Report From The Fort: Fifth Starters, Confidence & Punchlines

The Fifth Starter

I think it’s fairly safe to say that the Twins will carry 13 position players and 12 pitchers on their Opening Day roster. That’s because they shouldn’t need a fifth starter until April 16th versus the Blue Jays. Even that might be in doubt, since that is a game at Target Field, and the four games before it are also at Target Field. If you’re watching the weather in Minnesota lately, they’re having a late-hitting and extreme winter, so if any of those games are canceled, it could move even later.

As a result, the fifth starter probably becomes an eighth bullpen arm for the first three weeks, and since that fifth starter is probably Martin Perez, who is left-handed, we probably don’t need to worry too much about which left-handed pitcher is going to make the bullpen. Barring injuries, it’ll be Taylor Rogers (because he's very good), Adalberto Mejia (who is out of options and the de facto backup starter) and Perez.

The Intersection Of Analysis And Emotion

Zack Littell made it to the big leagues last year and is determined to do so again this year. The 23-year-old right-handed starting pitcher was not treated especially kindly by opposing hitters in his eight appearances, but he sounds undaunted, because he learned just how hard it is. “There’s no level of baseball that's even relatively the same,” he admits. “I don’t think there’s anything you can prepare to be in the major leagues.”

Not that he isn’t trying. He uses the word “consistency” a lot, but what he’s really talking about is confidence. “It’s about getting in that mindset where you can tell yourself ‘I belong here,’” says Littell.

A lot of ballplayers talk like that, but it might be especially important for Littell because of how he pitches. Despite what you’ve heard on Twins broadcasts, the key to Littell’s success is not to keep the ball down in the zone. That’s where confidence becomes necessary.

“The stigma in baseball in pitching is working down in the zone,” claims Littell. “A lot of my success has been up in the zone, top of the zone, even above the zone.” It’s not to induce fly balls. It’s to make batters swing and miss, or induce soft contact.

It’s something the Twins have coached. They also have data to show that it’s effective, but the Twins aren’t alone in that regard. “It’s something that every team I’ve been with talked about,” Littell says. “It’s something I’ve been told and seen my whole career. Just, like I said, it’s just been intimidating to say ‘I’m going to pitch in the top of the zone.’ Especially up here.”

It it tempting for analysts to shrug off the emotional side of pitching, because it can be such a lazy analytical or cliched talking point. But in Littell’s case, we see the intersection of the emotional with the analytical. Analytically, it’s clear he’s best off when he pitches at the top of the zone. But that’s also the riskiest place personally for him to pitch, and to overcome that takes emotional effort.

Long Pause

Speaking of emotion, my favorite quote this week was from Jonathan Schoop. It was one word long. That’s what made it so fantastic.

Interviewing Schoop is like interviewing a gatling gun. He answers the question, his responses are well thought out, but he fills in all the empty spaces with you-know-what-I-means and like-I-saids. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat.

It was also clear from the interview last week that he really cares about teammates, and as such, being traded midseason last year from the only organization he had ever known, hurt.

So when asked if he was looking forward to playing his old team, the Baltimore Orioles, Schoop’s simple answer was an emphatic “Yes” followed by an unusual pause. It got a good laugh from the assembled beat writers. The man knows how to deliver a punchline.