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Saturday, May 31, 2008
Campillo a valuable Brave
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since August 2005, Mike Hampton’s pitching record with the Braves is 0-0. His salary for just this season alone would cover nearly the entire payroll of the Florida Marlins. Frankly, it would appear he has just about reached a dead end. Through. Quit. Even speculative stories about how much progress he’s making toward returning to useful form have been noticeably absent. Sometimes you wonder if he ever wants to pitch again, or if his arm has taken early retirement.
That being such as it is, let’s consider the case of Jorge Campillo, whose arm also has had one of those Tommy John remodeling jobs. It’s working like new. Jorge has won more games in two months than Hampton has in two years, and he started late. A lot of us experts were wondering how long it would be before he’d get a chance to start with all those faltering arms around him. Even Tom Glavine took a sabbatical on the DL.
Once Campillo got in the rotation, only a blister could stop him. But just temporarily. He knows how these big-league teams can get careless with a guy, beginning with the Braves, and he’s taking no chances. Bet you didn’t know that he was in the Braves’ stable as long as 12 seasons ago. He was signed by an unidentified scout in 1996, then just as handily lent to the Mexico City Tigres in his home country. Then at the end of the season they gave him to them. Take him he’s yours.
That’s a good league, the Mexican, Triple-A, where Warren Spahn finally hung up his gear. Not exactly 5-star accommodations. Max Lanier, who jumped the Cardinals in 1946 to join the Pasquel brothers, told of a park in which a railroad ran through center field, and the game had to stop when the train came through. For Campillo, it was beginning to look like a lifetime. He put up good figures for the Tigres, good ERAs, started and relieved, but for eight years nobody came calling.
Then Seattle bought him in 2005. After arm surgery, he was a Pacific Coast League earned-run leader, but still the Mariners weren’t impressed. Then came the Braves again, nearly 12 years since the first time. They picked him up off the street the day after Christmas last year, but registered him under that non-descript category of “non-roster invitee.”
So was his spring non-descript, but soon after the season opened the Braves’ pitching was in such a jumble, he was called up from Richmond. First thing you notice about him is his non-conforming style. He has an economical delivery, not a lot of windmilling and fussing about on the mound. He gets ready to pitch. He delivers the ball. At the top, it seems he’s re-gripping the ball and comes almost directly overhand. However he does it, it’s working. At the moment, he has won twice, should have had another, and his earned-run average leads the staff.
By his calendar, he won’t be 29 years old until August. The Braves list him at 6 feet 1, but he doesn’t look it. He is an amiable sort, but you’ll notice the absence of conversation here. His management of the English language is still a work in progress, as is my Spanish. His pitching, though, speaks a language easily translated to major league. In the surgical absence of Peter Moylan, the Australian surprise of a year ago, Campillo (“cam-pee-yo”) has the look of the pitching sleeper of ‘08.
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