Robert Stephenson: Pitcher Cincinnati Reds Double A
Gamespeed Training: Pitchers Off Season Conditioning, & Custom Programming 2009-2015
Reds right-hander Robert Stephenson went through a rare rough patch at the start of the season because he was trying to be too fine with his pitches and too fast with his tempo.
He gave up five runs in Birmingham and four more — two earned — against Biloxi five days later. He was chased in the first inning in Jackson and then issued a career-high seven walks against Tennessee. Something had to change and it was as simple as taking an extra breath and checking finger placement on his delivery.
Any way you look at it, the numbers were troublesome for a highly touted first-round Draft pick and top Cincinnati prospect who has averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings over his four-year Minor League career.
If the start of the year represented his worst, his past couple starts are a good showcase of his best.
Stephenson allowed an unearned run on one hit and a walk while striking out seven batters over a career-high eight innings in the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos’ 3-1 win over the host Mobile BayBears at Hank Aaron Stadium on Thursday.
“I was happy with the way things went,” Stephenson said. “My catcher
“I would say probably my changeup was working a little bit better than the curveball, but I was happy with them all. I thought I was throwing a lot of strikes with the fastball. I went away from it in the middle in and then went back to it later to keep them off balance. I was getting ahead with the curveball — they were swinging at it early and I was getting early outs — and then I was getting strikeouts with the changeup.”
Stephenson (3-4) threw 62 of 87 pitches for strikes and faced two batters over the minimum in earning his first win since May 18.
The only hit and run against Stephenson came in the bottom of the first. Socrates Brito beat out an infield single to third base, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error by Maron and scored on Brandon Drury’s groundout.
The 22-year-old went on to retire 23 of the final 24 batters he faced, including the final 15, as he lowered his Southern League ERA to 3.81.
Selected by the Reds 27th overall in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of Alhambra High School in Martinez, California, Stephenson has spent time on the circuit in each of the past three seasons. He made four starts with the Blue Wahoos in 2013 after starting the year in the Class A Midwest League with Dayton, and he was 7-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 27 Double-A appearances last season.
After an inauspicious start to the season, MLB.com’s No. 21 prospect has started to turn things around.
He allowed four or more runs in three of his first four starts, most notably May 1 in Jackson, where he gave up six runs and didn’t make it out of the first.
Since then, however, his performances have shown a dramatic improvement. He’s limited opponents to two or fewer runs in all except one of his past six games. He has not allowed an earned run since May 23, when he gave up two runs and fanned a season-high 11 batters in a no-decision against the Generals.
“There have been a couple things we’ve been working on, but the big problem was that I was nitpicking too much and being too fine with my pitches,” Stephenson said. “The other thing was that I was rushing it a little bit, and when I speed up my tempo, I wasn’t able to repeat my motion and throw strikes. When I slow it down, I’m able to repeat my arm slot every time.
“The only other thing was making sure I keep the fingers on top of the ball for all my pitches, especially the fastball. When I get on the side of it, I tend to pull it and be on the left side of the plate or I’ll push it out to the right. Either way, it was off the plate.”
Stephenson called both changes “simple fixes” and he’s also asked Maron to set up more in the middle of the plate so he isn’t tempted to nibble at the corners and try to be too fine.
“Instead of right on the corner, just a little bit more on the inner third or outer third,” he said.
Thursday’s outing marked the second consecutive dominant performance from the right-hander, who struck out 10 batters and scattered three hits over seven scoreless innings in Mississippi on Friday.
Pensacola reliever Kevin Shackelford worked around two ninth-inning hits by striking out three to earn his third save.
Mobile starter Brandon Sinnery (4-4) allowed two runs over six innings. He issued two walks and struck out two batters.
