, combined for the club’s hoped for internal improvements from a young starting staff and positional core group left mostly untouched over the winter, may give the skip another way to skin the cat.
“The people who the Blue Jays have signed in the off-season make a good bullpen,” said Cordero. “I know there was some trouble in the bullpen last year … but they’re playing some new guys – myself, Oliver, Frasor and Santos.
“It’s a good bullpen, and I’ve seen the Blue Jays play, I know they have a great offence. It’s just a matter of time to put everything together, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Skeptical fans frustrated by this off-season would love to adjust to that.
