BRADENTON, Fla. — Tyler Glasnow’s fastball has always had some natural movement on it, and he thought it was a problem. So he tried to compensate for the cut.
“My entire pro career I’ve been trying to find ways to get rid of the cut, and I’ve been trying to find ways to stop cutting it, thinking it was wrong,” Glasnow said.
Turns out, pitching coach Ray Searage doesn’t think there’s much wrong with the cutting action, and he has been working with Glasnow to embrace it.
“He’s got an eight-foot wingspan I think, anyway, and he’s not going to nail it every time that he needs to, getting out in front and keeping the fingers on top of the ball,” Searage said. “So right now a cut is not a bad thing…especially with the (velocity) that he’s got. As he gets going and stuff and gets a better feel for himself, which has been tremendous so far, it might straighten out, it might have some tail to it.”
Glasnow estimates that his fastball cuts 30 to 40 percent of the time, less so if he’s, say, pitching inside on a right-handed batter. As Glasnow put it, he and Searage have been working to straighten out his line to the plate rather than be pronated with his hand.
“I'm trying to throw the ball straight over the top with angle, and my hand just always, ever since I was a kid, I’d always get on the side of it,” Glasnow said. “So I’m just going to embrace it now. ... I think now just embracing it, and it’s easier for me to throw strikes with it, too.”
Tyler Glasnow, 98mph Fastball/Cutting Action. pic.twitter.com/Vn7xph5nuD
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 24, 2018
For Searage, the new approach is about not overthinking the pitch, which he throws from a slightly higher arm slot.
“It’s got to be in the natural slot for you to pronate out in front, so sometimes he might get up too high, but this is a process,” Searage said.
“Just throw the ball,” Searage said. “Don’t think about it. You see the location, you’re going to throw the ball to the location and finish through it. Don’t worry about the cut action or anything like that. Just let it go. And that’s what he’s been doing the last couple times.”
Glasnow’s numbers this spring have not been stellar; he has a 7.31 ERA and 1.69 WHIP in five games, including four starts, and has given up three homers. But he is starting to rein in his control issues and improve his confidence on the mound, and he’s struck out 25 this spring to go with only five walks.
“Last year, around this time, I was not so confident,” Glasnow said. “So it’s just the baby steps to get back to where I am, and I'm encouraged by that for sure.”
In any case, spring training statistics don’t carry weight, especially for players who are guaranteed roster spots, as teams are encouraging them to work on different skills. Last spring, Glasnow earned a spot in the rotation after recording a 6.23 ERA, with 28 strikeouts and seven walks. This year, he will begin the season in the Pirates’ bullpen.
Even if that’s not the role that the Pirates ultimately envision for him, Glasnow said he enjoys the idea of warming up quickly and even of being thrown into a situation with runners on base.
“His ‘pens have been really good,” Searage said. “There have been sequences that have been really good.”
Elizabeth Bloom: ebloom@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1750 and Twitter: @BloomPG.
First Published: March 25, 2018, 6:11 p.m.