SEATTLE -- When Spencer Howard came to the Rangers in the deal that sent Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy to the Phillies, he was most excited to finally have a set routine instead of bouncing among the rotation, the bullpen and Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
He’s got that in Texas, but manager Chris Woodward said it won’t be a traditional buildup into a starting spot. Because of his light workload with the Phillies, pitching just 28 1/3 big league innings over 11 games, the staff wants him to be fully comfortable to go multiple times through the order.
“I think it’s really important, all the side work that he does,” Woodward said. “Something that we had heard before was that he couldn't maintain his stuff throughout the outing. Those are all things we're kind of looking at. He's doing a ton of work. He's really open-minded and loves talking pitching with our guys. They're just starting the process of kind of really getting to know this kid and seeing how open he is to some subtle changes and little tweaks here and there that will make him more consistent.”
Howard and the pitching coaches have been specifically working on some technical things with his mechanics and his delivery. Co-pitching coach Doug Mathis said it’s more about his use of the ground and his lower half on his delivery.
The way Howard has been pitching in the last year or so has been putting undue stress on his shoulder, causing him to struggle a second or third time through the batting order with a slight velocity dip.
“I can just be a little bit more efficient, using my legs a little bit more, and throwing against the ground,” Howard explained. “Then stuff ticks up and breaking balls are sharper, the fastball has more life and then you hold on longer in games. That's pretty much been the focus.”
Mathis said they want Howard’s delivery to be more like it was in college, or even during his early years in the Phillies' farm system. Howard thinks that the 2020 quarantine messed up his typical range of motion because there were so many hours of just doing nothing.
He’s been working on undoing those bad habits, starting with the Phillies and continuing with Mathis and co-pitching coach Brendan Sagara between starts with the Rangers.
“[Mathis and Sagara are] huge,” Howard said. “They’re just a fresh set of eyes. They’re smart dudes, and they know what they're talking about. So for me, it’s just being able to just step back, take their input and commit to it and just buy in on what they're saying. I feel it, even in the bullpens and things. They know what they're talking about, and it's good stuff.”
Mathis said it’s less pressure and intensity for Howard to work on his mechanical adjustments between starts, rather than in-game, as the staff tries to build him up.
That early work is starting to pay off. After allowing three runs in 2 1/3 innings in his first start for the Rangers on Aug. 5, Howard pitched three scoreless against the Mariners on Wednesday night.
Howard said after the start that he’s already starting to feel the progress and it was a step in the right direction.
“It looked like he was a little more freed up out there,” Woodward said. “That's something that the pitching coaches are really looking forward to: the free, athletic delivery that we remember seeing in the past. When we see that delivery down the mound, the ball comes out of his hand with some life. That's what we're trying to get out of him, obviously, and he felt pretty good about it.”