Cliff Lee, Jamie Moyer and 5 Successful Pitching Approach Changes

Pitchers change their approaches to battle for a myriad of reasons. For some, their age has stolen critical miles-per-hour from their dominant fastball, and they must adapt. For others, injuries or ineffectiveness lead to strategy shifts.

Sometimes these adjustments don’t take, and the pitcher flounders with the same approach for years without success. The great ones implement the changes and recreate their game as new and improved versions of themselves.

The next few slides will hit on a few examples of pitchers who changed their tactics and reaped the benefits.

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MLB Power Rankings: Who Are the World Series Favorites Heading into Final Month?

The San Francisco Giants are still the defending World Series champions. In the coming months, they will either make a tremendous run at the division, or someone will take that title from them.

Every team is ranked here, but not every team gets their own slide. There are some grouped together merely because ranking one above the other would be splitting hairs. I’m sure even those groupings will be debated.

The Rays are the only team in my top eleven to whom I give zero chance of winning the World Series, and that’s merely an unfortunate result of their division.

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7 Phillies Pitchers and Realistic Expectations

Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt… What is and what isn’t with the best 1-2-3-4 of the decade?

They’re not going to win 80 games. They’re not going to have the top three Cy Young vote getters. They’re not all going to stay healthy.

They’re not all going to win 20 games or make 30 starts. In fact, I bet they don’t all make 25 starts.

They will be good enough to win the NL East. They will be very difficult to beat in the playoffs.

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