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During a game, the mound can become worn down. Detroit right-hander Max Scherzer tries to avoid throwing from the same spot as the opposing hurler.
"I pitch from the extreme right side of the rubber, because not many people pitch from over there," he said.
Miami reliever Heath Bell says the mound can affect a pitcher's fielding.
"Our mound is sloped off the back, where some are not. So if you get a ball and try to turn two, you have to know there's going to be a big drop," Bell said. "I try to fill in the holes from the other pitchers. That's for comebackers, because I don't want a bad hop."
The mound can turn a pitcher into an amateur groundskeeper -- and a groundskeeper into an expert on pitching mechanics.
"Everyone else watches their delivery, but I watch their feet," Nabozny said.
Remember Hideo Nomo's funky windup, when he'd stretch and twist until his back was facing the plate?
"He would practically do a circle right up in front of the rubber, and it was really difficult. We had to change the clay up by the rubber for him," Nabozny said. "It had to be a softer clay. ... He was one that was difficult."
Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka, who like Nomo is from Japan, says mounds are different overseas.
"The Japanese mound is very soft and the mounds over here are very hard. All the Japanese pitchers have to get used to that first, that difference," he said through a translator. "The way it affects your pitching is that it really tightens up your lower body by pitching off a harder mound."
Pitchers have varying views on which mounds they prefer. Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium receive high marks, and the new mound in Miami has made a good impression as well.
At the other end of the spectrum, Scherzer isn't a fan of Cleveland's mound, and Indians right-hander Derek Lowe sort of agrees.
"It's mud. Basically, your whole shoe when you come out of the first inning is just covered in mud. The problem with it is once you get past the mud, you start to get to that soft dirt, and that dirt just goes away, so then you have this huge, huge hole," Lowe said. "It's something I think the grounds crew guys have definitely -- there's been discussions about how to change it."
But despite those problems with his home field, Lowe says baseball mounds have improved a lot since he made his debut in 1997. And there's no sense developing a complex by expecting perfection.
In fact, Lowe found the Braden-Rodriguez confrontation a bit silly. He doesn't view the mound as his property. Instead, his relationship with it is respectful and healthy.
"It's not really our mound," Lowe said. "I understand that's where we work, but we rent it for a day and then we give it back."
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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