GLENDALE, Ariz. — Major league hitters were not kind to Gavin Stone during his rookie season.
They battered him for a 9.00 ERA in his eight-game MLB baptism last year, hitting .338 with eight home runs and 61 baserunners in the first 31 innings of his major league career.
In a way, though, they did him a favor. The lack of success gave Stone no illusions about how much work he had to do.
“Failure sucks. So you do everything you can not to feel that feeling again,” Stone said. “That’s what this offseason was about, to not feel that again.”
The process really began for Stone in the second half of last season. He went back to Triple-A and added two pitches to his mix – a cutter and a two-seam fastball. The additions allowed him to get to different areas of the strike zone than he was with his four-seam fastball, slider and changeup.
“I think that really helps get people off my other stuff,” Stone said.
“Last year at the end of the year especially in Triple-A, those really helped a lot. Being able to hone in on those, get command of those this year will be huge.”
A couple of other problems from his rookie season should be in Stone’s rear-view mirror. He was hampered by a blister on his right foot over the first half of the season, he said. The blister affected his command.
And Stone was guilty of tipping his pitches, allowing hitters to lay off his most effective pitch, his changeup.
“People could see when I wasn’t throwing the changeup, because my arm will just move to get to other pitches,” Stone said.
Correcting such subtleties took “a long time,” he said.
“Just because unconsciously, you change grips in your hand and the slightest little movement they can see,” he said. “So to be consistent with every pitch, and have the same look, it’s pretty hard. But it’s something you gotta do.”
The Dodgers called on Stone sooner than planned a year ago because of injuries in their starting rotation. This year, one of…
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