Jhoulys who? The perfect fit
Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín has been best starter in rotation.
When teams began contacting the representative of free agent Jhoulys Chacín last winter, the veteran righthander asked if the Milwaukee Brewers were one of the interested parties.
“I remember last year when I faced the Brewers, you could see all the fun and the chemistry that they had,” said Chacín, who started against them for San Diego in mid-May. “You can tell from the other side.
"That’s something that you want to be part of. So, I was hoping the Brewers would be a team that wanted me. My agent knew I wanted to play here.”
Chacín had “four or five teams” make offers but he accepted a twoyear, $15.5 million deal from the Brewers four days before Christmas, a blip on a free-agent market that was moving at a glacial pace. Just over a month later, the Brewers became the talk of the industry when they acquired Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain on the same day, rebuilding their outfield and the top of their lineup.
“We talked in spring training that once Yelich and Cain came aboard, we kind of forgot about Chacín, and how important he can be,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s ended up being really important.”
Yes, he has. While critics continue to pick apart the Brewers’ starting rotation, no one questions the impact
the 30-year-old Chacín has made on the staff. In 27 starts, he is 13-4 with a 3.58 earned run average, and the Brewers are 19-8 in games he has pitched.
While some starters have slipped considerably in the second half, Chacín has only gotten stronger. In six games since the all-star break, he is 5-1 with a 3.25 ERA.
Most of the damage done against him over that period came in a forgettable 21-5 loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Aug. 2. Chacín was tagged for five hits, including three home runs, and eight earned runs in only 4 1/3 innings. Toss that game aside and he has a 1.42 ERA in his other five second-half outings.
Chacín, whose next outing will come Saturday evening against Pittsburgh at Miller Park, was particularly sharp in his last two starts against the Cubs and Cardinals, both on the road. He put together 13 shutout innings in those games, allowing seven hits and two walks while logging 13 strikeouts.
In other words, Chacín has become the rotation’s stopper, a designation he verbally dodged.
“I don’t think of it like that,” he said. “I just go out and have fun, try to enjoy what we’re doing as a group. It’s super cool to be playing these big games. This is what I wanted when I signed here.
“I’m happy to be helping the team win. I feel like we can finish strong and get into the playoffs. That's my dream. I want to pitch in the playoffs."
Other pitchers on the Brewers’ staff can learn a lot from watching Chacín, who is truly a pitcher, not a thrower. His fastball averages about 90 mph and he throws it only half the time. He relies heavily on a nasty slider, a pitch that has made him death on right-handed hitters, who are batting a mere .184 against him.
But Chacín has become more than a fastball/slider pitcher. To give him a better chance against left-handed hitters, he has started throwing more changeups. Actually, he throws two different changeups, using a standard circle grip as well as a splitter that is closer to his fastball in speed but dives down in the strike zone.
“I always had (a changeup) but I just never threw it much in games,” Chacín said. “D.J. (Brewers pitching coach Derek Johnson) wanted me to start throwing it more. I was throwing a circle changeup but I wasn’t throwing it for strikes enough. It’s not any good if you don’t throw it for strikes.
“D.J. came up with a different way, where I kind of split (his fingers on the grip). He wanted me to throw it that way, like I throw my sinker. I just open one finger and tried to do that. Sometimes, it’s like 87 mph, which is more like my fastball, but it moves more.
“I’ve been throwing it more, especially to lefties. Sometimes, they just get in front of it.”
Chacín has been inventive in other ways on the mound, looking for other methods to keep hitters guessing. He will alter arm slots on his fastball and slider, getting even more movement on those pitches. He also will “quick pitch” batters at times, using a shorter, quicker delivery to catch them before they’re ready to hit.
Hitters aren’t particularly fond of such tactics but all’s fair in baseball and war.
“I try to see what can make me a different pitcher,” said Chacín, who despite below-average velocity is not afraid to throw inside, resulting in a team-high 11 batters hit by pitch. “The main thing is to mess up the timing of the hitters.
“Last year, I started trying to change the timing of throwing the ball, hanging (his front leg in the air) a little bit, using different deliveries. I saw a lot of relievers doing that. They come in and try to make the hitter uncomfortable. I said, ‘Why don’t I do it?’ I thought the hitters would get that in their minds.
“It worked out for me and so I continued doing it. I was quick pitching at times. The hitters get mad sometimes but if there’s nobody on base and the hitter is in the box, you can do it if you want to. I also tried to change my arm slot with my fastball and slider. It makes it look like different pitches.”
Chacín is always looking for an edge, as all smart pitchers do. It has made him successful, and easily the Brewers’ most consistent starting pitcher. Counsell, for one, has been impressed watching Chacín do whatever it takes to get hitters out.
“He knows what he’s doing; he knows what he wants to do,” Counsell said. “When you’re giving different looks on the mound, that’s generally somebody who has confidence in what he’s doing, and is experienced and knows the spots to do it.
“It’s our job to help him keep going in the right direction. He’s always looking to tweak things and get a little better, which is a good place to be from a mindset perspective. He came in here as a veteran to a new team. You’re always feeling things out a bit when you come to a new team, no matter what.”
At this point, it’s safe to say Chacín has been a perfect fit with the Brewers. Just think where they’d be without him.