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"\"&lt;p&gt;Michael Roth has posted dominant numbers for two consecutive seasons, but he lacks the kind of arm strength that scouts covet. In fact, Roth did not garner a single vote from the 17 major league scouting directors who submitted preseason All-America ballots to Baseball America. So how does he dominate? Roth and South Carolina pitching coach Jerry Meyers broke down the lefthander&amp;#8217;s stuff, mechanics, arm slots, pitching philosophy and approach to his bullpen sessions.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;On Roth&amp;#8217;s innate feel for pitching and overall philosophy:&lt;\\/span&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Meyers: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;He has some intangibles that, whenever you&amp;#8217;re posed with that question (How does Roth do it?), that&amp;#8217;s the word that comes up. It&amp;#8217;s kind of hard to explain. He has really good instincts. He instinctively has a feel for making the ball move a little bit more when he needs to, keeping the ball down, getting the ball in on guys&amp;#8217; hands, and being able to locate, hopefully multiple pitches. He&amp;#8217;s got slots and the ability to change speeds. Those instincts kind of take over a little bit during an at-bat, the second time through the order, that kind of thing. I think the hitters will tell you it feels like he&amp;#8217;s throwing a little bit harder than he is, because the changeup is such a big equalizer. He may not throw his fastball as hard as some, but he&amp;#8217;s got a way better changeup than most.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Roth:&lt;\\/span&gt; &amp;#8220;I believe you should pitch to your strengths. My strengths are location and my changeup. Anything I can do to make that changeup even better, I should do it. If there&amp;#8217;s a guy that hits the changeup really well, maybe he does, but you can still get him out with it. Or there&amp;#8217;s guys that are hitting (inside) well, but you can still get them out because if you throw it in at the knees, let them hit two balls foul.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;We get scouting reports, I read through them all before the game, and that&amp;#8217;s about it. One of my first starts as a freshman&amp;mdash;I had two starts as a freshman&amp;mdash;I read through the scouting report, studied it, and I got shelled. I was like, &amp;#8216;I&amp;#8217;m never doing that again.&amp;#8217; I pick out major points&amp;mdash;like runners, that&amp;#8217;s really the important part for me. Who are the runners? Because that&amp;#8217;s me fielding my position, me holding guys to make sure I don&amp;#8217;t give second base up. If I&amp;#8217;m going to get a guy on first, my goal is to get a double play. And maybe if somebody struggles with a pitch or something. But I don&amp;#8217;t obsess over a scouting report. I like to read swings on the mound and see how hitters are reacting to what I&amp;#8217;m doing. If I see a guy struggling with a pitch, I&amp;#8217;ll just log it away. Every time I walk off the mound, coach Meyers will ask, why did you throw a pitch? And we&amp;#8217;ll talk about it. It&amp;#8217;s a continuous game; we&amp;#8217;re just out there playing a chess match, really.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;ve said this before, and people probably think I&amp;#8217;m stupid and maybe it&amp;#8217;s disrespectful to the game, but when I think about the game, I think about, I&amp;#8217;m a pitcher 60 feet away with a round ball pitching to a hitter with a round bat. There&amp;#8217;s nine guys on the field. I know how tough hitting is. It should be easy to get hitters out. When you think about it logically, you shouldn&amp;#8217;t give up runs. I&amp;#8217;m not going out there trying to strike everybody out or anything, I&amp;#8217;m just trying to get three outs and then we&amp;#8217;ll worry about the next inning. To me pitching is more about a mentality than anything else. Mentally, if you&amp;#8217;re not right out there on the mound then you won&amp;#8217;t be successful. That&amp;#8217;s why guys with amazing stuff can&amp;#8217;t get guys out.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;On his changeup:&lt;\\/span&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Meyers: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;A lot of lefties have some good ones, but his has maybe a little deeper action than some, the late sink on it, plus it has the change of speed. Even with close to a traditional changeup grip, he just gets a little more action on it. He has a lot of conviction with it, and he knows it&amp;#8217;s going to be a pretty good pitch for him. Even when he doesn&amp;#8217;t have his best one, he knows he can change slots, throw some cutters in on righties&amp;#8217; hands, and do some things with his fastball that maybe some other guys who don&amp;#8217;t locate as well can&amp;#8217;t do.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Roth: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;m very comfortable with my changeup. The three years I&amp;#8217;ve been here, I&amp;#8217;ve thrown three different changeups. I came in as a circle changeup, but pinkie on top. Then I dropped my pinkie down so it looked more like a fastball, but it was still coming off that finger mostly (pointing to his pinkie). Now it&amp;#8217;s coming off these two fingers (pointing to his middle and ring fingers). i almost can throw two different changeups. I can throw the one that&amp;#8217;s going to float and then drop&amp;mdash;a hitter can see it a little longer, pick it up, but it&amp;#8217;s going to have more movement. That&amp;#8217;s the changeup a hitter&amp;#8217;s possibly going to poke his bat out and hit it to the two-hole or something. But I can also throw the changeup when I really follow through and snap hard, like when I&amp;#8217;m throwing a fastball real hard. That will be the strikeout changeup. Sometimes I can&amp;#8217;t even control it, to be honest with you, and I don&amp;#8217;t even know why I can do that. But other times I can control it. People say a changeup&amp;#8217;s my best pitch, but I can still get better with that pitch.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;That&amp;#8217;s the biggest thing I&amp;#8217;ve noticed about freshmen coming in is a lot of times they don&amp;#8217;t throw a changeup coming in because it speeds up a hitter&amp;#8217;s bat. But mixing in a changeup can do a lot of things, and it&amp;#8217;s one of the best pitches in baseball, in my opinion.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;img border=\\\"0px\\\" align=\\\"\\\" alt=\\\"\\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/images\\/mroth12164540tp.jpg\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;On his varying arm slots, deception and breaking balls:&lt;\\/span&gt;&lt;br style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;br style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Meyers: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;Mechanically, when he goes to his lower arm slot&amp;mdash;and he doesn&amp;#8217;t just do it on lefties now. When he came out of the &amp;#8216;pen his sophomore year in 2010, that&amp;#8217;s what he did&amp;mdash;he dropped down almost exclusively on lefties, and it was fastball-slider, from what I understand. Now he will stay up on some lefties if he wants to, and still go down the majority of the time with fastball-slider. But he&amp;#8217;ll throw a changeup left-on-left now, and his changeup&amp;#8217;s his best pitch. He can throw that from the low slot too, he can do both. He&amp;#8217;ll throw some left-on-left changeups going through the order more.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;ve been working on a curveball with a little different break. He&amp;#8217;s got a slider from up top and from down low that sweeps, but he&amp;#8217;s trying to get on top to get a little better downward break from up top. When he&amp;#8217;s in the lower slot, it has bigger break, call it a slider. When he&amp;#8217;s up a little more it&amp;#8217;s harder, the same kind of plane break but it turns a little more into a cutter and doesn&amp;#8217;t break as much as when he drops down. He can move his fastball from both slots, but it moves more when he&amp;#8217;s down low. He tucks and hides the ball when he goes down low&amp;mdash;it doesn&amp;#8217;t have as much velocity, but it has more movement and it&amp;#8217;s deceptive. But he can throw all his pitches from both slots.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Roth: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;I always had a real loopy curveball. I&amp;#8217;d snap it in at like 69, 0-0 pitch, if you want to swing at it, swing at it, that type of deal. Sophomore year I kind of abandoned it because I was throwing fastball-slider. Sidearm is basically fastball-slider. You can throw a changeup, but I don&amp;#8217;t like to, it&amp;#8217;s too hard to control. From up top, I always threw like a cutter\\/slider, it depends on the day what you want to call it. Last year we really worked on the breaking ball in bullpens. I threw one in a game, and (Florida&amp;#8217;s) Austin Maddox hit it right back at me and almost killed me. It was actually a pretty good breaking ball, but it popped out so you could see it pop out of my hand. So that&amp;#8217;s one thing all fall I&amp;#8217;ve really been working on is having a breaking ball that doesn&amp;#8217;t pop out. I joke around and tell the guys I&amp;#8217;m getting a power curve. Coach Meyers and I have really been working hard on getting a legitimate breaking ball. It&amp;#8217;s not there yet, but that&amp;#8217;s one of those pitches (where) the feel has to be there. If the fastball&amp;#8217;s going that way, the changeup&amp;#8217;s going that way, it&amp;#8217;s something that is going the other way.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;The slider from over the top, I always wanted it to be a late-breaking cutter. That&amp;#8217;s something I&amp;#8217;m really working on. It&amp;#8217;s more of a cutter, really, than it is a slider. If I can put that cutter\\/slider in there on a righty, that makes the changeup even better.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;On velocity and location:&lt;\\/span&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Meyers:&lt;\\/span&gt; &amp;#8220;He can touch an 89 too&amp;mdash;that&amp;#8217;s not typical, but he&amp;#8217;s probably a good 86-87 throughout most games, and some other games where he&amp;#8217;s maybe 84-86 in some of his best games. It all depends on the lineup and his feel and command that day, and a lot of times too depending on the action on his changeup. If his fastball is 87, he&amp;#8217;s usually about 10 slower on his changeup. The slider and curveball is about the right range. He&amp;#8217;s trying to throw a curveball now, not positive he&amp;#8217;s going to use it a lot, but a pitch hitters have to contend with. The slider is upper 70s, maybe 8 mph off his fastball.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Roth:&lt;\\/span&gt; &amp;#8220;I would say my best pitch is a strike. To me, what&amp;#8217;s most comfortable is my fastball and changeup. Those two, I feel like in any count, I can put them where i want them. On a night where a guy&amp;#8217;s slider is not sliding as much, for me it would be like, &amp;#8216;I can&amp;#8217;t throw that fastball in,&amp;#8217; or &amp;#8216;I can&amp;#8217;t spot that changeup down and away at the knees where I want it to be.&amp;#8217; So mine&amp;#8217;s always location that frustrates me, rather than having the stuff. Stuff can strike hitters out, but location is going to get hitters out more than stuff is, in my opinion.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;On his bullpen sessions:&lt;\\/span&gt;&lt;br style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;br style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Meyers:&lt;\\/span&gt; &amp;#8220;If he&amp;#8217;s a little bit off (in a bullpen), he has a tendency to get wrapped up in it, which is great. He&amp;#8217;s super-competitive all the time, but when he&amp;#8217;s throwing his &amp;#8216;pens, it&amp;#8217;s no different. Once he gets locked in, if he&amp;#8217;s not hitting his spots or his rhythm doesn&amp;#8217;t feel right, he&amp;#8217;s not just getting frustrated but he&amp;#8217;s working hard to make a quick adjustment.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;Some days he&amp;#8217;ll do more of one slot than the other (in the bullpen) based on how he feels. Some days we&amp;#8217;ll put the hitter in there and he can work a little more against the lefty. After the first third of the season last year, it was, &amp;#8216;What do you think you need today?&amp;#8217; He made 20 starts, the routine was consistent, but it also changed based on how he felt. I love that, when a guy&amp;#8217;s telling me what he didn&amp;#8217;t do well last week and needs to do better this week, rather than me telling him.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-weight: bold;\\\"&gt;Roth: &lt;\\/span&gt;&amp;#8220;I really approach my bullpen like it&amp;#8217;s an in-game situation. I still like to have fun with it, but it&amp;#8217;s almost more serious in a game, because that&amp;#8217;s when I need to do everything perfectly. At the end of the day, if I had a bad bullpen, what does it really mean? Nothing, we didn&amp;#8217;t get a loss, we didn&amp;#8217;t get a win, nothing happened. But there&amp;#8217;s something to be said for going out there, making sure your mechanics are good, making sure your rhythm and tempo are on time and everything&amp;#8217;s flowing. So I almost like to be a little more serious in a bullpen than in a game, because if I&amp;#8217;m more focused then, I can be better and almost more relaxed in a game. Sometimes it&amp;#8217;s probably not good how mad I get in a bullpen, but then in games I can be like, OK, well (shrugs).&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;I alternate slots in a bullpen because then if I want to alternate slots in a game, I can. I know I can go sidearm-sidearm-sidearm, then top-top-top, then sidearm-sidearm. But say I&amp;#8217;m facing a righty and I keep throwing over the top and he&amp;#8217;s fouling balls off, I can say, &amp;#8216;Let&amp;#8217;s drop down and see what happens.&amp;#8217; Last year I messed around a little bit coming over the top against lefties, and mainly it was changeups. This year I want to try a little bit more so it&amp;#8217;s not just changeups&amp;mdash;maybe sneak some fastballs in there, and maybe if my breaking ball&amp;#8217;s good enough, some curveballs too. So that&amp;#8217;s something I want to try to do in my bullpen.&amp;#8221;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/roth-gets-down-to-the-nitty-gritty-12897/>