Brian Van Belle talks about adjusting to Triple-A in Worcester
Predicting how his Miami Hurricanes will do this football season isn’t something that is on top of Brian Van Belle’s list these days.
When asking him this question, he let out a laugh, and stated that he has done this many times before and is always wrong.
The Miami product is now nine starts into his Triple-A career and is missing more bats at the level than he has at any stop during his Red Sox tenure. His 9.6 K/9 is the highest in his career since his senior year at Miami.
“It just comes down to execution and throwing every pitch with conviction.” Van Belle told Beyond the Monster. “That has been my motive my whole career. I haven’t really changed much in terms of delivery or anything like that. I have thrown similar pitches, but with different movement profiles up until now. I think the sequencing is the biggest thing that leads to swings and misses more than anything.”
It’s not uncommon to see a pitcher struggle after receiving a promotion due to the huge differences, especially between Double-A and Triple-A. Van Belle is no exception to that rule and sees where his game needs to be.
“Number one is the strike zone.” Van Belle said of the biggest difference from Double-A. “It is way smaller now with the ABS. You can’t really nibble on the corners as much because during the week the strike zone is smaller than on the weekend. Number two is the opposing hitters take advantage of your mistakes more often than guys in Double-A because they are older and more experienced. They have faced guys in the major leagues and have spent time up there. Some are future major leaguers, and they will make you pay for your mistakes. You just have to go out there and not be perfect because you are a human being and will make mistakes. I just need to work on executing your pitches more times than not.”
While Van Belle has been missing more bats than ever before, he is also giving up his fair share of hard-hit balls that are ending up over the fence. As we enter the final month of the season, the right-hander has a few things he wants to do over his last four starts of the season.
“The goal overall before any season is to be healthy and feel good and strong.” Van Belle said. “Consistency is another big one. Before I got here while in Double-A, I was pretty consistent. I have shown instances here of success and other instances of things that have happened that have not gone my way and mistakes being taken advantage of when I am on the mound. I just want to be consistent for the last month of the season and control what I can. I want to go deep in games and be efficient. Everything that people look for in a starting pitcher is what I want to work on. Whenever it is my turn to take the ball, I just want to try to do all of those things and compete from the first pitch to the last. I want to look back after 2023 and not think of any instances where I wasn’t competing.”
Van belle figures to be an important piece of the WooSox starting rotation as they battle for a playoff spot in September. After losing Brandon Walter to a September call up, Van Belle’s success becomes that much more important down the stretch.
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