Was Slade Cecconi Tipping his Pitches Against the Dodgers?

Slade Cecconi got shelled by the Dodgers on Monday night, but was there more at play?

May 20, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Dbacks pitcher Slade Cecconi pitches against the Dodgers / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

In Monday night's game against the Dodgers, Slade Cecconi had a particularly bad inning. It was highlighted by three home runs, one of which was a grand slam off the bat of Freddie Freeman.

While Cecconi has not been untouchable, this did raise some flags. Now we ask the question, was Cecconi tipping his pitches?

First noticed by the Diamondbacks announcers, rumors quickly spiraled about a possible "tipping" situation with the young righty. Coming into the third inning, Cecconi had looked pretty sharp, finding a way to navigate through the potent Dodgers lineup in the 2nd. Then came a massive Dodger-sized brick wall.

Tipping pitches is one of the worst things a pitcher can do. Revealing to the opponent what pitches you are about to deliver through some subconsious tell can be disastrous.

It affects some pitchers more than others, with some relying more on "stuff" than pitch mixing, but it's never good when someone knows what is coming.

Monday May 20th, Slade Cecconi potentially tips pitches against Dodgers / @TheRealTyMacias on X

The above image is a comparison created to show Cecconi's potential tipping. Both images come from the 3rd inning against, the Dodgers. The left image shows a fastball, with the glove turned more towards the body and his forearm in a more angled position.

On the right is a breaking ball, noticeably Cecconi's glove seems to face straight back, compared to the previous more angled look. His forearm is also much straighter.

Measuring the impact of potential tipping in a game is increadibly difficult. It could very well be argued that Cecconi would have given up the 6 runs, tip or no tip. There is however some thought exercise to experiment with when looking at Freddie Freeman's grand slam at-bat.

Before Freeman blew the game wide open with his towering blast, Cecconi had thrown 19 pitches in the 3rd. One of those 19 pitches was a secondary pitch that managed to land in the zone. Freeman was sitting in a 2-1 hitters count, meaning that everything was pointing towards a fastball.

Somehow Freeman managed to sit on the off-speed pitch, and send it out of the ballpark, making it a 5-1 ballgame. While nothing remotely conclusive, it is something to keep in mind when appreaching Cecconi's disastrous 3rd inning.

Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom quickly pulled Cecconi aside after the inning and showed him something on his iPad. After reviewing with Strom, Cecconi pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th.

Brent Strom is one of the best in the business, and manager Torey Lovullo later gave lots of credit to Strom and the coaching staff for getting Cecconi back on track.

Lovullo didn't want to go too far into the idea of tipping but said "there was a chance he was tipping...but the Dodgers beat us fair and square, wether he was tipping or not."

Tipping is a part of the game, and Cecconi just wasn't pitching very well. His locations were off and as mentioned in the Freeman at-bat he could almost only land the fastball for strikes.

It seems very likely that Cecconi was tipping his pitches last night. He gave up 6 runs in devastating fashion, which was all the Dodgers would need to come away with game one.

It is also quite possible they would have put up those runs anyway, with incredibly hard contact against Cecconi and bad locations throughout.

The Diamondbacks will try to get things back on track behind Brandon Pfaadt tonight, as he takes on Gavin Stone at 7:10 PM Arizona time. Stay tuned in to check out our game preview to learn more.