Troy (his article) and myself had taken a look at Daisuke Matsuzaka after his first two starts. One of the things I had noticed was a slight drop in his release point. I wanted to follow up on this and see if there were any changes in Dice-K’s release point over his first three starts. Interestingly there is a change, a progressive change. In each and every start, dice-K has brought his release points inward, closer to his body. (pitch f/x from BrooksBaseball.net)
In yesterday’s game, Dice-K wasn’t exactly hitting his spots or staying down in the zone, but Toronto didn’t make much good contact on his pitches either (only one line-drive allowed). He did dip into his bag of tricks, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Toronto hitters. This included seven sliders, a pitch he had yet to unleash in 2011.
While I can’t draw any definitive conclusions from three starts, we’re at least seeing Dice-K trying to make adjustments. The results were good yesterday, we’ll see what happens and where he releases his pitches from his next time out.