It's time for Justin Verlander to make an appointment to see a Doc. And not just any Doc. He needs to see one who specializes in helping third year pitchers who lose their stuff due to faulty mechanics. Someone like Roy "Doc" Halladay.
Verlander, the undisputed ace of the Tigers staff, is in the midst of a horrific start to 2008. Now in his third full season with Detroit, the tall right-hander is 1-6, 6.43 ERA. That's a far cry from the 17 and 18 win seasons of his first two years in the league. Verlander is enduring the worst start by a Tigers pitcher since Mike Maroth went 0-9 in 2003, the same year Detroit lost a woeful 119 games.
So what gives? Verlander is still throwing hard - topping out most games at 95/96 mph - and claims his arm is fine. Yet he's being battered outing after outing, including giving up pivotal two-run home runs to the Twins' Craig Monroe and the Red Sox' Kevin Youkilis in his last two outings to cost his team wins. As Tigers skipper Jim Leyland put it, after Verlander dropped a 6-4 decision to Boston last Thursday night, "he looks good out there, he's just not executing (his pitches) right now."
Ask Verlander and he'll tell you he's figured out what's wrong. It's apparently all in his mechanics. When throwing the ball, instead of seeing that smooth delivery of years' past, his body is flying open too early, causing his pitches to flatten out over the plate. Meanwhile, Tigers pitching coach Chuck Hernandez is confident he can fix the problem.
But if he can't, I can sure think of someone that could help him: Roy Halladay.
Halladay went through a similar experience to Verlander early in his career. It was seven years ago now, in 2001, when Halladay started his third year with the Jays in Single-A Dunedin. Just the season before, Halladay struggled mightily to the tune of a 4-7, 10.67 ERA record, a result of flaws in his mechanics and a loss of confidence.
Through hard work and the help of minor league pitching coach Mel Queen, who determined Halladay needed to lower his arm angle on his release to get more movement on his pitches, he rebounded with a 19-win season in 2002 and a Cy Young award the year after that. So this is one "Doc" who definitely knows the cure for this particular ailment.
The problem is the Tigers are in no position to send Verlander down to the minors to work out the kinks in his delivery. They need their ace back in form right now, if they're going to have any chance of resurrecting the second worst pitching staff in the Majors, which has allowed over five runs per game this season.
History, or Halladay, might prescibe Verlander taking 6-8 weeks to properly work things out. But with the Tigers payroll sitting at $137 million, third highest in all of baseball, the pressure to win now is big in Detroit, second only to the team's need to find a miracle cure for their ace starter. Do you think Verlander, and the Tigers, can turn it around in time to salvage 2008?