Back To The Basics For Adam Warren

There is an old saying in the sports world, “Numbers never lie.” However, many times there are exceptions to this saying. New York Yankees’ reliever Adam Warren has had a season that has been a perfect example of that exception. In 59 1/3 innings pitched this season, Warren has accumulated an earned run average of 3.49 and a WHIP (Walks plus Hits per innings) of 1.33. Those numbers stack up pretty well against an average major league relieve pitcher.

However, in his last 10 outings on the mound, Warren’s earned run average is at a whopping 9.00. He has not looked as sharp as he did at the beginning of the year. This makes the Bronx Bombers faithful question Warren’s health. Warren said in a quote from our friends over at The LoHud Yankees Blog:

"“My body feels fine. I’ve had a week off between outings, so physically I feel fine. I think it’s just one of those funks where I just feel like I can’t quite get on top of the ball and feel like my stuff’s not quite as sharp. Just trying to get back to good solid mechanics. I feel like I’m getting there. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but I feel like I’m getting closer.”"

(h/t, Chad Jennings, The LoHud Yankees Blog)

When Warren says “I can’t quite get on top of the ball”, he is talking about his breaking balls. When a pitcher works on his mechanics for throwing a breaking ball, this phrase always comes up, because if a pitcher does not get “on top of a ball”, the ball will have the tendency to either hang or tail off and mis-locate. For example, in his last outing against the Astros, Warren did not get on top of a slider that he threw. So what happened? Well, the slider was out over the plate which led to a line drive base hit and the Astros took the lead. The good news is Warren knows what he has to do to fix his mechanics.

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