Former ace David Cone, who won four World Series rings with the New York Yankees, made five All-Star teams, pitched a perfect game, and won a Cy Young Award in his brilliant career, certainly knows a good pitcher when he sees one. When he talks about Yanks’ young star Cam Schlittler, you can see he genuinely admires him.
Schlittler, of course, was behind the Yankees’ most recent shutout, which happened in a 3-0 win in San Francisco on Friday. He pitched 5.1 innings on his season debut, allowing just a single hit and no walks while striking out a whopping eight hitters.
Cone was full of praise for the 25-year-old fireballer. Speaking on the “Yankees News & Views” podcast, the former pitcher said he loved Schlittler’s old-school demeanor when on the mound.
An “Electric” Old-School Pitcher
“He’s got a lot of old school in him. Right? Stand up tall. Challenge you with four-seamers. Here it is. Hit it. Very confident when he throws a baseball. And why not? When he throws a baseball, it’s electric,” Cone said, according to team insider Jack Curry.
Again, it’s hard to argue that Cone knows his pitching. He was one of the best in the league back in the day, pitching effectively in three different decades. In this case, Schlittler’s ‘old school’ approach is very much a compliment.
Per Curry, the retired ace Cone praised Schlittler’s variety of fastballs, his release point, his leverage, the movement on his pitches, and implied there’s more to come. “You almost think this kid is so talented and he’s not even a finished product yet,” he explained.
Blowing Away Teams With Nothing But Fastballs
Schlittler has a blessed arm and is not afraid to use it. On Friday, he threw 68 pitches, and 60 were some form of fastball: 22 cutters that averaged 95 mph, 22 four-seamers that averaged 98.5 mph, and 16 sinkers that averaged 98.2 mph. He completed his afternoon with seven curveballs and a slider, just to keep hitters honest.
Evidently, Schlittler should and will throw fastball after fastball until the league shows it can do something with them. If it doesn’t, then why fix what isn’t broken?
He already enjoyed massive success in the regular season, when he posted a 2.96 ERA in 73 innings last year, and the playoffs, where he left a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 frames over two different rounds.
There was a minor injury scare in spring training when he reported some back inflammation, but he got over it relatively quickly. As long as Schlittler is healthy, he will likely yield incredible results for the Yankees this year and beyond. You could even argue that he can become the team’s ace eventually.
