CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – When Emmanuel Clase is on the mound, eyes turn to the radar gun after every pitch.
Wednesday afternoon, Clase was clocked at 101.3 and 100.7 twice, 101.0, 100.5, 100.6, 100.0 and 100.9 miles per hour and Friday night he continued to hit 100.
James Karinchak, who takes the mound to ‘Wild Thing,’ hits triple figures with regularity as well for the Indians out of the pen.
Pitchers are hitting triple digits with regularity around baseball and Indians manger Terry Francona has a theory as to why.
“In general, athletes today are bigger and stronger,” Francona said. “They have better ways of working at their craft.”
But it goes beyond physical attributes or specialized training in the offseason.
“They measure velocity different today than they used to,” Francona said. “It used to be the gun would roll down and as it crossed the plate, that was what a guy was throwing. Now it’s right out of his hand. And I agree, guys are throwing harder, but it’s not the same measurement it used to be.”
Are the numbers being skewed?
“A little bit,” Francona sad.
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, known for his blazing fastball, was clocked hitting 100 with regularity during his career which has brought about speculation as to what Ryan would be clocked at throwing today.
“I don’t want to be the old guy and be like, ‘They don’t throw like when I [played],’ but I’d be willing to go out on a limb and say if Nolan Ryan was pitching today, he would be one of the hardest throwers,” Francona said. “He’d take your breath away, literally.”
Francona would know.
“I faced him more than any other major league pitcher,” Francona, who went 9-for-40 with a double, 2 RBI and a pair of walks against Ryan, said. “Guys seemed to find a way to come up a little short that day so I would always – I think I had 42 at-bats against him, which is the most of anybody.
“I don’t think that was in his [Hall of Fame] speech.”
While there may be a need for speed on the mound – or radar gun, it’s no substitute for hitting the target.
“Velocity gives you maybe more margin for error, but you still need to command and change speeds” Francona said.
“Most hitters, if they know something hard is coming, they can gear up for it.”
Center of attention – Amed Rosario started in center field Friday night and led off in the series opener against the Tigers.
“I really wanted to get him in center,” Francona said. “Moving him to center has cost him some games early in the season and I talked to him about that so I wanted to get him out there ad get him going in center field.”
The move was made in spring training after Andres Gimenez was named the starting shortstop to get Rosario on the field more.
Francona liked how Rosario, who went 1-for-4 and reached base twice Friday, was tracking and not overreacting to balls hit to him out in Goodyear, Arizona.
“It gave me some piece of mind,” Francona said.
It didn’t take long for the ball to find Rosario Friday night. He ran down a deep fly ball from Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario for the game's first out after freezing initially.
“I’m glad I don’t chew anymore because I probably would have swallowed my chew,” Francona joked. “You know what, he doesn’t back down, man.
He’s going to be OK. Is it going to be perfect? I don’t know. But he might just be OK.”
Quick change – Julio Teheran was scheduled to start Friday night for the Tigers against the Indians but was shut down as a precaution after experiencing tightness in his right triceps while warming in the bullpen.
Derek Holland started in his place and pitched 2 2/3 innings before departing in the third after allowing three runs on four hits with three strikeouts. He threw 46 pitches.
Baseball inspector – News that Major League Baseball was examining baseballs thrown by Dodgers – and former Indians – starter Trevor Bauer made headlines.
Francona was asked if he was aware of MLB seizing any balls thrown by his pitchers during the first week of the season prior to Friday's opener with the Tigers.
“If we did…I don’t know that I was necessarily told that we would be told about that,” Francona said. “In our meeting in spring training [with MLB], they did explain to us what they were going to do. And they were going to take sample balls if they felt that there were balls that maybe had markings on it, so they could get a better understanding. They were going to look at guys’ spin rates and see if there was anything different, things along those lines.”
Finding a rhythm – The Indians have had three days off between playing five games to begin the season but that will change as the season gets into full swing.
While the time off has been appreciated, Francona is anxious to get into a rhythm – especially his bullpen.
“I think they’ve taken advantage of the days off,” Francona said. “Hopefully the weather will cooperate next week because I’d like to get our bullpen in – as soon as I say it guys will probably get overworked – I’d like to get guys in some semblance of a routine and I think that’ll really help them.”
Up next – Series resumes Saturday evening. Aaron Civale (1-0, 3.86 era) will face Tarik Skubal (0-0, 3.38 era) at 6:10 p.m.
