If Matt Bush wants a happy ending to a story fairly desperate for one, he must pass a couple of tests first.
Develop a third pitch.
Stay sober.
And not necessarily in that order.
If it's still not enough for you after Bush served nearly three years in prison for a third DUI, the latest resulting in serious injury to a 72-year-old motorcyclist, well, I get it. Even baseball people harbor mixed views, and they're usually a forgiving bunch when the talent merits it. There are no easy answers here. But there's no question about what happened on a stormy Tuesday night at Dr Pepper Ballpark, either.
As Joe Mikulik, the RoughRiders' manager, put it, "It's a great story."
An unbelievable one, actually.
Not since Jim Morris came back at 35 have we seen anything like it, and the last time they made it into a movie. Should Bush make it back, his story would be a little more complicated.
Former No. 1 pick flops as a shortstop, converts to pitcher, goes to prison and comes out in October throwing better than when he went in.
All that's keeping him out of the Rangers' bullpen right now is a respectable amount of time given his recent status and a slider to complement his 98-mph fastball and hard curve. Bush hadn't thrown anything but fastballs and curves all season, and the results were still good. He'd pretty much never thrown a slider in a game until last week.
Monday, he throws 15 pitches in an inning of relief against Midland, 10 for strikes. Gives up a bloop single to center between an easy ground ball and a couple of strikeouts. Only threw four fastballs, which topped out at 97.
Get this: A couple of the sliders checked in at 92.
Just so you know, the Mets' Noah Syndergaard averages 92 mph with his slider, and he's generally considered to have the best stuff in the bigs.
"It's a pitch they have to look for," Bush said of the slider after the game.
"Gonna be a hard pitch to hit."
Before you get the wrong idea about Bush, the statement didn't come with any bravado. He's more understated than a blank wall. Polite, soft-spoken and as surprised as everyone else at the level of his comeback and how good his powerful right arm feels.
As Jon Daniels told our Ballzy podcast last week, Bush still has some issues to work out as a pitcher. For one thing, he doesn't have a lot of experience with it. When he gets ahead 0-2 or 1-2, he tries to put away a hitter by throwing a curve for a strike. He needs to bury the pitch instead and make hitters chase.
On the other hand, if he can master the slider, it gives him the option of a pitch that looks like his fastball but doesn't have to be thrown for a strike. Everyone in the Rangers' system believes it can be his out pitch.
"When he does throw a good one," Mikulik said, "it's really, really nasty."
And to think he just started using it last week.
"It feels like I'm throwing a fastball," Bush said. "Little different grip, little different release.
"The ball is moving so late and still hard, I can tell it's a pitch that's only going to benefit me."
The RockHounds no doubt would testify as much. With two outs in the fifth, Matt Chapman, Oakland's sixth-ranked prospect, fouled off a fastball, then took a slider for a ball.
The next three pitches went 97-mph fastball, 90-mph slider, 96-mph fastball on the hands, with Chapman waving meekly as it roared past.
Considering the state of the Rangers' bullpen so far, with the league's worst ERA and Keone Kela on the shelf and the rest on fumes, now would seem a perfect time to bring up a 30-year-old reliever with the kind of stuff Jeff Banister called as good as any he saw all spring.
Like we've established, though, it's complicated. Even the baseball stuff. Guy doesn't pitch for four years, and his feel for his pitches remains spectacular. If anything, his command has been too good.
Everything's around the strike zone, which has allowed some minor leaguers to cheat on the fastball. Moving hitters off the plate would help immensely.
Then it becomes only a matter of time before Bush takes the next step in his comeback.
Last week in Detroit, Banister called it was probably best to give Bush time to "experience baseball and life." He also said Bush needs to prepare himself for the attention sure to come should he make it back. To that end, the Rangers have less information at their disposal. They've kept him in a cocoon in Frisco. No questions from the media about his past or personal life. Only baseball.
But they have a little experience in this realm, too. Maybe you remember Josh Hamilton.
"Take baseball out of it," Daniels said of Bush. "He's an alcoholic. There's going to be that element to his life regardless of his occupation. He's continuing the process day to day. We have a support network here and he has one.
"Knock on wood, everything's been very good."
Of course, as Hamilton's case reminds us, we know how it can go. Whatever your feelings about Hamilton, he proved worth the risk. Whether Bush fares as well remains to be seen.
Asked for a timetable on Bush's call-up, Daniels declined. Could be any time. The stuff is already major league-caliber, he said. In some ways, it's out of the Rangers' hands.
"Bushie's the one who'll let us know when he's ready," said Brian Shouse, the RoughRiders' pitching coach. "When he goes out there and has 12-pitch innings and is pretty dominant with everything, that's how you can tell when a guy's ready to take the next step."
So the question is: Does Bush think he's ready?
"I'm having a lot of fun here," he said. "When that day comes, I have no idea.
"It's just really going to be an extremely special moment for me."
Could be pretty special for the Rangers, too.
About the Author
