From Marc Carig (Star-Ledger):
While Jose Molina didn’t appear in Tuesday’s 5-3 Yankees victory against the Blue Jays, he might have made a call that figured significantly in the outcome.As Chris at The Yankee Universe astutely pointed out a few days ago, Molina has worked well with Andy Pettitte. So, before the game, Molina approached starting catcher Jorge Posada with a piece of advice on how to handle the veteran lefty.
“Make sure he keeps throwing (the cutter),” Molina told Posada, who hadn’t caught Pettitte since July 11.
So, with Posada putting down the signs, Pettitte threw 23 cutters, which was part of the reason Pettitte picked up the victory and lowered his ERA to 2.36 in his four starts since the All-Star Break.
Though he didn’t generate as many swinging strikes when compared to his previous two outings, Pettitte made them count. Pettitte got eight swings and misses, five of them for strike three.
“Obviously, it sets everything up,” said Pettitte, who until recently had gotten away from throwing the cutter. “It makes everything else effective for you.”
As soon as I saw that Jorge Posada was catching Andy Pettitte last night, and that Pettitte was actually pitching well, I thought, “Hell, I’m going to get so much flack for this tomorrow.” Carig’s article helps me out a bit, though, as Molina offered tips to Posada on catching and calling Pettitte prior to the game. Also, while Pettitte pitched well with Posada, it was a hard earned win. He walked 4 and threw 104 pitches over 6 2/3 innings. Pettitte had only walked 3 batters in his previous 3 starts (all with Molina catching). So, there was still some struggle there in terms of locating with Posada behind the plate (why that is, I’m not sure).
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9 Responses to Molina coaches Posada on catching Pettitte
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TIQ IQ
Hey, don’t be so modest. It seems pretty clear that you were right- Pettitte was pitching better with Molina for the exact reason that you mentioned- more cutters, and Molina reiterated the importance of the pitch to Jorge. Andy then goes out and throws a good game. Bravo.
Ha. Thanks, Mo!
I really don’t know why Pettitte stopped believing in the cutter it’s the great equalizer for someone with less velocity because you are adding movement not to mention it has been his strength pretty much his whole career.
According to Fangraphs, he didn’t throw the cutter at all until 2004 in Houston, but he has thrown it more and more as he has aged. As you said, as the fastball got slower, he has incorporated it more, but got away from it in the first half this year.
I have no idea where it is but I read somewhere that they had put a stat together showing that the cutter takes damn near a whole a run off the ERA of the user, just look at Hughes the difference in his 91 MPH very straight fast ball and the cutter makes him more effective as a starter as oppose to before he learned it when batters were sitting on his cheese, now that he is in the pen his fastball has enough speed he doesn’t use it as much. I am a huge fan of adding a cutter to the repertoire as one ages as a pitcher you lose velocity but you can always add movement, in fact if I was Joba I would already be getting lessons from Mo and once his velocity dips he can always have that in his pocket to equalize things.
That said, not everyone can pick up the pitch. Joba already has 4 pitches, and I wonder about whether it makes sense to teach him another one. Dice-K had issues with overcomplicating his games by using 5+ pitches.
Yeah I’m not saying install it in his game plan or even spend much time on it but you can’t tell me pitchers don’t mess around with other pitches at least having fun and I almost would bet money that at one point in time almost every Yankee pitcher who was around long enough messed with a cutter with Mo seeing as how he likes to teach.
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On a completely unrelated note does anyone else see Mariano becoming a pitching coach at some point? I could totally see him being either a pitching coach or a manager in the minors or something when he is done with the game.
Yeah, I can see that. Any other current Yankees you can see as a coach/manager?
Jeter probably could if he wanted to he has the respect of players and probably can teach but I doubt he does… He’s not on the team anymore but Mike Mussina would be one hell of a pitching coach.