Dubee gives transformative tips to Tigers pitchers

Lakeland, Fla. — It was on the suggestion of pitching coach Rich Dubee that Justin Verlander altered the grip on his slider last season. The result: It completely turned his season around.

Opponents hit .160 against his slider over the last three months of the season and Verlander got more first place votes for the Cy Young Award than winner Rick Porcello.

It was on Dubee’s suggestion last August that left-hander Matthew Boyd drop his arm and use more of a three-quarter delivery. The result: His average fastball velocity went from 91 mph to 93.5 and his slider went from being his worst secondary pitch to a trusted weapon.

It was on Dubee’s suggestion that left-hander Daniel Norris tighten his slider. The result: the velocity on the pitch went up from 85 to 87 mph — acting at times like a cutter, same as Verlander’s slider. Opponents hit .333 off the pitch before the adjustment, just over .200 in August and September.

Scouts around the league took to calling it the Tiger Slider, a designation Dubee wants no part of.

“No,” he said, flatly.

The Dubee Slider?

“No.”

His pitchers don’t care what you call it; they’re just grateful to have it in their tool bag.

Tigers move left fielder Justin Upton in a few steps

“It’s not a cookie-cutter type thing,” Boyd said. “Everybody is different, so the adjustments he suggests are different for each person. I know Daniel’s slider is better. My slider really became a weapon. I didn’t throw a slider above 84 mph until late last year.

“But when he changed my arm slot, it was like he knew it was going to happen. He said, ‘Everything is going to play better.’ And sure enough. I remember in Texas last year, I threw a back-foot slider to (Adrian) Beltre and I was like, ‘Dang, I didn’t know I had that in my bag.’”

Change on the fly

The idea to lower Boyd’s arm slot was the by-product of one at-bat. Boyd was in the fifth inning against the Mets and he was tiring. He unwittingly started dropping his arm pitching to Curtis Granderson.

Tigers’ Boyd continues to make case for rotation spot

“I snapped off a really good breaking ball and then a fastball at like 92,” Boyd said. “Dubee caught on to it right in the moment. He came up to me after the inning and he said, ‘Hey, did you see where your arm was?’

“I would have never noticed that on my own.”

The plan was to make lowering the arm slot an offseason project. But during a bullpen session in Seattle, Boyd took to the new delivery instantly.

“It was like 25 pitches and it was way better,” Boyd said. “I thought to myself, I can do this.”

He was summoned out of the bullpen in a 15-inning marathon in Texas, used the new delivery and hasn’t looked back.

"I have better command, everything is firmer, sharper, there’s more deception — ever since then, it’s just been trying to cement that in place,” Boyd said.

Project Sanchez underway

Dubee has been hoping to find a similar tonic for struggling right-hander Anibal Sanchez, who gave up two long home runs to the Mets on Thursday.

“It’s just mechanics, finding the right release point and being consistent,” Dubee said. “He made a couple of mistakes that were elevated and cost him a couple of home runs. He’s working at it. We keep chipping away at it, hopefully next time out there he gains trust in what he’s doing and goes from there.”

Along with mechanical adjustments, Sanchez, 33, is also going through somewhat of a mid-life crises with his fastball. The velocity is down (89-91 mph) and Dubee is trying to get Sanchez to understand, it may not be coming back.

“The biggest part is, he has to understand he probably doesn’t have 94-95 anymore,” Dubee said. “I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know if it will ever come back. But he’s got to create more separation between his pitches.”

Dubee said Sanchez got hit hard on a couple of change-ups Thursday that were 84-85 mph, which doesn’t play well off an 89-mph fastball.

“He just doesn’t have enough separation from his fastball,” Dubee said. “That’s generally what veteran pitchers have to do later in their career.”

He used Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia as an example.

“It took CC a while to understand he wasn’t going to have the velocity anymore, but he still had to find a way to pitch,” Dubee said. “He became more creative and his misses were down in the strike zone and below the strike zone.”

Sanchez has the tools to create the needed separation. Dubee pointed to the strikeout he got against a left-handed hitter Thursday with a 74-mph change-up.

“That’s what he has to do,” Dubee said. “He has to subtract instead of trying to add. Because I don’t know if the add will be there. Subtracting will always be there because he’s got some feel.”

If Dubee can fix Sanchez, they may name more than just a pitch after him.

Twitter: @cmccosky