DETROIT — How often has the question been asked? Put it this way, Google the phrase “how to fix Justin Verlander,’ and the search returns 153,000 results.
Unfortunately, the number of those ‘ answers’ that actually work is zero.
Yes, it has been asked — ad nauseum.
No, it has not been answered — not yet.
After yet another less-than-typical, less-than-successful, less-than-impressive start Sunday — his fifth of five innings or less in the nine starts he’s made since flirting with a no-hitter at Houston on May 5 — it’s clear that something is still awry.
Badly awry.
And no one seems to have an answer for how to fix it.
Not Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who has been in baseball for half a century, and been Verlander’s manager for all but two starts in his career.
Not Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones, who was a big-league pitcher when Verlander was born, and has been coaching pitchers since 1989.
Not Verlander, who has been himself for 30 years.
Not you.
Not me.
No one.
It’s in there. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to get it out again.
“It’s just a matter of finding it. It’s not injury. The stuff’s there,’ Verlander said. “Just being able to repeat my delivery, and execute my fastball.’
It seems so simple, and yet … the answer continues to elude all involved.
“His command. He continued to have command issue. … So that’s the issue that we have to tackle, and find out why,’ Leyland said after his ace — who he needed to go deep to save a gassed bullpen — lasted just five innings, and left everyone continuing to search for answers.
“It’s just not a smooth rhythm delivery right now for him, whether it’s rushing a little bit, trying to get the out before you throw the ball, I don’t know what it is. I can’t put my finger on it, really. The good thing about it is, it’s not stuff, and he’s healthy.
“We can fix the other stuff.’
Everyone certainly hopes so.
It’s been an issue long enough that people are starting to wonder just what’s going on. Wondering how serious it might be.
Wondering just what has happened to the guy that dominated the sport just two seasons ago, sowing the seeds for the huge payday that he reaped this spring, in the form of an five-year, $180 million contract extension making him one of the highest paid pitchers ever.
After one of his best Aprils on record — always one of Verlander’s bugaboos — that didn’t seem to be much of a question. His ERA was 1.83 going into the start in Houston where he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He came out of that start — after seven innings of two-hit, scoreless baseball — with an ERA of 1.55.
Since then, he has an ERA of 6.04 in the intervening nine starts, having given up six home runs among the 61 hits in 50 1/3 innings. And the guy who prides himself on being a workhorse has averaged 5 2/3 innings per start in that span.
His six starts of five innings or less this season are as many as he had in the previous three seasons combined.
In fact, the guy who led the majors in complete games last year with six, hasn’t gone longer than 7 1/3 innings in any start this season — and that was in his second start in April.
Sunday, Verlander was asked if “concerned’ was a good word to describe his mindset.
“No, that’s a horrible word,’ he responded. “You want to come up with a better one?’
How about perplexed? Baffled? Confounded? Mystified? Nonplussed?
Take your pick.
He’s tried everything. More video. No video. Extra work in the bullpen. All to no avail.
But he’ll keep trying.
“These aren’t things I haven’t done already, but I’ll go out and throw, and just try to find it, have it click, you know what I mean? When it clicks, it’s there. It’s just trying to get to that point, when I can feel it, and repeat it, and repeat my pitches. Once it happens, then I’m there. Until then, it’s a battle for me,’ he said, admitting it was a challenge not to overthink the issue, and try to fix too much.
“Yeah, it can be difficult, and I think that’s kind of what my problem was a month ago, maybe trying to over-tweak things a little bit. Just get back to basics, and find it.
“I’m not saying it’s super easy. Obviously. If it was, it’d be done and over with.’
He thought he had things fixed two starts ago in Kansas City — when he threw seven scoreless innings, prompting Leyland to call it “vintage Justin’ — only to backslide in his last two starts.
So close to finding “it.’
And yet so far.
“Yep. Just haven’t quite found it. Can’t put into words what it is I’m trying to find. That click, that rhythm, that feel. I know that I can repeat that pitch, this pitch. When it’s there, it’s there. When it’s not, it’s not,’ Verlander said.
“Funny game. That’s why there’s hot and cold streaks in sports. That’s the way it is. When you’re hot, you try to extend it as long as you can, stay in that rhythm. When you’re not, you try to get it out, get back to where you’re supposed to be, as quick as possible.
“It’s not easy. When it’s going right it is easy. When it’s going wrong, it seems like everything kind of goes wrong.’
Right now, everything is.
His normally wicked fastball isn’t as wicked when he can’t harness it. His secondary stuff, which he’s fallen back on in the absence of fastball command, has kept him in games at times — but has also gotten less effective, when he can’t devote enough time to work on it.
People have any number of theories why.
Some have pointed to his lack of velocity this year. He sees that more as a product of the situation than a cause of it.
“No. It’s one of those things,’ he said. “Because I’m not quite right, it’s not there. I think it all comes, hand-in-hand.’
It’s not an injury. If it were, the Tigers would not be pitching him, rest assured. Not with as much as they have invested in the continuing health of his right arm.
Is it the night-before-the-start Taco Bell tradition? “Still doing that,’ he said with a grin, shaking his head at the teasing, tongue-in-cheek question.
Could it be big contract, he was asked?
“No. Yeah, I’m not worried about that. I block that stuff out, I don’t listen to it, and you like to bring that stuff up. That’s your job,’ he said, after rolling his eyes, and leaning back at the chair in his locker, gazing up at the ceiling. “It’s my job to go out there and pitch, whether I’m making one cent, or $500 million a year. It’s irregardless of what I’m going to do to be at my best.’
But he hasn’t been at his best in a considerable period.
In fact, this extended struggle looks more like he did when he was at his worst in the majors, the high pitch-count, early flame-out days in 2008 and early 2009, when he took some harsh lessons, learning what not to do as a big-league pitcher.
“Yeah, I guess a little bit. But having drawn from that experience, I’m sure helps me. When you look back at ‘ 08, it was a 17-loss season, and almost a 5 ERA … I’ve matured a lot since then. I think you take the same pitcher I am now, and throw it back then, and that’s what you get. You get 17 losses, and a game like (Sunday), you probably get a guy that gives up six or seven or eight, and the team loses, as opposed to keeping us in the game, and we end up coming back and winning,’ he said. “That’s a big difference, maturity-wise.
“I haven’t been pitching the way I want to, obviously. But just being able to keep a level head.’
To his credit, Verlander has done that.
He has not let the struggles — and the doubts that inevitably accompany them — get to him. He has not hid from the questions. He has not acted offended that they’re being asked.
He has neither dodged, nor evaded answering them.
Nor, really, has his manager — who insists that we all, including himself, got spoiled by Verlander’s sensational MVP and Cy Young season.
He knows his ace is scuffling, even if those struggles only put him at the level of a lot of other pitchers.
Knowing Verlander’s work ethic and drive to succeed, he’s willing to bet that it gets sorted out. But he can’t guarantee that. Nobody can.
“No, I don’t just assume, no. I think you go back to the drawing board, you look at your tapes, you do your bullpen, and you do all the things that we always do, to try to see if there’s something we’re missing,’ Leyland said.
“I would be concerned if he were sore, or if his stuff wasn’t good. But that’s not the case. That’s two-thirds of the battle right there.’
Knowing it’s not physical — or at least not an injury — really doesn’t lessen Verlander’s frustration a bit.
“There’s obviously still frustration. I’m frustrated with myself, obviously. But there’s no point in getting upset and looking back and saying, ‘ What the (heck)?’ It’s just constantly looking forward. That’s sports. There’s ups and downs. Nobody’s at the peak of their game forever,’ Verlander said.
“I’ll get back there. I will. It’s just, like I said, finding that click. Finding that rhythm.’
