Spring training is in full swing, and on Wednesday, the Detroit Tigers had their second vision of one of their most valuable pitchers on Matt Manning. Most importantly, fans – at least those with MLB.tv – took a peek at his new breaking ball, rumors that have been churning at the factory last month since it was first revealed that he was working on a second ball curve.
The big question has been what exactly is this new pitch offspeed: is it an adjusted version of your traditional 12-6 offering, or does it have qualities more like sliders? Mom has been mostly the word in the media before March, but it looks like we may finally have some answers. After two entries of relief work against the Philadelphia Phillies, there is now a sample pool of four pitches to help find out what’s going on with Manning’s new little toy.
As an overview, the 23-year-old righthander played two full innings on Wednesday, allowing a run to be won in three strokes while hitting two using 28 shots, raising his ERA to 2.25 in the nascent preseason. His first performance on March 3 – also against the Phillies – saw him launch two clean entries in relief, allowing only one streak and one. It is not such a bad start for a prospective triumvirate member from Detroit.
My colleague Brandon Day made an excellent point about his renewed delivery while watching him on Wednesday, in which Manning seemed to have shortened his pace and shortened the trajectory of his arm a little. The adjustments give him the ability to make some adjustments, which seems to be the case with his “new” break shot and can potentially provide more benefits as he becomes more comfortable with those refinements. All in all, it looks a little more stable and in control, while showing easy speeds of up to 155 mph. Undoubtedly, he can come back for more, if necessary.
Back to the original topic: What about that second ball breaking? The terms “curveball” and “slider” have often been used interchangeably to describe it until now, so we were looking forward to seeing this new weapon for the first time. As Manning told Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic Detroit at the beginning of February, the field is still clinging to its standard 12-6 curveball, but with a slightly different pitch and emphasis.
“I asked some people if they want me to call it a slider or not,” said Manning of his new pitch. “I’m going to call it the slider because it moves in that direction. It’s my same grip. I’m just launching it with a new arm slot and a different wrist position. “
According to MLB.com’s Gamecast, in his first presentation, Manning launched a total of 13 pitches with three curved balls averaging about 78.5 mph and a slider clocked at 82.5 mph, which was placed at stake for the final exit of the inning. On Wednesday, he threw three curved balls again, this time having two landing around that familiar point of 126 km / h, but the third clocked at 130 km / h, suggesting that the two breaking pitches could mix one little. However, the two pitches he launched were recorded as sliders reaching 83 and 135 km / h, so perhaps there is an appropriate speed separation to distinguish the two.
In case you weren’t able to watch Manning’s departure, Chris Brown’s tweet below shows his first full work entry. Two sliders and three curved balls (one of which clocked more than 80 mph) came during this stretch, which should be enough as a sample for now.
Starting at the 0:10 mark in the video above, Manning ends up playing what is recorded as a 133 mph slider. Note that the catcher is set low and on the outer third of the plate, but is not really prepared for significant horizontal movement – because the field doesn’t really tilt too much, it just seems to have a bite later than your top 70’s curved ball . His next break shot comes at 0:18 in the video, with the catcher settling in the same position as before with the slider and again taking a sharp dive, but it was recorded as a 130 km / h curve.
In the next shot, again with the receiver in the ball position to break, Manning launches a slider that moves back a little with his arm, reaches 135 km / h, but hangs long enough to be knocked over. He finally gets the strikeout in the final shot of the club with a 12-6 of 126 km / h which is clearly the classic curveball. He launched yet another curve in that inning – the penultimate shot – which again fits the classic description of a vertical break shot.
What is the verdict? From my educated point of view based on this extremely small sample size, what was said in the preseason about Manning’s second pitch being another version of the curved ball seems to be completely true, despite Gameday’s insistence on calling him slider. In the end, the definition of the type of pitch can be based on the grip or movement, but we will continue with Manning’s own assessment that this is a variant of the curveball.
The pitch seems to have a little more late action thanks to the increased speed, but, at least in the small sample we saw on Wednesday, there doesn’t seem to be much of a horizontal component. However, his renewed delivery may open up some opportunities when it comes to tinkering in this area – not to mention that Manning is still only 23 and still has plenty of room left. The new course is still in progress, so we’ll see how it develops over the course of the season.
One of the youngster’s biggest hits is the lack of a real swing and the ball lost in the shot. So, combined with its already impressive arsenal, a legitimate or firmer slider, a second last-minute curveball, could really take you a step or three. For now, we will have to settle for a glimpse of this new toy, but as he learns to command it and use it effectively, it may become something special in the future. So far, it looks like an experiment that can last.