AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > February > 24
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Smoltz reinventing self (again)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. _ Just back from the clubhouse and an interview with John Smoltz, an interview that reminded me of what makes him so different.
Relentless drive. An absolute refusal to fade away until the last ounce of quality pitching is squeezed from a right arm that’s been surgically repaired four times.
The Braves pitching pillar is reinventing himself again on the fly, making adjustments when others wouldn’t dare tinker with success.
(While we’re writing, we’re watching the Braves pitchers take fielding practice, a rite of spring that you don’t ever see once the season begins. They finished physicals today, or as the over-30 players call it, “getting the finger.” Oy.)
OK, back to Smoltz. How many would make significant changes in pitching approach after a season in which they posted a 3.11 ERA, tied for the second-most quality starts (26) among NL pitchers, and ranked fifth in strikeouts per nine innings (8.6)?
But that’s what Smoltz plans to do, beginning with an unusual spring-training program that will include only two or three Grapefruit League starts and the rest of his work to be done, according to Smoltz, in simulated games against Braves minor leaguers on the backfields.
The 40-year-old Braves icon wants to pitch back there with the kids so he doesn’t get too geeked up in game situations and lose focus of what he wants to do this spring, which is to improve his changeup and especially work on his sinker and curveball.
The pitcher who made a living off of mid- to upper-90 mph fastballs and splitters wants to do whatever it takes to get more double-play grounders and popups, to become more efficient with his pitch counts so he can extend his career and keep winning games.
He’s tired of hitters sitting on his hard stuff and getting hits seemingly every time he makes a mistake on any pitch.
“In the past, power in the [strike] zone allowed me to get away with mistakes,” said Smoltz, who realized he no longer has that luxury, because he’s lost a little on his fastball and hardly ever throws the arm-stressing splitter that used to drop off the table as hitters flailed at it.
He pitched with more soreness at times last season than he would admit, and Smoltz said there were times he wasn’t quite sure how he was getting the results he got.
“Put it this way — last year I held my breath [on some pitches] and couldn’t believe the results,” he said this morning.
Yes, Smoltz threw some pitches he thought would get scalded after they left his hand, but they didn’t. But he also pointed out that he induced remarkably few double-play grounders.
True, that: Smoltz induced eight in 205-2/3 innings, second-lowest per nine innings among NL starters. Only the Mets’ John Maine induced them at a lower rate, with five in 191 innings.
So anyway, long story short, Smoltz believes he needs to make adjustments if he’s going to get through the season healthy and be at his best if and when the Braves make the playoffs, which is what he wants more than anything else.
The man absolutely pines for a return to the postseason, after watching Josh Beckett and others get lauded as the best big-game pitchers in today’s game. Smoltz is driven by that stuff, because he honestly believes he can beat anyone in a big game with everything riding on the results. Still believes it.
Tough to argue with his record: All-time leader with 15 postseason wins (15-4) and 194 strikeouts in 207 postseason innings).
It’s killed him to sit at home the past two Octobers, here in the twilight of his career with the sand running out. He wants another shot at greatness on the biggest stage, and Smoltz and others believe this Braves team is better equipped to get there than recent editions have been.
So he wants to be sure he’s ready if they do. And that starts this spring, with fewer starts in Grapefruit League games that mean very little to nothing, and a lot more work on backfields, where Smoltz said he will pitch to hitters who don’t know what pitches are coming.
He doesn’t want to pitch in front of 5,000 or 10,000 fans down here, because when he puts himself in those situations, the competitive juices take over and “I want to get guys out,” he said.
He doesn’t want to worry about getting them out now, but rather wants to do the things that he believes will better prepare him to get guys out all season and into October. Hopefully, far into October.
“This is the most I’ve ever looked forward to spring training,” said Smoltz, who is different than most, in that he actually looks forward to the challenge of reinventing himself and then challenging hitters with his new approach.
“This is going to sound like a stupid statement,” he said. “I don’t want to be in a hurry, but I have a lot I want to do [this spring].”
Then get to work, old fella. Braves Nation eagerly awaits the results.
Rotation plans coming soon: I asked Bobby Cox about the pitching plans for the beginning of the Grapefruit League schedule this week, and he said he wanted to talk to the pitchers before he gives them to us.
Should have them after today’s workout, and I’ll put them either here or in the comments portion of our blog below. Or both, if I remember.
Chuck “frustrated” by inactivity: The Braves thought Chuck James would be two or three weeks behind the other pitchers because after a winter of rest to following his slight rotator-cuff tear diagnosed after last season.
But he feels great throwing on the side and in long-toss, so now the Braves are considering adjusting their plans to get him in games earlier. They only had James penciled in to pitch in one game March 20, but it looks like that could change.
Might know more later today, but definitely soon. He told Cox and Roger McDowell that he wants to test it, because he’d rather have soreness and realize that he’s not ready than to just assume he’s not.
Braves might decide that having him wait a couple more weeks before he throws in games probably isn’t going to make a different in terms of his long-term health. In other words, they might decide that if that tear isn’t healed, then it’s probably not going to heal without surgery. So might as well test it.
That’s what James wants to do. He said he’s willing to risk it, for peace of mind. He said being here and watching everyone else practice and throw is killing him, because he feels too good to be sitting on the sidelines.
”UP AROUND THE BEND” by John Fogerty
There’s a place up ahead and
I’m going just as fast as my feet can fly
Come away, come away if you’re going,
Leave the sinking ship behind.
Come on the rising wind,
We’re going up around the bend.
Ooh!
Bring a song and a smile for the banjo,
Better get while the gettings good,
Hitch a ride to the end of the highway
Where the neons turn to wood.
Come on the rising wind,
We’re going up around the bend.
Oooh!
You can ponder perpetual motion,
Fix your mind on a crystal day,
Always time for a good conversation,
There’s an ear for what you say.
Come on the rising wind,
We’re going up around the bend.
Yeah!
Oooh!
Catch a ride to the end of the highway
And we’ll meet by the big red tree,
There’s a place up ahead and I’m going,
Come along, come along with me.
Come on the rising wind,
We’re going up around the bend.
Yeah!
Do do doo do…
Services »
