In the 'pen with Kennie Steenstra
In your years in the Orioles organization, have you had much of an opportunity to enjoy life in Maryland?
[I have hade] some, we stay pretty busy with what we do. Usually when my family gets out we do a little bit of sightseeing, we go in to D.C. When I was in Salisbury, we took quite a few trips to Ocean City and out to the beaches there.
Being from Missouri, who was your favorite team growing up, and who were your favorite players?
I catch a lot of grief for this, I am actually a Kansas basketball fan and a Nebraska football fan. Everyone accuses me of being a front-runner, but that's the way I've been since I was a kid. In pro ball, I loved the Cardinals in baseball growing up, and I've become a big Chiefs fan in football since I've moved closer to Kansas City. I really enjoyed watching Nolan Ryan pitch, and as far as the Cardinals players, Ozzie Smith was always a favorite of mine.
What are a couple of your favorite memories from your playing days?
Just being around the guys. It's still what kind of drives me now, just being around the clubhouse and being able to put on a uniform every night. Getting to pitch in Wrigley Field in my [Major League] debut was quite an honor and getting to travel so many places I couldn't name, just from being in baseball all these years.
How did it feel to be reunited with Baysox Manager Gary Kendall?
I called him real quick after that. I really enjoyed the three years we had together in Delmarva, and I was looking forward to being back with him again. He's a very good coach and a very good person.
What makes Kendall an effective manager?
He cares. You are going to be hard-pressed to find a manager that cares more about his players than Gary does. He lives and dies with these guys out on the field. When they struggle, he struggles and vice versa. He just really pulls for guys and he wants everybody to have success.
What are your impressions of Denny Hocking and Einar Diaz so far?
Einar is pretty quiet, but I can already see the affect he has had on the catchers here. Caleb's throwing the ball better than he did at any point last year, Steve Lerud's throwing the ball really well right now. I think he's already had a very positive affect on the catching already. Denny, he's just into the game like nobody I've ever been around before. He wants these guys to succeed so bad that he's giving them all the information that he can possibly find, he's very encouraging and he's a very hard worker.
How long does it take you to build relationships with your pitchers?
It depends on the pitcher. Some guys open up a little quicker than others. Generally within two or three weeks of getting to know them a little bit, you can get that trust factor going and the biggest thing that we can do as coaches is find out a little bit about themselves and their personal lives and get involved that way. I think that's the quickest way to establish that trust with guys.
How have some of the pitchers you worked with last season in Bowie evolved?
I hope they've gotten better. It's been a tough year for a lot of these guys because I think at least several of them thought they'd be in Triple-A this year. I think that was a little disappointing to some of them coming out of spring training, but we talk all the time about, 'It's not where you start the year, it's where you finish.' I see this year as being a year of a lot of movement up and down the system. There's more opportunities than ever for guys, simply because I don't think [Orioles Manager] Buck [Showalter] is the kind of guy who is going to stick with guys who aren't working. He's going to keep moving people around until he finds the right combination. That's the thing that we preach to these guys, just keep pitching and keep trying to perform well here because we know everybody is watching.
You worked with Zach Britton and Pedro Beato over the last two years, does their early Major League success surprise you?
Not really, I knew they were both talented. I think with Pedro, he just got put in the right place at the right time. It's worked out well for him. I was looking at it today and he hasn't given up an earned run yet in 10 or 11 innings. The stuff was always there with Pedro, it was just a matter of command. Last year, putting him in that reliever's role, he seemed to flourish with that and get more comfortable. I think that helped him a lot. Zach, he's been on the rise for years now, so it was just a matter of when he was going to get that opportunity. I always thought that he would do well when he was given that opportunity.
Talking about Pedro making the transition to the bullpen, some Baysox pitchers have switched roles from relievers to starters. How difficult is the transition from reliever to starter?
It depends on what kind of a pitcher you are. Wynn Pelzer has done it here, but he had started before with the Padres. It just depends on the pitcher and what kind of stuff they have. As long as their body and their makeup can handle it, it's not a huge transition. It's still just a matter of trying to get people out. The biggest thing to learn when you are starting is making sure to save some bullets for the second and third time around, and not showing the hitter everything you've got the first AB. I think that's probably the biggest transition for a guy going from the bullpen to the starting.
How do workloads and workout routines differ for starters and relievers?
It's a different pattern. Relievers have to be ready pretty much every day, unless they threw a lot the night before. Their running is usually scaled back a little bit more, where the starters' [routine] is completely regimented every day between their starts every day exactly what they are supposed to do. It's a little easier for the starters as far as being able to get into a routine and having something established.
At the start of the season, every pitcher on your staff had Double-A experience. How much of an advantage is that experience?
It's a big advantage. There are not a lot of instances where I have to break down someone completely starting over with someone. Everyone has had some success here and knows how to pitch a little bit. It's made it easy on me, not having to baby-step someone along. Everyone has a pretty good idea here already.
Wynn Pelzer was ranked as the sixth best prospect in the organization by Baseball America. What are his strengths, and do you see him as a starter or a reliever in the future?
His strengths are, a good heavy, sinking fastball, sharp slider and a developing change-up. He's a guy that's got a three-pitch mix, but command has been an issue for him the last few years. It looks like he has turned the corner with that a little bit, he's starting to throw more strikes and starting to be more consistently down in the zone and where he wants to be. Usually you see that kind of mix, and he's definitely got a kind of body frame and a toughness about him where he could start. Where he ends up, we don't know. I think it's good for him right now to be starting, and making sure he gets a regular workload and making sure he knows what he's going to be doing. I could definitely see him down the line being a setup man too.
Eddie Gamboa is also ranked among the top 30 prospects, how has he developed as a starter?
Eddie kind of got in a little bit of a funk last year in the bullpen. I think the transition to starting really helped him from that same workload standpoint that we talked about. He was able to get on a routine and get a little bit more work in in-between and I really thought he was able to work some of the kinks out of his delivery and some of his pitches. The last couple of months of last season I think he threw the ball real well, and I think he's come into this season feeling the same way that he did. His numbers don't look great right now, but he's pitched pretty well for us. He's had a couple of bad breaks here and there, especially [against] Erie, but he's pitched very well so far.
Barring injury or promotions to Norfolk, how good can the Baysox bullpen be this year?
We'll see about the mass promotions. They've been very solid. Any time you can throw a Jose Diaz at the end, he's been fantastic as a closer. Guys like Cooney and Viola, we've got a lot of good arms down there. I think the thing they've done really well this year is throw strikes. I think three or four of those guys have had some issues with command in the past and I think they are starting to get comfortable and starting to learn that they don't have to be great with every pitch. If they just start out throwing strikes, they can move off the plate after that. I think we've had a few guys that have turned the corner in that regard. It's always a work in progress. We'll see what happens the rest of the way. We've got to adjust back to hitters, usually in the next month or so teams start moving guys around that have been struggling and they bring in guys from A-ball that have been doing well there and you have to transition back to those guys. So far, so good, and hopefully we can keep it up.
You mentioned Diaz's hot start, how high is his ceiling?
It is hard to not see him as having big league stuff. To me he's 95-97 [mph] with a fastball and he'll show you a very tight, average big league slider. I think it's maybe one of those situations where maybe the body has scared some teams off in the past. He works hard. He's a guy who goes out there and he wants the ball. He's pitched well for us so far. It's not my call to say, but he's definitely got big league stuff and big league ability.
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