Red Sox: What’s wrong with David Price?
By Sean Penney
The team insists he is healthy, so let’s get that out of the way to start. Sure, it’s possible that Price is hiding an undisclosed injury, but speculating that without any evidence beyond, “He’s not pitching the way David Price should be pitching,” would be irresponsible.
Manager John Farrell believes Price’s biggest issue is the lack of a consistent finishing pitch. That evaluation has some merit in the wake of Price’s last start, where he was constantly getting ahead of batters, only to end up giving up a hit with two strikes. Putting hitters away was a problem against the Yankees, but hasn’t been the overlying issue this season. Price’s 11.54 K/9 is the best in the league among starters and would represent a career high. He’s also not walking batters at a significantly higher rate than his career average.
While the manager insists that Price’s issues aren’t mechanical, one of his teammates disagrees. Dustin Pedroia revealed that he noticed a difference in Price’s delivery while watching film, pointing out to the pitcher that he’s not lifting his leg as high or in sync with the movement of his hands. While it may seem like a relatively minor difference to most of us, hence why it went unnoticed for so long, Price believes making that adjustment will make a big difference.
Dustin Pedroia showed David Price he's not lifting his leg as high or in sync with his hands as years past. Price believes it's a big fix.
— John Tomase (@jtomase) May 8, 2016
Yet you get the feeling it’s going to take more than that to get Price back on track.
Next: Losing velocity