How Brent Strom Helped Kyle Nelson Develop Strikeout Pitch

Nelson has turned a good slider into a great one with the help of his wise and experienced pitching coach

Kyle Nelson has been one of the most effective left handed relievers over the past two years. His main pitch is a slider, which he throws 65% of the time with great effect. Last year he posted a 2.19 ERA in 37 innings, and this year he's been even better, with a  microscopic 1.23 ERA in 14.2 IP.  What's distinguishing from last year is his strikeout rate, which has jumped from below average 20% to an elite 28%. (The average MLB reliever has a 24% strikeout rate)

During his press conference on Tuesday, Diamondbacks pitching coach Brent Strom touched on Nelson. He told a brief story about how he had been working with Nelson to teach him a different way to locate his slider. Strom referred to it as a "Zero Spot" breaking pitch that essentially drops right as it reaches the plate, causing the hitter to swing over the top and miss. But it wasn't until Nelson saw Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers do it in the second game of the season that it really clicked for him. Here is an interview with Nelson explaining that process, and much more on his relationship with Strom. 

Tell us about your side of the Kershaw story

"Yeah, We were in LA, I was watching Kershaw [in the third game of the series] I was watching him live and had seen him pitch a lot last year, but then I picked up the iPad in the second, third inning, as he was striking out the world. I started paying attention the way he was using his slider."

"It seemed the movement profile on the pitch and the velocity were similar to what I throw. I was just paying attention to the locations he was throwing it at. It seemed as though he had a very simple approach to just throw it down, under. He didn’t seem to be changing the shape of it very often, or changing his location, it seemed like he was trying to aggressively throw it down but keep it over the confines of the plate. He didn’t throw it too far in or away. He was just getting swing after swing after swing. So I have tried my best to follow suit, to keep it within the confines of the plate and just down."

What was the adjustment you had to make to get the pitch to that location?

"You’re taught early on when you throw sliders you want to throw them off the plate to the back foot of the righties or off the plate to the lefties, so you train yourself to do that [Nelson motioned with his hand in a diagonal line away from his left side towards his right]. But Strommie always brings up a good point; that usually shows an angle to the hitter as a pitch which they can see a little bit earlier. So when you move your sights over the plate [he motions his hand in a straight line towards the middle] it takes away that angle, so it’s basically just the line that it’s coming out of your hand on."

What’s different about Strom and what do you like about him the most?

"He’s obviously got an incredible amount of experience and a very long list of comparisons and things he can go through in his mind and bring to your attention. He’s seen a lot, so everything he brings to you is just coming from an extremely experienced and educated place. His approach is trial and error, just go ahead and try things and see if they work. You won’t know unless you give it a shot. I really appreciated that."

"With me personally he’s been very simple with me, giving me a very simple approach, which has helped a ton. He’s always pushed for me to pitch to my strength which is my slider, but what I’ve appreciated from him is he’s given me the go ahead to have a little more confidence in my fastball too, throw it more aggressively. He’s always pointing out to me….hey…it’s better than you think, it gets more outs than you think. So that has helped me a ton, because in this league you have to be able to mix……. you have to beat guys with fastballs, you have to get outs with that pitch especially in the strike zone. He’s always pushed me in that direction, but he hasn’t pushed me too far…(laughs)….he’s just kind of nudged me day after day. “hey! you can do that, it’s there for you if you want it, and he’ll point things out like that. "

Strom seems able to synthesize analytic data better than most  and distill that into an action for the pitcher without overwhelming with numbers. 

"Right, because that's the thing. At the end of the day when all of this stuff we work on becomes apparent is when you're out in the game. You're competing. You're in that mode. You can't be thinking about a bunch of numbers and data. You need a simple click in your mind to do it on the fly. That's where he does a very very good job." 

You can listen to Strom and Nelson's comments at the link below