Hooweee! I was waiting for Captain Jenks to break into a “I would love to make hot monkey love to Howard Stern” seggy!
A general Hot Stove assumption that truly seemed to agitate Jenks dealt with the velocity drop being tied to the trade rumors and then coming out together as the hint of an injury. It bothered Jenks enough to disrupt his relatively low-key offseason spent with his wife and three kids to talk about the matter.
“You know what? I haven’t ever been hurt since being in the big leagues other than 10 days [in 2008], and that wasn’t pitching that got me hurt,” said Jenks, who was out of action from June 30-July 18 with left shoulder bursitis. “It was something I had behind my left scapula, water in the joint, and you can’t really prevent or help that.
“Any skeptics out there who think the reason I wasn’t traded was because I was hurt, well, good. I’ve proved myself numerous times before, but I don’t really know if I have to prove myself again against something said like that.
“I’ll take my numbers all day long and shove them back in the face of any critic,” Jenks said. “Me being hurt had nothing to do with anything related to pitching.”
...Doubters occasionally still will be present, especially where Jenks’ velocity is concerned. But Jenks had one closing comment before putting this issue to rest, once and for all in his mind.
“If you are not here watching every game, then keep your mouth shut because you don’t know what goes on,” Jenks said. “As for me proving myself, it’s over. I’ve already done it.”
Repoz
Posted: December 18, 2008 at 03:48 AM |
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Jenks was being advised by Murray Chass.
FTFA: "This is the last time I have something to say on it, but I've dropped my velocity on purpose," said Jenks, 27, during a phone interview from his home in a western suburb of Chicago. "If you don't think this is true, look back when I was throwing more consistently harder at the end of this last season than at the beginning.
"Against Minnesota [in the American League Central tiebreaker], I was throwing 97-to-100 to get those last three outs. It's not about velocity drops. It's about getting outs. Anyone can time 100 mph if they see it enough.
"Basically, I sat down and discussed what would make me a better pitcher," said Jenks of a conversation he had a few years ago with White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper. "We didn't discuss velocity, but we talked about command and consistency with all of my pitches. My strikeouts are down, yes, but my pitch efficiency is higher than ever and my walks are down. I'm getting hitters swinging early in the counts, and when they get behind, I can put them away."
I will say that his walks are not strictly speaking down from 2007, although I would guess that what he did was statistically indistinguishable from holding steady, and they are definitely down from 2006. But he's had quite a constant and astonishing dropoff from 2005's K rate. If he can keep getting outs, though, more power to him. There's something to be said for dialing it up only when you need to.
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