Every spring sees something new, and this spring is no different.
Currently, the most nervous guys in baseball are Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti, Manager Bruce Bochy and GM Brian Sabean.
What you don't want is to spend $126m on your new star pitcher and have him report to Spring Training with a completely remodelled delivery.
Righetti wasn't too happy about it, and he made no bones about how he felt.
That'll wear him down. He's going to over-stride," Righetti said. "It's going to be tough on him. He's a good athlete and he got himself in shape for it. Maybe it's all tied in together and he felt he had to do something. To me, it'll be about making his pitches. If he loses the curveball, which he could because he'll be throwing from a different angle now -- we'll see how sore his groin is tomorrow."
If Zito loses his curveball but ups his fastball from 88mph to low 90s, will that make him a better pitcher? I wouldn't bet on it. Greg Maddux has made a very nice career on a fastball that doesn't hit the 90s, but does hit every imaginable corner of the strike zone.
Nobody's saying that Zito's got the extreme control that Maddux has, but his entire game has been locating his fastball and changeup for strikes and then snapping off one of those amazing curve balls for a strike three. I've seen games where Zito was a couple of steps on his way to the dug out on a 2 out, 2 strike count, as he knew as soon as he released the curve it would be either a called strike three or completely unhittable.
I'm not sure why Zito would want to jeopardise that, but then again, it's been a few years since his Cy Young season, and he's been struggling with some injuries.
I for one hope he doesn't lose his curve - it is a pitch anyone who loves baseball would be hard to not admit is a thing of beauty.
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