Jair Jurrjens is on the comeback trail. The 28-year-old righthander signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati in late May and is currently pitching for Triple-A Louisville. If he can approach his old form, the former Atlanta Braves stalwart could give the Reds rotation a shot in the arm.

Knee problems caused Jurrjens to spiral from solid starter to waiver-wire fodder. In 2009, he pitched 215 innings and went 14-10 with a 2.60 ERA. Two years later – despite discomfort in a surgically-repaired meniscus – he went 13-6, with a 2.96 ERA, in 152 innings. Then came the real pain. His 2012 and 2013 seasons were a velocity-challenged train wreck spent primarily in the minor leagues.

“The last couple of years have been stressful and frustrating,” Jurrjens admitted. “My arm was never a problem, I just didn’t have the strength to push off after the surgery to my right knee. I wasn’t using my lower body – I was throwing more with my arm – and wasn’t getting full extension. Read the rest of this entry »

David Hale went to college. Chris Archer signed out of high school. Why the big-league pitchers chose their respective paths could serve as a template for preps selected in the just-completed draft. Everyone’s situation is unique, but many will use similar reasoning in making their choices.

“A lot of the decision is financial,” said Archer, who was drafted by the Indians and now plays for the Tampa Bay Rays. “Where your family is financially can be a big factor. If a company – baseball or non-baseball –is willing to offer you a large advance, and is willing to pay the expenses of school if it doesn’t work out… that’s something you probably want to take advantage of, especially if your family can’t necessarily cover all of your school expenses.

“I also felt going the professional route would help me develop more as a baseball player. I didn’t start pitching until I was 16, so I wasn’t very refined. The minor leagues are more about development than winning games, so I knew I was going to pitch every fifth day regardless of whether I walked 10 or struck out 10. Had I gone to college and pitched as a freshman and sophomore like I did my first two years of pro ball, I wouldn’t have pitched at all.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Pillar and Alex Wood had different draft experiences. Pillar, an outfielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, was a 32nd-round pick in 2011. His signing bonus was $1,000. Wood, a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, was a 2nd-round pick in 2012. His bonus was $700,000.

They also shared something in common. Both thought they would be taken much earlier than they were.

“I was expecting to go somewhere between the 12th and 20th round,” said Pillar, who was drafted out of Division-II California State University. “I put on pretty good showing at some pre-draft workouts and area scouts told me I could expect to be drafted in that range. I was with my parents and some friends listening to the draft, and it ended up being a long, somewhat miserable day.”

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think I should go in the first round,” said Wood, who was selected out of the University of Georgia. “I’m a pretty realistic person and felt I had a legitimate shot at going that high, but draft day came around and I didn’t get any calls until after the first round ended. I thought I was probably one of the three best lefties, but I guess my mechanics scared some teams off.”

Wood was more highly regarded than Pillar, and he had another advantage when it came to bonus negotiations. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Otero is excelling out of the bullpen for the Oakland Athletics. The 29-year-old righthander has a 1.90 ERA in 56 games since hopping across the bay prior to last season. It was a hop with a twist, and the second time he changed venues in a roundabout way.

Otero is a graduate of Duke University, but the San Francisco Giants took him in the 21st round of the 2007 draft out of the University of South Florida.

“My transfer was basically about baseball,” explained Otero. “I had a disagreement with the coach and decided to take my senior year elsewhere. I went to Duke in the fall and got my degree – I was able to graduate in three and a half years – then played [at South Florida] in the spring. I was the Friday night starter at Duke and did well there – I loved it – but needed a change of scenery.”

The Miami native saw his role change when he got to pro ball.

“When I started out in short-season, I had no idea what plans they had for me,” said Otero. “I was just happy to get a chance. My first game, I was thrown into the ninth inning in a closer-type situation. After that I was used as a closer in the minor leagues.”

Otero saved 72 games in his first three seasons on the farm. He did so as a fastball-slider pitcher, setting aside the curveball and changeup he used as a starter. The latter two are back in his arsenal now that he’s a big-leaguer.

More than his repertoire has changed. According to the philosophical righty, so has the talent level – sort of.

“There’s a huge difference between the big leagues and the minor leagues, yet it’s only a very small difference,” mused Otero. “The hitters are just a little better, but that makes them much better. Consistency is the biggest aspect of that. In the minor leagues, you can get away with a mistake more often. If you miss your pitch up here, more than likely they’re going to hurt it. The hitters are good and the scouting reports are very good. They know us as well as we know them.”

Fourteen months ago, Otero wasn’t sure what was going on. How he went from San Francisco to Oakland is an interesting story.

“I was designated for assignment by the Giants at the end of spring training last year,” explained Otero. “I was then claimed by the Yankees but never actually got there. It was basically a paper move. I was claimed, then DFA’d while I was on my flight to Tampa. I got off the plane to voice mails and texts telling me that. All of a sudden it was, ‘What do I do now?’ I waited there a few days, until the waiver period ended, then Oakland claimed me and I flew back to the Bay Area. The Yankees never did communicate to me what happened.”

Otero, whose father was born in Cuba, is bilingual. That has proven to be both a blessing and a curse in pro ball.

“In the low minors there were always five or six Latin guys and I was used as a translator,” said Otero. “I also drove them around, helped them find apartments, took them to the grocery store. If they had a question about what the coach was saying, they’d come to me.

“The most uncomfortable position I was ever put in was getting called into the manager’s office to translate for a pitcher who was getting reamed out. Another time I had to tell someone he was being fined for not having his hair cut properly.”

While at Duke, the self-professed baseball history buff wrote a 24-page independent studies thesis on minorities in baseball.

“I needed a credit and the Dean of the history department said to pitch him an idea,” said Otero. “I wrote about how the Dodgers and the O’Malley family were basically at the forefront of the integration aspects of baseball. That’s from Jackie Robinson, to building a camp in the Dominican Republic, to bringing in Hideo Nomo from Japan. They also had the Mexican influence of Fernando Valenzuela. Another thing I looked at was the percentage of black players now compared to in the 1950s and 1960s.”

What era would he most like to have played in?

“I’d have like to have played in the 1910s and 1920s, in the days of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth,” said Otero. “Back then it was for the love of the game. You ate hot dogs, drank beer and played baseball.”

——

Fredi Gonzalez is one of an increasing number of bilingual managers. The Atlanta Braves skipper once helped translate for Spanish-speaking players as a coach under Bobby Cox. At the helm, he can handle everything on his own.

Four years ago, while managing the Marlins, Gonzalez handled a disciplinary issue with Hanley Ramirez in their native language.

“With Hanley it was a performance issue – a lack of performance issue – and I took him out of the game,” explained Gonzalez. “I talked to him in Spanish. His English was pretty good by then, but it was still his second language. It’s easier to speak to someone in their native tongue. That way none of the message can get lost in translation.”

Gonzalez speaks a third language, one that is foreign to the vast majority of his players – sabermetrics.

“I’ve never had a conversation with a player about advanced stats,” said Gonzalez. “I’ve never gone into WAR or even OPS. I usually stick with things like left-right splits. We’ll talk about shifting – we’ll tell them our reports say we should shift David Ortiz – but they never ask what someone’s ground-ball percentages are. They don’t ask for reasons, they just trust us.”

Players can trust Gonzalez to tell them the truth, but they also need to keep their tongue-in-cheek detectors sharp. Evan Gattis found that out firsthand last spring.

“We called him into the office,” said Gonzalez. “All of the coaches were there, as well as our general manager. Gattis is looking around and wondering ‘What’s going on?’ I asked him, ‘Where were you last night?’ He said, ‘I was in my room.’ I said, ‘We have a police report saying you weren’t in the room. Where were you?’ He said, ‘I was in my room, I promise you I was in my room.’ I said, ‘Just kidding. We wanted to tell you that you made the club.’ Sometimes players kind of tear up a little bit when they hear that. It’s a fun part of my job.”

——

There are tongue-in-cheek detectors and there are bullshit detectors. Many of the latter started flashing this past week when Manny Ramirez visited Fenway Park and proclaimed himself a new Manny. The former slugger – and newly-named Cubs minor-league player-coach – told reporters he’s found religion. He apologized for past transgressions and said his life will now be spent spreading of the word of God.

Tabloids and talk radio reacted with doubt and derision. That came as no surprise, as Boston fans are often as cynical as they are passionate. No judgment will be passed here – I feel everyone deserves a chance to put their house in order – but the skepticism is easy to understand. Ramirez was asked why he should be taken at his word:

“I could say whatever I want,” responded Ramirez. “I could say that I could read the Bible. I could say that I’m going to preach. But if I don’t live it, I’d be a hypocrite. You have to live it. A lot of people are going to say whatever they want to say, but I only worry about what God says. How am I going to work and how am I going to talk? How am I going to treat my wife? You could tell me, ‘Oh no, Manny do this, do that.’ But maybe you, outside, maybe you drink, maybe you use drugs, and that’s the same. That’s the way I look at it.”

Ramirez, who has 555 home runs and 66.7 WAR, was asked if he believes he’ll one day be elected to the Hall of Fame.

“I’m leaving that decision to God,” said Ramirez. “If it happens I’m happy, but where I want to be is in the book of life. The Bible says you have focus on the things you cannot see. The things you see right now – everything is going to pass. So why am I going to worry about that?”

——

Manny Ramirez was the MVP of the 2004 World Series. In order for that to be possible, the Red Sox had to rally from three games down to beat the Yankees in the ALCS. They did so behind the heroics of David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe and Dave Roberts.

Mostly forgotten is that Curt Leskanic helped save the season.

In Game 4 of the ALCS, Leskanic entered in the 11th inning of a tie game with two out and the bases loaded. He retired Bernie Williams on a fly ball, then pitched a scoreless 12th inning. He was credited with the win when Ortiz homered in the bottom half. It was the final appearance of his career.

Leskanic was a workhorse reliever for 11 big-league seasons. Pitching primarily for the Rockies and the Brewers, he saw action in 603 games. By the time he took the mound in the early-morning hours of October 18, 2004 his arm was toast. The Red Sox were one bad pitch away from yet another devastating defeat and he had to get outs on guts and guile.

“I was simply hurt,” said Leskanic. “When I was on top of my game, I was anywhere from the mid- to high-90s. In Boston, I was down to 92-93. If were to draw up a scenario where I was pitching in a crucial game like that, it would have been with my A stuff. It wouldn’t have been needing cortisone shot after cortisone shot just to be able to go out there and pitch. I knew I was close to the end.”

With the specter of 1918 hovering overhead, the righhander came out of the bullpen one last time. Catcher Jason Varitek was there with a question.

“When I came to the mound, Tek asked me how my slider was in the bullpen,” said Leskanic. “As long as it was changing planes it was still a competitive pitch, so I told him it was working well. We went with that.

“My first pitch to Williams was a strike and on the second we got a pop-up. Walking off the mound, I was like, ‘Man, Lord, please let’s score a run right now so we can win this game and go home.’ At that point, I was just in pain.”

——

The recent brouhahas between the Red Sox and Rays have come as no surprise. The teams have a history of scrapping when they play each other, sometimes for silly reasons. Lines of propriety have been straddled, if not crossed. Jonny Gomes has been on both sides.

I asked Joe Maddon his opinion of Gomes running in from left field to escalate the Yunel-Escobar-versus-the-Red-Sox-bench episode last weekend. Was it acceptable for a player to leave his position to insert himself into a situation?

“It depends on what team you’re on,” responded Maddon. “That’s a situation where a guy sticks up for his teammates, so it’s all about interpretation. If it’s your teammate, you love it. If it happens from the other side, you’d argue against it. It happened here in 2008. Jonny came running in [from the Rays] bench. Another time he came from right field against the Yankees. Again, it depends on which side you’re on.”

The 2008 incident culminated in a bench-clearing brawl that saw Gomes throwing punches at a Red Sox player at the bottom of a pile. A person involved in the game remembers the precipitating events this way:

“A few years back we had the James Shields–Coco Crisp thing. Everybody in the stands knew he was going to throw at him on the first pitch. The night before, Coco was yelling at Joe Maddon and the whole team. Things happen that upset people, and bad blood carries over.”

I asked a contact with another team for his take on pitchers intentionally hitting hitters. He didn’t want his name used, but he did share this anecdote:

“There was an incident last year at our place versus,” he said. “We had everything set up for [Pitcher X] to come into the game and go inside on [Hitter X]. He was their top hitter and our guy wasn’t going to be scared if he decided to charge the mound. He wasn’t someone you’d necessarily want to charge the mound against. But there really aren’t phone calls to the bullpen saying to hit a guy. Even so, every pitcher has his own way of thinking. Some guys feel it’s justified to drill someone, so they’re going to do it.”

——

Joba Chamberlain isn’t afraid to answer questions, and he’s had plenty of opportunity to do so. The Detroit Tigers righthander was a much-ballyhooed prospect with the Yankees and was introduced to the New York media almost immediately. He made it to the Bronx in his first professional season [2007] after stops in Tampa, Trenton, and Scranton Wilkes-Barre.

Adapting was a whirlwind in more ways than one. Moving through a system quickly is any player’s goal, but it isn’t without its obstacles.

“By the time I would get set up at one place I’d be moving to another,” said Chamberlain. “That was something I’d never done before, so I never really felt settled. It was a weird feeling to get called into the office and told I’m moving up a level and am pitching the next day. I’d get in my car and drive, and the next thing I knew I was throwing in a game for a different team.

“What made it especially tough is that every time I moved up it was around the time I was suppose to see my son. It’s not like the big leagues where you know which city you’ll be in.”

Chamberlain received media attention at every stop along the way. He became used to having reporters at his locker every day, and no longer finds it disruptive – at least not that he’ll admit.

“I’m fine with it,” said Chamberlain. “There are people whose job it is to ask you questions, and part of your job is to answer them. You want to give them the time and respect they deserve, and answer their questions honestly and up front. When you blow the game you blow the game. You don’t want to make it a bigger deal than it is, you just answer the questions.”

The Detroit Tigers have a defensive coordinator this season. The role is being manned by Matt Martin, who joined the coaching staff shortly after Brad Ausmus was hired in November. Martin came to Motown with nearly two decades of experience as a minor league manager, coach and infield coordinator.

His job isn’t to reinvent the wheel. The 44-year-old was brought in to help make the Detroit defense more efficient. Metrics are part of his process, as is fine-tuning fundamentals. Much like his manager, Martin is a combination of old-school and new-school.

According to Baseball Info Solutions, the Tigers have 66 shifts on balls in play [as of Tuesday] – the seventh fewest in baseball – and two Shift Runs Saved. Nuanced positioning is far more prevalent. Even when it’s only a step or two, it’s by design – and it’s effective. Ian Kinsler has seven Defensive Runs Saved, which trails only Kolten Wong among second baseman. Miguel Cabrera, who was -18 as a third baseman last season, has two Defensive Runs Saved at first base.

Martin discussed defensive alignments – including The Big Papi shift and the importance of instincts – when the Tigers visited Boston earlier this month. Read the rest of this entry »

On July 2, 1963, the San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings. Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn both pitched complete games. Marichal threw 227 pitches, Spahn, who was 41 years old at the time, threw 201.

What do R.A. Dickey and Max Scherzer think about the historic duel?

“I’m speechless, really,” said Dickey. “In this day and age we’re not used to seeing totals that come anywhere close to that. It’s quite remarkable. That being said, I’ve always been a guy who likes to throw a lot of pitches.”

“It’s amazing what they did,” said Scherzer. “Many guys in the past were able to consistently throw150-160, and they did it in four-man rotations. That seems preposterous in today’s game.”

By modern-day standards, Scherzer is a workhorse. The Detroit Tigers righthander has thrown at least 100 pitches in 37 of his last 42 regular season starts. On 18 of those occasions he’s thrown 110 or more. His high-water mark is 123. Could he imagine doing what Marichal and Spahn did 51 years ago?

“Could I get conditioned for 200 pitches? Yes, I think I could,” said Scherzer. “But my per-pitch intensity would have to be less than where I’m at right now. I don’t think there’s any way [Marichal and Spahn] were throwing 95 [mph] and their effort level had to have been lower. So yes, some pitchers today could do it, but with less intensity.”

Dickey believes much the same. The 39-year-old Toronto Blue Jays righty regularly logs over 100 pitches per outing, and he feels he could throw many more.

“As a knuckleballer, I could throw 200 pitches fairly easily,” said Dickey. “I’m not exerting nearly the force Max would be. He would have to temper it back, but I’m already operating at about 70 percent capacity. It wouldn’t be that much for me to throw that many pitches. But it comes down to effectiveness. If a pitcher is throwing 150 and getting his brains beat in, then he’s throwing 150 just to throw 150.”

Dickey was a conventional pitcher early in this career. Could he have approached Marichal-Spahn territory in his pre-knuckleball days?

“I could have,” said Dickey. “I threw 183 once [at the University of Tennessee]. I did that in a regional. I started a game and went seven innings, had two days off, then threw 183 to get us to the College World Series. A few other times I threw around 160.”

Scherzer hasn’t thrown nearly that many, but he does see value in stretching the limits. He feels it’s especially beneficial as a learning tool.

“In college, I think I threw as many as 133,” said Scherzer. “The whole pitch count thing… yeah, it’s right, but the biggest thing is how many days off you get after you make one of those types of starts. I think it’s fine to pitch that deep. You learn a lot about yourself on the pitches after 100. I’ve always been a big believer in that. That’s why I think going to college is better than signing out of high school.

“In college you’re on a seven-day rotation and constantly exposed to 120 pitches. That’s not the same as 120 pitches every five days. I think it’s good for a pitcher – and good for his arm – to learn how to pitch that deep into a game. When you’re fatigued, you have to pitch. You have to execute and use your off-speed. You also have to conserve so you can still throw your best thunderbolt on pitch 125.

“I’ve been told that some of the all-time greats, like Sandy Koufax, would smell the win when they got into the ninth inning. That’s when they got nasty. They were cruising with less of an an intensity level, and at the end they really picked it up.”

Dickey doesn’t practice conservation, but he does agree on the educational value of extended outings.

“The more you’re pushed, the more you see what you’re capable of doing with deeper pitch counts,” said Dickey. “You learn 130-140 is something you can handle. There doesn’t have be that psychological barrier. You can be conditioned for it just like you can be conditioned to run a marathon.

“As for [saving thunderbolts], that’s not really something I do. Some other guys may do that within the framework of nine innings. I remember watching Bartolo Colon pitch in his prime. He would be 91-92 and then in the eighth and ninth innings he’d be 98. I’ve seen Verlander do that too. I’m different in that respect, but again, I’m not exerting the same kind of force.

“Do I tip my hat to Marichal and Spahn? Oh, man, are you kidding? Absolutely. But the dynamic of a pitching staff has changed so much. There are specialized relievers. Teams are paying much more attention to the metrics of righty-versus-righty, and this guy versus that guy, and managers are making decisions based on those metrics. It’s a big reason we’re seeing lesser and lesser pitch counts for starters.”

——

Pitch counts weren’t a big deal for the Brewers in the late 1970s. Their starters threw a lot of innings, but not necessarily a lot of pitches. From 1978-1980, the Milwaukee staff allowed the fewest walks and logged the fewest strikeouts in the American League.

Buck Martinez, now a broadcaster for the Blue Jays, was one of the Brewers’ catchers in those seasons. He says the low strikeout and walk totals were by design.

“When I got to Milwaukee in 1978, George Bamberger was the manager,” said Martinez. “The first thing he said to the pitching staff was, ‘Boys, we’re going to cut the walks in half. We can’t have 800 walks in a season.’ He wanted our pitchers to limit the number of pitches batters saw. That helped turn things around in Milwaukee.”

The results speak for themselves. After winning just 67 games in 1977, the Brewers won 93 and 95 in Bamberger’s first two seasons at the helm. Offense was a big reason – Bamberger’s teams were the precursor to “Harvey’s Wallbangers” – but the pitch-to-contact approach clearly paid dividends.

“It was about pitching late into the game,” said Martinez. “Who are your best pitchers? They’re your starters, so you want them pitching most of your innings. You do that by reducing your pitch counts – not that we had pitch counts back then; the hitters told you when you were tired. We simply didn’t consider strikeouts important. It was about outs. We had a good offensive club and our pitchers realized the longer they stayed in the game, the more chances we had to score runs and give them a win.”

Mike Caldwell and Lary Sorensen were among the beneficiaries. In 1978, the duo combined to win 40 games and pitch 574 innings. Caldwell’s K/9 was 4.0. Sorenson’s was 2.5.

The 1979 season featured one of the most unique pitcher-usage games in baseball annals. On August 29, Bamberger used position players for the final five innings of an 18-8 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Third baseman Sal Bando went three innings. Second baseman Jim Gantner and Martinez each went one inning.

“We were down by a ton and didn’t want to use any more pitchers,” explained Martinez. “Bamberger handed Bando the ball and said ‘you’re pitching,’ Gantner was in the dugout lobbying to pitch. I called down from the bullpen and told [pitching coach] Cal McLish, ‘I want to pitch in this game.’ The game was in Kansas City and I had come to the Brewers from the Royals. I warmed up for about five innings, so by the time I got to the mound I was dead tired. I’d still have been out of the inning without giving up a run had Bando been able to turn a double play. He was playing second base by then. I threw fastballs, curveballs and a palm ball. I got Amos Otis to pop up on a palm ball.”

According to Martinez, Bando had a go-to pitch of his own.

“Sal came out for the second inning looking like a McDonald’s french fry pack,” said Martinez. “ He was greasy all over the place. He had Vaseline everywhere. He got all doctored up to pitch the next two innings.”

——

Rob Rasmussen has faced one batter. The Blue Jays southpaw made his big-league debut on Tuesday at Fenway Park. He retired David Ortiz on a ground ball to first base.

John Gibbons hinted the match-up might happen during his pregame media session. Asked about the 25-year-old UCLA product, the Toronto skipper said, ‘Who knows, maybe he’ll come in face Ortiz tonight.’ Word got to Rasmussen as the team prepared to take batting practice.

“People were asking, ‘What are you going to do if you have to face Ortiz?’ Rasmussen told me the following day. “That was kind of out of the blue a little bit. I didn’t know what to say, because I didn’t know Gibby had said that.”

Rumor became truth in the seventh inning.

“While we were hitting, they said ‘Hey, you’ve got Ortiz.’ They told me Dustin [McGowan] was going to face Pedroia to start the inning, then I was going to get Ortiz. After that, Delabar was coming in to get Napoli. It was my first time getting hot in a big-league pen, and to be honest, it was kind of a surreal moment.”

What did Gibbons say to the rookie when he reached the mound?

“Gibby said, ”Hey, have fun and join us in this party.’ That made me smile. It made me realize this is fun. There’s tons of money and a lot on the line in terms of wins, but at the end of the day it’s about enjoying the moment. We had a three-run lead, so I also knew the worst I could do was give up a solo home run and we’d still be up two.”

It took five pitches for him to retire Big Papi. I asked Rasmussen to describe the at bat.

“I fell behind with two fastballs, which wasn’t ideal,” said Rasmussen. “The first one I yanked down and away. The second one was a little up and off the plate. On the first one I was just trying to get that first strike in there, but there was such an adrenaline rush that I missed. I had to step back and take a deep breath. The second pitch wasn’t a strike, but it was more of a quality pitch. It was, ‘OK, that was better. Here we go.’ Then I got a fastball in that he took to make it 2-1. Then I threw a slider that kind of cement mixed – it backed up – but fortunately he fouled it off. On 2-2, I threw a curveball and he rolled it over to Edwin [Encarnacion].”

Adrenaline aside, Rasmussen claims to have been calm and focused on the mound. Once it was over, he reflected on the experience.

“When I came out of the game is when it really hit me,” said Rasmussen. “It was like, ‘Oh, man.’ It was then that I kind of realized the magnitude of what I did. I had just realized a dream.”

——

Everyone loves a good quote, and Steve Delabar is no exception. The Toronto reliever gladly accepted my invitation to participate in “the quote game,” an offbeat interview approach I’ve had fun with over the years. In short, I recited half a dozen notable baseball quotes, and Delabar gave me his interpretation of them.

Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice versa. – Casey Stengel

“That’s true in a sense. The way I see it is good pitches beat good hitters. Good pitchers can make bad pitches.”

I exploit the greed of all hitters. – Lew Burdette

“He was exploiting the gray. I’m a power guy so that doesn’t really apply to me. I’m just trying to throw it around the strike zone and let it eat.”

A baseball game is a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. – Earl Wilson

“Every inning, something crazy can happen. If you sat in a dugout during a game, you’d understand why. There are so many ebbs and flows. You can be as high as the moon in one inning and then the other team starts chipping away and you hit the panic button and freak out. You’re up and down the whole game, so you just try to chill.”

Baseball is like a church. Many attend but few understand. – Leo Durocher

“The further you get away from the field, the easier the game is. Even the guys in the dugout will say ‘Why did he do that?’ On the field, decisions have to be made at the speed of the game. When you’re questioning what somebody did, well, go out there on the field and make that decision.”

A ballplayer has two reputations, one with the other players and one with the fans. The first is based on ability and the second the newspapers give him. – Johnny Evers

“Now, with the social media, you can kind of show everybody what kind of person you are. Still, you could be the greatest guy and the best teammate, but if you’re not getting the job done, the media might blow you up.”

You have to be a man to play baseball, but you have to a lot of little boy in you – Roy Campanella

“You need to have fun. You can’t let it become too serious. You work hard on the side to play the game, but they don’t say ‘We’re going to work baseball.’ They say, ‘We’re going to play baseball.’ It’s a job, but we play our job. You don’t tell a kid, ‘Go to your room and work with your toys.’”

Pedro Martinez was a genius with a baseball in his right hand. One of the most dominant pitchers of all time, he didn’t just overpower hitters. He outsmarted them. When he was on top of his game – as he often was – he was almost unhittable. No starting pitcher in history has a better adjusted ERA.

Martinez might be best described as a thinking man’s power pitcher. His pure stuff alone would have made him a star. His ability to read hitters and maximize his talent put him on a whole new level. The Hall of Fame awaits.

Martinez – currently a special assistant for the Red Sox – shared the wisdom of his craft earlier this week at the site of some his greatest glory, Fenway Park.

——

Martinez on the art and science of pitching: “Pitching is both [art and science] and you have to put them together. You have to study a lot. You have to study the movement of your pitches – the distance your pitches move compared to the swing paths of batters. You have to learn to read bat speed against the speed of a fastball. You can tell a slow bat or a long swing, or a short, quick swing. You counter those things. If a hitter has a slow swing, I don’t want to throw him anything soft. I want to go hard against slow. If he has a quick bat, I probably want to be soft more than I want to be hard. You have to be able to repeat your delivery and be deceiving at the same time.

“You repeat – you try to be consistent – until they start to figure out what you’re doing. If they don’t, that’s great. Just go through your routine and repeat, repeat, repeat. I wish I could have just thrown fastballs, but that wasn’t the case. I went along with the way the hitters and the game was going. I let the game come to me. I executed whatever I had to execute.”

On being a student of the game: “I would say the second half in 1996 is when I [made the transition from thrower to pitcher]. After that I felt I was on top of my craft. I felt like I could do what I wanted to do. I’d have off games sometimes, but everybody does. But most of the time I’d be around where I wanted to be. That’s when I feel I was becoming who I wanted to be as a pitcher. Read the rest of this entry »

In 1992, Gene Lamont took over as manager of the Chicago White Sox. The following season he led them to 94 wins and a playoff berth. In 1994, his team was on pace to win close to 100 games when a players’ strike ended the season in August.

Why were the 1993 and 1994 White Sox serious title contenders?

“We had really good players,” said Lamont, now the bench coach for the Detroit Tigers. “Once Jason Bere and Wilson Alvarez came in, we had five good starting pitchers. We had a good offense, but if you look at most teams that are really good, they have good pitching. We had Jack McDowell, who won a Cy Young one year. Alex Fernandez was awful good. Scott Sanderson was good. Tim Belcher was our fifth starter the year we got in the playoffs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Heisey made his big-league debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2010. A year earlier he put up a .900 OPS with 22 home runs and 21 stolen bases between Double-A and Triple-A. Following his break-out season on the farm he played in the Arizona Fall League.

Heisey has yet to break out in the big leagues. He’s had his moments – he went deep 18 times in 2011 — but for the most part he’s been a spare part. Seeing time at all three outfield positions, he’s averaged fewer than 300 plate appearances per season. His career slash line is a nondescript .252/.307/.425.

The 29-year-old hasn’t changed much since he broke in. His skill set is the same, as is his quest to improve certain facets of his game. That became clear when we revisited an interview I did with him during his Arizona Fall League stint.

The first thing we addressed was mechanical adjustments. In 2009, Heisey told me he had “almost a no-stride swing.” Read the rest of this entry »

Grant Balfour plays baseball like a rugby player for a reason. He used to be one. The demonstrative Tampa Bay Rays closer grew up with the game in New South Wales Australia. His yelling – sometimes profanity-laced – comes from a scrum mentality he inherited from his father.

“I played rugby for my school,” said Balfour. “It’s the sport my dad played. He played some rugby league matches at the first-grade level, which is equivalent to the NFL here. He played for the Balmain Tigers, who are now the Wests Tigers. I didn’t pursue a career in rugby – baseball has always been my priority – but I played growing up and still love the game.”

Most Americans aren’t well-informed on the sport, so I asked Balfour to give a brief primer.

“There is rugby and there is also rugby league,” explained Balfour. They’re two different games in Australia, but they’re fairly similar. In rugby league you can be tackled and held. Rugby is more of a continuous game. You form rucks and mauls, and continuously move the ball. There are differences like line outs instead of scrums, but to somebody who doesn’t know the games they look a lot the same.

“There are strategies to both. You have to be tough, but also smart. I think if you can be intense and also in control – if you can have controlled intensity – you can take it over the top. You can’t lose your mind and be crazy. Intensity is something you need to harness.”

Controlled intensity is a good description of Balfour’s demeanor. The 36-year-old righthander is no shrinking violet with a baseball in his hand.

“I’m a guy who doesn’t leave anything on the table,” said Balfour. “I show my passion and my fight, and if my intensity level is up there, so is my focus. I zone in on what I’m doing and get intense about my business. My father was a pretty tough guy and always had the mentality of being a bit of an underdog and a fighter. That mentality is part of being an Australian.”

I asked Balfour if he’s channeling his inner rugby player when he’s firing fastballs and yelling at himself on the mound.

“I think maybe I am,” said Balfour. “The toughness [rugby players] have is the same as you see in the NFL. It takes one kind of man to play a sport like that. There’s some yelling going on in rugby. Like I said, I’m getting myself fired up on the mound. Sometimes I need to take a step back from that, but other times I need to yell.”

——

Koji Uehara isn’t as demonstrative as Grant Balfour. The Red Sox closer quietly and methodically mows down hitters with impeccable command and a devastating splitter. That wasn’t always the case.

Uehara was a different pitcher when he burst onto the scene in Japan. Playing for the Yomiuri Giants, he went 20-4 with a 2.09 ERA in his 1999 rookie season. He was a starter who didn’t throw a split-finger fastball.

“I was throwing a lot of sliders then,” Uehara said through a translator. “I threw fastballs and sliders.”

Uehara twice won the Sawamura Award – Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award – in his early years in Nippon Professional Baseball [NPB]. How might he have done pitching in MLB at the time? The righthander was reluctant to say.

“I don’t think about it that way,” said Uehara. “I don’t like to look back at “if” and “what” kind of things. The only thing I know is that I am able to play at the level I am now because I played in the Japanese professional league.”

His response was similar when I asked if he could have succeeded in MLB without a splitter.

“I’ve never really thought of it that way,” answered Uehara. “[But] as soon as I started throwing the split, I forgot how to throw the slider.”

Strikeout rates are lower in Japan than they are here. Did the difference in style of play impact his pitching approach?

“As far as aggressiveness, I don’t think there is much of a difference between here and Japan,” said Uehara. “The hitters here have more power, so I did have to adjust to that. I attack them aggressively and not much differently.”

MLB baseballs aren’t identical to the ones used in Japan. Does that make a difference?

“They’re more slippery here, so I have to adjust to that,” said Uehara. “What I use to get a better grip changed. More pine tar.”

More pine tar?

“I’m joking,” laughed Uehara.

NPB’s posting system isn’t a laughing matter. Uehara was 24 years old when he graduated from the Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences. He could have come to the United States. Instead he signed with Yomiuri, who subsequently held his rights for nine years.

“There weren’t as many Japanese major league players over here [in 1999],” explained Uehara. “So there were some non-baseball-related things I wasn’t quite sure about. I also wasn’t really confident I would do well here. But I definitely wanted to come here earlier than I did. Unfortunately, I was with a team, the Giants, that didn’t allow players to use the posting system. It is what it is.”

——

Tucker Barnhart almost got the best of Koji Uehara on Tuesday night. The Cincinnati Reds catcher hit a long, towering fly ball in the ninth inning of a tie game at Fenway Park. Shane Victorino caught it in front of the 380-foot marker in right-center field.

Barnart’s blast would have been a home run in 29 of 30 big-league ballparks. Not this one. When it fell just short, the 22-year-old rookie cradled his head in his hands in disbelief along the first base line.

“I crushed it – I hit it as good as I can hit a ball – it just didn’t go out,” Barnhart told me the following day. “The pitch was a fastball middle-in. If I could draw up a homer pitch, that’s about where it was. When I hit it, I immediately started talking to it like a golf shot, like Go! Go!

“Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever been at Fenway. I’m a switch-hitter and we were facing a lefty starter, so I took most of my swings in batting practice righthanded. I only took one round lefthanded, so coming into the at bat I didn’t really know what it took to get the ball out to right field. I hit it really well, but it just kind of hung up there and Victorino ran it down.”

Barnhart has one home run in 19 big-league at bats. He hit it at Great American Ballpark on May 1 versus the Brewers. The one at Fenway traveled a greater distance.

“It was definitely farther than the one I hit at home,” said Barnhart. “It’s 380 to the spot I hit the ball last night, and it’s about 325 or 330 in Cincinnati. This one was probably about 45-50 feet farther. But it comes with the territory. Things even out over the long run.”

I asked Barnhart if he was familiar with Fenway’s red seat. Located in the right field bleachers, it commemorates a home run hit by Ted Williams, in 1946.

“A few of us who had never been here before arrived early for a tour and they were talking about the red seat,” answered Barnhart. “I believe they said it’s 502 feet from home plate. I know I don’t have that in the tank. I saw it out there and it’s definitely not where I was aiming.”

——

Tucker Barnhart was in the Reds lineup because Devon Mesoraco is on the disabled list. Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman, Tony Cingrani and Mat Latos are also on the DL. Billy Hamilton wasn’t in the starting lineup in Boston due to a sore wrist.

Do the Reds have enough depth to withstand the injuries, or the talent to earn a playoff spot once everyone is healthy? The team has received plenty of criticism for their lack of moves during the offseason. Shin-Soo Choo departed as a free agent and there were no notable acquisitions.

Given the inflated demands of the free agents on the market, it’s understandable why Walt Jocketty stood pat. That’s not to say he couldn’t have found creative ways to upgrade a talented-yet-flawed team. The Reds general manager feels he did the right thing.

“There weren’t a lot of moves to make,” said Jocketty. “We like our team and we’ve liked our team all along. Unfortunately, we’ve had a number of injuries so people aren’t getting an opportunity to see how good our team is.”

Jocketty’s point is valid. Regardless of what he might have done over the offseason, his squad has been competing without several key pieces. But could he – should he – have made moves?

“I’ve learned to be patient,” said Jocketty. “The worst thing you can do is keep making changes all the time. Then there’s no continuity with your club. You need to have faith in your players and you need to have faith in your manager and staff. I do. It’s just a matter of time until we get all our guys back, and then we’ll see where we are.”

I asked Jocketty if overpaying this past offseason would have negatively impacted future opportunities to improve the team.

“It wasn’t just [will we have money later], it was also ‘Do we have enough money now?,’ responded Jocketty “We’d have loved to have Choo back, but we couldn’t afford him. And there really wasn’t anything else we felt we could do — that we felt we could financially do. Once your club is set, it’s pretty hard to make changes.”

——

When Josh Tomlin was drafted in 2005, his scouting report said he had good range with quick reactions and the hands to play shortstop. His bat was quick. San Diego’s 11th-round pick hit .351 at Angelina Junior College.

Tomlin’s scouting report also said his arm was his best tool, which is a big reason he bypassed signing with the Padres and transferred to Texas Tech. The decision didn’t positively impact his draft status – he was Cleveland’s 19th-round pick in 2006 – but it was the catalyst to a big-league career.

“In junior college, I would come into games from shortstop to pitch the later innings,” said Tomlin. “I had a feel for pitching, but wasn’t ready to make that move yet. When I went to Texas Tech, I’d pitch on Friday night and play short, second, or third on Saturday and Sunday. I realized at that point I had a better chance as a pitcher than I did playing the field.”

The Indians realized it as well. A year earlier the Padres weren’t quite so sure.

“San Diego drafted me as kind of a… I wouldn’t say a two-way player, but it was a situation where I could have played infield in the Padres organization,” said Tomlin. “The transition to pitcher probably would have happened eventually, but I’d have gotten a shot at short had I signed with them.

“When I was drafted by the Indians in 2006, it was ‘We want you as a pitcher; you’re going to be a pitcher.’ It was clearly the right decision. I could swing the bat a little, but I wasn’t going to hit for power. I was going to be a slap guy, and I wasn’t very fast either. From talking to people who have been around the game for a long time, I knew I had a better chance to make it as a pitcher.”

The right-hander clearly went the right route. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss playing the field.

“I still have the mentality of an infielder,” admitted Tomlin. “I still love taking ground balls in the infield during BP. It’s probably my favorite thing in the world to do. But knowing how I hit… I swing a wet newspaper. I don’t think I really had a chance to make it to the big leagues as a position player.”

——

Twenty-five years ago the Oakland A’s swept the San Francisco Giants in the Earthquake Series. Mike Gallego remembers it well. An A’s infielder at the time, Gallego was on the field when the Loma Prieta earthquake shook Candlestick Park, and the entire Bay Area, before Game 3. The 1989 World Series was put on hold for 10 days.

In the interim, Jose Canseco caused a disruption of his own. Gallego – now Oakland’s third base coach – told me the story when the A’s visited Boston last weekend.

“After the earthquake hit we were kind of in limbo,” said Gallego “We were wondering if they were going to continue the World Series or not. Tony LaRussa came up with the idea of sending us back to our spring training site in Arizona. That would get us out of the area and keep our minds focused on winning the World Series if it restarted.

“The first day we got to Arizona he said we were going to have closed practices and inter-squad games. He wanted the intensity to be there. He wanted us to take our at bats seriously and play hard. Break up a double play if needed. We all agreed.

“I’m playing shortstop. Dennis Eckersley is on the mound and Jose Canseco is at the plate. Everyone is taking it seriously except for one guy. That’s Jose Canseco. He’s thinking, ‘What are we doing practicing?’

“Jose gets in the box and kind of digs in. He really takes his time. Eckersley is getting ready to throw the pitch and you can see he’s getting a little perturbed waiting. Eck steps off the mound and Canseco is looking out at him, kind of laughing. Then Canseco points out to center field like Babe Ruth. Eck just kind of stood there like, ‘Oh, really?’

“Ron Hassey is catching and gives a Eck a sign for fastball away. Eck shakes. Slider, shakes again. Fastball in, yes. Eckersley rears back and drills Canseco right in the back. Canseco can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. No one can believe it. Canseco charges the mound.

“We didn’t brawl, but everyone was yelling and screaming at each other. This was at our spring training site with nobody in the stands and no media. It was just us in an empty stadium. Tony loved it. It was just the kind of intensity he wanted. I thought to myself, ‘If we get back to the World Series, we’re definitely winning this thing.’”