Sinking

Some encouraging news on the Carlos Silva front:

Plenty of questions have been asked about Carlos Silva's early struggles, but the Twins believe they have found the answer.
Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson realized Silva was moving his head to a position that left his arm lagging behind, thus disrupting his natural motion.

'You can't get on top of it and sink that way,' Anderson said. 'When your head is up and on, you're arm will follow. He was on top in both of his bullpens and locating the best I've seen him.'

Anderson spent quite a bit of time looking at video with Silva, trying to determine what the difference was between his performance last year and his struggles this season. In five starts so far this season, Silva has only one victory while his ERA has skyrocketed to 10.31. He has yet to record a quality start, which is unusual for the pitcher who threw a complete game in 74 pitches in 2005.

The biggest concern has been Silva's inability to get his sinker to have its normal downward motion. So to work on the problem, Silva took on an extra bullpen session this week. It seemed to work, as well as boost his confidence level.

'He was so excited about what he did in the 'pen,' Anderson said. 'He was even, at the point, telling Aaron [Amundson, the team's bullpen catcher], 'Put your glove out and close your eyes and I'll hit the spot,' and he'd do it. Aaron didn't close his eyes, but wherever Carlos wanted to put it, the ball was going.'

Well, here's hoping that's the solution. When a ground ball pitcher has literally half of his outs on balls in the air(and, from what this blogger has observed, a good deal more than half the hits he's given up) you know there's SOMETHING very wrong.

Silva pitches tonight, and the proof's in the pudding.