Sunday Notes: Montgomery, Giants Pitching, Devers, more

Mike Montgomery threw the pitch that ended 108 years of frustration for Cubs fans everywhere. Three-plus months later, he’s in camp competing for the fifth-starter spot in Chicago’s rotation. If that doesn’t come to fruition, the southpaw will settle for being a valuable bullpen arm on a juggernaut.

A lot has changed in 12 months. Montgomery was a Mariner at this time last year — he came to the Cubs in July — and his old club wasn’t expecting much from him.

“Seattle basically told me I wasn’t going to make the team,” Montgomery said during the World Series. “I bet on myself. I said I was going to show up and earn a spot, and that I was going to pitch well. I had some success — I had some failures, too — but it was kind of my breakthrough.”

Eight years after being drafted 36th overall the Kansas City Royals, the now 27-year-old lefty finally stepped up his game. He made 47 appearances between Seattle and Chicago — all but seven as a reliever — and fashioned a 2.52 ERA over 100 innings.

An improved curveball was the catalyst. The pitch was a primary focus going into the season, and it became an even bigger one once Montgomery got to Chicago. Pitching coach Chris Bosio played a major role.

“We saw it on video when we were getting ready to make a trade,” Bosio told me in October. “We knew there were a few tweaks we could ask him to make — kind of like Fernando Rodney when we picked him up. (in 2015) — and he bought into it. It was more pitch selection than it was mechanical. I think he’s turned the corner in his career.”

Why hadn’t the Royals and Mariners make those same suggestions?

“That’s a tough question to answer,” admitted Montgomery. “Everybody has different ways of going about things. I’ve been with a bunch of different pitching coaches now, and sometimes somebody tells you what to do, and you go with it, and it works. This was one of those instances.”

———

Dave Righetti is as well-regarded as any pitching coach in the game. “Rags” has held the job with the Giants since 2000, and he has three World Series rings to show for his efforts. The plaudits he’s received are deserved.

He isn’t the only person responsible for the club’s mound success. Mark Gardner has served as San Francisco’s bullpen coach for much of Righetti’s tenure, and Bruce Bochy, a former catcher, is a pitching-savvy manager. Upstairs, senior vice president of player personnel Dick Tidrow has a stellar reputation of his own.

And then there is Bert Bradley. He’s not well-known outside of the organization, but according to Rags, Bradley is an integral piece of the pitching puzzle.

“Bert is our (minor league pitching) coordinator, and he gets involved with everything,” Righetti told me last summer. “Whether it’s dealing with the draft kids, hiring a new coach in the system… anything to do with pitching, he has a say. Every night, our minor league coaches need to write a report, and that includes something on the other team. Bert looks at those. He’s got a lot on his plate.”

Righetti does as well, but organizational pitching philosophy isn’t part of his purview.

“In the minors, that’s Dick Tidrow, and then Bert Bradley on down,” Righetti told me. “I don’t have a say in that. I never have. When I was working in the minors (in 1999), my job was to rove, and to scout, and the boss was Dick. He’s still the boss. The buck stops with him, But as soon as a kid touches Giants soil, so to speak, Bert is involved with him. He plays a big role here.”

———

How often a pitcher should throw his best secondary offering is a subject I’ve solicited opinions on previously. Craig Kimbrel is among those I’ve queried.

“The saying is that you don’t want to get beat with your second-best pitch,” the Red Sox closer told me. “When you get into a situation where you need to make a pitch, you’re going to make your best pitch. That said, a lot of hitters in this league can time up a fastball, which is why you have guys who can get it up there 96-97 throwing their off-speed pitches. If you have to throw more breaking balls than fastballs to get a guy out, that’s what you do.”

Kimbrel complements his high-90s heater with a sharp curveball, which he threw 31 percent of the time last year. Could he see himself upping his breaking ball percentage to an Andrew Miller-like 60-plus percent?

“I don’t know,” said Kimbrel. “If I have to I have to, but that’s just like asking somebody if they’d ever do something, and they say no. You can’t say that. You might have to. I don’t know how else to answer that question.”

———

The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring, edited by Larry R. Gerlach and Bill Nowlin, will be published next month. The breadth and depth of the compendium is impressive. There are 85 chapters — the book runs close to 500 pages — and the array of authors includes stalwarts like Mark Armour, Brian Mills, and David Vincent.

Along with his editing duties, Nowlin produced a chunk of the content. Here is what he told me when I asked for a snapshot of his contributions.

“In the course of working on the book, I interviewed over 50 current and retired major-league umpires, and a few somewhat unexpected stories emerged.  One was when I learned that Ted Barrett has doctorate in theology. Another came while I was trying to learn more about the time a US Secret Service agent took the field in Mark Hirschbeck’s place, with a pistol under his jacket, in pregame ceremonies when President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch during a 2001 World Series game. In talking with crew chief Steve Rippley, I learned about the August 12, 1984 game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where a record 17 players were ejected from the game. Rippley is currently employed by MLB as an umpire observer, and one of the participants he ejected during that game is his current boss, Joe Torre.

———

Sticking with the men in blue, four veterans of the thankless craft are calling it a career. Bob Davidson, John Hirschbeck, Jim Joyce, and Tim Welke all retired over the offseason. Replacing them as full-time MLB umpires are Adam Hamari, Pat Hoberg, Gabe Morales, and Carlos Torres.

———

The November deal between the Diamondback and Mariners that centered around Jean Segura and Taijuan Walker didn’t make Dave Cameron’s Best Transactions of the 2017 Offseason. Tomorrow you’ll find out if it made his Worst Transactions of the 2017 Offseason.

Also coming tomorrow is an interview I did with Arizona assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye. It includes a mention of the aforementioned trade, and the perspective Sawdaye offered was a lesson in circumstantial objectivity.

“The Taijuan Walker deal was the first one we made, and in some ways not being here last year was probably a little helpful,” said Sawdaye, who along with GM Mike Hazen had come to the desert from Boston the previous month. “Jean Segura had an unbelievable year, and because we don’t have that history with him, it was more of ‘How do we view the players we’re giving up, and the players we’re taking on, and the money involved?’”

In other words, there was no familiarity bias. Hazen and Sawdaye were able to be fully objective with their assessments of the players involved.

———

Rafael Devers slashed a solid .282/.335/.443 at high-A Salem last year. Those numbers don’t leap off the page, but there is no denying his ceiling. The left-handed-hitting third baseman is the top prospect in the Red Sox organization among those with no MLB experience.

Devers, who didn’t turn 20 until after the season, started slow in 2016. Then he caught fire. From June onward, the promising young power hitter put up an .883 OPS. By all accounts, his turnaround wasn’t fueled by a specific adjustment.

Devers said after the season that he stuck with the routine he’s always had, and that it was “basically about putting in the work every day, and trying to be consistent.” He told me that he couldn’t explain it any other way. Farm director Ben Crockett couldn’t point to any major changes either. He said that high-A hitting coach Nelson Paulino primarily focused on helping Devers be ready on time, and be short to the ball.

The long balls started coming in July, but despite the second-half power surge, he finished the campaign with just 11 home runs. I asked Devers if he was disappointed with that number.

“I actually feel happy,” answered Devers. “Early in the year, I didn’t think I was going to even hit five, so to end up with 11 made me feel good. I think I can hit a lot more than that, though.”

———

Harrison Bader has a good perspective on prospect rankings. The 22-year-old outfielder is No. 11 on Eric Longenhagen’s St. Louis Cardinals list, and Baseball America has him 7th on theirs. Bader is more concerned with the ones being made out by his manager.

“I just need to play baseball and prove my worth,” said Bader. “A lot of people are worried about rankings on a list, but the way I see it, the only list you want to be on, on a consistent basis, is the lineup card.”

Where does the University of Florida product expect to be penciled into the lineup in 2017?

“That’s a great question,” said Bader, who is projected to begin the season with Triple-A Springfield. “Last year I was leading off, but we’ll have to see where it goes. Those types of decisions are out of my hands. I just need to make sure I’m prepared, regardless of where I am.”

———

Which NCAA Division 1 baseball program has the most all-time wins? The answer might surprise you. Texas, Southern Cal, Michigan, and Stanford rank second through fifth, respectively. None of those proud institutions can match the 4,022 victories amassed by the Fordham Rams, which played their first game in 1859.

———

Baseball Twitter was abuzz yesterday after Yankees president Randy Levine said Dellin Betances‘ $5 million arbitration request might as well have been $50 million, because “He doesn’t have the stats.” Levine went on to say “I’m not an astronaut and Dellin Betances is not a closer.” As you might expect, the hulking right-hander wasn’t amused.

Truth be told, Levine wasn’t totally off base. Betances boasts some fantastic stats, but they aren’t the ones that get relievers paid big bucks. Bronx politics aside, that’s the problem. Levine chose his words unwisely — “I’m not an astronaut and Dellin Betances is not a closer” qualified as bizarre — but it’s not as though he doesn’t understand how the system works. Betances essentially lost his case because a stats like FIP still play second fiddle (third fiddle? fourth?) to the almighty save total in the eyes of your average arbitrator.

As ESPN’s Brian Kenny tweeted yesterday afternoon, “Who decides these cases? Chass? Albom?”

Kenny was making a funny, but it’s a serious, and a not-unimportant, question.

Nine years ago, I interviewed a longtime MLB arbitrator about the job. Looking back at his answers, it appears not much has changed. The decisions are being made by smart people — the arbitrator I spoke to in 2008 is a law professor — but that doesn’t mean the process shouldn’t be improved upon. The Betances-Levine war of words is a case in point.

———

Joe Maddon was asked during the winter meetings what he expects in spring training. His response might be best described as pure Maddon.

“It’s always nuts, but it’s going to be incredible,” said the ever-quotable Cubs’ manager. “It’s going to be fun, raucous. It’s going to be a big party. I’m talking from the fans’ perspective. After all, when you waited 108 years for something, you’re going to celebrate it pretty good.

“The big thing, from my perspective, is the message I’ll bring to the group the first day. That’s my only concern. What are we going to rally around? Obviously, you do this — you relieve a burden — however, you want to do it again, and you want to do it again the next year. Also, knowing that the path, the road, the alleys, are not going to be exactly the same. They can’t be.”

They won’t be. And while Maddon has presumably echoed similar sentiments since camp opened earlier this week, his December words are worth repeating. As for whether the Cubs will repeat as World Series champs… those words alone should warm the cockles of Cubs fans everywhere.

———

LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

At Mass Live, Red Sox beat reporter Chris Smith offered an in-depth look at why Mookie Betts and Mike Trout weren’t taken earlier in their respective draft years.

Behind the Box Score’s Zach Crizer weighed in defensive metrics, specifically Why we shouldn’t discard “the eye test” in our search for truth in baseball.

Lance McCullers is getting comfortable with adjusted mechanics. The Houston Chronicle’s Jake Kaplan has the story.

At The Ringer, Bryan Curtis wrote about how sportswriting has become a liberal profession.

According to CSN Chicago’s Chuck Garfien, an 11-year-old Rick Hahn mailed trade recommendations to Cubs GM Dallas Green.

RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Herb Washington had zero career plate appearances and 33 run scored. Brandon McCarthy has 108 career plate appearances and zero runs scored. Yes, those are both records.

Per Baseball Digest, 28 players have hit at least 40 doubles and stolen at least 40 bases in the same season. One of them is Brian Roberts, who did so with the Orioles in 2007 and 2008. Houston’s Jose Altuve accomplished the feat in 2014

Per SABR’s Jacob Pomrenke, MLB teams have held their spring training in Sarasota almost every year since 1924, and none have won the World Series at the end of that season.

Earlier this week, the SABR BioProject reached a milestone with its 4,000th published biography.

On this date in 1935, Lou Gehrig — coming off a season where he batted .363 with 49 home runs — signed a one-year contract for $30,000. On this date in 2009, Jeff Francoeur — coming off a season where he batted .239 with 11 home runs — signed a one-year contract for $3,375,000.

Ryan Raburn agreeing to sign with the Reds reminded me that back in the 1970s the Rangers had a minor league righty named Rayburn Rainbolt.