Thinking is elementary for Holmes
Pitcher ponders mix of his sinker, curveball
BRADENTON, Fla. — The directive has never made sense to Clay Holmes. Throughout his professional career, coaches have pleaded with Holmes to think less and rely more on his physical abilities. Pick a spot, they’d tell the Pirates’ 6-foot-5 reliever with a power sinker, and fire.
That approach never resonated with Holmes because he likes to think. The valedictorian of his high school class, Holmes says he never once got a B — his lowest grade was a 93 in chemistry — and had a 31 on his ACTs, placing him in the 95th percentile of the 2 million high schoolers who take the college admissions test every year.
“I have always been told to stop thinking, but that goes against who I am and how my brain operates,” Holmes said. “For me, I need to think through these things, figure them out and have a plan.”
With a 6.01 ERA in 46 career appearances, Holmes, 26, believes he finally has a plan to improve, one that involves harnessing his sinker and relying more on his curveball, which he threw just 23.9 percent of the time.
One of the ways Holmes can leverage his ability to think involves analyzing the spin axis on his pitches. In layman’s terms, this means how well he’s controlling them, how Holmes might improve that control and whether some days it might be better to pivot to something else.
The pitch that has given Holmes problems in the past is his sinker, which can be deadly. It
averaged 94.3 mph in 2019, which ranked 65th among the 267 pitchers who threw a sinker last season, according to Statcast. But in terms of vertical movement and percentage of sink compared to the league average, Holmes ranked second and third, respectively.
This means that, when Holmes’ sinker is working the way it should, its spin rate stays low, and the ball has late movement down, forcing hitters to swing overtop, beat it into the ground and make easy outs.
When Holmes has struggled, his sinker’s spin axis has been off, causing the ball to move laterally or spin more because of how it’s coming out of his hand.
“Because my sinker does move a lot, when you create more lateral movement, it’s harder to control,” said Holmes, who struck out 56 batters but walked 36 in 50 innings last season. “It’s almost like I’m trying to force something versus realizing what’s going on and trying something else.
“I think that’s where my curveball may come into play: monitoring when things are off with my sinker and noticing that the [spin] axis is lower.”
Holmes’ curveball, which had a whiff rate of 43.1 percent in 2019, is absolutely an elite pitch, Its spin rate (2,684 rpm) is very good, while opposing hitters had a .217 batting average against the pitch in 2019.
“Holmes has an unbelievable curveball,” bullpen coach Justin Meccage said. “We need to figure out how to get that into the mix a little bit more to maybe take away from a struggle area and add in a strength.
“Then all of a sudden you have a guy who has been scuffling … that’s how we maximize.”
The Pirates can maximize by allowing Holmes to think his way through problems, the same way he has done his entire life.
Growing up in Dothan, Ala., Holmes’ father (Oliver Wendell) was a church pastor while his mother (Teresa) worked as a school counselor. Before Clay or his brother were allowed to pick up a baseball or basketball, they first had to do their homework — and have it checked.
“Could have been a little incentive there,” Clay Holmes said.
Math was always one of
Holmes’ favorite subjects in school. He liked trigonometry and calculus but grew to really appreciate math via physics, where it was used to solve real-world problems.
When he committed to Auburn University, Holmes thought about majoring in engineering, although those plans were dashed when he signed with the Pirates, who selected Holmes in the ninth round of the 2011 draft out of Slocomb High School.
“I always kind of think about if I would have went to college, where my career path would have taken me,” Holmes said. “Even now, I plan on going back to school, whenever that may be. What I do later will probably be a lot different than what I did then. It’s fun to think about the what-ifs.”
Holmes said he has thought about taking college courses during the season but worried about not being able to devote all of his time and energy to baseball. In the meantime, Holmes has taken to reading as a way to keep his brain active.
Last year, Holmes got on an Ernest Hemingway kick, reading “For Whom The Bell Tolls” for the first time, a handful of other Hemingway classics and even books about the famous novelist. This year, Holmes said he plans on diving deep into C.S. Lewis.
Being the smartest guy in the room is a fairly common thing for Holmes … unless, of course, it’s his living room. Clay’s wife Ashlyn, an Auburn graduate who majored in public relations and now works for a marketing agency, actually got a 35 on her ACTs.
For the first time this summer, Ashlyn plans on traveling with Clay, managing work while also watching baseball and supporting her husband, the guy who wants to think more, harness that sinker and earn a regular role in the Pirates bullpen.
“That’s something I’ve kind of learned, especially this offseason, that maybe it’s not a bad thing to always think,” Holmes said. “You can think through these things. There’s an end. Then it kind of frees you up to go and do some things where you’re not thinking, you can make pitches, and the competition part comes out.”