In 29 games out of the Texas Rangers bullpen, Neal Cotts is 4-1 with a 0.85 ERA. The 33-year-old left-hander is having a very good season. Not long ago, it looked like his career might be over.

When he took the mound in late May, it was his first big-league appearance since May 2009. When he logged a win on June 5, it was his first since 2006. During the past four years, Cotts has undergone multiple surgeries and been released by multiple teams.

Cotts, who appeared in 284 games with the Cubs and White Sox from 2003 to 2009, was signed by the Rangers in February. He talked about the evolution of his career — including the speed bumps — when Texas visited Fenway Park earlier this summer. Read the rest of this entry »

It isn’t easy being the pitching coach for the Colorado Rockies. The reasons are multitudinous, and well-known to fans and physicists alike. Coors Field is simply not conducive to suppressing offense.

Jim Wright is currently entrusted with helping Rockies hurlers succeed in that hitter-friendly environment. He can’t do anything about the effect of altitude on batted and thrown baseballs, but he can help his mostly-inexperienced staff approach the challenges in a productive manner.

Wright, who pitched for the Royals in 1981-1982, has previously served as a minor-league pitching coach, roving pitching coordinator, and bullpen coach. This is his 17th season in the Rockies organization. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently posed a question to 10 players. It was a question that doesn’t have an easy answer. Given the subjectivity involved, it doesn’t even have a right answer.

Is hitting more of an art or more of a science?

The question was phrased exactly that way. It was up to the players responding to interpret the meaning of “art or science” and to elaborate accordingly. Their responses are listed below in alphabetical order. Read the rest of this entry »

How differently do pitchers and catchers think? They work hand-in-hand, but do they approach pitch selection the same way? Do they interpret the quality of a pitcher’s stuff the same way? Do they see the same things when reading hitters?

I’ve posed that question(s) to a number of pitchers, catchers and coaches over the course of the season. Selections from those conversations will be featured here in the coming weeks. First up is Tampa Bay Rays bullpen coach Stan Boroski.

Currently in his fourth season with the Rays, Boroski understands the pitcher-catcher dynamic as well as anyone. He played both positions in the minor leagues — “I couldn’t hit” is Boroski’s explanation for moving to the mound — before joining the scouting and coaching ranks. He was a pitching coach in the Astros system before coming to Tampa Bay. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pittsburgh Pirates went high-risk-high-reward in this year‘s draft. Both of their first-round picks came via the high school ranks, as did their second-round selection. All three players have tremendous potential, but a boom-or-bust dynamic exists for almost any 18-year-old prospect.

JaCoby Jones — drafted in the third round out of LSU — is a 21-year-old with a boom-or-bust dynamic. Viewed as a potential first-rounder coming into the season, he has the raw tools to become a big-league regular. Inconsistent as a collegian, he could just as easily crash and burn.

The right-handed-hitter has plenty of speed and power, but his numbers haven’t matched his talent. He hit .338 as a freshman, but just .253 as a sophomore. This year he split the difference with a .294 mark. Jones won last summer’s Cape Cod League home run derby, but went deep only 14 times in three collegiate seasons.

His position is a question yet to be answered. Primarily a second baseman at LSU, he is playing shortstop and center field with the short-season Jamestown Jammers. Thirteen games into his professional career he is hitting .304/.333/.464. Read the rest of this entry »

Eric Stults didn’t represent the San Diego Padres in last night’s All-Star Game. He arguably deserved the honor, which is remarkable given where he’s come from. The 33-year-old left-hander was claimed off waivers last May after being released by the White Sox. Three years ago he was pitching for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

Stults had 8 career wins when he joined the Padres. Last year he doubled that total while logging a 2.40 ERA. So far this season, in 20 starts, he is 8-7 with a 3.40 ERA and 3.32 FIP. His 1.91 BB/9 is seventh-best among National League starters. He’s been the Padres best pitcher, and, surprisingly, one of the better lefties in the league.

More than a decade after being drafted by the Dodgers out of Bethel College, Stults has evolved into a poor man’s Randy Jones. In the mid-1970s, Jones won a Cy Young award and had a pair of 20-win seasons for the Padres. The southpaw did so with a fastball that could barely break a pane of glass. Stults is also similar to his skipper. Bud Black epitomized the term “crafty lefty” throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Stults talked about his evolution as a pitcher, including his ability to change speeds with the best of them, when the Padres visited Fenway Park earlier this month. Read the rest of this entry »

When you’re a speedy 5-foot-6 second baseman with a line-drive stroke, Jose Altuve comps come with the territory. When you’re drafted by the Houston Astros, they are pretty much inevitable. The player in question is Tony Kemp.

A fifth-round pick this year out of Vanderbilt, the 21-year-old Kemp is looking to forge his own identity in pro ball. He did so as a collegian. The Nashville native was the 2013 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and a first-team selection on Baseball America’s All-America team. In his junior season with the Commodores, he hit .388/.480/.496, with 32 stolen bases. In his first month with the short-season Tri-City Valley Cats, he is hitting .314.

Kemp — who differs from Altuve in that he swings from the left side –talked about his game a week after his debut. Read the rest of this entry »

Adam Eaton came off the disabled list on Tuesday, which is good news for the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks. It is also apropos. The two are a perfect fit. Few expected the D-Backs to be leading the National League West in mid-July, and the 5-foot-8 outfielder is a classic overachiever. Drafted in the 19th round out of Miami (Ohio) University three years ago, the 24-year-old logged an OBP north of .450 in three minor league seasons. After making an impressive big-league cameo last year, Eaton came into the current campaign looking to be Arizona’s leadoff hitter. A spring training elbow injury delayed that opportunity until this week.

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Bob Tewksbury had a lot of success in 1992. Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, the right-hander went 16-5 with a 2.16 ERA. A control artist, he walked 20 batters in 233 innings.

He had less success against the Chicago Cubs. In five starts, he allowed 18 runs — 14 of them earned — in 34 innings. Andre Dawson, Mark Grace and Ryne Sandberg went a combined 26 for 65, with 10 extra-base hits, against him.

Tewksbury knows why he struggled against the Cubs, and why he had success against the rest of the National League. The internet age was still a few years away, but notebooks weren’t. Tewksbury logged scouting and statistical information after every game he pitched.

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Jarrod Saltalamacchia has come a long way behind the plate. “Salty” isn’t among the elite at his position, but he’s developed into a solid defensive catcher. He is certainly among the most cerebral. Once looked at as an offense-first backstop, he is playing a key role in the success of a Boston Red Sox pitching staff that is exceeding expectations.

Originally a first-round pick by the Atlanta Braves in 2003, the 28-year-old switch-hitter was acquired by the Red Sox from the Texas Rangers in 2010 and has been the team’s primary catcher for the past two seasons. He discussed the nuances of his craft — and several members of the Boston pitching staff — prior to a recent game at Fenway Park.

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