When Alex Cobb was making his name with the Tampa Bay Rays early in his career, his changeup was so good that it had its own name — The Thing — to say nothing of the respect it also had from opposing hitters.
Its importance to what made him successful has only become more apparent now that he has it back, after he lost a feel for it after Tommy John elbow reconstruction in 2015 and had to pitch without it.
Cobb and the Orioles feel they’ve recently had the pitcher all parties hoped he’d be when he signed a four-year, $56 million contract in March, with Cobb’s 2.