Column: Interrupting the Chicago Cubs\u2019 ceremonies for a National League wild-card race update<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a major-league bullpen, you have to pitch \u2014 there\u2019s no hiding guys,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said Monday. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to pitch, and you\u2019re going to get your opportunities. And ultimately every reliever goes through stretches where they\u2019re going to get scored on and maybe they\u2019re not going to pitch well. They\u2019re going to make mistakes, and the best thing you can do is get them back out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan, he\u2019s been a little scattered since he\u2019s been here. I think he\u2019s really close. I think we can get him there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeferjahn believes his success is rooted in the mechanics of his bottom half and, beyond getting his mechanics in sync, he is trying to spot his fastballs more rather than \u201cjust throwing them\u201d as he had in the past with the Angels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of everything, a little bit of fatigue going through those tough stretches, and hopefully getting over my second hump of the year of tough stretches,\u201d Zeferjahn said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, get through this and get back on track and knowing what I\u2019m capable of and showing them and helping the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeferjahn largely relies on a four-pitch mix \u2014 sweeper, four-seam fastball, sinker and slider \u2014 with a curveball he tosses rarely (3% usage this year). His sweeper (38%) and four-seamer (35%) are the right-hander\u2019s best two pitches, but for them to be the most effective, Zeferjahn needs to incorporate his sinker and slider more, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Tribune.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that stands out the most right away is whenever you get a new pitcher, especially the catchers, they want to use your best pitchers the most often, and his two best pitchers are the sweeper and the four-seamer, but those play up when you mix everything,\u201d Hottovy explained. \u201cWe talk about pitching off your strengths. His strengths are the sweeper and fastball, but still finding a way to mix the other pitches to keep hitters honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for him, when he thinks about using the other two pitches, he doesn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s just a two-pitch pitcher. If one day the fastball doesn\u2019t feel great, in his mind, he\u2019s still got three other pitches to throw.\u201d<\/p>\n
That requires the Cubs\u2019 catchers, Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya, to understand that\u2019s how Zeferjahn tends to operate mentally, whereas other two-pitch heavy pitchers take more of a when-in-doubt-throw-these-two-pitches approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a little different than that, so I think it\u2019s important that part of getting to know guys and what makes them tick is understanding that\u2019s how he views himself a lot and when he has four pitches to utilize, he doesn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s in a box,\u201d Hottovy said.<\/p>\n
The Cubs are trying to keep things simple for Zeferjahn. Namely, emphasizing the basics like how he sets up his feet on the mound and where he\u2019s positioned on the rubber. Then, it all comes down to body direction for his 6-foot-5 frame. He moves east-west well, allowing him to naturally create good spin. When trying to put everything together and get Zeferjahn rolling again, sometimes even the routine of catch play can be an opportunity to hone his mechanics.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s just trying to keep it very simple for him to make sure that he is very linear in his delivery,\u201d Hottovy said, \u201cand that he is firing at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life as a big-league reliever means dealing with tough stretches. The ups and downs can test any pitcher,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,127120,414553,362578,5386,1818,1285,4247,1822,352202],"class_list":["post-1035987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-cubs-bullpen","tag-cubs-pitchers","tag-cubs-trade-deadline","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-ryan-zeferjahn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117193117917322989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}