For his final outing of the preseason, Braves left-hander Mike Minor forgot about working on the sinker he’d unsuccessfully tried to develop during the Grapefruit League and focused on pitching as if it were a real game.
It wasn’t—the Braves faced some of the organization’s top minor-league prospects Saturday in Pearl, Miss.—but Minor’s results were encouraging. That performance, plus a general indifference to spring training numbers, has Minor feeling confident about his first start of the season Friday against the Cubs.
Minor threw four scoreless innings in the exhibition game in Mississippi, retiring 11 consecutive batters after allowing hits to the first two batters.
“I took it more of as serious matter,” he said. “I didn’t throw any two-seamers. I went after hitters and tried to set them up, whereas in spring training it was more of throwing pitches and seeing where I’m at and trying to build arm strength.”
It was a turnaround from spring training, when Minor posted a 6.26 ERA in 23 innings. In the last two starts of the Grapefruit League, Minor allowed 10 runs and 16 hits in a total of nine innings. That’s after he was sharp for the Braves post-All-Star break in 2012 with a 2.16 ERA, .87 WHIP and .197 batting average against in 14 starts.
Minor said experience has taught him not to put too much stock in spring numbers, either good or bad.
“I wasn’t worried about it at all,” he said. “Previous years I’ve had really good numbers in spring training and then I go out during the season and don’t have really good numbers. I knew that, for me, that doesn’t really matter.”
Minor worked on a sinker during the spring because he wanted a fastball with movement he could use to induce more ground balls when behind in the count. The experiment was “not very good,” he said, and pitching coach Roger McDowell eventually encouraged him to focus less on developing the sinker.
“I don’t know if I will even throw it this year but it was something to work on,” Minor said. “Maybe I will throw it later on this season or later on in a game when I need to.”
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