"Yankees know where they stand...Pitchers share theories of where to set up on rubber" -- June 18, 2007

By Caleb Breakey


NEW YORK -- Perched high above Yankee Stadium, a camera spotted a seldom-mentioned pitching technique on Sunday.

The camera spied the lack of a cleat on the strip of white rubber on the mound in the ninth inning. Reliever Mike Myers uses this rectangular block to his advantage -- he barely stands on it.

Myers is one of several pitchers who don't pitch from the middle of the pitching rubber. When he faced Carlos Delgado in the Yankees' 8-2 win over the Mets on Sunday, Myers' left shoe tip barely touched the white as he came into the set position.

"It works. It gets people out," Myers said. "But it still comes down to execution of where you throw the ball. There's no science behind it."

Or is there?

Shuffling his feet on the Yankees' blue clubhouse carpet, pitching coach Ron Guidry worked through the many options pitchers have when setting up for a pitch.

"If you're way on this side, then you come into the batter, but if you step way to this side your angle is cut," Guidry said. "Moving over across to right-handers and left-handers might help you if you did one of those things -- maybe, maybe not."

Right-hander Darrell Rasner has worked with his fair share of pitching coaches in his career, and he said sometimes they'll suggest that a pitcher should move from one end of the rubber to the other.

But it would take a certain type of pitcher to excel with such a move, Rasner said.

"You start fluctuating five or six inches a pitch, it's kind of tough. You would be inconsistent," said Rasner, who pitches closer to the third-base side of the rubber. "If you get your strike from here or here, it's what your preference is. I don't feel there's an advantage either way. I guess it depends on what you're like."

In college, left-handed reliever Sean Henn worked from the extreme third-base side of the rubber. Yankees pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras moved him over to the right side, which, according to Henn, created a more difficult angle for left-handed hitters.

"You put me on the first-base side, and now I'm throwing from behind the left-handed hitter," Henn said. "It's not that big of a move. You wouldn't think that [24] inches would be that big of a deal. If it was that big of a deal, I think it would have been figured out a long time ago. Lefties would throw on the left side and righties would throw on the right side -- something like that."

Reliever Kyle Farnsworth has tried pitching from every spot on the rubber -- first-base side, third-base side and smack dab in the middle, which is where he finally settled into a groove. He said pitching from the center helps him hit both corners of the plate more efficiently.

The right-hander did acknowledge, however, that switching from side to side works for some.

"If they have trouble throwing outside to a righty, they'll probably move over a bit to get that angle more," Farnsworth said. "It's just one of those things that you have to find where you're comfortable."

On the receiving end, Yankees backup catcher Wil Nieves said he doesn't see much of a difference whether the pitcher is on the right, left or center part of the rubber.

"You probably can tell, but just barely," Nieves said. "It's not much."

No matter the margin of change in the pitch, batters are trained to see it. Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said pitchers who set up to the extreme left or right usually try to "cross-fire," meaning the pitch skims a small part of the plate instead of traveling from the front to the back.

Yankees first baseman Josh Phelps said he's aware of pitchers moving around on the rubber, especially left-handers. That's the goal, Long said -- to make sure his hitters are prepared for what the pitcher is trying to do.

"You definitely know what side of the rubber a pitcher is on. We'll work in the cages on different angles," Long said. "We go through it in our scouting reports and we talk about it [and] give guys a heads up. You want to be aware if it's happening, and what -- if anything -- it's doing to the action of the baseball."