Sunday Notes: Bryce Harper on Stats; Storen, Gausman, Eflin, Almora, more

When I first met Drew Storen, his train had yet to reach Big League Station. The Stanford product was 22 years old and pitching in the Arizona Fall League, his Nationals debut still six months away. Since that time he’s ridden a roller coaster.

The 27-year-old right-hander has a 43-save season on his resume, but also an elbow injury and a crushing post-season loss. Briefly demoted to the minors in 2013, he bounced back to the tune of a 1.12 ERA in 65 games last year. With everything that’s transpired since our initial conversation, a glimpse in the mirror was in order.

“You try not to reflect when you play,” said Storen. “It’s human nature to do so, but you try to go day-to-day – every cliché possible – in baseball. You have to go forward, because the train is moving.

“But it’s been a good journey. There have been challenges, and good times as well. I feel I’ve grown as a pitcher. Trying harder is not always trying better, and I’m not as pedal-to-the-metal as I used to be, When I came up, I was more of a bar-fighter than a boxer. I’ve learned that you need to be a tactician; you can’t just go out there and out-stuff people.”

Analogy aside, Storen has never possessed a troglodyte mentality. He was already familiar with PITCHf/x when I interviewed him five-and-a-half years ago. He still utilizes the tool, typically to review his release point, and relies heavily on video to “make sure everything is in tune.”

Monitoring his mechanics and the depth he’s getting on his deliveries is an off-the-field endeavor. His mind’s eye is equally attentive on the mound.

“I see the pitch in my head when I get the sign,” said Storen. “Mentally, I’m already throwing it. Some guys just throw to a target, but I’ve always seen the whole pitch. I visualize it relevant to the hitter, especially a breaking ball. I want it eating the strike zone for as long as possible as it gets to the plate.”

More often than not, Storen’s offerings chew up opposing batters. Last year’s 1.8 walk rate was a career low, and despite not being overpowering, he logs his fair share of punch outs. Part pugilist, part chess master, he goes with the flow.

“You think ahead, but you also make a move at each point,” said Storen. “You obviously try to set pitches up, but it’s kind of like golf. You have to make the most of the situation you’re in. Sometimes you have to hit it around a tree.”

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Bryce Harper has a curious view of baseball history. In his opinion, players’ individual numbers don’t matter, only the success of their teams. That was my takeaway from a conversation with the Nationals outfielder earlier this week.

I asked Harper which stats he’s most interested in when he looks at the all-times greats. His answer wasn’t what I expected.

“I don’t really look at numbers,” Harper told me. “I don’t really care about stats. I just like watching baseball. I don’t look at homers or anything like that. I have no clue. I’ve never been a stats guy.”

I suggested that a reference point is necessary to judge players. His response – presumably not spoken in jest – left me confounded.

“I guess it would have to be World Series titles,” said the 22-year-old. “If you were on a good team, you must have been a good player. If you look at the old-school Yankees, you have Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris. All those guys who played back in the day, like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, won rings.”

Playing devil’s advocate, I told him Ted Williams never won a World Series.

“Yeah, I mean he was a great player, but I grew up watching ESPN Classic and seeing all those teams,” responded Harper. “But I wasn’t interested in the stats, My dad was never a big stats guy and I grew up not being a stats guy. We just worried about who was winning and who was losing, not what anyone was doing personally.”

Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Barry Bonds eclipsed Aaron’s. Those are individual accomplishments, and surely they matter?

“You get a home run record you get a home run record, but how many World Series titles do you have?,” said Harper, “To me, you play the game for team records and try to get as many rings as you can.”

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Earlier this week, Jeff Sullivan wrote about how Kevin Gausman is learning to elevate fastballs. Intrigued, I went to directly the source for a more complete lowdown. Some of what the flamethrower told me echoed the second-hand quotes in Jeff’s article. Some of it was fresh.

“I think it’s one of the best pitches in baseball,” said Gausman. “Chris Tillman makes a living out of throwing an elevated fastball off his curveball. It’s a tough pitch for hitters to react to, and to lay off of.”

Just like his teammate, Gausman is augmenting his high heaters with hooks. He still throws a slider, but feels “really comfortable with my curveball right now.” A decreased comfort level in the pitch he’s reintroduced to his arsenal wouldn’t deter the Oriole from elevating fastballs. According to Gausman, the former isn’t predicated on the latter.

Elevated fastballs were a big part of Gausman’s game when he was an LSU Tiger. That changed when he got to pro ball and was continuously told, “Throw strikes down and away, down and away.” With the blessing of pitching coach Dave Wallace, and bullpen coach Dom Chiti, he’s once again climbing ladders.

The catcher’s mask is his key when he goes upstairs, and the goal is enticement, not called strikes.

“I like to throw at the mask,” explained Gausman. “At the mask, my fastball has a little rise to it at the end. I also don’t throw it in or out, because guys won’t swing at that, especially up and in. But a fastball right down the middle, above the strike zone, is a really good pitch. Hitters will go after that, and if you have plus velocity, and it’s up enough, it’s tough to hit.”

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A week before Christmas, Zach Eflin received a phone call from A.J. Preller, informing him he’d been traded. The Padres GM told the 21-year-old pitching prospect he was “heading to LA and was most likely going to be flipped to Philly.” A day later, the Dodgers indeed sent Eflin east.

Drafted 33rd overall in 2102, Eflin is ranked by Kiley McDaniel as the No. 4 prospect in his new organization. His best offering is a two-seam fastball, and his best off-speed pitch is a change-up. He also throws what Baseball America called “a cutter-slider hybrid,’ and the righty reluctantly concurred with the description.

“I agree with that,” said Eflin. “I throw it really hard and am still working on getting a feel for it. I can throw it for strikes, but it’s not a put-away pitch yet. I consider it a slider. It’s never been a cutter in my head. I’m not a big fan of cutters.”

Eflin threw a knuckle curve in high school, but shelved it when he got to pro ball. “It just wasn’t good,” he explained. “My slider is head-over-heels better than my knuckle curveball was. I just have to preach to myself to make it better. I’m trying to get to where I can change velos on it, making it a slider, and then more of a hard slider.”

Eflin was outstanding in his Double-A debut earlier this week. Pitching for the Reading Fightin’ Phils, he limited Portland to five base runners in six scoreless innings. According to Sea Dogs outfielder Kevin Heller, Eflin’s third-best pitch was effective, regardless of what you call it.

“He really mixed it up,” said Heller. “He didn’t have a big fastball, or a big breaker, but he’d run a two-seamer in on your hands, then throw a cutter four-five mph slower and breaking the other way. He changed speeds and commanded well.”

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Steve McCatty’s playing career was unremarkable. Pitching for the Oakland A’s from 1977-1985, the Detroit native split 126 decisions and logged a 3.99 ERA. He was at his best in the strike-shortened 1981 season when he went 14-7, 2.33 and finished second in Cy Young voting.

McCatty grew up rooting for his hometown team. He remembers being “five or six years old and going to old Tiger Stadium with my dad, walking up that little slope and seeing the field all in green.” Al Kaline, Willie Horton and Norm Cash were among his favotites.

The player he most idolized wore a winged wheel.

“My Number One sports hero was Gordie Howe,” said McCatty. “I even told Kaline that when I signed to play baseball. Al thought it was going to be him, so I said that to kind of rub it in. He just laughed.”

McCatty’s adherence to the adage “Just rub some dirt on it” did him no favors. He pitched in pain for his final four seasons and not surprisingly his velocity and effectiveness waned.

“I hurt my arm (in 1982) and was too stupid to take time off,” admitted McCatty, who currently serves as the pitching coach in Washington. “I just kept pitching. The way you treated things medically was different back then. The mentality was different. Your medal of honor was playing with your heart and not missing starts.”

True to the era, the right-hander wasn’t babied pre-injury. He threw a 14-inning complete game in 1980 and finished 16 of 22 his starts in the truncated 1981 campaign. His manager regularly exacted heavy workloads from his starters.

“A lot of people want to use Billy Martin as the scapegoat, because we pitched a lot,” said McCatty. “But I won’t blame Billy, because if I’d have told him I couldn’t pitch, he wouldn’t have pitched me. I told him I was fine, and it happened. It was unfortunate, but it happened.”

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Albert Almora had the “pure hitter” tag attached when the Cubs took him sixth overall in the 2012 draft out of a Hialeah, Florida high school. Depending on your definition, the right-handed-hitting outfielder has lived up to the billing.

Almora, who celebrated his 21st birthday a few days ago, has good eye-hand coordination and a smooth swing. What he doesn’t have is a refined approach. With the exception of a 36-game speed bump in the Southern League last year, he’s produced a solid batting average in the minors. The rawness is evident in his pedestrian power numbers and his borderline abysmal OBP.

What used to come easy is no longer easy.

“In high school, I just saw a pitch and swung at it, because I knew I could hit anything,” Almora told me last month in Mesa. “I kind of took that into pro ball, and it started catching up to me. Here, you have to bear down and eliminate pitcher’s pitches.”

Recognizing a problem is one thing, fixing it is another. In Almora’s case, mechanical fixes aren’t needed. It’s all about brainwaves and heartbeats.

“My swing is there, but I haven’t been slowing the game down,” admitted Almora. “As a competitor, when you’re doing badly, you want to start doing well again. What happens is, you try this, you try that, and everything speeds up. You might not even realize it’s happening, but it is.”

The youngster – currently with Double-A Tennessee – plans to continue his quest for discipline and tranquility in a zen-like manner.
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“Step back and breathe,” said Almora. “I need to breathe and take it pitch by pitch.”

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Manny Machado expects his fellow Floridian to eventually flourish. The Orioles third baseman told me Almora “is going to be a great player once he figures it out.” In his view, injuries have hindered the young Cub, who is doing just fine. As for Almora admitting he’s allowed things to speed up, that’s just part of the process.

“That shows he’s learning the game a little better,” said Machado. “Slowing the game down is one of the many steps you need to take in order to be successful in the big leagues. It’s a process that takes time, and he’s getting it.”

Three months shy of his 23rd birthday, Machado isn’t done learning either. He readily admits as much, but he does have a good understanding of who he – and what he’s not – with a bat in his hands.

“I’m not Chris Davis,” said Machado. “That’s not my game. Davis is a homer hitter and I’m more (batting) average and making things happen. I can hit the ball out, but I’m not going to hit 50 home runs.”

Machado’s approach at the plate isn’t complicated. When I asked if it’s more nuanced than fastball-middle and adjusting, his response began with a rhetorical question.

“If you’re not looking middle, what are you looking for?,” replied Machado. “I’m not going up there sitting on a curveball. I’m trying to hit that fastball. Wherever it is, I’m going to try to drive it somewhere. Quick and simple.”

RANDOM FACTS, STATS AND OBSERVATIONS

A few days ago, Twins beat writer extraordinaire Mike Berardino Tweeted about broadcaster Dan Gladden’s use of “thumber” to describe a soft-tossing lefty. Berardino had never heard the term. I had, although rarely and not for quite some time. Yesterday, I overheard Orioles catcher Ryan Lavarnway say to a teammate “I thought he was going to be a thumber-type guy.”

Koji Uehara has retired all six batters he’s faced this year, four by way of the K. He’s thrown 24 pitches – three fastballs and 21 splitters.

Per John Dewan, 42 players have both hit and robbed a home run in the same game since Baseball Info Solutions began tracking home run robberies in 2004.

The broadcaster’s panel has been announced for this summer’s SABR convention in Chicago. The moderator will be Curt Smith. Ron Coomer, Jim Deshaies and Len Kasper will be the panelists.

Hanley Ramirez in left field at Fenway Park is looking more and more like a failed experiment. If you enjoy blooper reels, he’s been must-see. If you’re a Red Sox pitcher, mutiny is on your mind. Compared to Hanley, Manny was Yaz.