SEATTLE — New Red Sox pitcher Chase Anderson still throws the same changeup with the same grip he learned at 13 years old.
“I haven’t changed anything. Nothing,” Anderson said before Boston’s 5-1 win over Seattle at T-Mobile Park on Sunday. “So Josh Bobbitt: shout-out to you, man. You taught me that changeup and it’s helped me a lot.”
Anderson’s late father Robert Anderson worked with Josh Bobbitt’s dad Hal at a fiberglass plant in Wichita Falls, Texas. Josh played at Tulane and spent the 1998 season pitching in the Rangers minor league system. He gave Anderson pitching lessons after their fathers connected them.
The changeup has been Anderson’s best pitch throughout his 10 seasons in the major leagues. Opponents have gone just 196-for-998 (.196 batting average) against it.
“I’m a guy that doesn’t throw upper-90s,” Anderson said. “But low-to-mid 90s with a good changeup makes the fastball play. You can throw the fastball around the zone when you have good command of an offspeed pitch. And they’ll go chase that pitch because they’re looking for something in the zone and the fastball sinks by them. So it really makes my fastball better. And there have been games throughout my career where I’ve pitched with that pitch mainly and used the fastball sporadically.”
Bobbitt took the pitching coach job at Anderson’s high school when Anderson was a senior. He now serves as associate head baseball coach at Melissa High in Texas.
Anderson’s dad died of a heart attack in 2012. Anderson continues to appreciate everything his dad did for him, including paying for those pitching lessons.
“It’s just funny how you look back on your career and connect the dots to all the people who have impacted your career in a positive way,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here without those coaches. … And obviously my dad sacrificed a lot to be able to afford to pay for those lessons because we didn’t have much money growing up. My dad always sacrificed for me and my sisters and did the best he could. I’m thankful for that because I wouldn’t be here without my dad.”
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Anderson signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract with Boston on March 23. He has the potential to earn up to $500,000 more in performance bonuses. The 36-year-old — who has appeared in 218 games (200 starts) in the big leagues — will work as a multi-inning reliever.
What makes his changeup so effective?
“It has some vertical break to it,” Anderson explained. “It has a lot of horizontal movement. But it looks just like my heater. I can make it where it goes straight and kind of drops. And then I can make it where it just fades a lot. That’s just a little bit of an offset with the grip. And that’s just the evolution over the years — since I learned it when I was 13. It’s the same grip but I’ve just learned how to move it in my hand a little bit so it gives a little bit more different movement profile. I think it’s just the arm speed I have. It looks exactly like the fastball out of the hand. So I get away with not always having the best location but the deception of the pitch is very effective.”
He said he doesn’t always have the best fastball command but “the changeup has always been there” for him.
“It’s a pitch I feel like I can roll out of bed and throw,” he said. “I was blessed to be able to learn it from Josh and then continue to get a better feel for it. … It’s a pitch I definitely need.”
His fastball and changeup are typically the two pitches he uses most often. But that was not the case last year when he used his cutter slightly more than his changeup while making 17 starts for Colorado. He said the altitude had to do with different pitch usages last year. He said the thin air reduced vertical break.
“I’m averaging 16 to 20 on vertical break at sea level. You’ve got elevation, that is a 12, 14,” said. “So it’s killing that vert by a good percentage. So the cutter became a big pitch for me in Colorado. It’s been a big pitch the last couple of years. But the small shapes work good in Colorado; small movements. And then sporadically throwing the fastball when you need to. The cutter is becoming my 1-B, my best offspeed pitch behind the changeup.”
Look for Anderson to use his changeup frequently out of the bullpen.
“Being in the bullpen, I don’t want to give all my tells away … but that pitch will definitely be used more for sure being out of the bullpen, being the length guy with two or three innings at a time,” he said. “The usage will definitely change a little bit compared to being a starting pitcher and having to navigate a lineup two or three times. I’m only having to go through it once, maybe one and a half times.”
