Andrew Bailey talks Red Sox pitchers, Red Sox plan
There is plenty to talk about with new Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey. Newcomer Lucas Giolito. Plans for Brayan Bello. How he viewed Yoshinobu Yamamoto and other Japanese pitchers.
Bailey discussed it all during his appearance on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast.
But one bit of information passed on by the former Red Sox reliever offered the most powerful insight into how he is looking at both his current hurlers, and potential additions.
"Strike-throwing," Bailey responded when asked what he prioritized in his pitchers.
The former Giants' pitching coach went on to elaborate: "I think we all know what the count-leverage tree looks like in terms of expected slug and damage as the at-bat goes on. First pitch strikes are huge for me. Winning the first three pitches, we have certain statistics that we track and monitor. I think putting some accountability. Gamifying certain things. Being as open and honest and not hiding the ball from where guys are at and where they need to be. What is league average and if you’re not league average where are we going wrong. I think a lot of those things are what we can look at.
"Understanding that stuff plays in-zone. If a guy has tendencies to be out of the zone what are the things we can do to help him to get in zone. Is it a mindset? Is it constrained bullpens? Is it a delivery tweak? Is it proprioception - being the right-time, right-place on release. Being able to control your body in space. Understanding and being self-aware of where your hand is. Proprioception. Does my body know where my hand is upon release. And creating feel. There are a variety of things that go into strike-throwing, but to have success at the major league level … I think about it as our run-prevention department. We are in the business as run suppression so I think baseball is thriving right now. We want to suppress runs as much as possible. And there are other people out there who are trying to increase runs. As long as we can keep our players accountable to the process we believe can keep runs off the board as a run prevention unit, it should put our offense in a really good position to succeed. It should put our team in a good position to succeed. As long as we can hold true to those things, holding our players accountable and holding our coaches accountable and then finding the personnel that can execute it, we’ll be in a good spot."
For what it's worth, Bailey's 2023 Giants were second in all of baseball in first-pitch strike percentage, with the Red Sox' pitchers coming in with the eighth-best rate.
To listen to the entire conversation with Bailey, click below: