Tanaka trying to save his arm by throwing less speed.

In an interview with Fox sports, Yankees Opening Day starter, Masahiro Tanaka stated that he will throw less heat this year. He has been trying to add another pitch to his repertoire and he claims that he will throw more two seam fastballs than four seam fastballs, which will bring down the velocity automatically.

Of course a combination of two seamers and four seamers will help to change velocity to fool the opposing hitters.  Next two these two pitches, Tanaka can also throw a sinker, a curve, a slider and a change-up to keep the hitters off balanced.

But keeping the velocity down most of the time may be the key to keep his pitching arm in a good shape. Still there is a big risk of Tommy John surgery as Tanaka still has a small tear in his elbow ligament. Hall of Famer Pedro “who’s your daddy?” Martinez recently said that he expects that Tanaka will be out for TJ surgery this year. I fear that he is right, but maybe keeping the velocity down may save Tanaka’s elbow.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed.