Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon wrapped up catch play and drills Monday afternoon, then wandered into the bullpen at Citizens Bank Park to watch fellow righty Ben Brown\u2019s side session.<\/p>\n
Brown locked in his bread-and-butter pitches \u2014 his fastball and curveball \u2014 first, then worked on the changeup, his newest pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool part is, I get to sit on the bench [Monday] night and go over it with Ben a little bit, talk about what he liked and didn\u2019t like,\u201d Taillon said in a conversation with the Sun-Times this week. \u201cThat\u2019s where the value is at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taillon and Brown had a breakthrough this year with the same pitch, a kick change.<\/p>\n
For Brown, 25, developing a third pitch was key to establishing himself as a major-league starter in what has been an up-and-down season. For the veteran Taillon, it has been instrumental in helping him navigate the heavily left-handed lineups that opponents often roll out against him based on his splits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re gonna get that opposite side out, there\u2019s not too many guys in the game that don\u2019t do it without a changeup,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said before the Cubs\u2019 3-2 victory Thursday against the Pirates. \u201cThere are outliers, and some guys that don\u2019t, but most do it with a changeup. And so it\u2019s an important thing to have in your arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding a changeup that works for Taillon, however, has been a yearslong process.<\/p>\n
Tinkering with a new changeup in spring training is so common for pitchers that it has become a cliche. It\u2019s difficult to know what\u2019s actually going to stick until pitchers are further into their buildups and close to throwing at their usual velocity.<\/p>\n
This spring was unique for Taillon.<\/p>\n
He used his experimentation with Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman\u2019s split-change as a counter-example.<\/p>\n
The first time Taillon tried out Gausman\u2019s grip in a bullpen, the metrics jumped off the page: an elite combination of 16 inches of horizontal break and zero vertical. He threw it again, and the result was \u201cawful.\u201d It went past the catcher to the backstop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the difference with this one: I never had quite as much fluctuation with it,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cIt was a little more consistent vs. if I pursued [Gausman\u2019s] grip longer, maybe I would figure out how to throw it for a strike more consistently. Or I\u2019d hit the point I always do every spring, and I just bang it and never throw it again, and then I don\u2019t have a changeup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kick-change grip is essentially a relaxed circle-change grip, with the middle finger spiked. The ring finger and middle finger exert even pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kicks the axis of the ball and lets the seam shift-drive it the other way,\u201d pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. \u201cIt\u2019s physics, and it\u2019s weird .\u2009.\u2009. but it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taillon and Brown differ slightly in where they place their middle finger, but it\u2019s the same concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a level of comfortability there,\u201d Taillon said, noting that he essentially just spikes his old changeup grip. \u201cIf I really wanted to optimize it even more, I probably could have done a different grip and optimize the metrics a little better. But I think this is the perfect mix of, plays into my arsenal really well, comes out of the same slot as my fastball. I\u2019m not trying to pronate it or turn it over. So even when the metrics aren\u2019t as good, it\u2019s still coming out of my fastball slot 10 miles an hour slower.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season, Taillon\u2019s changeup has overtaken his cutter as his third-most used pitch to left-handed hitters. Entering his start against the Pirates on Thursday, Taillon was throwing it at a 19.3% clip against lefties, according to Statcast. And it was generating an impressive 37.5% whiff rate.<\/p>\n
En route to limiting the Pirates to two runs in 6\u201e innings, Taillon threw 15 changeups, getting four called strikes and two whiffs on four swings.<\/p>\n
It has been working so well against lefties that Taillon said he\u2019d at least like to put it in right-handed hitters\u2019 heads, even if it doesn\u2019t become a regular weapon against them.<\/p>\n
Hottovy said before Brown\u2019s last start that he expected a similar next step.<\/p>\n
When Brown had his best two-game stretch of the season \u2014 against the Reds and Tigers the last couple of weeks \u2014 he had ramped up his changeup usage, to 6.5% of his total pitches and 9.8%, respectively.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday in Philadelphia, however, he struggled with all-around command and allowed six runs in 5\u2154 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe changeup was not the best it\u2019s been,\u201d Brown said of his last start. \u201cBut I threw some good ones. I threw some right-on-right, threw some for strikes, but there were just a couple of uncompetitive ones, which I haven\u2019t really had so much [before].<\/p>\n
\u201cI think to righties, it\u2019s reasonable to think that could be in my next outing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s changeup just below the strike zone to Trea Turner on Wednesday was the third changeup he had thrown to a right-handed batter this season.<\/p>\n
Brown didn\u2019t adopt the kick-change grip until midseason, abandoning the version he had honed in spring for something he could grip and rip. It has been helpful to watch Taillon\u2019s pitch-development process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch [all] his bullpens,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou see the consistency, you see what it looks like in games, that he trusts it. It\u2019s [so] encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taillon started for the Cubs on Thursday in the first game of four against the Pirates this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":61211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n