I'm not comparing the two pitchers - and this is obviously a totally different regime - but Verlander said after getting here, the Astros started to diagnose issues and concerns with his delivery and pitch selection that resulted in immediate improvement. Cole is another example where he went to another level after getting here. Morton, too. And Pressly. They won a World Series riding Framber and Javier. Look at Blanco. Look at how they figured something out with Hunter Brown. There's a pretty impressive track record of the Astros correctly identifying + stuff and then maximizing it.
Like with Charlie F'ing Morton, it can be as simple as "stop throwing that pitch"...focus on these other 2-3
This is not ideal location of a fastball. Well, unless you are a hitter. In that case, "num num num".
If only all a pitching coach did was tell players not to throw their worst pitch down the middle of the plate and told them to throw their best pitches more often than their worst pitches, I would be golden. The pesky day-to-day things of actually coaching, I would be clueless.
It's pretty damn simple: Throw the pitches where they want to but can't hit them.... ...and if they "really" want to hit them, don't put 'em where they can hit them hard. oh...yeah...also: no fastballs down the middle
Not me. I and many others here could easily step in and do a great job managing or coaching this team. Just go back and look at all the stuff I’ve said. Should be obvious.
Both Cole and Morton said as much, this pitch is effective, throw it more, ditch this other one. But in addition to that, I think they do a good job coaching to sequencing and tunneling to help get a little more deception which is sometimes all you need to beat a hitter to the spot. Which brings me to the final mini-adjustment, the Astros have long been very good at putting together a plan on how to attack hitters. That being said, the pitchers (and catchers) need to execute. Let's hope they can make it work... go 'stros!
I am not going to assume anything - it is the middle of the season and Cooter has pitched for a decade between Japan and the USA, and I am sure that he has had some fine pitching coaches. However, Cooter is the type of player that has shown improvement with the Astros. I know that one of the long term criticisms of Cooter is his pitch selection, as he tends to overthrow his worst pitches and not use his hammer enough. I am sure that other pitching coaches have told him this if I can see it. So why does he do it? My guess is the same reason that Cole did it, Redding did it and Morton did it - they all lacked command of it. So the Astros will need to work with him and let him know in some cases walks are not the end of the world when you have swing and miss stuff. The issue with Cooter is that when he gives up contact, it is extremely loud and exit velocities are in the triple digits. That is something that Verlander worked through as well. I like cooter more than most of the other pitchers on the market because at least their is upside for him to pitch well. And........ if that doesn't work, he can always start cheating like Fiers, Cole and Blanco... that would get him through the rest of the season and the playoffs.
Chas even with all his struggles hits fastballs down the heart of the zone about as well as Yordan and a lot better than Altuve and Bregman. Diaz and Tucker are basically the only Astros significantly better than Chas at hitting fastballs down the heart of the zone. If only Chas could convince pitchers to throw fastballs down the heart of the zone more often.
