Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Kenley Jansen Credits Facebook Video With Resurgence

Baseball players – and the Los Angeles Dodgers – use social media too. Moreover, Kenley Jansen credits some Facebook video that popped up on his feed from 2017 with fixing his recent mechanics.

Now, before you go trying to ‘friend’ Kenleys on Facebook; just listen to this. Bill Plunkett of the OC Register has a story about Jansen seeing some old footage at the beginning of this week. Since seeing that video, Jansen has allowed one hit and struck out 6 batters. Admittedly, Jansen has looked more dominant of recent.



Indeed, the footage came from when Jansen threw an immaculate inning against the Miami Marlins on May 18 of the 2017 season. In case you’re wondering, that’s 9 pitches for strikes to retire the side.

Apparently, Jansen saw the footage while bored in his hotel room this past Monday. Immediately he went to pitching coach Rick Honeycutt to look at what the duo could touch up to replicate the past.

“A lot of things were out of whack,” Jansen said. “I was watching when Rick came in and we started watching together. You could see so many differences.”

Next, Honeycutt and Jansen picked up on the pitcher’s posture being different. Now, Honeycutt and Jansen have been focusing on the reliever staying taller and using his hips. Thus, the result should be generating more more power behind pitches.

What’s more, Jansen says pitching through injury could have been what started trouble to begin with. According to Plunkett:

Jansen believes the change in his mechanics can be traced to last spring’s left hamstring injury. Pitching with it during the first two months of the season, he created bad habits trying to “create velocity.”

“That put me out of whack for over a year,” he said – not for the first time. “It’s not an excuse. It’s just speaking the truth.”

Clearly, Jansen has been a different pitcher this week. While I am just a fan who watches closely, I attributed it to mixing in the usage of his slider. After reading this article, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Is Kenley Fixed?

Do you buy Kenley Jansen being ‘fixed’ and reclaiming his dominance he had in 2017 when he had a 1.32 ERA and 0.74 WHIP? Without question, if the Dodgers get anything close to that type of pitcher; they have gained a serious shot in the arm in the bullpen. Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

2 Comments

  1. Jantzen back with Baez and Urias as setup?
    Strickland, who did have a good outing last night, looks fearful to me. Easily gets 2 strikes and then fear sets in and he starts to nibble. Am I imagining things or what?

  2. 2 priorities at the trading deadline that Dodgers need focus on…
    1. An impact reliever or two
    2. An impact RH bat because Dodgers are lacking in that area. With all the heavy LH hitting this team has, soon it will be apparent that more and more teams will throw LHP at the Dodgers as often as possible and that could spell trouble

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