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Francisco Rodriguez was at the top of his game in 2008 when he had 62 saves in 69 opportunities, which put him above names like Bobby Thigpen, Eric Gagne and many more Hall of Fame closers. At the time, his fastball was averaging 92.2 mph and he even hit a maximum speed of 97.3 mph during the 2010 season. K-Rod has had many seasons since his days of pitching with the rally monkey waving behind him in Anaheim during the post season. It will probably be a long time before anything compares to his 62 save season, but for a 32 year old pitcher on his fourth different team, Rodriguez is out to prove that he still has plenty left in the tank.

Closers are known to be hard throwers, but Rodriguez is using the 2014 season to prove that this does not have to be the case. So far this year, his fastball is only averaging 89.7 mph, which has been a consistent downward trend since 2009. Even though his velocity has decreased over the years, Rodriguez currently leads MLB in saves with 17, putting him on pace for 55 at the end of the year. He does throw his fastball the most often (55% of all pitches) and batters are hitting just 0.142 off of his fastball when they hit the ball into play, but it is not the secret weapon that sets up so many of his outs.

Rodriguez may have lost the ability to get batters to swing and miss on his high heat, but he does have a remarkable ability to get batters to swing at balls, specifically when he throws his changeup. In 24.0 innings pitched, he has had 27 instances where a batter swung and missed at a pitch outside of the strike zone. 17 of those 27 pitches have been changeups below the strike zone and have resulted in 9 of his 30 strikeouts.

Rodriguez has shown to have a deceptive changeup with a 43% swing and miss rate even with a release point that differs largely between his fastball and changeup when compared to the average major league pitcher. He throws his changeup from a release point about 3 inches higher than his fastball and he tends to throw his changeups about 1 foot lower in the zone.

Something else that is amazing about Rodriguez is the control he has had this year. 44% of his 363 total pitches have been outside of the strike zone, but he has only walked 4 batters. According to ESPN, this puts Rodriguez at a pace to walk only 13 batters throughout the 2014 season.

Even though Rodriguez had a couple down years, he seems to be back in form with his old self. The combination of his control and mix of pitches has resulted in a 1.50 ERA after 24 games. If he can keep up the pace he is at, Rodriguez can potentially have his second best season throughout his twelve-year career which would once again put him at the top of his position.

NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 05/24/14

By Danny Malter
AriBall.com

Follow @AriBall Follow @DanMalter