A Change In The Change For Moose

Bored at work, surfing the web and I came across a column by SI's Tom Verducci that has me extremely encouraged about what's to come from Mike Mussina.  The column is titled "Wise Guys" and it basically discusses that the older, more experienced pitchers are having the most success so far this year.  Verducci details a conversation he had with Mussina after his dominant outing in Toronto, where Verducci compared him to Greg Maddux.  A comparison made because Mussina would throw hitters something soft when they were expecting something hard.  Mussina's reply: "That's right.  I've figured something out."

Mussina was pitching in an intersquad game.  Posada was at the plate.  The count was full and Mussina threw him a change.  Posada hit it well.  After the game, Mussina asked Posada how he was right on the changeup?  Posada replied that he could see his fingers on top of the ball as the ball was released, a tell-tale sign that the pitch was a change.  Moose was tipping his change!

Mussina ended up changing his grip so it's now undetectable to the batter.  He's also able to throw it slower and get better movement on it now.  How awesome is that Yankee fans?    We've definitely seen a new Mike Mussina this year.  He had an awesome performance against the Jays his last outing and his change was definitely working.  This could definitely explain the dominance that Mussina has shown this year.  An ERA of 2.67.  His walks are down and so is the opposing hitters' batting average against him.  The Blue Jays are the league's best hitting team statistically speaking.  They rank tops in batting average and slugging percentage, and rank second in OBP.  Moose shut 'em down.

How can we not be encouraged by this?  And to think, he's been using that grip since he started pitching.  It's amazing that no one ever noticed this before.  I would think that at least his pitching coaches, his battery mates, and/or a fellow teammate or two would have picked up on this. 

Mussina says it best: "And to think if I didn't bother pitching in an intrasquad game, none of this would have happened."  Thankfully for us Yankee fans, you did.  And thankfully, Posada noticed.  See Randy, he's not all bad.

J

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