If you ever get a chance, take a couple minutes out of your day to watch a Tyler Rogers outing.
The Giants’ submarine reliever has a funky side-arm release that will make you stop what you’re doing to witness it. The way he delivers the release points of both his fastball and slider make for an even more intriguing, and tough pitcher.
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During a recent outing against the Cincinnati Reds, Rogers sailed through some difficult batters including one of the more consistently historic batters, Joey Votto. Rogers’ approach to lefties is a bit different, especially knowing he needs to be more on his toes defensively. A part of the game he practices a lot.
“Absolutely. And if you watch the game, every time there’s a lefty comes up, you’ll see the catcher kind of give a move like, ‘Hey, get over to first base kind of, little reminders here and there,’” Rogers told The Mercury News’ Kerry Crowley. “You just kind of have to go with your instincts there, you have to move it that way. The first pitch we were trying to go away there, I tugged it right into Votto’s hot zone down and in right there, so I got away with one there.”
Rogers threw an 82 mph fastball to Votto, who was late on it, something that rarely happens. And while Rogers doesn’t exactly pay attention to the velocity aspect of it, the release point of both his fastball and his secondary pitch staying the same is imperative to his game.
“Not necessarily. It was more so that that fastball just felt good to me really, him fouling it off kind of showed me feeling the way it was -- it actually was the way it was,” Rogers explained to Crowley. “I’m just happy to be 0-2 right here and we can do what we want, trust Buster, whatever he puts down. It’s Buster Posey, I’m not going to shake him here in this instance.”
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In 33 batters faced this season, Rogers is boasting a 1.13 ERA with seven strikeouts in eight innings. Good enough for a 1.00 WHIP.
Rogers throws his four-seam fastball about 49.2 percent of the time along with his curveball 40.5 percent of the time. His sinker rounds things out at 10.3 percent, and he’s been able to limit hitters to a .187 expected slugging percentage.
Crowley and Rogers’ interview had the two analyzing the game in real-time.
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“I don’t really look at the metrics for the movement, for me, I look more so, at my release point and if it’s close to my fastball release point,” Rogers added. That night, it has been pretty close to my fastball release and my slider release.”
That's important. Especially against guys like Votto, Rogers said.