In the mind of a reliever
To be a relief pitcher, you've got to have it.
Nevermind that ice water in the veins stuff, having a four-seamer that you can heave up there somewhere in the mid-90s or that Teflon way of forgetting a blown save or walk-off home run within a matter of minutes, although those things certainly help.
Relief pitchers have it. If they don't, the unforgiving animal that is baseball, so great at weeding out the weak of heart, has a not-so-subtle way of making sure they're not relievers for very long.
Without it, the men who make up the bullpen, Pavlovian in their response to a ringing phone and probably best analogized to an insurance policy-the less they're used, the better the situation is-can gray a manager's hair faster than any teenage daughter or doctor's visit ever could.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees closer Jim Brower knows about it. A 13-year pro, Brower knows that the fine line between being a reliever and being a starter all comes down to which side of that line a pitcher falls on when it comes to mentality.
"Being a reliever is more intense, and there's no time to relax," Brower, 34, said. "Everything I do out there is aggressive. And when you come in there with guys on base, most aggressive usually wins."
Brower has handled that lack of relaxation time quite well this season. After coming over from Pittsburgh affiliate and International-League foe Indianapolis in early May, the righty has been light-out, assuming the role of closer and baffling the vast majority of IL batters he's faced.
Entering this week, in 14 appearances for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Brower was 2-0 with seven saves and had put together a minuscule 1.00 ERA.
Sean Henn, who has worked both out of the pen and as a starter, and who was promoted to New York earlier this week, said he thinks Brower is completely accurate in his evaluation of the reliever's mentality.
"Mentally it's a huge difference between coming out of the bullpen and starting," said Henn, who's seen both sides of the coin this year in 20 appearances between Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and New York.
Of those 20, Henn has started just three. In comparison, of the 99 games he pitched in from 2001 to 2006, he started 82.
"As a starter there's not really a sense of urgency there," Henn said. "You know that as long as you go out there and throw six innings and only give up a couple runs, you know you've done your job and given your team a chance to win.
"(Out of the bullpen), you definitely have to lock it in a lot quicker. You have to have your stuff right then, and you can't really fiddle around for it, because you could walk a guy and that could be it."
Building up to and maintaining that sense of intensity proves to be all the more difficult for relievers because of the uncertainty of when they'll actually get to pitch, if at all.
In the early innings of the game, the pitchers in the bullpen generally bide their time by doing a variety of things: scouting the opposing team's hitters, stretching or trying to ratchet up the adrenaline for later.
Colter Bean, who has made 15 appearances this season for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with 13 of those coming out of the bullpen, has pitched more than 330 games in relief. He said that for him, keeping his mind focused on the game is what's most important while in the bullpen.
"Just trying to keep yourself ready mentally, that's the toughest part of being a reliever," Bean, 30, said. "You might get in the game, but you might not, too, and keeping that mindset is hard."
Lefty long reliever Ben Kozlowski, who's in his first year with the Yankees' organization, said he uses the early part of the game to try to discover any patterns he could possibly find and exploit among the other club's lineup. He also said that when the phone rings for him to warm up, it's all about staying relaxed.
"Early on, if it's a new team, I'm just kind of checking out the hitters, seeing the way they approach and trying to get an idea of how I want to pitch to them myself," Kozlowski said. "But you have to try to stay level-headed when your name is called. Typically, you're kind of warned a little bit before when you possibly will get in, but you just have to go about your business and stay calm."
When a reliever does get in, the intensity that was built up throughout the early innings of the game, during the variety of stretches to get loose and for the duration of the time spent warming up reaches its peak as the bullpen gate swings open and an often dicey situation awaits on the other side.
"All I think about is looking at the scoreboard, seeing the situation and trying to throw strikes," Bean said of the trot to enter the game. "If you start thinking about a lot of things out there, you're going to pitch yourself into a black hole almost, and that's the last thing you want to do."
But for others, or at least for Brower, the jog to the mound is more about letting go.
"Running in is when I try to empty my thoughts," Brower said. "I don't want to trip, I never know where to put my glove. Where do I want to stop, do I want to pull up a little short of the dirt, or do I want to run thru the infield? Having that blasé run in when I can empty my thoughts, that's when I have a chance."