Josh Lueke’s velocity, or the lack of it, has been a popular topic among those who’ve gazed at the Safeco Field board or followed Gameday online to see his fastball registering 93, 94 mph.
This is the guy who consistently hit 97 mph last year at Class AA West Tennessee and Class A
AA Tacoma. But, in eight games with the Mariners this year, including tonight’s rugged sixth inning in a 9-1 loss to the A’s, Lueke has hovered in the 92-94 mph range.
Oh, there was one pitch tonight t Kevin Kouzmanoff that showed 97 on the stadium board, although several Twitter followers said Gameday had that same pitch at 93. (Side note here: I checked with the Mariners and there’s only one gun at the ballpark, so it seems odd to see the conflicting speed reports)
The concern, especially after Lueke gave up four hits (including Kouzmanoff’s three-run homer that put this game out of reach), a walk and three runs in the sixth, is that there might be something physically wrong with the rookie.
I had a nice talk with pitching coach Carl Willis after tonight’s game, and he says Lueke’s arm is sound. The difference, Willis says, is as simple as the difference between throwing pitches with a free-and-easy motion compared with trying to muscle the ball to the plate.
Here’s what Willis said:
“He threw two very good fastballs down to Kouzmanoff, then he hung the slider. After that, it didn’t seem like he finished his pitches. Young guy, you give up a big hit like that and all of a sudden you’re trying to make perfect pitches. You just have to stay aggressive and continue to trust the work you’re putting in. It comes from inexperience. It’s not that the stuff’s not there. It comes from being able to control your heartbeat and repeat your delivery.”
The velocity never reached the high-90s, but Lueke did settle in and strike out Josh Willingham and Hideki Matsui to get out of the sixth. Willis called that something Lueke can build off the next time he pitches.
“He got to a point where, OK, you stop thinking and you just do,” Willis said. “When you’re young and something happens, you try to figure out why and make some type of correction, but you still have to trust.
“It’s definitely a plus he was able to get through it. It wasn’t any fun for him, but it shows something about his makeup that he was able to stick with it and come back at the end to make quality pitches to get big-league hitters out and not totally give in to the situation.”
Yeah, but what about the velocity?
“I know the board isn’t correct all the time, but the 0-0 pitch he threw to Kouzmanoff registered 97,” Willis said. “He was 93-94. Again, I thought after the home run, he was probably gripping the ball a little tight and when you do that it just doesn’t come out the same. The arm strength is still there. It’s a matter of the old term of being free and easy. You repeat your delivery, but you’re relaxed and popping at the end opposed to trying to generate (strength) throughout the entire delivery. Command starts to suffer as well.”
From the looking-better dept., right-hander Chris Ray pitched a nice ninth inning after he’d been knocked around in his previous two relief appearances. He allowed a leadoff single to Willingham but struck out Matsui on a wicked two-seam fastball, then got Kurt Suzuki on a fly and Mark Ellis on a fielder’s-choice grounder.
Ray worked quite a bit this week with Willis after his last outing on Monday.
“He was down with all his pitches,” Willis said. “The two-seamer he struck Matsui out with was ridiculous. Nobody hits that pitch. His posture over the rubber and his ability to throw the ball on a downward plane were better. When he does that, he’s going to get more life, more action and he’s down opposed to the previous couple outings or so. He’s been more up and a little flatter. Today he had more angle to his pitches.
“When you get angle on the baseball, you’re going to see that movement. When the ball’s flat, it may still have movement but it stays on the same plane. Today, he had some downward action to the pitches and that made it much more difficult to hit.”
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