Dan Plesac called Chris Sale the "most improved pitcher" in 2016.
Plesac, a lefty pitcher with 18 years of major league experience, was on point as he watched Sale mow down the Yankees Friday night in a 7-1 White Sox victory.
"He is on cruise control," Plesac said several times during the broadcast with Hawk Harrelson. "He is no longer a thrower, but a pitcher," Plesac said.
Plesac is one of the best analysts in the game. His opinion was correct as Sale cruised through a 99 pitch complete game against the Yankees.
He gave up a second inning home run, then got the next 15 batters out in the row.
Sale became just the third pitcher in modern history to win his first eight (8) decisions in a season.
In his 6 hit complete game, Sale threw 71 of 99 pitches for strikes. He continued to move pitches to both sides of the plate, taking velocity off his fast ball, then using a "slurve," a pitch that both drops down and side to side, to get batters out. He used a half dozen 96-97 mph fastballs as "out" pitches against batters who had seen balls from 88 to 93 all night long.
Sale was a power pitcher. He tried to strike everyone out. But this season, he has learned to pitch to contact, conserve energy, and got the distance in complete game efficiency.
It helps that the White Sox revamped its defense into a quality unit with the additions of Todd Frazier at third, Jimmy Rollins at short, Brett Lawrie at second, Austin Jackson in center and moving Adam Eaton to right. Sale admits that the pressure is off him with the defense behind him and the fact that the current line up can produce crooked numbers.
During the broadcast, as the announcers marveled at Sale's command, Harrelson made an interesting point: he said the worst draft selection a team can make in the first round is a high school pitcher. They throw year round, Hawk said. They throw 150 pitches a game at times. "That is too much," he said, "they are throwing more innings than major league pitchers." That is a true statement. Also, Hawk said the worst thing ever to happen in the game was the advent of the radar gun. It puts undue pressure on young arms to hit high 90s on the gun instead of learning how to pitch, conserve energy and win baseball games.
Plesac said that Carlos Rodon of the White Sox was drafted out of high school. He had the big arm with the radar numbers. But instead of signing with a major league team, Rodon went to college. By going to college and getting more instruction, it made Rodon a better pitcher and helped him get to the majors quicker than signing out of high school.
High school and college players often get trapped in statistics such as number of strike outs or power of their pitches. They get to the mound thinking they have to strike out everyone they face. The great pitchers like Fergie Jenkins said when he got to the majors he learned quickly he had to "pitch to contact" otherwise he would have a short and meaningless pro career. You get the same result if you have a three pitch ground out vs. a six pitch strike out - - - the batter is out. But if you can "save" 2 or 3 pitches a batter, that is 60 less pitches per game which means you can pitch longer in games with less damage to your arm.
Plesac hopes that Rodon and the other young Sox pitchers will learn from Sale's development this year and learn to pitch rather than throw.
