Through his first 3 games this year, Josh Beckett is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.50. Through his first 3 games of 2006, Josh Beckett was 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. So what’s the difference? For starters he has a WHIP of 0.83 compared to his WHIP of 1.04 in his first 3 games last year. Through his first 3 games this year opponents are also batting .159 off of Beckett compared to the .198 they hit off him through the first 3 games of 2006. These differences however are trivial. The largest difference between Josh Beckett now and the Josh Beckett of a year ago isn’t something that you’ll find in any stats sheet. Perhaps you could read about how Josh Beckett has made the adjustment of no longer pitching off of the corners of the pitching rubber. He has elected to push off now from the center of the rubber so that he can more consistently locate his breaking pitches, without having to adjust from one side of the rubber to the other. The adjustment certainly has factored into Beckett’s transformation, providing him with more confidence in his breaking pitches. No articles or stats however could truly do justice to his newfound pitching ability. In order to truly grasp the change that Beckett’s gone through over the past year, one must watch him. And that’s just what much of the baseball world has been doing.
Perhaps ESPN analyst Steve Phillips put it best when he said rather simply, “instead of being a thrower, he’s being a pitcher.” Anyone who watched Beckett’s last start against the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles can truly attest to that. From a purely technical standpoint, Beckett looks like a completely different pitcher. Instead of dropping in his curve a few times an inning, he’s now dropping it in on 2-1 counts. Instead of backing up his fastball with another fastball (and then another and another and another…) he’s doubling up change ups. While his pitch selection has gone through dramatic alterations, his “stuff” remains equally as devastating as it’s ever been. He still has a fastball that sits in the mid-90’s and has great late movement, his curve is still freezing the opposing batters and his change up is keeping them honest.
Such a change comes after what must have been a long off-season for Beckett. After being dealt for highly touted prospect Hanley Ramirez, Beckett had a frustrating and disappointing first season in the American League East. He saw his home runs per 9 numbers more than double from 0.71 to 1.58. At the same time his BB per 9 went up from 2.92 and his strikeout per 9 numbers went down from 8.36 to 6.95. His trouble adjusting to the new league led to an ERA of 5.01. Still, the season wasn’t a complete loss. Beckett finally reached the 200 innings mark in a season, perhaps his largest criticism before coming to Boston. He’s even found the cause of his past blister problems and is now effectively treating them. While he had the worst season of his career statistically, he still managed less than 8.5 hits per 9 innings. Over his career he’s averaged less than 8 hits per 9 innings pitched. While his location and pitch selection may have been sub-par a still low hittability would seem to indicate that his “stuff” wasn’t lacking.
Beckett never quite got comfortable with Jason Varitek behind the plate either, even though he has the reputation as a superb game caller. Perhaps the two player’s comfort levels were hindered a bit by the World Baseball Classic which kept Varitek out of camp for a time. One of Varitek’s biggest intangibles is the level of comfort he can give his pitchers in knowing that the pitch he’s choosing is the correct one for the situation. Not only does he do as much preparation work as any catcher in the game but he has an innate ability to practically read the batters’ minds once they step into the box. He’ll spend quite a bit of time observing the body language of the hitter, reading their face and making sure they aren’t picking up the pitch or it’s location. However, in a fit of what Beckett referred to this off-season as “stubborn stupidity”, he simply didn’t trust the captain. Whether this was due to a lack of trust in his catcher or his own breaking pitches could be debatable. Regardless, for whatever reason Beckett clung to his fastball as if it was his mother and he was being dropped off at kindergarten for the first time. He would shake off his breaking pitches to such a degree that the hitters practically knew exactly what was coming. This year, although it is still very young, it’s also been a drastically different story for the 26-year-old pitcher.
Matsuzaka Earning The Reputation – Speaking of another 26-year-old Red Sox starter, Daisuke Matsuzaka looked impressive against the best lineup he’s faced yet. While he did walk in a run, he quickly recovered to escape the inning with minimal damage. Throughout most of his start he looked dominant, allowing only 3 hits and 2 runs over his 6 innings of work while striking out 10. In doing so, he became the first pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela to have 2 double-digit strikeout games in his first 3 major league starts. While Matsuzaka has been burned by poor run support (1.67 runs per game) in his first three games, he has amazingly managed a win and now is only one strikeout behind Johan Santana (25) for the major league lead in strikeouts.
Also, I think new Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell probably deserves some credit after leading the pitching staff to an ERA of 2.68 over their first 105 innings of work. They also have a WHIP of 1.04 and strike out nearly 8 batters every 9 innings. With Schilling, Beckett and Matsuzaka in the rotation and Donnelly, Okajima and Papelbon in the bullpen, there’s a good chance that the Red Sox could lead the league in strikeouts this year.