Albers, a 34-year-old nonroster invite, the kind of veteran long-shot reliever the Nationals bring in by the half dozen every year, then proceeded to toss 11 scoreless innings in the Grapefruit League. “Hey, man, is he in shape?” Baker wondered aloud at the Washington Nationals’ spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida.īaker later pulled the book on the thickset right-handed reliever and realized Albers was the same size he’d been listed at for years - 6-foot-1, 225 pounds. I just kept it to that.One question sprang to Dusty Baker’s mind when he first laid eyes on Matt Albers in February. “I think at the end of the day they just want you to get outs. He still looks the same, and he’s still getting guys out. With Brandon Kintzler, Madson and Sean Doolittle on board, he’s used in fewer high-leverage situations late in games with leads. ![]() Albers was a constant late-inning option then. Without him, the Nationals’ disastrous pre-July bullpen, the one with the highest ERA in baseball, would have blown more games than it did. He can’t get nobody out.’ “Īlbers has gotten plenty of guys out. I’ve seen guys built like Adonis and get nobody out. He thought of Valenzuela when talking about Albers. Teammates fed him extra food to gain the weight back. Baker recalled Valenzuela following orders and losing effectiveness. “Keep making quality pitches, you might give up a hit here and there,” Maddux said, “but you keep the crooked numbers away and that’s what he’s done.”īaker was an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers when Fernando Valenzuela, a squat left-hander, burst onto the scene in 1981 and was later told to lose weight. The more varied combination creates more guesswork for hitters. He’s also throwing his slider more than ever (28 percent), while his two-seamer usage is down to 50.1 percent from 69.2 percent in 2016. His four-seam fastball usage, according to FanGraphs, is up to 16.8 percent this season from 5.2 percent last season. Repertoire-wise, Albers said he’s thrown his four-seam fastball up in the zone more, especially against lefties. He moved that set position a little higher to around his chest to eliminate some movement, which helped create a consistent release point. I still felt like I could be successful.”Īlbers said he made one minor adjustment over the winter: Last season, he was coming set with his hands around the belt. “It was just missing over the plate and trying to almost make up for a lost season toward the end and not really pitching. ![]() “I think my stuff was still good last year,” said Albers, who has the most career relief outings in baseball without pitching in the playoffs. The performance left him without a big league contract offer. He finally logged a full slate last season, and, at age 33, compiled a career-worst 6.31 ERA in 58 outings. He posted a 1.21 ERA for the Chicago White Sox in 2015, but a fractured finger, which he sustained policing a benches-clearing brawl, sidelined him for nearly three months and limited him to 30 games. He’s pitched in every imaginable on-field situation, from middle relief to the ninth, and he’s recently pitched through unimaginable off-field stress as his son and pregnant wife withstood Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Albers’s hometown. By the end of April, he was the only consistently reliable reliever Baker could turn to until the club’s obligatory bullpen overhaul in July. The performance didn’t secure him a spot on the Opening Day roster, but the jovial Albers was called up from the minors within a week. ![]() One question sprang to Dusty Baker’s mind when he first laid eyes on Matt Albers in February.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |