DENVER — In recent weeks, Walker Buehler changed his delivery and his curveball grip in an attempt to recapture and refine what worked for him over this season’s first half. The Dodgers’ rookie right-hander lowered the position of his hands before he winds into his delivery, keeping the rest of his body in time. He also switched from a spike-curveball grip to the more traditional grip favored by teammates Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill.
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“It might be the first time in my career that I’ve really had to go and look at my delivery,” Buehler said. “I’ve been kind of feel-based my whole career. Even coming back from surgery, I didn’t really worry about my mechanics too much. That was the first time I’ve ever done that, and I think it paid off.”
After his five-run start against the Phillies last month, Buehler mentioned to Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt that he was unhappy with the way his delivery felt. Honeycutt compared video of his starts and detected the difference in his hand positioning. They changed it back immediately.
Buehler reflected that the subtle, unwanted change was likely a product of a stop-and-start stretch he endured. Buehler owned a 2.63 ERA before a rib fracture forced him out of a June 8 start. He pitched only one major-league inning over the following five weeks, and his ERA currently sits exactly one run higher.
“I played catch, really, for a couple weeks,” he said. “Sometimes that can throw off some stuff because you don’t get that game rep down the slope. So, I think that was probably what happened. I played catch so much for so many weeks and didn’t get to pitch in games that it just got a tick off.”
At the same time he moved his hands, he used the new curveball grip in a bullpen session, felt fine with it, and took it into a game. He threw a season-high 24 curves in a dominant July 31 start against Milwaukee, and 23 more against Houston five days later. Repeatedly, he placed the pitch for strikes against Jesús Aguilar, Eric Thames and other skilled hitters.
“Out of failure comes success, a lot of times,” Buehler said.
For years, Buehler has been known for his velocity and for his curveball. The recent switch in grip has afforded him an extra inch or two of horizontal movement on the pitch, which he believes will work better in tandem with his other offerings. After his five-run start against the Phillies, he used the new grip in a standard bullpen session, felt fine with it, and took it into a game. Essentially, he quit folding his pointer finger onto the ball and kept the rest of his fingers the same.
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“Nobody has to spike,” Honeycutt told him. “You already have a good breaking ball, and you have a good grip, but that finger doesn’t have to be spiked to get that grip.”
Honeycutt said he and Buehler have been able to pinpoint from scouting reports which hitters will take the pitch and which will swing at it. He can wield that understanding in his start Saturday against the Rockies at Coors Field.
Buehler, 24, can throw a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, cutter, slider, and changeup, in addition to the curve. But he has not thrown the changeup since he introduced the new curveball. At an average 80-mph velocity, the curve represents a better, truer change-of-pace than his 91-mph changeup.
“He needs a separator, because his changeup is still almost the same speed as his cutter,” Honeycutt said. “It ends up being too many pitches the same speed.”
Buehler can ramp his fastballs up to 100 mph, but he has pitched with more command at a lower speed.
“He pitches fine when he’s at 94, 95,” Honeycutt said. “And all of a sudden he can add three or four miles an hour for a finish. That’s where I’d like to see him be able to go — not always have to be 97 and feel comfortable. That’s really good, but that’s not really realistic.”
It’s not clear what is a realistic expectation for the Dodgers’ pitching staff at present. Their bullpen was already their weak link, and they may now be without closer Kenley Jansen for most of the rest of this season. He met for much of Friday with a cardiologist in Los Angeles, seeking to diagnose the cause of the irregular heartbeat he felt here in Denver on Thursday. Jansen has previously missed three weeks and one month with similar issues.
On Friday, Jansen’s absence thrust left-hander Zac Rosscup into a one-run game in the sixth inning, and manager Dave Roberts stuck with Rosscup into the seventh, where the Rockies moved ahead on a home run. The Dodgers lost, 5-4.
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Kenta Maeda started the game. He may soon move into the bullpen, where he has proved in the past to be a multi-inning weapon. He said the Dodgers have not yet broached that subject with him, but Roberts indicated it is a consideration.
“It’s calling for us to put guys in positions they haven’t been in and asking more of them,” Roberts said of Jansen’s absence.
(Top photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)