Sunday Notes: Harkey, Jenkins, Intangibles, Spring Stats, Meyer, more.

Mike Harkey saw his career go south in 1991. Coming off a rookie year where he went 12-6, with a 3.26 ERA for the Cubs, the former fourth-overall pick suffered a shoulder injury that essentially squelched a promising future. He persevered after surgery, pitching parts of another six seasons, but he was never the same.

The what-could-have-been hurler doesn’t blame anyone for what happened.

“I think it’s one of those things where everybody is preordained,” said Harkey, who is now the bullpen coach for the Yankees. “X amount of pitchers are going to get hurt, and it was just my turn. I don’t feel I was ever overused. I threw every Friday night at Cal State Fullerton, and when I got to pro ball I pitched every fifth day.”

Four games into his 1991 campaign, he succumbed to the inevitable. His shoulder had begun barking the previous September, but thinking it was tendonitis — “I always had a high tolerance for pain” — he soldiered on. As he said when we spoke last summer, he didn’t know how bad it was until he couldn’t pitch anymore.

Harkey doesn’t begrudge his fate, but he does admit looking back.

“I think about it all the time,” said Harkey, who finished with 36 wins and a 4.49 ERA in 131 appearances. “I had a good career — I had fun with with it — and getting hurt was just something that happened.”

Now that he’s coaching, monitoring health is a big part of his job. Perhaps ironically, the forthcomingness he relies on isn’t something he exhibited as a young impressionable pitcher.

“We watch and take things into account, but the biggest thing is that you need to trust what the guy is telling you,” said Harkey. You relay that to the people who know what’s going on. These guys either try to pitch through it, or they don’t try to pitch through it. They have to figure out what’s good pain and what’s bad pain.”

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Alex Meyer has largely been a disappointment since being drafted 23rd overall by the Washington Nationals in 2011. The 6-foot-9 University of Kentucky product has never lacked plus stuff, but shoulder woes and command issues have been constant hindrances. He has just 28 big-league innings under his belt, as well as a bulging 6.75 ERA.

The Angels, who acquired him from the Twins as part of last summer’s Ricky Nolasco–Hector Santiago swap, are trying to turn Meyer around by smoothing him out and speeding him up.

“They’re being a little more hands-on with me on things that are injury preventive,” Meyer told me when I asked what’s different this year. “We’re changing some things, trying to free up stress in my shoulder. We’re trying to get my delivery timed up the right way. Ultimately, it’s just a sped up delivery from what I had before.”

According to Scott Radinsky, there’s more to it than tempo.

“He had a slight pause in his delivery,” explained the Angels bullpen coach. “Now he’s working on a more fluid, continuous, motion, with better separation and balance. That is ultimately going to give him more behind the pitch, and it will take some of the stress off his arm.”

Radinsky said Meyer is still getting a feel for the new delivery, and the righty concurred.

“We’re doing drills on the side, trying to find that natural arm path,” said Meyer. “It’s something I need to think about a little bit, because after doing something for so long, you’re kind of tuned up that way. But it’s coming easier the more and more I’m doing it. Hopefully it becomes second nature.”

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In 1972, Steve Carlton famously went 27-10 for a Phillies team that went 59-97. Less well known, but nearly as impressive, is Ned Garver’s 1951 season. Playing for a St. Louis Browns squad that finished 52-102, the righty fashioned a 20-12 record, making him one of only two pitchers in history (the other is Irv Young, in 1905) to win 20-or-more for a team that lost at least 100 games. For good measure, he slashed .305/.365/.421 in 108 plate appearances. Garver passed away last week at age 91.

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The Arizona Diamondbacks expect to get some offensive production from their pitchers this season. Torey Lovullo gave a non-definitive answer when asked about the possibility of hitting his starters in the eight-hole, but he did laud their ability to swing the bat.

“We have a very strong group of hitting pitchers,” opined the club’s new skipper. “That might change our equation, but right now I don’t know enough to say yes or no. I am open to it.”

Last year, Patrick Corbin finished with the highest wOBA (.313) of pitchers with at least 50 plate appearances. Zack Greinke was ninth (.212), while Robbie Ray ranked 11th (.210).

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Scott Servais offered some interesting thoughts when asked recently about veteran catcher Carlos Ruiz. The Mariners manager is well-versed in analytics, but he’s perfectly willing to pay heed to non-quantifiable value.

“Players are always going to listen to other players before they’re ever going to listen to coaches,” said Servais. “It was that way when I played, and it hasn’t changed. His impact helping out Mike Zunino, helping our pitchers, is going to be pretty big. I think it’s a nice combination. You’ve got to perform, you’ve got to produce — we all get that — but I think the intangibles both of those guys bring feed well off each other.”

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This is a tidbit perhaps better shared in August, but I was just reminded of it and will pass it along now. It qualifies as one of the best waiver acquisitions ever, and if you’re not a Detroit Tigers fan of a certain age, you probably aren’t familiar with it.

On August 2, 1972, the Tigers claimed Woodie Fryman off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies, and the lefty proceeded to go 10-3 with a 2.06 ERA over the last two months of the season. Detroit captured the American League by half a game over Boston, with Fryman getting the clinching win against the Red Sox on October 3.

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Since coming to Toronto from Oakland, via trade, prior to the 2015 season, Josh Donaldson has been worth 16.3 WAR. The four players A’s acquired from the Blue Jays — Franklin Barreto, Kendall Graveman, Brett Lawrie, and Sean Nolin — have combined for 3.6 WAR. By all accounts, Alex Anthopoulos got the better of Blly Beane in the deal.

At least for now. Lawrie and Nolin have since moved on, shipped out for little or nothing in return. Barreto and Graveman remain, and while they have a long way to go to match Donaldson’s success, both have time on their side. Graveman, who logged a team-high 186 innings last year, celebrated his 26th birthday two months ago. Barreto turned 21 last week, and is ranked by Baseball America as Oakland’s top prospect, and the game’s 40th-best prospect.

The Blue Jays would make the deal again in a New York minute. But while the A’s have egg on their collective faces, they may one day look back at a tasty omelet, albeit one that was purchased at an over-priced diner.

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The college baseball season is underway. The preps have begun playing as well — the ones living in March climates conducive to bats and balls, anyway. (The mukluks-and-ski-caps regions are still waiting for the spring thaw). That means scouts are combing the country, in search of the next Gsellman or deGrom.

One thing they’ll be assessing is the ability to slow the game down in key moments. According to Colorado Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich, that challenge is mitigated somewhat by the showcase circuit, but it’s still an educated guess.

“It’s certainly part of what we look for,” said Bridich. “How a player handles adversity at a young age, how he handles pressure situations… it’s important, but you don’t always get a great look when you’re scouting. Many of these guys are playing against really good competition all over the country, but it’s not like the showcases have the intensity of a World Series game, or the Super Bowl, where you can see how they function in that kind of environment. It can be hit or miss.”

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Spring training stats are to be taken with a grain of salt, especially this early in camp. That said, here are a few notables:

Greg Bird, Jabari Blash, Maikel Franco, and Peter O’Brien lead all players with three home runs. Jhonatan Solano has 10 hits in 12 at bats. Jorge Soler it hitless in 14 at bats. Richie Shaffer is 1 for 13 with nine strikeouts. Erick Mejia has triples in both of his at bats.

Shelby Miller has nine strikeouts, the most of any pitcher. Rafael Montero has allowed one hit over six scoreless innings, with eight strikeouts. Jacob Rhame has allowed eight runs in one inning. Tyler Thornburg has allowed nine runs in an inning-and-a-third. Eight pitchers have issued five or more walks, and four are San Diego Padres.

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Done with his day’s work, Tyrell Jenkins was casually shooting hoops outside the Padres clubhouse when I visited San Diego’s spring training facility last week. The 24-year-old right-hander has a pretty good stroke, but his second-best sport is football. He bypassed a chance to play quarterback at Baylor to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school, in 2010.

Jenkins said he likes to shoot free throws to limber up his arm, and he’ll also throw a football, although neither is part of his routine. He’s started a new weighted-ball program, with Driveline balls, to get loose.

Based on his response to question following his outing on Monday, he probably does a good job of keeping his Padres teammates loose. Zach Lee has a similar background, having bypassed a chance to play quarterback at Louisiana State to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school, also in 2010. Who throws the prettier spiral, him or Lee?

“Me,” answered a smiling Jenkins. “I was going to a school that throws the ball a lot. LSU doesn’t throw the ball.”

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The following modification was announced by MLB earlier this week:

An amendment to Rule 5.03 requires base coaches to position themselves behind the line of the coach’s box closest o home plate and the front line that runs parallel to the foul line prior to each pitch. Once a ball is put in play, a base coach is allowed to leave the coach’s box to signal a player so long as the coach does not interfere with play.

It will be interesting to see how diligently this is enforced. Third base coaches are used to straying well outside of their assigned chalk-dust box, and while it was already technically taboo, rarely was an eyebrow raised. As Mike Gallego explained in a June 2015 Notes column, angles and sight lines are the primary reason for roaming.

What will happen to the scofflaws if umpires adopt a hard line? Fines? Ejections? Both? Maybe it will be 50 lashes with a wet noodle, as that seemingly fits the crime as well as anything.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

With the blessings of Bud Black, the curveball is making a comeback with Rockies starters. Patrick Saunders gave us the details at The Denver Post.

SportsNet Canada’s Ben Nicholson-Smith took a look at Derek Shelton’s new job, quality control coach in Toronto.

At ESPN 1500 Twin Cities, Derek Wetmore wrote about Minnesota’s new front office adding a full-time analyst/researcher.

At The Kyodo News, Jim Allen opined that China might be fielding its strongest WBC squad ever.

Joe Davis has the unenviable task of filling Vin Scully’s shoes. Bill Plaschke wrote about the new voice of the Dodgers at The Los Angeles Times.

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Bartolo Colon leads all active pitchers with 3,172-and-one-third innings pitched, the same number as Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown. Colon also leads active pitchers with 500 games started, the same number as Joe Niekro.

Willie Stargell had a 139 OPS+ in 1979 in his only MVP season. He had eight full seasons with an OPS+ of 145 or higher.

Duane Kuiper had one home run in 3,754 career plate appearances. Luis Medina had 10 home runs in 163 career plate appearances.

Bob Tewksbury walked 292 batters in 1,807 innings. Mitch Williams walked 544 batters in 691 innings.

On this date in 1973, Yankees pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson publicly announce that they have swapped wives, or, as Kekich called it at the time, “swapped lives.”