Dan Shulman

I think it probably came up in his first Zoom call with the team back in December or whenever it was.

He is very aware of it.

I think it's one of the reasons I'll have to check my notes I got him for tonight.

Like last year, if you add up his fastball, just the four-seamer, the four-seamer and slider usage, he threw those two pitches between the two 83% of the time.

So five out of six pitches were a fastball or a slider.

This year he's like at 66%.

That's a significant difference.

He is throwing the other stuff, the sweeper, the two-seamer, and most notably the changeup.

He's throwing those more.

I don't think he's necessarily throwing those more to get a swing and a miss.

I think he's throwing those more to get some weak contact and make his four-seamer and his slider even more productive.

But every time I've talked to him, he is well aware of – he talks about wanting to get deep into the game.

One thing he said to me and Joe – I can't remember where it was.

It might have been out in Anaheim when we talked to him –

And he said, what kind of bothers me is, like, he looked at his last four years, and it was like Cy Young votes, then 4.5 ERA, then Cy Young runner-up, then 4.5 ERA.

Those are his last four years.

He said, I don't want to be that guy.

He said, I want to be, you know, the 2.5 ERA, the Cy Young votes guy every year.

He knows better than anybody what his ceiling is.

I imagine it's like golf, and I don't play golf.