Chuck James

[McCarroll21]

His control is a cause for concern, but read this....

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070507&content_id=1951334&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl "I went out there the first inning and I felt awesome," said James, who needed 12 pitches to complete a perfect first inning. "I think I just kind of got feeling too good and too confident. So I got to where I was overthrowing the ball and then I just lost my release point doing that."

While allowing 16 earned runs in the 20 2/3 innings he'd totaled in his previous four starts, James knew something wasn't right. Based on a suggestion by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who caught the southpaw in the Minors in 2005, James raised his arm angle and consequently got better action than he had been getting on his usually effective changeup.

But because Saltalamacchia's suggestion didn't come until Saturday, James had just one bullpen session to get acclimated to the higher release point that he had used during his successful past. This led to the inconsistency that was evident when he needed 82 pitches to record his final eight outs of the evening. Salty is playing pitching coach and working on some things with Chuck. I don't know if anyone has any pictures to show this, but it appears that Chuck's control problems last night were caused by trying a different, well .. reverting back to an old arm slot.

Keep an eye on this, Chuck did have good "stuff" last night, he just couldn't consistently locate it.

[spartcock77]

Good find, glad to see this help from Salty and hopefully we will see the change in James

[Nasadega]

I know Salty caught evil chuck before, but how often do you see a guy with 2 career mlb games make a pitcher adjust his delivery?

[oyhstah crachah]

I know Salty caught evil chuck before, but how often do you see a guy with 2 career mlb games make a pitcher adjust his delivery?
And who ever thought there would be a day when Chris Woodward was the only Braves Daily Hero? :D

[Martin Kove]

you would think that the pitching coach would notice something like a bad release point.

[McCarroll21]

I don't think it was a bad release point. It was that it used to be higher so he got better action on his changeup. He just needs time to work on it to make it consistent, then he may be the pitcher from last year instead of what we have been seeing.

[lavell12]

ya Chuck will be fine, we shouldn't worry

[lmartin6]

you would think that the pitching coach would notice something like a bad release point.

It wasn't necessarily something to jump out as "bad" for someone who's only seen Chuck pitch a rather limited amount of times, with mixed results, to be able to see that easily. It's just that Salty had a good bit experience catching him in the minors with very good results, and remembers what he saw Chuck have working that he obviously isn't doing now. I think it says alot more about Salty/McCann and how awesome our catchers are than something to make a knock on Roger McDowell about.