Hunter Greene still leading team in strikeouts

[CJD]

(07-31-2023, 06:48 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: While I like Ashcraft, I get a little confused about one thing.

I never knew that you had to learn how to throw a fastball.

He throws three pitches: a cutter, a slider and a sinker. He does not throw a two seam or a four seam fastball, he only throws cutters and sinkers as a fastball substitute. He threw 12 changeups as a rookie last year(all 12 were to lefties) but none this year.

Part of Corbin Burnes mastery is sneaking in the fastball when the hitter is looking for his awesome cutter.

How in the #### do you get to the big leagues and not be able to throw a fastball?

Does not compute . . . I are cunfyoozed.

Yep, Ashcraft is a very strange case. Cincinnati.com actually wrote a story about Ashcraft's inability to throw a straight fastball
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2022/06/12/cincinnati-reds-pitcher-graham-ashcraft-diamond-rough/7582478001/

Quote:Ashcraft’s fastball was approaching 100 mph, but he couldn’t throw the ball straight. So the Reds then-minor league assistant pitching coordinator Eric Jagers, who’s now the Reds’ big league assistant pitching coach, helped protect the rest of the minor league pitchers by playing catch with Ashcraft.  

At first, Jagers focused on straightening out Ashcraft’s fastball. While playing catch, one pitch would cut to Jagers’ left and another would cut the other way. Whatever Ashcraft tried, his fastball was all over the place.


Then, Jagers had a breakthrough when he framed the challenge in a different way.
“Is this a problem, or is it just really unique?” Jagers thought. “Can it be consistent? Can we own the cut? Can you harness that and be consistent? That’s what we were after.”

And now, that’s who Ashcraft is. The rookie has a 1.14 ERA through four starts in the Reds rotation, and he still isn’t throwing a straight fastball. Over the last three years with the Reds, Ashcraft polished a 100 mph cutter that can move as much as some pitchers’ sliders. And he developed a sinker that cuts in the opposite direction.

In essence, he was able to throw 100 mph, but he was unable to not put a spin on it. So, instead of trying to teach him how to throw a fastball straight, the pitching coaches just decided to teach him how to harness that natural curve on his fastball, which eventually became his cutter and his sinker.

It's an interesting story, but it truly is bizarre that he is incapable of throwing a fast ball with no curve to it.