July 11, 2022
Right-handed pitcher Connor Cooke is working hard as a member of the Dunedin Blue Jays’ rotation. Cooke, who began his season in a piggyback system where he got to both start and relieve games found the piggyback system helpful.
“I liked that it gave you two different looks,” stated Cooke. “You get the opportunity to start, but you also have to come out of the bullpen, so you have to be good at both.”
Cooke has pitched 39 innings so far in 2022 and has racked up 50 K’s, while maintaining a WHIP of 1.21, and holding hitters to a .238 average against him.
Primarily using a three-pitch mix this season of a fastball, a slider, and a changeup; Cooke likes to mix his fastball and slider a lot to get ahead in counts.
“I work off my fastball by using my slider a lot,” explained Cooke. “I like to use the fastball up a lot more than anything else and work the slider away from righties and the changeup away from lefties off that.”
The righty also features a 12-6 curveball which he isn’t using as much this season, “I really only use it to steal strikes,” Cooke added about his curveball. “Once I started developing the slider it became a better pitch than the curveball, so I still have it I just don’t use it as often.”
And working on pitches is something that Cooke spends a lot of time on in his professional bullpen sessions.
“They’re going well,” said Cooke of his bullpens. “It’s definitely a transition from college. I like to use my bullpens during the week more working on stuff rather than velo and strikes but more on perfecting pitches and getting what I want out of pitches.”
Watch for Connor Cooke.