Brent Strom Seeks to Simplify Things for Zac Gallen

The Diamondbacks pitching coach believes that his ace is overthinking a bit and wants him to just get after it on the mound.

Zac Gallen has been the anchor of the Diamondbacks rotation throughout all the year. He's been picking his team up all year, delivering some of his best starts of the season following a loss. In the National League Championship Series, it was the team who picked him up. Despite losing both of Gallen's starts, the D-backs rallied to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in seven games to punch their ticket into the World Series.

Pitching coach Brent Strom is already hard at work to help his ace get back to that form.

"I'm trying to get him back to simplicity. If I can keep things simple for him, sometimes he gets caught up into the minutiae of trying to get hitters out. There's times when it just becomes 'I got to get after it', and hopefully he'll bring that in this setting tomorrow."

Strom describes his ace as a "really feel kind of pitcher" and a tinkerer, believing he has the drive to be a Top 5 pitcher for the next 6-7 years. He notes that the pressure of pitching in the postseason isn't affecting Gallen and believes he will rise to the occasion in the World Series after being a nonfactor in the NLCS. 

"I think that if he gets back to basics, he and Dan Haren work really on a scouting report. When you look at the scouting report, you have to be very careful that you don't become overwhelmed with information. Sometimes it's just a case of what feels right and go with it."

With 232 combined innings between the regular and postseason, fatigue certainly is a factor. That's true for not only Gallen, but all pitchers on both the D-backs and Rangers. While it may not show up in his velocity or spin numbers, it could be affecting his command. Location mistakes haunted him in the NLCS. Whether it was a center-cut fastball or curveball, the Phillies punished each and every mistake with five home runs and nine runs over 11 innings.

"I think his command hasn't been where it should be. There are some sequencing issues that we're talking about, where one pitch precedes another, followed by another, that kind of thing. We're talking about different speeds, different locations. Location is really speed. If you think about the locations and everybody says 'That was a great location'. Why was it a good location? Because that pitch was slower than this pitch up here, they're slower. Maybe not the gun says slower, but to the hitter's eyes they're much slower and that's where the key is."

In the World Series, Gallen's slate is wiped clean and he'll have a chance to set the tone for his team in Game 1.