From the very beginning of his pro career, when the Rays selected him first overall in the 2007 MLB Draft to his initial seasons with Tampa, Price was primed for stardom. That, over eight years later, he remains a bona-fide ace and a pitcher the Red Sox were willing to spend $217 million on demonstrates how dominant—and consistently dominant—he’s been during his career.

Yet Price is by no means the same pitcher he was in those early days with the Rays. The left-hander has evolved throughout his time in MLB, and his approach against opposing hitters has changed, in some ways dramatically.

In many respects, Price has only improved as a pitcher the last few seasons. In terms of what pitchers can control, he’s excelling at career-best levels. Price is striking out more batters and walking fewer than ever before, all while keeping his home-run rate right in line with his career averages.

What really stands out about Price is how few hitters he’s walked the past couple years. Dating back to the start of 2013, he ranks fourth in all of baseball in walk rate (min. 500 IP), and he’s mainly surrounded by starters who don’t fall into the “ace” category on that list, such as Bartolo Colon, Mark Buehrle and Phil Hughes.

At the same time, Price has excelled at limiting contact while pounding the strike zone. He’s posted the two highest strikeout rates of his career the past two seasons, and his zone-contact percentage of 81.7% was fourth among MLB starters in 2015. In this regard, Price is among a group of hurlers he’s more often mentioned in the same breath with in Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and Max Scherzer.

So Price is throwing tons of strikes and generating loads of whiffs, which is a pretty great combination. But how? How has he been able to sharpen his command and also increase his strikeouts?

The answer lies in how Price’s pitch selection has changed over the years. When he first arrived in the majors, he mainly attacked hitters with an overpowering fastball/slider combination. As his career has gone on, Price has added a few different pitches to his arsenal and made some other tweaks along the way.

Last season, Price threw four different pitches over 15 percent of the time; a four-seamer, a sinker, a changeup and a cutter, which has replaced his slider. He also mixed in a curveball in nearly 9 percent of his offerings, giving him five pitches that, on average, clock in anywhere between 95 mph (his four-seamer) and 80 mph (his curve). All that variance in pitch selection reflects the many weapons at Price’s disposal.

The strides Price has made with his changeup in recent years are perhaps the most noteworthy. As the graph below shows, Price’s reliance on the offering has increased on an annual basis, and last season, his usage of the pitch rose above 20% for the first time.

That improved change has enabled Price to better his performance against right-handed hitters over the years. Price went with the offering over 25% of the time against righties last season, yielding just a .219 batting average against and 19.5% whiff rate, according to Brooks Baseball, his highest on any pitch.

The example below, of Price striking out Elvis Andrus with a changeup in the ALDS, shows how the pitch can be a deceptive weapon for the southpaw, especially considering he can still challenge hitters with mid-90s heat.

In fact, Price’s changeup got more swings and misses on a per-pitch basis than any of his other offerings. It’s little wonder, then, that he finished with better results against righties, who hit .216/.267/.342 off him in 2015, than left-handed batters (.257/.284/.374). Prior to 2014, when Price achieved the same feat, he had never posted better numbers against righties than lefties in single campaign.

All this demonstrates how much Price’s approach on the mound has changed, especially in recent seasons. For someone who used to dominate hitters with overpowering stuff, Price now excels due to his intelligence, elite command and control of multiple quality pitches, all while still averaging 95 mph on his fastball.

Since 2013, Price has had better command, by walk rate, than Mark Buerhle, while striking out batters at a higher clip than Zack Greinke.

And indeed, Price’s ability to adapt throughout his career is one of the main reasons why Dave Dombrowski was so adamant that Boston’s ownership spend the money required to sign him. It’s also the explanation for why Price, at the age of 30, has shown little sign of a decline but is rather at the peak of his powers.

Since 2013, Price has had better command, by walk rate, than Mark Buerhle, while striking out batters at a higher clip than Zack Greinke. The Red Sox should be excited about signing a pitcher of Price’s quality, and his willingness to evolve and seek ways to improve, even after winning a Cy Young at age 26, should give Boston hope that Price remains a top-of-the-rotation arm for years to come.

Photo by Nick Turchiaro/USA Today Sports Images

Going Deep

You may not have heard this, but the end of this week is the non-waiver trade deadline. With the season is disrepair the Red Sox should be seen as sellers, although that term frightens people so the powers that be offer tempered comments like “we are preparing for the next great Red Sox team.” That is a fine sentiment, but it probably involves getting rid of a bunch of current players (i.e., selling). Shane Victorino was the first to go, traded to Anaheim where he will get to watch Mike Trout do Mike Trout things from left field and, probably, his reserved seat on the disabled list. More on SHANF below. Other players who could be moved, according to Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal, include Mike Napoli, Alejandro De Aza, Jackie Bradley Jr., Wade Miley and Junichi Tazawa. That is not exactly a murderer’s row of options there. And that is the problem the team faces. They are sellers without a whole lot of stuff that will bring a good return. While it is still the best course of action to move the pieces they can and take chances on B- or C-level prospects, it seems unlikely that Ben Cherington and company are going to be able to get some magic beans for their unproductive cows. Alex Speier of The Boston Globe did an excellent job tracking the Red Sox‘s history at the trade deadline, and found that they almost always do something, and when in the position they are currently in the standings the moves are motivated by improving next season’s club. So expect a move or two more over the rest of the week, and look forward to next year.

I would be remiss if I did not include some discussion of Pedro Martinez’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Pedro is a legend in Boston, among other places. His 1999 and 2000 seasons, a time when offense ruled the game, are two of the best pitching seasons in the history of the game. The Boston Globe’s coverage of Pedro’s call to the Hall over the last couple of weeks has been excellent. But this piece about his pitch repertoire, with graphics of his grips, pitch movement, and statistical trends, stands out as must read/see stuff. Pedro the pitcher is one thing, but perhaps equally impressive as his on-field performances are his efforts off the field to be a symbol of possibility for the Dominican Republic, and Latin America generally. At a time when we have a moronic, multi-million dollar radio host denigrating the intelligence of an entire nation in as casual a manner as possible, there was Pedro, standing on-stage in Cooperstown, proudly representing his country by wearing a jacket with Dominican Republic patches, completing a large section of his speech in Spanish, repeatedly thanking his country and its people for their ongoing love and support, and finishing by waving the Dominican flag with fellow countryman and Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal. Christopher Gasper of The Boston Globe has more on Pedro’s desire to be and position as an image of hope for so many. All told, Pedro is certainly an indelible figure in the history of the game.

If you want more Pedro Martinez coverage I recommend Baseball Prospectus’ celebration of him and the other members of the Hall Class of 2015.

Quick Hits

The “who is the ace of the rotation?” question has turned into a punchline as the season progresses, but the performance of Red Sox starters has been anything but amusing. Tim Britton of the Providence Journal digs deeper into how the Red Sox might get on the right path to finding an ace, explicitly examining comments made by Ben Cherington about how difficult it can be to do so.

As noted above, the Red Sox first move at the deadline was to trade oft-injured outfielder Shane Victorino to the Angels for Triple-A infielder Josh Rutledge. While Victorino has been mostly useless the past two seasons (63 games played, 0.4 WARP), he was undoubtedly a critical part of the stunning run to the 2013 World Series Championship; a time that he looks upon very fondly. Peter Abraham describes Victorino’s emotional final press conference in Boston for The Boston Globe.

With Victorino out of the mix, a space in the outfield was made available for players like Rusney Castillo, Jackie Bradley Jr., Allen Craig and, even Daniel Nava. The Red Sox have opted for their multi-million dollar Cuban, once again passing Bradley Jr. over for a chance at promotion, who, as Scott Lauber of the BostonHerald.com details, is having a tremendous season at Pawtucket.

On the day his buddy entered the Hall of Fame, David Ortiz was candid in talking about Pedro, calling him “the most unbelievable human being I have been around.” Ortiz then went out and had a wondrous night on the field, adding to an already strong resume for Hall of Fame consideration, something he admits has been on his mind of late.

Three Good Game Stories

Things reached a real nadir for the Red Sox last week, but then, as Adam Kurkjian of BostonHerald.com notes in his game story, the future core of Mookie Betts, Brock Holt and Xander Bogaerts came through with a winning sequence to break the slump.

Sunday was a big day for the Red Sox organization with Pedro Martinez entering the Hall of Fame, but, as Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com writes that, it was also a big day for the Red Sox on the field as David Ortiz mashed them to a win over the Tigers.

All the fun of Sunday was swept away on Monday by another brutal Joe Kelly outing, who gave up four runs in the first inning and had no rhythm, but tells Julian Benbow of The Boston Globe that he will continue to fight hard to establish himself as an effective pitcher.

Photo by Winslow Towson/USA Today Sports Images