The 2019 season was a mixed bag for Joe Kelly, who looked to make a good impression in his first year with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He endured a rough first two months of the season before turning a corner in June. His success carried over into the second half, where he posted a 3.48 ERA with 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 25 appearances.
Kelly’s struggles resurfaced in the National League Division Series, as he allowed six runs in 2.1 innings of work against the Washington Nationals and took the loss in the deciding Game 5 at Dodger Stadium.
Kelly noticed something off about his fastball during his first season with the Dodgers. While Kelly was pleased with his curveball last season, he clearly didn’t feel the same way about his fastball.
After reviewing game tape at the Driveline Baseball complex, it was determined that Kelly’s index finger had consistently slipped off his fastball grip, via WEEI’s “The Bradfo Sho” podcast:
“It didn’t make sense. I spin my curveball the highest in the league but it didn’t correlate with my fastball, which wasn’t spinning at all. Then we slowed down video and got on the motion capture cameras. And I felt it. I always told pitching coaches it felt like I was slicing my fastball. … I felt like I was coming inside of the ball too much and I didn’t know how to fix it, so I would just throw two-seamers.
“When throwing the ball, you want both fingers releasing at the same time. What I was doing is releasing one finger. For my whole career, I’d been throwing one-finger fastballs. And that’s why my spin rate is not very good for how hard I throw. What we figured out was, get my fingers closer together, cut the ball in half more. It’s cutter-ish but throw my four-seam like that. Now I’m getting both fingers to release at the same time. My average fastball my whole career has been around 2,100 (rpms) and with my fastballs in spring, 60% of them I was getting anywhere from 2,400 to 2,500.”
Kelly was one of a handful of Dodgers pitchers to work with Driveline over the offseason. The list includes Alex Wood and Kenley Jansen — the latter of which has already seen improved life on his cutter.
Like Jansen, Kelly also pitched to encouraging results during Spring Training. If Kelly manages to pitch well, it will be a significant boon for the Dodgers bullpen if and when the 2020 regular season begins.
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