SI.com on Schoeneweis

[monkeypants]

"Scott Schoeneweis, SP, Chicago White Sox. A slow start may cost him his spot in the rotation, and the White Sox aren't doing him any favors by saying he needed to pitch better at the end of spring training. The White Sox knew Schoeneweis wasn't throwing any of his usual stuff and was trying to incorporate new pitches: "Right now the game plan is to throw those two pitches [changeup and cutter] almost exclusively [until] I can throw them and feel confident," he said earlier in the spring. Schoeneweis has changed his arm angle this spring and picked up 3-4 MPH on his fastball from 89 to 93, and it is showing in his strikeout numbers. Schoeneweis could have a big upside this year."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/fantasy/04/02/grey.watch/index.html

While I heard of him trying out two new pitches, this is the first I heard of him throwing them exclusively during Spring Training games. This is also the first I heard of his increased velocity. Are either of these two statements true? Does anyone have better info?

[HomeFish]

I've heard the two-pitch statement before multiple times on this board, but I have not kept track of the source and do not know its veracity.

[SEALgep]

His first couple outings were exclusively the new pitches, but later in ST he was incorporating all of them together. With that said, his total ERA is a little misleading. However, when he put all the pitches together, I believe he was leaving his two seamer over the plate and was getting tagged by doing so. I could be wrong, but that's my understanding.

[davidleeroth]

i think it would have helped him out a lot more if he had worked on the pitches he knew before he tried to become bad at a few more.

[faneidde]

This reminds me of the scene in Major League II where Vaughn is pitching to Parkman and he says he's working on a new pitch, and if he can hit it, he can name it.

[mweflen]

Originally posted by faneidde
This reminds me of the scene in Major League II where Vaughn is pitching to Parkman and he says he's working on a new pitch, and if he can hit it, he can name it.

Tee hee. :smile:

Schoney thus far seems right at about the movie-Indians' skill level.

His spring performance didn't improve when he "incorporated" his "original" pitches back into the "repertoire."

Hmm... didn't the "Original" Schoney have a career 5.08 ERA?