WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Before his team's game against the Nationals Monday night, Alex Cora broached one theory to explain David Price's struggles against the Yankees -- pitch-tipping.
"I always look, regardless," said Cora, who is considered one of the best in the game at recognizing when a pitcher is tipping his pitches. "Even if he goes nine, or if he goes three, whatever. You have to pay attention to details because at this level everybody is looking for an advantage, everybody is. They do a good job, too."
"We're not using that as an excuse. We do it even when they deal. We were talking about it yesterday, Randy Johnson tipped pitches his pitches his whole career and he's a Hall of Famer. At the end of the day, you have to execute. Location, percentage of fastballs, percentage of change-ups, any difference between his starts early in the season to yesterday, whatever we can find that benefits him, we'll look for it. His willingness to accept the information and move forward, that's the best thing."
While Cora was non-committal on the matter, someone who might be considered the best in the game when it comes to locking on pitch-tippers, Eduardo Perez, was firm in his analysis.
"David Price wasn't tipping," the ESPN analyst told WEEI.com. "David Price was throwing the ball too much on the inside part of the plate. The Yankees had a great gameplan. You look at all those cutters in, they still went to the other way. They were looking in and had a gameplan. Sometimes you tip your hat to a gameplay. But David wasn't tipping. It wasn't about that at all."
Perez's reputation for taking advantage of pitchers who tip their offerings is well known throughout baseball, joining a small club who have seemingly mastered the art.
"It comes second nature to us more than anything. I've been doing it for a long time. It's part of the game," Perez said. "I just think since I did it when I was 13 years of age in Veterans Stadium, it's sort of come second nature. Went through high school, college, the whole thing. If the pitcher is willing to tell you what's coming before it's coming, you have to take advantage of it."
So, how does one go about perfecting such an art?
"I was flipping seeds in the dugout during a game with John Denny and one of the seeds hits Pete Rose," remembered Perez, whose father, Tony, played for 23 big league seasons (including three years in Boston). "Pete Rose stayed sitting on the stairs and said, 'Listen, if you want to sit here in the big league dugout you have to watch the game. You have to sit next to me from now on. You have to tell me what the pitcher is doing.' So ever since that day I was taught by the best, the Hit King. That summer of '83 was sitting down and I couldn't miss a pitch if I wanted to be in the dugout. So I wore my uniform that had a bat boy sign on it and I watched every pitcher's tendencies from that point on.
"There are a few guys in baseball who are really good. Sometimes we talk about it, sometimes we don't. I think it helped me come up to the minor leagues. I had an eye injury when I was in A-ball, but it helped me get to the big leagues and stay in the big leagues. I was very fortunate to learn it at a young age and I have a lot of gratitude for it."
