I made my bi-annual pilgrimage back to the pitching mound on Monday, to revisit my past where as a youngster and teenager my baseball career flourished. Unfortunately, it was a similar situation that got me on the mound two years ago in Low A, we were getting blown out. In an effort to save an arm in the bullpen our manager, Dusty Wathan, called on his trusty, seldom used, lefty sinker baller right fielder (Me). It's never fun getting blown out, but when a position player gets to pitch, it adds a little bit of amusement to games that, for the last few innings or more, have already been decided and can get pretty boring or painful for the team that's on the losing end.
That being said, we were playing the St. Lucie Mets(the Mets drafted me my junior year of college so, for me anyways, it is always a little extra interesting playing them). Not only were all of the Mets' bats hot all series long, but they also had their big league All-Star third baseman, David Wright, rehabbing with them which didn't help things at all. As the hits kept falling for the Mets and the runs started to pile up throughout the game and it started to get late, I kind of had the feeling I might be making an appearance on the mound. As I came in after the end of the 7th inning, my hunch was confirmed as our manager told me to go warm up in the 'pen and get ready to go in. At this point, everyone in the dugout starts grinning as its been a few innings since anyone has had something to smile about as the game got more lopsided. So I grab my glove and head down to the bullpen. As I jog down, all the pitchers sitting on the bullpen bench lean forward to see who's coming down and they all start laughing and getting excited to see what kind of stuff I have on the bump. Keep in mind, pitching in the last innings of blow outs is pretty undesirable for bullpen pitchers because they like pitching in tight, "meaningful", situations where the game is still in reach, plus its always fun to do a little role reversal and see what one of the position players can do on the bump.
As I arrived and said my hello's, one of our two lefty's out of the pen, Andy Loomis (who also taught me his slider a few days before when I inquired about it), tosses me his glove so I can look like a real pitcher out there instead of using my outfield glove and looking like a goofball. I don't know what he did to his glove, but that thing was one of the most comfortable things I have ever worn.
Our catcher ran down and I started throwing some warm up pitches. Luckily, I prepare myself for situations like this, as I'm pretty sure most position players do, because pretty much every day when I am warming up with Singleton, I mess around with my sinker, slider and changeup. I threw of couple of sinkers to start and the pitchers and catcher were all pretty surprised that I was hitting the glove and that I had some good movement on my fastball. Then I threw a couple Andy Loomis sliders and again, I got some good reactions from the 'pen. After I flipped my first changeup in there, the catcher did a bit of a double take because the bottom dropped out of it and he kind of smiled and nodded as if to say, alright, that was a little more than I expected. We got our last out at the plate and it was my turn to go pitch. I took a deep breath, smiled at the guys in the bullpen and asked them for any last words of advice, they said just have fun and throw strikes and with that in mind, I started my jog from the bullpen to the mound.
As I arrived on the mound, I looked over to the Mets' dugout and saw them starting to realize what was going on. David Wright had climbed to the top step to see what I had and had a big grin on his face along with the rest of the other team. I finished my warm ups, talked to our catcher, Torre Langley, about the signs and then got ready to face the middle of their lineup (the 3, 4, and 5 hitters). My approach going into the inning was to say here it is, see if you can hit it. I know that as a hitter, squaring up fastballs that sink and tail is pretty hard, so I was confident about going right after the hitters and not trying to be too cute with where I placed each pitch, after all, my job in this situation is to throw strikes and get the inning over with. No one cares if I give up a few hits or runs, but being the competitive person I am, of course I wanted to go in there and see how well I could do instead of just throwing it right down the middle. That being said, and I'm sure much to the disappointment of the opposing hitters, I also made sure not to throw any straight 4 seam fastballs, only 2 seam sinkers. I quickly got ahead of the 3 hole hitter and got a ground out to the shortstop. Next up was the 4 hole hitter, He took the first two pitches to get to a 1-1 count. I threw my first slider of the inning and missed up. with a 2-1 count I went back to the sinker and he fouled off 2 or 3 sinkers before hitting a lazy fly ball to right field for the 2nd out. The 5 hole hitter strolled to the plate, he was a lefty, the other two hitters were right handed, and is the first baseman whom I had gotten to know fairly well. Our team agrees, Welch is the nicest guy in the league, he's always got something nice to say when you get on first base and he always checks up on you to see how everything is going. That being said, he stepped in with a little smirk on his face and I gave him a bit of a head nod and the battle got under way. I think I missed down with the first sinker and then threw one for a strike on the outer half that he took for strike 1. I threw another sinker away for a ball and then got him to foul off the next one to even the count. With a 2-2 count, our catcher put down the sign for slider. I remembered how I had missed up earlier in the inning because I didn't get on top of it when I released it, so I wanted to make sure I executed this slider better and really finish it as I released it. I came set and threw the sharp Loomis slider and got Welch to strike out swinging for my first career strike out from the mound (Ive been the victim of plenty on the other end of things so there was a strange feeling of satisfaction getting to turn the tables). To the hitters defense, they probably weren't expecting me to throw any off speed and furthermore, were probably expecting me to be throwing straight fastballs right down the pipe, so I think I caught them a bit off guard with my strategy.
The inning was quickly over and I walked off the field and was greeted by my very enthusiastic and supportive teammates and congratulated on a job well done. After the game was finished I had to go in to the training room and do some post pitching exercises to help keep my arm healthy and try and prevent soreness the next day, which turned out to be a bit of a losing battle as my shoulder was a bit tight the next day (which was expected and normal). I later got word that I was throwing my sinker from 84-87 MPH. I'm pretty sure I can throw a bit harder, but unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to air a few out when I was on the mound, I forgot the radar gun was going to be on me! So i guess I have to just wear it when my teammates tease me and tell me they thought I would throw harder than that.
I guess I might just have to wait for my next bi-annual pilgrimage to prove them otherwise.
That being said, we were playing the St. Lucie Mets(the Mets drafted me my junior year of college so, for me anyways, it is always a little extra interesting playing them). Not only were all of the Mets' bats hot all series long, but they also had their big league All-Star third baseman, David Wright, rehabbing with them which didn't help things at all. As the hits kept falling for the Mets and the runs started to pile up throughout the game and it started to get late, I kind of had the feeling I might be making an appearance on the mound. As I came in after the end of the 7th inning, my hunch was confirmed as our manager told me to go warm up in the 'pen and get ready to go in. At this point, everyone in the dugout starts grinning as its been a few innings since anyone has had something to smile about as the game got more lopsided. So I grab my glove and head down to the bullpen. As I jog down, all the pitchers sitting on the bullpen bench lean forward to see who's coming down and they all start laughing and getting excited to see what kind of stuff I have on the bump. Keep in mind, pitching in the last innings of blow outs is pretty undesirable for bullpen pitchers because they like pitching in tight, "meaningful", situations where the game is still in reach, plus its always fun to do a little role reversal and see what one of the position players can do on the bump.
As I arrived and said my hello's, one of our two lefty's out of the pen, Andy Loomis (who also taught me his slider a few days before when I inquired about it), tosses me his glove so I can look like a real pitcher out there instead of using my outfield glove and looking like a goofball. I don't know what he did to his glove, but that thing was one of the most comfortable things I have ever worn.
Our catcher ran down and I started throwing some warm up pitches. Luckily, I prepare myself for situations like this, as I'm pretty sure most position players do, because pretty much every day when I am warming up with Singleton, I mess around with my sinker, slider and changeup. I threw of couple of sinkers to start and the pitchers and catcher were all pretty surprised that I was hitting the glove and that I had some good movement on my fastball. Then I threw a couple Andy Loomis sliders and again, I got some good reactions from the 'pen. After I flipped my first changeup in there, the catcher did a bit of a double take because the bottom dropped out of it and he kind of smiled and nodded as if to say, alright, that was a little more than I expected. We got our last out at the plate and it was my turn to go pitch. I took a deep breath, smiled at the guys in the bullpen and asked them for any last words of advice, they said just have fun and throw strikes and with that in mind, I started my jog from the bullpen to the mound.
As I arrived on the mound, I looked over to the Mets' dugout and saw them starting to realize what was going on. David Wright had climbed to the top step to see what I had and had a big grin on his face along with the rest of the other team. I finished my warm ups, talked to our catcher, Torre Langley, about the signs and then got ready to face the middle of their lineup (the 3, 4, and 5 hitters). My approach going into the inning was to say here it is, see if you can hit it. I know that as a hitter, squaring up fastballs that sink and tail is pretty hard, so I was confident about going right after the hitters and not trying to be too cute with where I placed each pitch, after all, my job in this situation is to throw strikes and get the inning over with. No one cares if I give up a few hits or runs, but being the competitive person I am, of course I wanted to go in there and see how well I could do instead of just throwing it right down the middle. That being said, and I'm sure much to the disappointment of the opposing hitters, I also made sure not to throw any straight 4 seam fastballs, only 2 seam sinkers. I quickly got ahead of the 3 hole hitter and got a ground out to the shortstop. Next up was the 4 hole hitter, He took the first two pitches to get to a 1-1 count. I threw my first slider of the inning and missed up. with a 2-1 count I went back to the sinker and he fouled off 2 or 3 sinkers before hitting a lazy fly ball to right field for the 2nd out. The 5 hole hitter strolled to the plate, he was a lefty, the other two hitters were right handed, and is the first baseman whom I had gotten to know fairly well. Our team agrees, Welch is the nicest guy in the league, he's always got something nice to say when you get on first base and he always checks up on you to see how everything is going. That being said, he stepped in with a little smirk on his face and I gave him a bit of a head nod and the battle got under way. I think I missed down with the first sinker and then threw one for a strike on the outer half that he took for strike 1. I threw another sinker away for a ball and then got him to foul off the next one to even the count. With a 2-2 count, our catcher put down the sign for slider. I remembered how I had missed up earlier in the inning because I didn't get on top of it when I released it, so I wanted to make sure I executed this slider better and really finish it as I released it. I came set and threw the sharp Loomis slider and got Welch to strike out swinging for my first career strike out from the mound (Ive been the victim of plenty on the other end of things so there was a strange feeling of satisfaction getting to turn the tables). To the hitters defense, they probably weren't expecting me to throw any off speed and furthermore, were probably expecting me to be throwing straight fastballs right down the pipe, so I think I caught them a bit off guard with my strategy.
The inning was quickly over and I walked off the field and was greeted by my very enthusiastic and supportive teammates and congratulated on a job well done. After the game was finished I had to go in to the training room and do some post pitching exercises to help keep my arm healthy and try and prevent soreness the next day, which turned out to be a bit of a losing battle as my shoulder was a bit tight the next day (which was expected and normal). I later got word that I was throwing my sinker from 84-87 MPH. I'm pretty sure I can throw a bit harder, but unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to air a few out when I was on the mound, I forgot the radar gun was going to be on me! So i guess I have to just wear it when my teammates tease me and tell me they thought I would throw harder than that.
I guess I might just have to wait for my next bi-annual pilgrimage to prove them otherwise.
Sounds like your pitching performance really did give both teams something to be involved in rather than just waiting for a blowout to get over. Interesting how we tend to focus on "the score" and sort of lose track of the individual plays and more nuanced parts of playing the game. The real fun and attention paid in a ballgame should be on how well each player performs their particular skill each time they get the opportunity to do so but we often get wrapped up in the final score and forget it is only one measure, albeit an important metric, of the participants performance. After all, it’s the webgem moments that many of us look forward to seeing while watching a game. We are looking for that extra ordinary effort and dazzling play and we’re not so interested in seeing the standard “hit a ground ball to the infield, pick it up and fire it to first” kinds of plays that make up a good portion of each game. It’s the exceptional plays that you ballplayers work so hard at practicing for and performing in game situations that people remember and talk about. So, your one inning and three outs will have been more interesting than many other individual innings in recent games just because of the unusual circumstances surrounding it.
ReplyDeleteYour discussion of your thoughts about the “battle” between the batters and the pitcher (and the catcher, who is often an unsung hero, for calling a good mix of pitches) and how you work to second guess each other was very interesting. I need to be reminded often of this “mental dance” that takes place constantly in games. We spectators often don’t recognize the amount of thought that goes into the game because we more easily just see the physicalness of the ballplayers swinging, running, catching and throwing. It‘s hard to see inside the participant’s heads!
Nice post Brian. A nice performance from the mound too!
Pops
Way to be like Wilson Valdez and not like Jose Canseco.
ReplyDelete