Carolina notes: Flores keeps focus low, away

Bernardo Flores has adopted a simple philosophy for his first full season in the White Sox system: low and away.
Flores wants to establish his fastball low and away to each batter, cut the plate in half and then use either his fastball or changeup on the inner half to record quick outs. It's a philosophy Leo Mazzone promulgated when he was the pitching coach of the successful Atlanta Braves staffs of the 1990s, and Flores has studied how those pitchers thrived and is implementing that into his regime.

The results have improved his past four starts with Class A Advanced Winston-Salem. Following a handful of rocky outings, the 6-foot-3 left-hander has won his last two starts and allowed four runs in the last 20 innings.
"If I can learn low and away, it starts to set up everything -- throwing the fastball inside, establishing my changeup, then going to the breaking stuff when I need to," Flores said. "For me, it's all about being a student of the game, learning from everybody who influences you. For me, I learned from baseball in the past like Mazzone and all those other guys who pitched successfully."
Flores was initially introduced to the low-and-away concept when he was drafted by the White Sox last season and promoted to Great Falls in the Pioneer League. He went 6-1 with a 3.66 ERA in 11 starts for the Voyagers.

The University of Southern California product was 8-4 in 14 starts with Class A Kannapolis when he was promoted to Winston-Salem on June 26. However, his initial starts with the Dash did not go well -- he allowed 14 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings spanning four starts.
That's when he took a refresher course on the low-and-away concept, and he was able to begin repeating his successful starts.
"It's true. It works. It's no secret. It flat-out works," Flores said. "I'm seeing guys take the pitch down and away because I feel like most hitters don't like the pitch down and away, first of all. It's one of those pitches where it's hard to make really good contact. I'm hitting that spot and obviously you're getting the strike called, and now I'm getting hitters to start looking that way.
"Once they start looking that way, then I can work back on the inside corner, and then it either locks them up, jams them up or they can even bite on it. It's either groundout or a strikeout or a pop-up or whatever it is. I'm seeing the results off it. When they're on the fastball, too, I'm noticing they're on the fastball, they're timing it and they're timing it pretty well, and then I stick that changeup in there, and it completely throws them off. For me, it's one of the things that's been working so far, and I'm just going to keep building off that."
Part of Flores' development since he joined the White Sox organization has been learning how to pitch and master command. He featured a fastball that topped out at 97 mph at USC, but he did not have the consistent command needed out of an every-fifth-day starter.
Flores' fastball sits between 92 and 93 mph, which has allowed him to focus on pinpointing his location, repeating his delivery and allowing his body to mature and strengthen. Flores is confident his velocity will get back to the high 90s, and then he can focus on mixing strong command with a sizzling fastball.
"It's just me pitching," Flores said. "Obviously when I think command, I try to think my command and my styles off the trio of the '90s, the Braves of the '90s. When I think velo, too, even last year, I thought about Nolan Ryan with the velocity. Now it's trying to link those two back together and produce one of those types of power arms and be able to have command with it."

In brief

Found a home?Armando Araiza has not been able to settle into one city this season. The catcher, who started the year with Double-A Mississippi, was traded by the Braves to the Orioles and assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He was there less than three weeks before heading to Double-A Bowie and then was with Class A Advanced Frederick less than two weeks later. Since joining the Keys, Araiza has begun to get his bat going. His nine homers (and 10 for the season) are a career high, and he drove in a season-high four runs Monday night in the Keys' victory over Wilmington.
What a rebound: Lynchburg right-hander Triston McKenzie, the No. 24 overall prospect, hit a rough patch around his 20th birthday. He allowed 13 runs over two starts and needed to get back on track. McKenzie did just that Friday night in the Hillcats' first meeting against Buies Creek, striking out nine and allowing one run in seven innings. It was the 10th time this season McKenzie has struck out at least eight batters.
Finally, a close victory: Potomac was dreadful during May and June in games decided by one run. The Nationals went 6-16 in those contests, and their 24 one-run losses on the season are the most in the Minor Leagues. However, things have turned the corner in the second half. The Nats have won eight one-run games, including Monday night's 3-2 triumph over Salem in Stephen Strasburg's five-inning rehab appearance.