Phillies pitcher Mike Stutes gets a valuable lesson from his parents' home movies

CLEARWATER, Fla. - When Mike Stutes went home to Oregon for Christmas, he realized his parents had recorded every pitch their son threw during his rookie season with the Phillies.

"I was bored," Stutes said, so he started watching. Fifteen minutes later, Stutes was no longer bored.

"My motion looked completely different toward the end of the season," he said. "So then I really sat there and watched it."

The 25-year-old righthander came to spring training with greater self-awareness in 2012. Sure, he's still fighting for a spot on the roster, but now he has a clearer idea of what to expect. And no longer does every pitch have to be perfect; he can actually tinker.

His first task is correcting what his parents' video library showed. Stutes carried a 4.44 ERA for the season's final two months, and he attributes that to poor location. Too many pitches were left up in the zone.

The difference was about four inches. When he's at his best, Stutes has a compact delivery and a short stride. But later in the season, his left foot was landing closer to the plate, his hands were breaking too late, and everything was discombobulated.

"Instead of my hand being on top of the ball and pushing it down," Stutes said, "I was under it, and it was up in the zone."

His velocity remained steady throughout the season, even as Stutes experienced a full major-league year for the first time in his career. His average fastball velocity was only 0.4 m.p.h. lower in the season's final two months, according to Pitch F/X data.

Thus, hitters made better contact. In the first four months, 11 percent of the balls put into play against Stutes were line drives, and 22 percent were pop-ups. The line-drive rate jumped to 24 percent in August and September. Only 9 percent of batted balls were pop-ups during that stretch.

In 2012, Rich Dubee wants to see Stutes use his change-up - a pitch he hardly used in 2011 - more often. But the pitching coach is most concerned with location.

"He has to command his stuff better, like most young guys," Dubee said. "He has to eliminate some of those sloppy pitches when he's ahead in counts. He has to finish innings faster. That way he'll use less bullets."

Stutes is already thinking that way. When he reported to his first big-league camp last spring, Stutes' arm was in midseason shape, he now estimates. He started throwing in December and adopted a rigorous schedule that included tossing bullpens on back-to-back days before he arrived.

"I'm not going to kill myself now," Stutes said. "I can work on things in my bullpens. Before, every pitch had to be perfect. Right on the black. Right on the corner."

This winter, that program was downsized. He threw maybe six times off a mound. And he's not consumed with making a good first impression this time. The focus in bullpen sessions this spring is keeping his plant foot in the right spot and the ball low even if it doesn't always look pretty.

"I've been trying to be at the ankles and shins, forcing myself to get down in the zone," Stutes said. "I've been down in the zone almost to a fault."

Despite mental fatigue and a mechanical flaw, Stutes still handled a full season in the majors as a rookie reliever, an accomplishment that should make him proud, according to Dubee. The Phillies threw Stutes into high-leverage critical situations, and generally he flourished.

The final months of the season were a lesson, one he may not have appreciated completely until Christmastime, when it all made sense.

"You have to experience it one time, and you know how to adjust to it," Stutes said. "I'm looking forward to this year because I know what to expect."