Once I interviewed Marco Gonzales in spring coaching 2018, the now 32-year-old Pittsburgh Pirates southpaw was with the Seattle Mariners and about to ascertain himself as a strong massive league starter. We mentioned his return to well being — he’d undergone Tommy John surgical procedure two years prior — in addition to his repertoire. We additionally touched on his strategy on the mound, a topic we’d earlier addressed in a 2014 dialog when he was a St. Louis Cardinals pitching prospect. On the time, Gonzales was your prototypical artful lefty, and he’s remained simply that all through his profession.
The previous Mariners’ participant rep for the MLBPA has a variety of opinions on the sport he’s performed professionally since 2013, when the Cardinals drafted him nineteenth total out of Gonzaga College. Not surprisingly, the rise in arm accidents is of explicit curiosity, as is the pitch clock.
Gonzales, who has since landed on the 15-day injured checklist with a left forearm muscle pressure, sat down to debate these matters at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park earlier this month.
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David Laurila: We talked again in 2018 if you have been with the Mariners. Are you an identical pitcher now that you just have been then?
Marco Gonzales: “No. You’re by no means the identical pitcher you have been, even should you assume you might be. You may need an identical id — you at all times have an id as a participant — however you alter bodily, emotionally, mentally. Your maturity on the mound adjustments. Your thought course of adjustments, and in flip, that adjustments what you are able to do on the mound.
“The pitches I throw haven’t added or subtracted, however how I take into consideration them, how they transfer, and the way I’ve used them has modified quite a bit. Yr to 12 months, week to week, there are adjustments. That’s a part of baseball. For no matter motive, typically a pitch doesn’t come out the identical manner it normally does and it’s a must to use it in a different way, or perhaps manipulate it extra.”
Laurila: How a lot have the adjustments been information pushed?
Gonzales: “That’s an excellent query. I might say that within the final couple of years, it’s change into extra information pushed. Nonetheless, there may be at all times an natural improvement, and an natural studying. As a human being and a competitor, you’re continually rising and altering, so there may be an natural half to it.”
Laurila: That mentioned, what has been your most notable data-driven change?
Gonzales: “I might say my cutter. I’m at all times conscious of what the horizontal motion is. I need it to chop — I need it to go in to a righty — and when it’s not chopping, perhaps I’m not ending it proper, or perhaps the grip wants to alter barely. It’s simply little changes right here and there.”
Laurila: Can you are feeling refined variations in baseballs?
Gonzales: “In case you’re an knowledgeable in one thing, you discover a distinction. Proper? You discover totally different weights. You discover totally different dimensions of seams. I don’t know the inside of the baseball, however the exterior has modified. The seams was very, very small, very, very tight. It was nearly like a cue ball. It was a really, very easy feeling; you didn’t actually really feel the seams. Now they’ve ridges. The aerodynamics of it, the way in which the ball travels — I imply, that’s going to alter it. I don’t understand how a lot it’s affected me, however I do know that your pitches have a tendency to alter typically. You possibly can see it within the information.
“I’ve most likely held 1,000,000 baseballs in my life. I imply, as an individual who holds a variety of balls — for lack of higher phrases — I can inform you very minuscule particulars which can be totally different. I’ve to. Take into consideration how exact now we have to be with throwing them, how a lot now we have to spin and find — particularly for a pitcher like myself. I don’t throw overly onerous, so I’ve to be exact. I’ve to depend on motion [and] deception. So, after all I do know each inch of that baseball.”
Laurila: You’re atypical to the present development in that you just’re a… comfortable tosser is perhaps not the best method to put it.
Gonzales: “Artful. However sure, I throw 90. I’m a dying breed.”
Laurila: With that in thoughts, quite a few guys who do throw actually onerous have been happening with elbow accidents. On the similar time, you had Tommy John surgical procedure regardless of not being a tough thrower.
Gonzales: “Sure, I had TJ in 2016. I imply, look, we pushed again on lowering the clock this 12 months. We — the gamers — pushed again on initiating the clock, and we pushed again once more this 12 months once they wished to lower the time on the clock. Every time, MLB has overpowered our vote and went on with it. We raised critical security considerations over the lower in time. There are guys that want extra time, or a minimum of must not be rushed. Particularly in between innings for relievers. We pushed again on that too, and so they decreased it.
“The Gamers Affiliation has [four out of 11] votes. I don’t know if individuals know that or not. Rule adjustments are a [majority] vote. We voted unanimously no on all the new guidelines this 12 months, and so they went by. I believe there ought to be extra accountability with adjustments to the sport.
“So, I believe that it might be silly to not have a look at that as a main concern. That’s one of many greatest adjustments to pitchers on this sport, introducing the clock. We’re seeing a [rise] in accidents. I believe that correlates.”
Laurila: Do you purchase the concept that the rise of splitters and/or sweepers is a contributing issue?
Gonzales: “Look, guys throw tougher and spin the ball sooner than ever earlier than. Guys are getting greater and stronger — guys are studying how you can get greater and stronger — and that’s one other factor. In case you throw tougher, and also you spin the ball sooner, effectively, that’s extra taxing in your arm. I’m not saying that’s not the first trigger, both. I believe there are a number of causes. I additionally assume it may be totally different for every particular person particular person.
“It could actually occur to anyone. Throwing a baseball overhand isn’t wholesome, irrespective of how onerous you throw. However it might be silly to not have a look at the pitch clock and the adjustments in coaching. With the baseballs themselves, it might be intriguing to do additional investigation into how baseballs have developed on this sport and what impact that has on arms.”
