At the Athletic (you may need a subscription), there’s a very nice graphic showing how Ben Lively hides the baseball during his delivery. During the windup, the batter sees the ball, then it disappears behind Lively’s head, then it appears again as Lively brings his arm into the throwing position.
A few weeks ago, Lively was battling for the fifth rotation spot. With the signing of Jake Arrieta, he looked destined to begin the season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. But just in the last few days, Lively’s development became much more important for the 2018 campaign. Jerad Eickhoff went down with a lat strain last Friday. On Tuesday, it was announced that Mark Leiter Jr. suffered a mild flexor strain that should sideline him for roughly the first month of the season. All of a sudden, there’s an open spot in both the rotation and the bullpen. Although it’s helpful for relievers to be able to miss bats consistently, Lively could still fill in for Leiter as the longman. Inducing weak contact with a deceptive fastball should play just fine in that role.
He is someone to watch as the Phillies try to take the next step on the road to the playoffs.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2pxcNg5
No comments:
Post a Comment