D-backs’ Collmenter continues his improvement

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter has been
improving as of late.

Collmenter pitched a Cactus League-high five innings
against the San Diego Padres Sunday. Despite losing 4-3,
the right-handed pitcher had his best start so far this
spring, giving up only five hits and a spring-low two
runs, while walking two and striking out two.

The 10-win pitcher in 2011 has been working on his command
this spring, especially on his fastball.

“Pretty much exclusively, yeah,” Collmenter said of his
fastball. “Threw some off-speed stuff in the flat ground
yesterday just to make sure it was sharp, predominantly
fastball in the bullpen just to really hone in on that and
that is the biggest key to my game, so I want to make sure
that going forward from here I don’t have to really worry
about trying to find that, or have here or have it there
and not have it all the time.”

Collmenter is working on his fastball location which, if
on target, will help keep the rest of his pitches sharp.

“It felt a lot better,” Collmenter said. “Really worked on
fastball in the bullpen session coming into this one and
that’s the biggest thing for me, if I can consistently
keep my fastball down, it makes the curveball and change-
up a lot better, so I was happy with being able to do that
for the most part today.”

Collmenter’s fastball is the barometer to his success, for
if it is on target, the rest of his pitches will be more
effective.

“That’s the key to me, I’m not going to blow people away
and just throw it wherever I want,” Collmenter said. ”
I’ve got to make sure I add and subtract, in and out, up
and down.”

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