Erbe's fastball: Less juice, better results
Some of the best pitchers in baseball get outs without throwing the ball as fast as they can. They have found that by giving up a few miles per hour on the radar gun, they get better fastball command and movement. That can lead to better control, faster outs and lower pitch counts.
After five seasons in the Orioles' farm system, pitching prospect Brandon Erbe now subscribes to this "less can be more" theory with his fastball.
He can crank it out at 95 and did often in his early years in the minors. But in 2009, as he had his best season yet, he took a little off the heater and the results were very good.
"My purpose now is totally different from what it was," the 21-year-old Erbe said. "Velocity has taken a backseat to movement. I'm a more complete pitcher now. Now, I look to get quick outs. If you have the movement and command and you can put the ball where you want to, that's big.
"I'll sacrifice miles per hour for movement and quick outs any day of the week. Velocity is icing on the cake."
Last season at Double-A Bowie, Erbe went 5-3, 2.34 in 14 starts. Over 73 innings he gave up 44 hits, five homers, with 35 walks and 62 strikeouts.
I spoke with Erbe last week to get his reaction to making the Orioles' 40-man roster for the first time and to get an update on his sprained right pinky finger that ended his play in the Arizona Fall League early.
Erbe will see an O's hand specialist on Tuesday, but doesn't expect the doctor to find any major damage with his finger.
A third-round draft pick out of Baltimore's McDonogh High in 2005, the right hander admits he got humbled a bit by tough outings earlier in his career. He says he's now a much more knowledgable pitcher and that 2009 was clearly his best season to date.
"By far (my best). From a pitching standpoint, I was just such a better pitcher than I've ever been. My confidence was really high and I felt really great out there."
Erbe has played for five different O's farm teams and has picked up pointers from all the coaching staffs along the way.
"I've learned something from every pitching coach I've had. I've had five different pitching coaches and two coordinaters (of minor league pitching) and I've taken something from each of them.
"Dave Schmidt, our pitching coordinater, has been awesome. He was my pitching coach at Aberdeen in 2005, so he's been around my whole career. Now that he's the coordinater he's gotten a chance to see me at every level. I've worked with him a whole lot.
"Blaine Beatty, I had him at Frederick for two years and Larry McCall this year, those three guys stand out in helping me get here and feeling confident on a consistent basis."
More Erbe stats from Bowie in 2009:
at home: 2-1, 2.75 in seven starts
on road: 3-2, 1.95 in seven starts
vs. lefty batters - .208 avg against
vs. righty batters - .134 avg against
When pitching with runners in scoring position, he gave up just a .123 batting average and Eastern League hitters went 0 for 8 vs. Erbe on the year when batting with the bases loaded.
If you missed last week's story on Erbe, click here.
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Categories (click for archive)Orioles News | Steve Melewski |
Where do you expect Erbe to start the 2010 season? Bowie or Norfolk?
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I could see either, but he was pretty solid for 14 Double-A starts. If healthy and he should be 100 percent then, I could easily see him starting at AAA. - Steve
Great having the power arm on the way up. Hopefully up by the all star break next year. The biggest thing with him seems to be injuries?
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Actually, he pretty much made all his starts from 2006-08 and the shoulder thing from 2009 turned out to be pretty minor, although it did take him two months to return to Bowie's rotation. - Steve
Steve, Do the O's consider Eebe untouchable like Arrieta and Britton?
And with Josh Johnson now apparently on the block, do you think the O's would part with him and few other top prospects like Snyder, Hernandez, Joseph etal to get him, and maybe Uggla? He's a good young, top of the rotation pitcher that can be signed long term according to the articles from ESPN. A rare commodity. Or do you think that they will they just horde their talent like AM has implied and go for a middle of the road FA?
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I don't think the O's have indicated exactly which if any players may be untouchable in a deal. I think they would surely consider moving young pitching to get a good young pitcher back like that one. To acquire any player a year or two from free agency, I would think they would seek to sign the player to a new contract BEFORE any deal was finished. Trading a lot of good young pitching is not worth just two years of Josh Johnson or any player. - Steve