Mets Breakdown: Inside Look At Sean Manaea's TRANSFORMATION! | 2024 New York Mets | MLB

what's up Mets fans it's your boy CP and welcome back to the latest episode of the true Mets Talk podcast in this episode I'm going to be discussing the transformation of 2024 Shawn manah and how he's been able to change himself from a back end of the rotation arm to a formidable frontend starter for the New York Mets and it goes Way Beyond just a changeing hairstyle you are now watching the true Mets Talk podcast talking y York Mets baseball 247 365 with your host CP [Music] fumbling deep left fi by alare Straight games for the second time in he's home [Music] at all right before we get into it make sure you all hit that thumbs up for me make sure you subscribe to the channel if you're new and you like what you hear and let me know what you think about this video in the comment section down below Shawn manah has 100% been the most reliable New York Mets starting pitcher as of right now and as of his last few starts turning back-to- back starts of 10 plus strikeouts something that has not been done by a lefty starting pitcher for the New York Mets since Mr Johan Santana and you can see his 2024 season statistics down below right here in Orange he is having a phenomenal year across 100 Innings pitched so how did a guy that went from a successful Bullpen arm for the San Francisco Giants last season go from that to becoming a formidable rotation starter on the hunt for a new contract as one of the better pitchers in the National League let's take a look into the transformation of Shawn manah first up we have his changes in Pitch distribution here and I pulled two select games one in which he really did struggle which was his first game back from the All-Star break against the Miami Marlins and then I compared that to what types of pitches and his distribution chart was based off of his last outing on August 5th against the St Louis Cardinals you can see here versus the Marlins he went five innings pitched eight hits surrendered five earned runs and only one strikeout in comparison to his latest time out seven Innings pitched in St Louis Six hits zero earned runs and 10 strikeouts so how did this come to be well the first thing that you directly notice and that jumped out at me was the abandonment of the change up thring 14 changeups in that Miami Marlin start or I should say against the Miami Marlins and only throwing one single change up against the St Louis Cardinals here recently but he also has made it an emphasis and I talk about this on our pregame stream when sha maniah is scheduled to start all the time establishing the forseen fast ball early and often to change the eye level of the opposing bats because at that point they are at Shawn mania's Mercy when he decides to go ahead and throw his sweeper which he did 30 times last time out against the St Louis Cardinals and he only did so half the time in a rough outing against the Miami Marlin so you can see here changes in the ER from 31 to 51 changes in the four seam fastball from 10 to 20 and changes in the sweeper while abandoning the change up has made Shawn manah a lethal lethal pitcher up on that mound and has produced better results from one timeout to the next timeout but it doesn't just go into and it doesn't just limit itself into the changes in Pitch distribution with Shawn manah because as soon as I heard in the broad in Colorado from Steve GBS the adjustments that Shawn maniah made to his mechanics in mimicking Chris S of the Atlanta Braves that struck a light ball in my head to make this video take a look at these two stand still freeze frames of Shawn manah from early into the season on April 7th against the Cincinnati Reds versus now against the St Louis Cardinals this very same game where he pitched seven scoreless Innings what do you notice here this is about a four Monon differential in the season and it jumps out at me like a sore thumb and in a great way I shouldn't use it in a negative connotation because this is a fantastic change in mechanics that has shown Shawn mani and proved him to be successful over the Long Haul of this season so the direct thing that I notice here is just his body posture in general he seems to be a little bit more crouched in his stance and he seems to be pointing his glove in his shoulders tilting a little bit more towards the sky on the left earlier in the season as opposed to on the right he's a little bit more upright and his gloves a little bit higher and you can see he holds the ball a little higher as well right behind his back but also the DraStic difference in what he is trying to mimic here with Chris Sale is facing and positioning his body more toward the left-handers Batters box which prevents him presumably like I said I have not been a pitcher most of my career playing baseball growing up but the overall throwing mechanics if you are closing yourself off you prevent the leakage that would happen and coming across your body with that baseball on your follow through and that's exactly what I think Shan manah is trying to accomplish by mimicking Chris Sale and it blew my mind when I looked at and I heard the broadcast and them talking about sham manai and Chris Sale because when you watch him live he definitely looked like he had some mechanic tweaks along the season along the way now to the naked eye obviously it's very subtle so I had to take two Freeze Frame clips and I apologize if they're a little pixelated but if you look at then versus now this is absolutely mind-boggling this is also contributing to the more consistent success that Shawn manah has had this season and like I said sha maniah is on an expiring deal he's got he's on a two-year deal that David Sterns actually gave him this past off season but he had a player option given to him after the first season he is almost certainly going to be opting out as I mentioned in my previous stream as he's only doe 13 A5 million in the starting pitching Market especially in this offseason is going to go nuts and he is going to make himself a pretty penny wherever he ends up but Shawn manah whether it's this right here with his pitch distribution or the mechanic tweaks that he made in 2024 and whether you want to draw it up to sha manai himself making these adjustments or Jeremy Hefner potentially stepping in it doesn't matter because Shawn manah has been fantastic and I'm looking forward to what he has in store for the rest of the regular season let's go Mets and let's go sham manah thank you for watching the true meds Talk podcast make sure you're tapping on that notifications button and checking out all the latest content on the channel thank you