February 1, 2023
Right-handed pitcher Gage Stanifer has been working hard on his pitches this winter.
“Command has been my biggest off-season goal,” said Stanifer. “I’m trying to throw as many strikes as possible and stay in that starter role.”
Currently using a three-pitch mix of a 2-seam fastball, a slider, and a splitter; Stanifer talks about how he tries to work off his fastball.
“That depends on the righty or lefty batter,” explained Stanifer. “I’ve developed my splitter a long way. I feel it’s a pretty close second pitch to my best pitch. I like working that off the fastball a lot especially to lefties. It tunnels well out of the same slot as well as my slider. My slider command has been getting a lot better and they both tunnel well. I can throw them in any count to any batter.”
Stanifer adds more detail about the development of his splitter, “It got better in catch play,” Stanifer added. “Obviously, the grip was big, just finding that comfortable release point and throwing it repetitively was really the big thing.”
Pitching last season at Westfield High School in Indiana, Stanifer logged 38 innings as a senior racking up 83 K’s with an ERA of 0.74.
The righty took part in the Toronto Blue Jays’ Instructional League last fall to prepare for this season.
“It was nice getting a lot of one-on-one work with a lot of the coaches,” stated Stanifer. “Just being able to dig into my delivery and use their high-tech equipment to see in-depth detail – whether it be forced plates, ball movement, velocity, movement patterns from my delivery, etc. It was a lot of one-on-one work that I didn’t expect to get.”
Be sure to follow Gage Stanifer’s progress in pro ball.