Really nice and revealing interview from SOSHer David Laurila. It's great to read an interview where the player is actually asked about on-field playing issues, not the usual off-field soap opera BS. Thanks, David.
Clay sure does love his cutter. But he gets some backing info from Bannister:
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On his cutter: “I threw a slider in college, but stopped throwing it after my first year [of professional baseball]. The slider is really hard on your arm if you throw it a whole lot. I also wanted something that looked like a fastball that wasn’t 84 mph. If I was throwing 92-94, I wanted it to be 88-90, and that’s what a cutter is. I asked
Jon Lester how he threw his. He showed me his grip.
“I started using it as more of a count-control pitch. If fell behind 2-0, I could throw a cutter to a righty on the outside corner and run it off. I had a better chance of getting a swing on that, as opposed to a slider, which is an offspeed that they can see out of my hand. I developed a cutter for those situations and it evolved into one of my out pitches. I started throwing it to both sides of the plate.
“I think the cutter is the best pitch in baseball, as far as the stats go. Actually, I know that for a fact. [Red Sox director of pitching analysis and development]
Brian Bannister and I were talking about that awhile ago — the numbers on guys who throw cutters. It’s the best pitch in baseball, in front of the split. Hard-sinking changeups are the third-best pitch. A four-seam fastball is the worst pitch as far as hard contact and batting average on balls put into play.”
More on Bannister's impact on him:
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On Brian Bannister and high fastballs: “He has [impacted how I think about pitching]. He’s really good at what he does, and he’s really easy to talk to. Yeah, throwing pitches in certain situations, versus throwing pitches just because you don’t want to throw another fastball: that’s how I’ve gotten in trouble a lot in my career. I would throw a changeup because I already threw two fastballs and didn’t want to throw another one.
“If I can throw a curveball for a strike, and then throw a curveball for a ball, then elevate a four-seam fastball, I’m going to get a lot more swings and misses on the high fastball. Not just concentrating on down, down, down is one of the things we’ve sat down and talked about in depth.
“Up until this year, I’ve never really intentionally thrown fastballs up in the zone. I’ve started doing that, and whenever I execute, it works out. Above the zone, above the belt, or maybe belly-button high at the top of the zone.
“The game has evolved. When I got called up, a lot of guys were high-ball hitters. They would take that pitch and hit it out. You were taught to throw the ball down, down, down. Now everybody is worried about their bat path and how they can get that ball going down and lift it. There are a lot more low-ball hitters in the game today than there were 10 years ago.”
He knows the cutter isn't perfect though:
“I throw multiple pitches, and some days my best pitch could be the opposite of what it was the start prior to that. At times, I’ve relied on a couple of pitches too much. I’ve relied on the cutter a lot. Whenever I have a good one, it’s good, but when it’s a ball that’s just spinning, it’s not. It’s a learning process, still."
