Brent Strom Discusses Fixing Zach Davies

The D-backs pitching coach has some blunt words about the veteran right hander

This article has been updated to reflect the pitching probables released by the Diamondback at 5:52 P.M. Monday.

It was originally speculated that Davies might be pushed back or even skipped. But that will not happen. The Diamondbacks announced that Zac Gallen will start the Tuesday series opener against Tampa Bay, and Davies will move up into Tommy Henry's slot and pitch Wednesday on four days rest. Thursday's starter is listed as TBA. It is not known if there is a health issue with Henry or some other reason for him to be pushed out. 

Zach Davies has been struggling. Over his last three starts he's lasted just 10.2 innings, and given up 21 runs, 18 earned for a 15.19 ERA. Batters have hit .393 and he's walked 8 while striking out just 8. That's driven his season  ERA to 7.82 to go with a 1-4 record in his eight starts.  

On Saturday morning Pitching coach Brent Strom gave an extensive interview on a number of topics. Friday evenings loss to the Giants in which Davies  pitched poorly still hung in the air like sour milk, and Strom was fairly blunt on the changes that Davies needs to make to get back to being an effective pitcher.  

"I'm not going to mince words. I've been pounding on Zach to change his approach at least re-setting again fastballs inside. I learned this a long time ago; When pitchers start to get hit they tend to run away from the strike zone, they tend to run to the outer part of the plate.  I ask anybody here, if you got into the ring with Mike Tyson for example, and you have to last a minute, you're best defense is to get as close to him as you can so he doesn't get leverage. And this is what we need to do with Zach."

"I need to get him to understand that a 90 MPH fastball inside will play at 95. He doesn't have to add any more mileage to it. Just like the elevated fastball which I brought into this organization a couple years ago, we're doing a better job of that, but we need to pitch inside more. And Zach is the prime candidate for me that needs to do that.

On missing wildly arm side and walks

"The walks are what's concerning because this guy has never walked people before in his career, and he's had a nice career.  What happens is when you try to be too fine and you aim for corners you have to be perfect with it. He's gotten hurt in the past by balls coming back over the plate. So it's almost like he's overreacted to not get hurt with a ball coming back over the plate."

"Looking at the video this morning, it's apparent to me that hitters are looking out over the plate for balls. He saw the number of balls hit to right field by the right hand hitters, and balls hit to left by left hand hitters. That's a pure sign right there they have basically cut the plate in half, and are working that one half of the plate.  I even saw that in their practice session, I was watching them working off the tee and they were working on that same thing. They had a plan and they beat us Friday with it."

On Davies' need to throw more four seam fastballs

"As my favorite pitcher once told me, Sandy Koufax,  you know who throws two-seamers?  People that can't throw four-seamers. I don't mean that derogatorily. If you're Brandon Webb obviously, who was a great pitcher for this organization, that's a true two-seamer. That is a wipeout moving pitch. A lot of guys have two seamers that have a little fade to it. If you ask the hitter what the pitch was they probably wouldn't know what the hell it was."  

"So the four-seam fastball to me is still the ultimate control pitch for the fastball because you can nail a corner, you can elevate with it, you can do some things with it. Not that you can't throw that pitch, [the sinker], but the four seam fastball is really the equalizer for me and everything else works off of that. " 

Editorial Notes:

Four Seamer- Prior to 2022 Davies' arsenal  was almost exclusively a Sinker/Changeup, mixing in just a few cutters and curveballs along he way. In 2022 he experimented with a few dozen four-seamers in the middle of the season before going on the injured list for a month with a shoulder injury. When he came back he was not throwing the four-seamer at all. This year he's used the four seamer 15% of the time in total, but seemed to move away from it Friday night, throwing just six of them. This may be the root of Strom's frustration. Davies has better numbers on the four-seam then he does on the sinker/change this year. 

Walks- High walk rates are not actually a new problem for Davies as Strom stated. Through 2020 he was indeed adept at limiting walks, posting a career 2.6/9 walk rate.  In most seasons the league average ranges between 3.2-3.4/9.   Davies troubles with walks began in 2021 with the Cubs when he posted a whopping 4.6 BB/9. Last year his rate was 3.5/9,  better but still well above his career average and league average. This year he's back up to 4.5/9.  In total, since 2021 he's thrown 318 innings and walked 145 batters, for a 4.1 BB/9 rate.