SF Giants’ Miller brought back old pitch, and it’s giving hitters new fits

SAN FRANCISCO Erik Miller hadn t thrown his sinker in about seven years when he took the mound at Oracle Park for his first offseason bullpen Given how long the pitch had been dormant he had no expectations for how the pitch would play He needed to throw just one to create shock and awe I was like I don t know if this is going to be great We had the Trackman set up at Oracle I threw the very first one I looked back at the analysts Their jaws both dropped Miller declared Eyes wide open Like Holy expletive that was legit The movement on that was unreal for that pitch As soon as I threw the first one I was like We might be working with something here There s certain guys that when you add pitches it takes a long time disclosed pitching coach J P Martinez Sometimes when you put a pitch in a guy s hand it s just clear from the first or second throw or in the first pen that it s a pitch they ll be able to use That was the incident with his sinker Miller the lone lefty in the Giants bullpen has brought back an old pitch for his sophomore season It s already giving left-handed hitters a new challenge He s only thrown a couple but with its combination of velocity and movement it s already one of the best in the meeting Martinez approached Miller about playing around with a sinker while playing catch during the offseason Martinez saw Miller artificially raising his arm slot last season to get additional vertical movement on his four-seam fastball so tossing around the sinker would help Miller get behind his four-seamer more and generate additional vertical movement The unintended outcome was another way to neutralize lefties I announced Hey if you throw your four-seam from the same slot as the changeup we could likely put a two-seam in your hand and they ll separate ' Martinez recalled The first one he ever threw had like inches of horizontal movement He threw it down-and-away to a lefty and it came back middle That s a pitch that you could steal a strike on a lefty with or eventually it s going to bore in on them and it s going to give you more room for your changeup On Monday Miller struck out Yordan Alvarez one of baseball s best hitters with a sinker that clocked in at mph and generated nearly inches of horizontal movement Miller is right now averaging inches of horizontal break on his sinker for context the Minnesota Twins Michael Tonkin generated the greater part horizontal break with his sinker at inches The sinker generates so much movement that Miller aims his sights at the right-handed batter s box https sporty-clips mlb com WERsMjlfVjBZQUhRPT fQlFRQ FGd WbEVBQ dSVFZBQUhCQUpXQUFCVEFGSUFCUVJUVWdOV FBVlVWUUJU mp We demanded something that could really dominate lefties and it felt like that was the right pitch Martinez revealed Anytime you get a same-side sinker that moves that much and it s that hard it s going to be a good pitch Added backup catcher Sam Huff It s very heavy very quick It s like a bowling ball coming at you that you have to hit somehow It s not easy to hit but it s easy to catch and I m happy I get to catch it The sinker enables Miller to become more of an east-west pitcher who s capable of covering both sides of the plate Miller s sinker and changeup another excellent offering in its own right move into left-handed hitters The slider by contrast moves away from lefties The task of hitting Miller is all the more hard because Miller s sinker mirrors his slider meaning both pitches are nearly indistinguishable coming towards the plate until they inevitably break one way or the other He s only thrown two sliders this year over his four outings but that s been due more to matchups If Miller wants to go upstairs he can call upon the four-seamer https sporty-clips mlb com WERsMjlfVjBZQUhRPT fVTFVQ JRWldYd lBQ FOUlhnQUhDQUpSQUZnQ JsTUFBbElNVVFZQkFRUUhCQVJR mp Related Articles Kurtenbach SF Giants baseball is torture again Bring it on On Oracle Park s th birthday SF Giants ring in new era in multiple techniques Adames hits walk-off in home debut as SF Giants extend winning streak The Giants are celebrating the th anniversary of their downtown waterfront ballpark here are memories starting the day it opened Buster Posey leapt to SF Giants president unlike any legend before Can he make more memories Last year I felt it could keyhole me a lot where lefties knew I was going four-seams away sliders away everything was going to be away from them Miller mentioned Now I have something that can get in on their hands and force them to honor the inside part of the plate Miller was unafraid to say that he plans on using the sinker against a certain left-handed hitter on the Los Angeles Dodgers Last season Miller faced Shohei Ohtani five times He struck him out every single time When the Giants and Dodgers inevitably meet Ohtani will have to contend with an even more challenging offering I don t think it s any secret that there s a guy that plays for the Dodgers that I m allegedly going to be throwing it a lot to this year Miller laughed The cat s out of the bag They know that s something I m going to be throwing to lefties specifically someone like Shohei It s exciting I obviously understand my role A lot of times I m here to get the best left-handed guy on their organization out To have such a big weapon now for lefties it s pretty fun