Andrew Bailey explains his pitching philosophy: 'We're really just playing wiffle ball in a major league stadium'

The Boston Red Sox overhauled their pitching department this offseason and it’s paid off thus far under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey. The Red Sox have the best team ERA in the league as of May 3rd (2.58) with both Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck boasting top-10 individual ERAs.

Bailey explained his pitching philosophy to Rob Bradford on the Audacy Sports Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” this week.

“I think you always want pitchers leveraging their strengths. So you look at our usage rates and that’s everything everybody’s talking about,” Bailey said. “But really we just want our pitchers – they’re really talented – throw your best pitch in the zone.”

Pitching philosophies have changed over the years. While chasing speed and velocity has resulted in more and more pitchers hitting the 100 mph mark, movement may be more important than velocity as the game evolves.

“Innately when I was 10 years old, 11 years old, 12 years old and after school I’d ride my bike to the baseball field and play double or nothing with my buddies or wiffle ball in someone’s backyard I didn’t try to throw the ball straight,” Bailey said. “I was trying to do crazy things. I was throwing lefthanded just to get guys out or whatever, submarine. You’re going through all different arm angles.

“We’re really just playing wiffle ball in a major league stadium. You’re trying to get the opposing hitter out. Now it’s not our friend in the backyard, but the wiffle ball concept just makes sense to me. You’re trying to induce weak contact or swing and miss, and when we were 10 years old in the backyard we tried to make the wiffle ball do crazy things to do that. So why is it changing just because there’s a perception that like 95 (mph) is fast means it’s hard. Well, yeah, it is, but it still has damage attached to it. Just be a 10-year-old in the backyard and play wiffle ball with your buddies and try to get them out.”

It makes sense. Although a faster pitch may seem harder to hit, getting vertical movement on a pitch has the ability to cause more weak contact or swings and misses. It all comes down to what works for each individual pitcher.

“Now, there’s nuance there of course, and I also think the history of baseball just says fastballs are the pitches that Pitcher A can command, and I don’t think that’s true,” Bailey continued. “I think that everybody’s different. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Somebody might be able to command their cutter better than their four-seamer or someone might be able to command their sweeper better than their curveball… I just think point blank saying ‘Oh, well, you throw fastballs for strikes.’ Sure, I think that makes a ton of sense, you always want strikes, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the most commanded pitch.”

Bailey explained that he’s encouraged his pitchers to embrace what makes them stand out.

“We have a really talented bunch of pitchers, we really do, and allowing them to be themselves, allowing them to create their own identity as pitchers and what they want to be and everybody wants to be good,” he said. “Everybody wants to be dominant and buying into what they do well, their outlier pitch shapes. I really believe pitchers are here for a reason because they have certain outlier qualities to them. That’s the difference sometimes between guys in Triple-A and guys in the big leagues…

“What makes you a big leaguer? Why are you here? What outlier qualities do you have relative to everybody else? And don’t get off of those. Those are you. Those are what make you a major leaguer, and stick to your strengths at all costs.”