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Tyler Glasnow Adjusted His Delivery to Improve Command, Control the Running Game

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SARASOTA, Fla. – Every time I’ve talked about Tyler Glasnow during the last week, it has been about his new changeup. That’s an important pitch. There were times last year when Glasnow didn’t have command of his fastball, didn’t have command of his curveball, and didn’t have a third pitch to bail him out. He got away with the poor command of his first two pitches in Triple-A, but didn’t see the same thing in the majors.

The changeup is important, but it’s far from the only adjustment Glasnow needed to make. He also had issues with his command — not just last year with the curveball seeing some unusual command issues, but throughout his career with the fastball — and allows base runners to steal at will.

Glasnow also isn’t just focusing this spring on the changeup. He’s focusing on some new delivery techniques aimed to get better command and cut down on the stolen bases when opponents actually manage to get on base against him. He debuted those new techniques today, and as you could expect, I had a very detailed one-on-one conversation with him after the game to discuss the changes. First, let’s look at the biggest change, which was a pause at the start of his delivery.

The Back Step: Improving the Command

Glasnow had a pretty obvious adjustment to his delivery today. He would step back, then pause the delivery for a few seconds before continuing his windup. Here is a look at that new delivery today.

For comparison, here is the old delivery from around this time last year.

I’ve talked about Glasnow’s adrenaline and nerves on the mound for years, simply because it’s something he brings up constantly. He’s been talking about it since A-ball, and how sometimes he lets things spin out of control. He starts to rush his pitches, and that leads to horrible command. Looking at the videos above, you can see how easy it would be for him to rush his delivery with the old delivery, and how the new delivery gives him a chance to calm down and avoid rushing things. That’s exactly the point.

A big focus for Glasnow this offseason and coming into this year was dealing with his adrenaline on the mound. His solution was a simple one.

“I think just telling myself ‘Don’t feed into the adrenaline,'” Glasnow joked after today’s game. “In the big leagues it’s easy to feel pumped up and I feel good. But for me, going forward too fast, and kind of change some things up in my windup, and realizing the more I chill out and relax and have fun, things work.”

Glasnow’s issue in the past has been that he drifts forward easily, especially when he’s amped up. When talking about the new delivery with John Dreker during the game, he brought up an accurate observation. Glasnow would walk a guy on four pitches a lot faster than he would strike out a guy on three pitches, just because when his control was off, his game sped up.

This new approach almost allows him to pause his delivery and then mimic his delivery from the stretch, which he feels more comfortable with. You might ask why he doesn’t just pitch out of the stretch full-time, but the answer is that he would still speed up his delivery and throw off his command. This new pause avoids that, allows him to collect himself, and then go forward with a delivery that feels more comfortable.

“I drift sometimes, especially when I’m a little amped up,” Glasnow said. “It just keeps me nice and relaxed. I feel really athletic and smooth. I feel good when I do it. It takes away the mechanical flaws with going too quick. I just feel much more relaxed.”

I brought up the fact that in golf, almost all of the problems in a swing happen on the backswing, and wondered if that was a similar situation for Glasnow.

“That was me in baseball,” Glasnow agreed. “I’ll have still frames of me last year where my head is at the ground and my arm is still behind me. I think that kind of had a lot to do with me missing a bit of time with an arm injury. Nothing too crazy. I needed to change some things, and that is probably the biggest thing that helped.”

Elias Diaz was catching Glasnow today and noticed the new pause. Diaz was really impressed with the improved command and the adjustment to the delivery.

“He’s got that new [hold],” Diaz said. “He feels more comfortable doing that. You can see the difference. The confidence that he has when he has the ball. I’ve never seen [the hold]. It’s the first time I’ve seen it, and it’s nice.”

Diaz said that Glasnow had better command today, which is a positive sign.

“He showed [better command] today,” Diaz said. “He was down in the zone, the changeup was nasty, the breaking ball — he struck out six batters. I’m happy for him. The work he’s been doing is great.”

Of course, Glasnow joked that Diaz might have a unique perspective on his command, since he hasn’t had his best starts with Diaz in the past. Or, as Glasnow puts it:

“Every time I throw to Diaz I’ve sucked,” Glasnow said. “I haven’t thrown to him a ton. I love throwing to him, too, so it was cool just having him back there, and his pitching calling today — all of my faith was in him and it was good.”

In addition to the pause at the start of his delivery, Glasnow was mixing up his times to the plate. He would mix in a slide step every so often, trying to add some more deception, which is really unfair when you consider how close to the plate he gets with his delivery and how deceptive that can already be.

“I know if I was hitting and somebody waited four seconds, and then one second, and two seconds, and mixed in a slide step, it would throw me off,” Glasnow said. “In the windup, I did a lot of slide steps today, and that puts me back in time. Gets my timing back. When I’m going too forward, I can feel it. When I go back in the slide step, I can adjust off of that.”

These are positive signs for the thing that has been Glasnow’s biggest issue throughout his career: command. But what about his other big issue: the inability to control the running game?

The Slide Step: Controlling the Running Game

The unfortunate thing about Glasnow being so dominant today was that he didn’t allow any base runners until two outs in his final inning of work. That didn’t give him many opportunities to work in the new slide step and see how it would work, especially when he’s not going to be too focused on the runner with two outs.

Glasnow knew he had some major issues with runners stealing at-will against him, and knew he needed to fix those with a slide step.

“That was most of the reason for the slide step,” Glasnow said. “Even when I do a leg lift, I’m keeping it just a little smaller and quicker and more compact. That was one of the bigger goals, not having everyone steal off me.”

The source of the new slide step came from him watching Pirates’ closer Tony Watson, and copying his approach with the delivery.

“I’ve always seen him throw and think ‘How in the world does he do that?’ He’s just so smooth,” Glasnow said. “I needed a faster time to the plate, and I knew I could do that because I did that in the throwing program. I used to throw really across my body, and I kind of did the same thing. I just kind of watched how he did it, and I talked to him a little bit. The biggest thing is break the hands early. Just really watched him more than I watched a lot of guys.”

Glasnow said that the new slide step didn’t take a lot of work, and that the approach is less movement than he had before, which makes it easier to repeat. Chalk up another positive for his chances of improved command going forward.

“It made my release point much more consistent,” Glasnow said. “Rather than doing everything back here with all of the movement, I can relax and when I want to throw it, I can just feel everything in front of me.”

I busted out the stop watch when Glasnow got a guy on base and started timing his delivery to the plate. He didn’t have many pitches, and was in the 1.4-1.5 range from the start of his delivery to the point where it hit the catcher’s mitt. I asked him if he knew what his time was with the old delivery.

“A lot.”

I told him about the 1.4-1.5 number to see if that was an improvement.

“Better than it was. Especially with the slide step. I want to keep it around 1.2 or 1.3 or something. As long as they don’t steal. That’s one of my goals.”

I had a lot of criticism last year for Glasnow regarding his lack of a changeup and his command issues. It was to the point where you couldn’t even bother to focus on his long history of allowing plenty of stolen bases. It’s extremely encouraging that he’s bought in to the need to fix all three of those issues this offseason, and that he’s making such positive strides in fixing those. The changeup is comfortable for him, and getting good reviews early in camp. The pause in his windup looks like it will help him avoid some of the problems that led to poor command in the past. And the slide step looks like it might improve the stolen base issues. Although if he develops a good changeup and better command, he might not have many base runners to worry about.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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