TAMPA — Fifty-seven years after he turned their stomachs hollow in the 1955 World Series, MVP Johnny Podres is helping the Yankees.
Podres possessed a tantalizing changeup that he taught to many hurlers as a major league pitching coach.
Now, despite passing away in 2008, the former Brooklyn Dodgers lefty who beat the Yankees twice in 1955 and won Game 7, 2-0, with a complete game, will have a hand in Michael Pineda developing a third pitch in his initial Yankees spring training camp.
It’s not an accident Pineda’s locker is next to CC Sabathia and not because they are each 6-foot-7 and weigh close to 300 pounds.
No, the Yankees hope Pineda can pick Sabathia’s brain about the circle changeup, a pitch Sabathia was pressured to develop as an Indian in 2003 when he, too, was a two-pitch pitcher.
“It was forced on me,’’ the Yankees’ ace said of the changeup. “I didn’t have an option.’’
The Yankees may not describe their method as forcible, but it is clear the goal for the colossal 23-year-old right-handed Pineda this spring is to learn the change, a pitch general manager Brian Cashman called “a below average pitch for him.’’
“If he wants to talk about it, I will talk to him,’’ Sabathia said of Pineda, who went 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA for the Mariners last season, his first in the big leagues. “I don’t want to force it on him but I am sure we will talk about it.’’
In 2003, Indians pitching coach Carl Willis, under orders from his bosses, introduced Sabathia to the change. From there, Terry Mulholland, an ex-Yankee, helped Sabathia with the nuances of the hard-to-master pitch. Willis is the Mariners pitching coach.
Podres honed Mulholland’s changeup when he was the pitching coach of the Phillies. Working with Podres from 1991 to 1993, Mulholland went 41-33 which was easily the best three-year stretch of a 21-year career that ended with a 124-142 ledger.
“It’s hard to trust [the change] when you throw as hard as he does,’’ Sabathia said of Pineda, whose fastball reaches 97 mph. “Carl Willis and Terry Mulholland worked with me on it until I trusted it. Carl showed it to me and Terry worked with me on it before batting practice. A lot of it is mental.’’
Trusting pitches is a feeling that doesn’t come easily. Especially, when it’s a third pitch. Pitching coaches from the beginning of time have preached “Don’t Get Beat With Your Second Best Pitch’’ never mind the third.
Then there is feeling comfortable with it.
“I didn’t feel comfortable with it until I won the Cy Young in 2007,’’ Sabathia said.
David Wells, whose changeup was a third pitch he didn’t feature until the sixth inning, said he doesn’t think Pineda will have difficulty developing the change because he throws gas.
“That’s because he has good arm action, and if he does everything else right he will be OK,’’ Wells said. “He could develop into a monster with a changeup.’’
Wells offered an example of a power pitcher with an above-average change.
“Remember [Eric] Gagne, he threw 98 with a changeup that was just as good as Trevor Hoffman’s,’’ Wells, a special instructor in Yankees camp, said. “It’s valuable to flamethrowers because hitters have to get ready for it and then they are out in front of it.’’
A.J. Burnett watched Sabathia’s changeup in 2009, vowed to use it and really never did. Pineda can’t afford to repeat that. He must develop the pitch and the bloodlines he has available should help if he asks because Podres is to the changeup what Marlon Brando is to acting.