Long-ago lesson boosts Tigers now

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Jerry Green
Long-ago lesson boosts Tigers now

Long ago when Jim Leyland was a manager-in-training, riding busses through the bush leagues, he saved the career of a kid pitcher who was about to be rejected as too much of a free spirit. Leyland learned a valuable lesson that he carried into the big leagues.

The young pitcher had one attribute. He knew the location of home plate. He could deliver the baseball through the strike zone. He didn't fire rockets. So, he didn't impress the big wigs watching this excursion in minor league spring training in Florida.

"There are a lot of guys in the minor leagues who can pitch in the big leagues if they throw strikes," Leyland said postgame in the Tigers clubhouse after another victory the other night.

"Throw the ball over the plate and if you have a pitch other than a fastball, you can win in any league.

"I learned this with Dave Rozema. He had long hair. He wore white shoes. They were going to send him home and put him in a summer league.

"I said, 'Let me have him.'

"This was in Iowa. Clinton, Iowa. I put him in the bullpen. He was 2-0. I made him a starter, then he won 14 games.

"Two years later he was in the big leagues.

"Dave Rozema could throw strikes. If you can throw strikes, you can pitch in the big leagues.

"That's when I learned my lesson."

Out on the ballfield, Eddie Bonine had just tamed the Colorado Rockies. He allowed five hits and one run in eight innings of toil. He sliced the corners. He threw soft stuff, just as Rozema had years ago. Bonine seldom hit 90 miles an hour on the radar gun. He forced the batters to hit ground balls. He emerged a winner with the crowd chanting his name, "Eddie, Eddie."

And the Tigers have emerged back in the pennant race after their embarrassing pratfall at the start of the season. They didn't commit suicide after all with their bold between-seasons trading. The deals were designed to strengthen a contending club. But in reality, the trades seemed to damage the chemistry that had made the Tigers pennant winners two years ago.

Pitching is a confounding proposition. It defies analysis. In what was deemed as wisdom last winter, the Tigers traded away two of their stock of young pitchers in order to fine-tune their ballclub. Jair Jurrjens went off to the Braves in the deal for Edgar Renteria. Andrew Miller was part of the six-player youth package the Tigers traded to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

Jurrjens is currently the hottest pitcher in the National League. Miller has done well enough for the Marlins.

These two trades that were designed to guarantee that the Tigers would reach the World Series have been busts. So far.

Beyond that, the starting rotation -- a supposed strength -- imploded. Willis bombed. He was unable to locate the precious strike zone. Jeremy Bonderman is gone for the season with his circulation problem. Justin Verlander, the anticipated ace, dragged through a disappointing, slow start. Kenny Rogers, the crafty master, has not always been that crafty. Only Nate Robertson has delivered as expected through the first three months of the season -- a mostly reliable .500 pitcher.

And the bullpen was shattered by the injuries to Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney, both now repaired.

Then there was the hitting futility. Curtis Granderson, so grand as a leadoff hitter, was injured. And the Tigers turned the old Abbott and Costello act into reality. "Who's on first?"

Carlos Guillen or Cabrera?

Not that hilarious for those who expected more from the Tigers.

But the basic idea was for the pitchers to throw strikes.

Armando Galarraga and Bonine have fit in for Bonderman and Willis.

Two pitchers who a year ago were basically rotting in the minor leagues, well into their 20s with scant hope of pitching in the majors.

Galarraga kicked around the minors for nine seasons. Two years ago he had a 1-10 record on four minor league clubs. He had arm surgery and never had a winning season in the minors until last year when he was 9-6 at Frisco.

He was 26 when the Tigers traded for him this past February in a deal that created neither headlines nor curiosity. He went to spring training this year to provide an additional arm, then was shipped to Toledo.

For some reason that proves the baffling aspect of pitching, Galarraga has been the Tigers' best pitcher with his 7-2 record, and 3.32 earned-run average.

The Tigers would not be re-emerging into contention without him.

And now there is Bonine. Two weeks and two days ago, Bonine was an obscure minor leaguer. He himself had toured the bushes, just as Leyland did in his early years as a manager. Bonine had just turned 27.

Still, as it was with Galarraga, Bonine never had a winning season in the minors until last year. Back in 2004, before the Padres gave up on him and the Tigers drafted him, he had been 5-10 at Lake Elsinore, a California way-stop for pitchers without futures and veterans on their way back down.

Bonine had a 14-5 record last year at Double-A Erie and won a game at Toledo.

This past spring the Tigers did not even bother to invite him to their major league camp. He was not on the roster, a pitcher without any prospects.

"He's one of those guys whose first impression isn't good," said Leyland, saying it all.

Then Bonine won his first eight starts of 2008 in Toledo and was brought up with a 10-2 record.

He was just an emergency starter as Willis was dispatched to the Lakeland Flying Tigers for retooling. In his first start, on national television, Bonine stifled the Dodgers.

Now funny -- with his armament of puffy, on-target pitches -- Bonine is part of Leyland's rotation as the Tigers have forced themselves back into the race.

It was 33 years ago when he managed the Tigers' club in Clinton, Iowa, that Leyland interceded in favor of long-haired Dave Rozema in his white spikes. And the very rambunctious behavior that was so atypical of the straight-laced, conservative Tigers of the era -- and even now.

A managerial lesson learned in 1975 has become vital in the Tigers' recovery in 2008.

For a pitcher, the best thing you can do is throw strikes all the time.

See Greg Maddux!!