After one of his better outings of the season on the mound last night, former 1st round draft choice Joe Savery will make his hitting debut tonight, as designated hitter, batting 7th for Lehigh Valley against Rochester.
Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter has been hired by the Phillies as a Minor League Pitching consultant where he will work primarily in Reading and Lehigh Valley. He will be in Lehigh Valley tomorrow evening. A good hire considering the potential influx of young talent into the Phils bullpen over the next year or two.
Phuture Phillies 
Article I saw said he is only hired through the end of this year … for now I guess.
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It’s always good to get an outside perspective on pitching talent from one of the best closers ever. I’m already looking forward to a Michael Schwimer post.
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If he teaches just one Phillies’ pitcher his split-finger fastball than his hiring will be a success.
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There is a reason that pitchers don’t throw that very deceptive split-fingered fastball anymore, it just rips apart your shoulder (if you don’t believe me, just extend your arm fully and put pressure on a table or bookshelf with your fingers together and then do again with a splitter grip – you can FEEL the difference in your shoulder). It’s fine for a guy like Drew Carpenter, who will never be a bona fide big leaguer without a special “out” pitch, but, if Bruce is teaching the splitter, I wouldn’t let him within ten miles of Cosart, Colvin, May or Biddle.
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I would take Bruce Sutter’s advisory position as a good sign of the potential of some of the relievers we have in the AA or AAA. Other than Worley, JC Ramerez I see no standout starters but the others(Carpenter, Naylor, Flande) may have value as possible MLB relievers. Combine those three with DeFratus, Mathieson, Schwimmer and Bastardo and you could have a mostly homegrown bullpen in Philadelphia soon.
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Was at the park last night and talked to a scout in the seats and he said Sutter is going to primarily work in Leigh Valley with Matheson. Apparently his split finger is coming along well along with his slider and developing into a plus pitch. He has been using offspeed almost 60% to develop them and according to the scout is getting lots of Ks
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I have no idea if Sutter is a good coach but his is a good name. The fact the Phils appear focused on developing reliever talent is a very important event. (Now if someone will just tell Charlie he needs to use young relievers…)
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I don’t think Charlie is controlling who is on the roster…that is Ruben…Charlie manages what he is given..I think you will see Mathieson and Bastardo get a better look…they liked the potential in Herndon and with the Rule 5 tag had to keep him here the whole year…might see Herndon in AAA next yr getting more work in on his pitches while Mathieson replaces him
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Saw DeFratus got another save tonight. I’m also interested in the influence Sutter has with him and Schwimer.
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If the Phillies want to develop relievers who can pitch 100 games a year and up to 200 innings a year, I still don’t understand why they don’t have Dr. Mike Marshall coach them. That guy won the Cy with 206 IP AS A RELIEVER! He teaches pitchers to throw with very low arm stress. Simply pronating as you release the pitch, for instance, takes almost all stress off the elbow. Look at a guy like Clemens and watch how he released the ball. If you supinate the forearm, you’ll rip up your arm like Strasburg is destined to. And that’s only one small point. If you really want to see how to pitch frequently without injuring yourself, I highly recommend going to drmikemarshall.com and taking a look at his videos. The guy is a bit hard headed and can be tough to take at times. But he also was able to pitch starter innings as a reliever. Pretty amazing.
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aksmith
Marshall would require “thinking outside the box” not the thing of MLB or the Phillies. I wonder if Dubee is on the edge. He needs a good performance out of the bullpen the rest of the year. The big three starters need no help and he can’t seem to get Blanton untracked (small ditto for KK).
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I keep reading that Matheison has no off speed to go with his fb. I’ve been to many Ironpigs games this year and his slider has looked very good to me. Plus look at his numbers, you cant do that with just a fb. I wonder if Sutter will be teaching any of the other AAA pitchers his splitter? Maybe he will help drew carpenter with his split and get him over the hump of being a AAAA player?
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Nowheels – I have to wonder if some of those old time guys used Marshall’s stuff without knowing it. They pitched insane amounts of innings. Maybe they lucked into some of his techniques without knowing it. I’ll have to go back and see what Dickey does for the Mets. He has no ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. I can’t imagine how he can throw a pitch in the 80’s consistently without his arm coming unhinged unless he’s using at least some of Marshall’s techinque, albeit inadvertently.
I’ve often though that a guy like Mathieson would benefit form Marshall’s teaching. Two freaking TJ surgeries and he still has essentially the same motion. Hard to believe they would invest this much money and time in a guy then let him go out there and continually injure himself.
And look at Myers tonight. He finally has his delivery under control and he’s a much better pitcher. My guess is that he’ll stay healthier because he’s not a maximal effort kind of guy anymore. I have to think the kids in the minors could benefit from this stuff.
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REALLY you think that guys should pitch the way dr mike marshall says. The guys a joke watch his video’s nobody i’ve ever seen in the majors or the minors have ever pitched like that. Mike Marshall didn’t even pitch like that when he played.
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REALLY
you think that guys should pitch the way dr mike marshall says. The guys a joke watch his video’s nobody i’ve ever seen in the majors or the minors have ever pitched like that. Mike Marshall didn’t even pitch like that when he played.
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No one hit many Home Runs before Ruth because “the system” centered on contact
Ruth was allowed to hit as he liked because he was a pitcher. Had he been a player his swing would of been “corrected” and you would of never heard of him.
Not to say you are not right but just because it is in doesn’t make it right all the time.
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I remember seeing an interview with Sutter, years ago. He said he was an average minor leaguer who was going nowhere when Fred Martin, minor league pitching instructor for the Cubs, showed up in the minor league camp. Martin told every pitcher there that he was going to teach them the split finger. Sutter said he adapted perfectly to it. He thought it was his big hands and long fingers that helped him. He went from mediocre to HOF almost overnight. Lets’ see…. big hands and long fingers, sounds like Schwim to me.
Sutter said that most guys couldn’t throw the pitch but some guys learned it and found a valuable weapon. If a few guys can learn it and use it in spots, it adds to their arsenal. I agree with Catch that it can put a lot of strain on the arm so they should take it slowly.
Can we get anyone to teach the knuckler? The big club needs, at a minimum, a batting practice pitcher who can throw one.
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Actually, you have seen pitch like what Marshall teaches. They often take parts of it and use them. But they have to hide it to some extent because major league scouts don’t understand it and they downgrade anyone they see using his techniques, no matter what the results.
I think he’s a bit too dogmatic in his approach and he doesn’t allow for differences in individual anatomy. But he is absolutely correct about all the wasted motion a lot of pitchers have. It’s not only wasted, but it’s counterproductive or even injurious.
I see some of his teaching in use by Clemens. Used to see some of it in Jim Kaat, the Jamie Moyer of the previous century. I’m pretty sure neither of those guys learned from Marshall, but they stumbled on some of his techniques by accident. In Kaat’s case, probably before Marshall had even figured out the anatomy.
I was a college pitcher who ended up having multiple shoulder surgeries. I can tell you that if I’d known about what Marshall was teaching back in the mid-70s, I would very likely not have needed even one surgery.
And if you watch Strasburg’s delivery, you’ll see that he does a couple of things that are going to continue to injure him throughout his career. My guess is that Marshall will have to be dead about ten years, then suddenly pitching coaches will “discover” that they’ve been injuring people and adapt some of his methods.
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@ Jon Breisen – confirmation on your report nice work!
There is more to the Phillies’ hiring of Hall of Fame relief pitcher Bruce Sutter than meets the eye.
The team announced Monday that Sutter had been hired as a consultant to evaluate minor-league pitchers. While it’s true that Sutter will take a look at the pitching staffs at Double A Reading and Triple A Lehigh Valley, his primary role in the final weeks of the minor-league season will be to tutor reliever Scott Mathieson on the art of throwing a split-fingered fastball.
“He’s got the best one ever,” Phils assistant general manager Benny Looper told CSNPhilly.com on Monday night. “Maybe he can help Scott.”
Sutter rode his splitter to 300 saves and a 2.83 ERA in 661 big-league games. He won the 1979 National League Cy Young award and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006.
The splitter is not for everyone because it can put extra strain on a pitcher’s arm. In fact, Looper, in his second season in the Phillies’ front office, has frowned on the pitch being thrown in the Phillies’ minor-league system. Shortly after acquiring pitcher Phillippe Aumont from Seattle last winter, the Phils ordered him to stop throwing the pitch. Only after all attempts to add a secondary pitch have been exhausted will the Phillies approve a minor-leaguer throwing a splitter.
Mathieson, 26, has twice had elbow reconstruction surgery, but Looper said the pitcher is completely on-board with trying to learn the splitter. According to Looper, Mathieson began experimenting with the pitch under the supervision of Lehigh Valley pitching coach Rod Nichols several weeks ago. The Phillies hope the pitch can one day become a good complement to the righthander’s fastball, which can reach 97 mph.
“Scott needs another pitch,” Looper said. “He tried and tried with a slider but it never really developed. We want to try everything we can to help him develop a secondary pitch.”
Mathieson, who appeared in one game for the Phils this season, has had a strong season as Lehigh Valley’s closer. In 49 games, he has 24 saves and a 2.62 ERA. He has 78 strikeouts and 22 walks in 58 1/3 innings.
Looper stressed that Sutter will keep his eye on other Phillies minor-league pitchers, as well. Though he will spend most of his time with the Lehigh Valley club, Sutter will also peek in on the Reading club.
“He knows more pitching than just the splitter,” Looper said. “He knows how to prepare in the bullpen and work hitters. We think he’ll be a good resource.”
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I was waiting for someone to spell splitter without the ‘L’. I was ready to say that a mistake was made. It wasn’t Sutter that was hired but Gaylord Perry. Maybe Perry and Sutter could team up with a new pitch. We could call it the Vaseline Forkball.
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