Baseball

Spikes pitchers getting better grip on philosophy

Guy Cipriano

No New York-Penn League team allowed more hits and earned runs than the State College Spikes in 2008.

As a result, the team won just 18 games.

Improved pitching should help this year’s team eclipse the 2008 win total sometime this month.

The team ERA rested at 3.30 when the Spikes embarked on their current six-game road trip. Triple-A Albuquerque, High-A High Desert and Rookie Missoula — three teams who play at high-altitude homes — and the Gulf Coast League Cardinals were the only minor-league teams to end 2008 with higher team ERAs than the Spikes’ 5.40.

On most nights, the current Spikes are holding opponents to less than five runs.

Pirates minor league pitching coordinator Troy Buckley, who visited State College last week, said maturity represents one of the major differences this season.

The 15-member staff includes six pitchers — Maurice Bankston, Tyler Cox, Mike Felix, Alan Knotts, Kyle McPherson and Mike Williams — who faced NY-PL competition before this season.

Buckley also considers the newly-drafters pitchers a mature group. Marc Baca, Jason Erickson, Teddy Fallon and Phil Irwin are starting pro careers as 22-year-olds. The youngest professional newcomer is 21-year-old Victor Black, a supplemental first-round pick who succeeded against Division I competition.

The rest of the staff has spent at least one year in the organization. Brandon Holden and Nelson Pereira are the only 20-year-olds pitching here this season, and both players entered the system in 2006. Holden, a 2006 13th-round pick, is the only pitcher on the roster drafted out of high school.

“We have some pretty mature guys versus high school guys who maybe never played under the lights before,” Buckley said. “You factor that into it, and then I think the older guys help the younger guys. They know what’s expected here. We are aggressive, we pitch with our fastball, we put the ball across the plate, we’re not afraid of contact, and that reverberates to the new guys.”

This is the second year pitchers are performing for a revamped player development department, which emphasizes fastball command with young pitchers. In most cases, changeups and breaking balls are concealed until a pitcher enters advantageous counts.

Other organizations, including the Philadelphia Phillies, permit young pitchers to begin at-bats with off-speed or breaking pitches. Many Spikes struggled throughout 2008 grasping the philosophy. Some of the same pitchers, including McPherson and Bankston, are succeeding here this summer.

“They are kind of like our models so to speak,” manager Gary Robinson said. “They were trying to do the same thing last year. It just takes time for them to figure out what in the heck we are asking them to do, so there’s a confidence they have to acquire. That comes with success.”

Buckley said the staff, which includes separate pitching coaches at six minor-league levels, also understands the overall program better than it did last season. Spikes pitching coach Mike Steele, who replaced Brian Tracy, spent the second half of last season at High-A Lynchburg.

“They are buying what I would sell and it becomes easier,” Buckley said. “There’s more trust from the players. They know that we care. It’s not just a whimsical deal where we come out with a ball of fire in the first year and just go back.”

Despite last year’s ordeal, some ‘08 Spikes are flourishing.

Rudy Owens, who went 3-6 with a 4.97 ERA in 58 innings last summer, is one of the best developmental stories in professional baseball. The left-hander has controlled hitters at full-season West Virginia and entered this week an organization- best 10-1 with a 1.79 ERA in 852/ 3 innings.

Still, the Pirates have used a methodical approach with Owens, keeping the 21-year-old left-hander in Charleston, W.Va., instead of shipping him to Lynchburg. Buckley called Owens success “great,” but expressed reservations.

“It’s happening faster than I’m comfortable with to be honest because he still has such a long way to go,” Buckley said. “For somebody to do so well so early that makes me nervous because you have to continue to keep motivation going and changing levels isn’t always what the motivation is. As an athlete you have to continue to push and keep the carrot in front of them and say, ‘Hey, we have to do this.’”

Brian Leach is a different story. He spent part of his college career as a position player, but quickly understood the long-term approach. Leach took team setbacks personally last season, yet emerged from the summer with a respectable 3.98 ERA.

Buckley said health concerns limited Leach’s early-season work this year. But Leach, whose older brother, Brent, pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has entered West Virginia’s rotation and was 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA through 591/ 3 innings.

“He has taken a lot of stuff and ran with it,” Buckley said.

More stories such as Owens and Leach’s could emerge during this season’s final two months. Buckley said the pitching in the system has improved “a ton,” which means multiple summers of bloated ERAs could avoid State College.

“It has been fun,” Buckley said, “but we still have a long way to go.”

Guy Cipriano covers the Spikes for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4643 or gciprian@centredaily.com.