Gary's scary groin injury cost him 2 months, yet he returns today. He replaces Austin Romine, who has proven himself to be a great backup yet when thrust into a regular role, cannot hit. Romine gets a lot of praise in Yankee circles for his ability to block balls and handle pitching staffs, but I will point blame at him for one thing; the fade of Severino. Severino's fall from the Cy Young race can almost certainly be traced to when Sanchez went on the DL in late June. Now why would a pitcher fade when the superior defensive catcher is inserted? It has to be pitch selection. Now, I know a lot of people think there's something "wrong" with Severino physically. I disagree. I've watched each of his last handful of starts with a more intrigued eye. What I am seeing, is pitch selection. He's still topping out at 100mph. He is still locating his heater very well. He is still throwing the slider with a devastating break and locating it. His change the last three starts has been very good as well. So why would a guy with elite stuff with elite command suck against bad teams? It has to be pitch selection. David Cone brought this point up in the broadcast last night and it makes total sense. Since Romine took over, we are seeing a lot more sliders early in the count. Now while this could be useful in getting ahead, it is also showing the batter his best strikeout pitch in a non K situation. Aside from a "get me over" slider, one either thrown to initiate an AB or when behind, his slider has a hard bite away from a righty and down out of the zone. By showing this early in the count, it is preparing batters from it when he goes to it for the K. This is causing more hitters to lay off of it, hence elongating at bats or more hitters sitting on it and driving it the other way for the hit. Since Romine took over, Sevy's pitch counts have been way, way up. He has seen his ERA's per month go to 6.58 in July and 4.86 in August, far from the 3.06, 2.03, and 1.60 of the season's first 3 months. He's gone past 6 innings once since July 2nd and did so 9 times prior to that. Another interesting tidbit, he threw 30 more pitches in August than he did in May (both 6 start months) yet he threw 6.2IP more in May. It clearly details the struggles he has been having.

Now, my hope is Gary returns and so does his pitch calling with Sevy. Fastballs early and often. If a guy hits em, tip the cap. Drop enough change ups in there to keep them guessing but not to overexpose his pitch. Get to two strikes and either go fastball up and out of the zone or slider down and away. Change the eye level and show them the pitch when you can put them away. He was doing it earlier and my hope is he returns to that mode