Post by #1 Jays Fan on Mar 1, 2008 21:55:55 GMT -5
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Periodically last season, John Gibbons would receive some impartial confirmation of just how good Dustin McGowan's stuff looked from a most unusual source.
"I don't know how many times it happened but I'll guarantee you it was five or six times, when you take him out of the game, the umpire would walk over as I'm coming off the field and say, `You know, this kid has got some kind of arm,' " the Toronto Blue Jays manager recalled Saturday before McGowan threw two scoreless innings in a 5-2 Grapefruit League loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
"That doesn't happen too often and it wasn't like just one guy said it," he added. "A handful of them did throughout the year and that tells you all you need to know."
Big and strong at six-foot-three and 220 pounds, McGowan's gifts have been obvious to all since the Blue Jays made him a first-round pick in 2000 but it took years of waiting and lots of patience for it all to come together. Ligament-replacement surgery on his right elbow back in 2004 set him back while an inability to consistently command all his pitches also eluded him.
It wasn't until last season, when the Blue Jays brass wisely decided to stop experimenting with him in the bullpen and make him a full-time starter, that he blossomed. His 12-10 mark and 4.08 earned-run average in 27 starts included a near no-hitter June 24 against Colorado (he lost it to the first batter in the ninth) and a complete game Sept. 17 versus Boston in which he allowed just one run and struck out nine.
The key outing for him, however, was far less pretty. On May 23, he gave up three runs in six innings of a 5-2 loss at Baltimore and what he learned that day was how to handle himself once he got into trouble.
"That was the game I decided I wasn't going to nit-pick around the corners, I'm going to go right after hitters," said McGowan. "That's where I learned to make them put it in play and found that I'd have more success and get deeper into games that way.
"They're not always going to hit it hard. That used to be the problem for me, I'd give up a hard hit and I'd be like, `I'm not throwing it there again.' That's where it changed for me. You can't be hard-headed your whole life."
After that he started finding ways to either, at best, escape jams or, at least, keep innings and games from unravelling on him. Gibbons believes that was his pitcher's most important step and McGowan agrees.
"Yeah because it seems like I was in them a lot and you've got to learn to get out of them eventually," McGowan said with a laugh. "It makes it easier once you get in those situations and get out of it.
"It builds more confidence each time."
That growth now has tongues wagging in anticipation of what McGowan might be able to accomplish this season. Already some are touting him as the future staff ace and a potential No. 2 behind Roy Halladay as soon as this season.
Based on only one strong season, those projections may be premature but they demonstrate just how much people think of McGowan, who turns 26 on March 24.
"I don't get caught up in it," he said. "Worry about what I got to do now, not what anyone else thinks."
.His newfound status has given him some perks this spring.
Rather than worrying about trying to make the team and impressing the higher-ups, he has the luxury of experimenting a little more on the mound with a little less worry about the results.
"Yeah, maybe in the past I would have been a little gun-shy to throw some pitches," said McGowan. "But now, I can learn from here to throw 3-2 changeups, 3-2 curveballs just to build some confidence with them."
There was plenty to like in his spring debut.
Throwing mostly fastballs, he allowed two hits, one of them very generously scored, in the first but retired Cliff Floyd and Rocco Baldelli to keep things scoreless and then broke two bats in a three-up, three-down second.
"He's Roy Halladay Jr., he's his mini-me, all that," raved Rays manager Joe Maddon. "This guy is very good, he's going to be even better, he's very simple just like Halladay which I kind of like from a distance.
"If he stays healthy he's going to be a very, very, very good pitcher for many years."
"I don't know how many times it happened but I'll guarantee you it was five or six times, when you take him out of the game, the umpire would walk over as I'm coming off the field and say, `You know, this kid has got some kind of arm,' " the Toronto Blue Jays manager recalled Saturday before McGowan threw two scoreless innings in a 5-2 Grapefruit League loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
"That doesn't happen too often and it wasn't like just one guy said it," he added. "A handful of them did throughout the year and that tells you all you need to know."
Big and strong at six-foot-three and 220 pounds, McGowan's gifts have been obvious to all since the Blue Jays made him a first-round pick in 2000 but it took years of waiting and lots of patience for it all to come together. Ligament-replacement surgery on his right elbow back in 2004 set him back while an inability to consistently command all his pitches also eluded him.
It wasn't until last season, when the Blue Jays brass wisely decided to stop experimenting with him in the bullpen and make him a full-time starter, that he blossomed. His 12-10 mark and 4.08 earned-run average in 27 starts included a near no-hitter June 24 against Colorado (he lost it to the first batter in the ninth) and a complete game Sept. 17 versus Boston in which he allowed just one run and struck out nine.
The key outing for him, however, was far less pretty. On May 23, he gave up three runs in six innings of a 5-2 loss at Baltimore and what he learned that day was how to handle himself once he got into trouble.
"That was the game I decided I wasn't going to nit-pick around the corners, I'm going to go right after hitters," said McGowan. "That's where I learned to make them put it in play and found that I'd have more success and get deeper into games that way.
"They're not always going to hit it hard. That used to be the problem for me, I'd give up a hard hit and I'd be like, `I'm not throwing it there again.' That's where it changed for me. You can't be hard-headed your whole life."
After that he started finding ways to either, at best, escape jams or, at least, keep innings and games from unravelling on him. Gibbons believes that was his pitcher's most important step and McGowan agrees.
"Yeah because it seems like I was in them a lot and you've got to learn to get out of them eventually," McGowan said with a laugh. "It makes it easier once you get in those situations and get out of it.
"It builds more confidence each time."
That growth now has tongues wagging in anticipation of what McGowan might be able to accomplish this season. Already some are touting him as the future staff ace and a potential No. 2 behind Roy Halladay as soon as this season.
Based on only one strong season, those projections may be premature but they demonstrate just how much people think of McGowan, who turns 26 on March 24.
"I don't get caught up in it," he said. "Worry about what I got to do now, not what anyone else thinks."
.His newfound status has given him some perks this spring.
Rather than worrying about trying to make the team and impressing the higher-ups, he has the luxury of experimenting a little more on the mound with a little less worry about the results.
"Yeah, maybe in the past I would have been a little gun-shy to throw some pitches," said McGowan. "But now, I can learn from here to throw 3-2 changeups, 3-2 curveballs just to build some confidence with them."
There was plenty to like in his spring debut.
Throwing mostly fastballs, he allowed two hits, one of them very generously scored, in the first but retired Cliff Floyd and Rocco Baldelli to keep things scoreless and then broke two bats in a three-up, three-down second.
"He's Roy Halladay Jr., he's his mini-me, all that," raved Rays manager Joe Maddon. "This guy is very good, he's going to be even better, he's very simple just like Halladay which I kind of like from a distance.
"If he stays healthy he's going to be a very, very, very good pitcher for many years."
