The chances of Bailey Ober’s start on Sunday sending the Minnesota Twins to the postseason have taken quite a hit in the last 24 hours. A 13-inning loss to the Miami Marlins dropped the September-swooning club to three games out in the Wild Card race with just three left to play. Still, whatever his team’s recent struggles, from a personal standpoint, the 29-year-old right-hander has had a successful season. Over 30 starts comprising 173 2/3 innings, Ober has a 12-8 record to go with a 3.94 ERA, a 3.81 FIP, a 27.1% strikeout rate, and 2.9 WAR. Enjoying what has objectively been a career-best year, he has stood tall in the Twins rotation.
I sat down with Ober on the penultimate weekend of the season to talk about his continuing evolution as a pitcher. I also checked in with Twins pitching coach Pete Maki to get his perspective on the 6-foot-9 hurler’s development path. The two first worked together in 2018, one year after Minnesota drafted Ober out of the College of Charleston in the 12th round.
———
David Laurila: You have a good understanding of pitching analytics and how they can positively impact success. How has that process evolved for you?
Bailey Ober: “I feel like I started getting into all that stuff when I got drafted. We have an unbelievable team here with guys who provide all that information, and it’s kind of up to us if we want to take it and use it to our benefit. Once I got drafted into the minor leagues, I was very interested in seeing all the data. Over the years, you’re always learning. There is always new stuff coming up. For instance, there are new stats, new analytic tools to be used. Every year I’ve been taking in what I can, and continuing to learn.”
Laurila: Are there specific things you consider to be especially valuable?
Ober: “A lot of the stuff comes from our Simi and our TrackMan reports. So, pitch data, mechanical-driven data. Being able to use those to remain healthy, work on mechanics that way, is a huge thing.”
Laurila: Which has had a greater impact: Knowing how best to use your arsenal, or improving the arsenal itself?
Ober: “It’s a little of both. You have parts to your arsenal, and if you don’t know how to pitch with them, it’s going to be a little bit more difficult to get guys out. Improving the arsenal is always huge, and learning how to use it, learning how to mix, learning what sets up other pitches, is another step.”
Laurila: I noticed that you’ve thrown almost an identical number of cutters and changeups to right-handed hitters this year. Do those pitches play particularly well off of each other?
Ober: “A little bit. I think it’s more so hitters adjusting throughout the league. People are starting to hit high fastballs again. That’s how I had a lot of success at the beginning of my career, with that pitch up. Now guys are adjusting to that, so we’re trying to stay ahead of the curve and throw other pitches.”
Laurila: You obviously have a plus changeup. What’s the story behind your cutter?
Ober: “That’s the new one this year. It’s kind of a hybrid between a cutter and a slider. It’s been huge for me. Now it’s kind of just me being consistent with it.”
Laurila: Why did you add it to your arsenal?
Ober: “We wanted something a little bit harder than the sweeper that I’d been throwing, something to use to righties and throw inside to lefties to keep them from diving out over the plate. I was able to pick it up pretty early. It felt pretty good out of the hand, so I was able to have confidence with it going into the season.”
Laurila: You’re not throwing a sweeper anymore?
Ober: “No, I still throw it. It’s my slider now. It’s my sweeper.”
Laurila: I noticed that Savant doesn’t show you throwing a sweeper.
Ober: “Since I started throwing the harder breaking ball, they’re kind of grouping them together — the cutter and the sweeper/slider. But they’re two different pitches.”
Laurila: You consider your slider a sweeper?
Ober: “My slider is a sweeper, and my cutter is really a slider. That’s what the metrics would say they are.”
Laurila: What do you and Pete Maki tend to talk about?
Ober: “Throughout the season, it’s basically making sure that everything stays sharp, pitch-wise, mechanics-wise. Then we obviously go over scouting with the other team, and what our game plan is.
Laurila: Are you a better pitcher this year than you were a year ago?
Ober: “I don’t know. I feel like I’m kind of the same guy. Every year you learn, and grow, but I’ve had a few clunkers that have kind of ruined some numbers. But I feel great. I felt great last year, too. I think I’m the same guy.”
Laurila: Are there specific numbers you look at to assess how you’re doing?
Ober: “I look at FIP, xFIP, strikeout-to-walk. Just basic stuff, really.”
———
Laurila: How have you seen Bailey Ober grow as a pitcher over the years?
Maki: “He has better spin pitches. I remember his first bullpen in 2018. It was my first spring training [as a pitching coordinator]. He has multiple spin options now. He has the short, firm cutter, which is not really a cutter — it’s a slider, we just call it a cutter — and he’s got a left-turn slider. He’s also got a curveball. If you’d have asked me six years ago, ‘Would he have three pitches that looked like that?’ I would have said, I didn’t know.
“His changeup is obviously his best offering. It’s very good. He’s always thrown a changeup — it’s just continued to evolve and get a little bit more depth, a little bit more run. The location of it has been better this year. That’s a big difference. The location of the changeup has been a lot more crisp and sharp.”
Laurila: How did he improve his spin?
Maki: “It’s trial and error. It’s deliberate practice. It’s not always easy to manage three different spin pitches, because it’s kind of three different hand positions. Just hitting all of them in catch play every day, mixing his hand in catch play… that’s what the game presents, right? You’re not going to throw 10 in a row of the same pitch. Well, sometimes. But yeah, it’s deliberate practice, trial and error, and the tech we have available.”
Laurila: Is anything else notable?
Maki: “His delivery is cleaner. He used to be a really early guy with his arm action. At foot strike, he was already starting to go into layback. He had a hiked up elbow at foot strike. That’s probably been the biggest delivery adjustment he’s made. He’s more patient with his separation, and his hand, and where he is at foot strike. The delivery is cleaner now.”
