Braves pitchers report to spring training Thursday with a new safety measure to test – the padded caps approved last month by Major League Baseball.
After three pitchers were hit in the head during a four-month span of the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the search for better protection for pitchers on line drives back to the mound went into high gear.
Major League Baseball tested a variety of prototypes before approving a new padded cap made by isoBlox, designed to protect pitchers on line drives at speeds up to 83 mph.
Pitchers have the option of wearing it. Judging by those who’ve tried it so far, not many will - at least not yet. Brandon Beachy, who is the Braves union representative, tried one on at the union meetings this winter in San Diego.
“It’s a great idea,” Beachy said. “But it’ll never be used until they come up with a more practical model than what they have.”
The cap is a half-inch thicker on the front and an inch thicker on each side. And it adds seven ounces to the weight of a standard cap, which weighs only about three or four ounces.
“It was too heavy,” Beachy said. “It was not something that was comfortable. And comfort is the No. 1 thing. You don’t want to have to think about something like that out there. It’s a great idea. It’s just not there yet.”
Braves closer Craig Kimbrel agrees, saying “It’s hard enough just to throw a pitch with nothing on your head.”
Kimbrel thinks the concept is a good one but he isn’t sold on how effective these padded caps will be anyway. All three of the pitchers hit in that four-month span – Brandon McCarthy, J.A. Happ and Alex Cobb - got hit near the ear, below the cap line. Former Brave Paul Maholm, who was hit by a line drive in the minor leaguers, took his shot in the face. Added protection above the ears wouldn’t have changed the outcome for any of them.
“If the ball is hit hard enough to hit you in the head and you don’t have time to react, I don’t feel like it’s going to be much of a difference between a hat and a half inch pad or however big it’s going to be,” Kimbrel said.
But he, Beachy and Mike Minor all seem open to the idea as time, and technology progress.
Pitchers are resistant now, just like hitters were in 1971 when batting helmets were mandated in Major League Baseball, with ear flaps to follow in 1983.
“I think if they can make it comfortable, a lot of guys would wear it,” said Minor, who was lucky to get out of the way of a Hunter Pence rope shot in 2012 that became a line drive to center field. “A line drive back at your face, that’s pretty scary - with a big league hitter up there, 100 mph ball coming at your face.”
Braves trainer Jeff Porter, will appreciate a day when pitchers wear protective headwear.
“It’s like (video) replay,” Porter said. “We have that technology, if we can make the game better and safer, then I’m all for it. I don’t care what they look like. It’s like the guys that went from the catchers’ helmet to an ear flap. Everybody thought that looked ridiculous at first.”
Porter got a tremendous scare one year during instructional league, when a Braves minor league left-hander took a line drive off the left ear.
“When I got out there, blood was coming out of his ear,” Porter said. “I’m like ‘Oh my god, this guy is bleeding internally already.’ I didn’t panic. I cleaned him up a little bit. And then I could see the cut – a laceration inside of his ear. Obviously he went to ER right away and he was fine. But that one scared me.”
He knows the big question now is how players respond to these caps and whatever models companies come up with next.
“They don’t do any good sitting on the bench or up in the equipment room,” Porter said. “Guys are going to have to decide if they want to wear them or not and that’s our first step.”
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