Besides signing Gerrit Cole, hiring Matt Blake as the new pitching coach to replace Larry Rothschild was the best decision the New York Yankees made this offseason. In comparison to Rothschild, he offers a strong knowledge of analytics and what to add to a pitcher’s repertoire.
Cleveland Indians’ pitcher Shane Beiber credits Blake for his breakout season last year. “He was an integral part of me using my curveball more,” said the All-Star. “Matt had a lot of ideas of how to add that to my repertoire and the pitch had a lot to do with the success I had last year.