Remember the scene in Beverly Hills Cop when Inspector Todd is mad at Axel Foley, and Foley tells him he’s going, `deep, DEEP, undercover.’ That’s me today.

I’m headed to a undisclosed location as I try to get my arms around a massive project that my baseball editor has been on my case about ever since I’ve landed here. I won’t have internet. And, hopefully, I won’t have cell phone service where I’m at either (just only when I try to reach Kenny Williams of the White Sox).

One quick thing. I can see why the Twins remain supportive of Carlos Silva. They know what he can do when he’s confident and just letting the ball go. And sometimes it takes baby steps to rebuild someone’s confidence. Right now, they are ignoring the bad and are praising him for anything he does well.

Johan Santana is looming large, too. Check out this quote from Silva last night.

“My last bullpen, Santana was there watching and he said, `Forget where you’re going to land. Forget what your mechanics are going to be. Just look at the glove and throw the ball.’

“The last inning, after I walked Posada, I said, `Come on, let’s go.’ I just saw Mauer’s glove and let it go. I didn’t try to throw a perfect pitch. Just let it go and ground ball, ground ball.” 

It’s slowly coming. During his first meeting against the Yankees, Silva kept missing with sinkers low and inside to left-handed hitters. Rick Anderson told me that’s what happens when a pitcher is nervous and is holding the ball too tight - he pulls it down and in. At least that didn’t happen Wednesday.

A sinker is as much of a feel pitch as a change up. The right pressure yields the right response. I have not seen a sinkerballer as good as Arizona’s Brandon Webb. Seriously, his looks like a splitter, it moves so much. There was a time where Silva had a top-five sinker. And he can get back to that if he just looks at the glove and lets it go. 

 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 7:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.