Less proves to be more for Estrada this spring
Jays starter says overthinking things on mound detrimental, vows to ‘just let it go’
CLEARWATER, FLA.— When starting pitcher Marco Estrada strolled into the Blue Jays’ locker room at Spectrum Field, catcher Russell Martin paused his postgame calisthenics routine to praise him.
“There you go, Marco!” Martin called out. “Atta boy!”
Estrada hadn’t posted a spectacular stat line in Friday’s 7-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He gave up two walks, two earned runs and a homer over 32⁄ in
3 nings in his second start of spring training. But within those numbers hid a midgame adjustment impressive enough to grab his teammates’ attention.
After the Phillies scored three times in the third inning, Estrada opened the fourth by recording two efficient outs, then retired for the day.
To starting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Estrada seemed like a different pitcher in the fourth, but Estrada says the only thing he changed was his mindset.
He says he spent three innings concentrating on placing his pitches perfectly, and opened the fourth frame intent only on letting his pitches fly. Less thinking. More doing. Better results. “I wouldn’t say I doubted myself today, but it was just overthinking pitches, wanting to work on my changeup, because I know it hasn’t been great,” said Estrada, who went 9-9 last season. “Instead of throwing it I was trying to baby it, which makes it worse. Once I realized that and told myself just (to) let it go, it was much better after that.”
Estrada is looking to follow up the best two-year stretch of his career. He won nine games last season and a career-high 13 in 2015. Before then, he had never won more than seven games in a season.
He’s also working to learn a new backup catcher.
While Martin remains the leader who anchors the team from behind home plate, Saltalamacchia spent Friday refining his rapport with Estrada. Saltalamacchia is 0-5 lifetime against Estrada as a batter, but each game they work together offers new insights into Estrada as a teammate.
“I haven’t caught him a lot, so I don’t know exactly what his normal is,” Saltalamacchia said. “He’s a guy that can throw four pitches at any time for a strike. At the end of the day it’s not that tough. It’s more . . . when he’s on obviously you’re going to have a lot of fun. When he’s not it’s going to be more of a battle.”
In an era of power pitchers, Estrada stands out for his finesse.
Leaguewide, fastball velocity is on the rise — 55 starting pitchers averaged 90 m.p.h. or more on fastballs last season, according to the stats database FanGraphs.com.
Estrada, meanwhile, keeps slowing down. His average fastball velocity peaked at 91.3 m.p.h in 2010 but has declined since then, bottoming out at 88.1 last year.
But as Estrada’s fastball velocity has dropped he’s become harder than ever to hit. In 2015, he gave up 6.7 hits per nine innings, best in the American League. Last season, he averaged 6.8 hits per nine innings, leading the league again.
As his fastball has lost velocity, Estrada, who turns 34 this summer, has opted to throw fewer of them. Last year, 49.8 of his pitches were fastballs, according to FanGraphs, down from 59.7 per cent in 2012. To compensate, Estrada has added a cut fastball and boosted the usage of a changeup Saltalamacchia says is one of the league’s best.
And when he’s not overthinking, he knows where to place each of those pitches.
“Everything is off of location,” Sal- talamacchia said. “It doesn’t matter if you throw 100 or if you throw 88, 89. Location is key.”
With two runners on in the third inning, Estrada dealt a first-pitch changeup to Phillies left-fielder Howie Kendrick, a career .289 hitter. Estrada’s location was off; Kendrick’s swing was on. He sent the pitch over the left field fence. Lesson learned. “It wasn’t a good (pitch) but I did see his swing and I still got him out in front,” Estrada said. “He reached out, got it, crushed it. He’s a really good hitter. You leave anything there, he’s going to crush it . . . he’s been doing it for a very long time.”