Kansas City at Toronto, April 29-May 1
Monday, April 29 2024 @ 12:05 PM EDT
Contributed by: Magpie
The Royals may actually be pretty good this season. It doesn't happen very often, and I know it's still early, but so far- so pretty good.
And Bobby Witt Jr may very well be your early season leader in the MVP horse race (ahead of the pack as they come around the first turn? Is that how they say it when they call horse races?)
Witt of course is the son of a former major leaguer, and like the major league progeny of Ken Griffey, Sandy Alomar, and Vladimir Guerrero he carries his father's name. Hence the Junior. SO I thought I'd tell the group a little about his father. For the benefit of you young 'uns, who weren't around.
The original Bobby Witt was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1985 - he was the third player selected, after B.J. Surhoff and Will Clark, and just ahead of Barry Larkin and Barry Bonds. The Rangers had the third overall pick because they had sucked so badly in 1984 (69-92). They would be even worse in 1985 (62-99) and would get Kevin Brown with the fourth overall pick in 1986 as their reward.
The 1986 Rangers decided to give the kids a chance. They put three rookies in their starting rotation. There was Jose Guzman and Edwin Correa, a pair of Puerto Rican RHs - while Guzman was a fairly polished young pitcher, Correa was a 20 year old who threw very, very hard but without much sense of where the strike zone might be. But next to Bobby Witt, Correa was Greg Maddux. In his first taste of pro ball at AA Tulsa in 1985, Witt had gone 0-6, 6.48 while walking 44 men in 35 IP. Did this prompt Rangers management to return him to the minors for more seasoning? It did not. The three kids, along with the old knuckleballer CHarlie Hough, were the new Texas rotation.
And it worked. The Rangers went 87-75 in 1986. They had also cobbled together a brand new outfield, also made up of fuzzy-cheeked youngsters - Pete Incaviglia, Oddibe McDowell, and - the most exciting of all - Ruben Sierra. The three rookie pitchers fought the league to a draw - Correa had the best season (12-14, 4.23) of the three, although his arm would fall off in early 1987. He was still just 21 years old, and he never pitched in the majors again.
And Bobby Witt? As a rookie, he made 31 starts and went 11-9, 5.48. In 157.2 IP he struck out 174 batters, which would have comfortably led the league in K/9 if he'd just pitched another five innings. He also walked a mind-boggling 143 batters in those 157.2 innings - come on, take a moment, read that again! - which did lead the league in just about every way possible.
His second season was quite a bit like his first - 8-10, 4.91 - this time, in just 143 innings, he managed to walk 140 batters while striking out 160. Can you imagine how many pitches he had to throw to do all that? Half of them in the heat of a Texas summer?
But 1988 was a little different. Witt got off to a terrible start - he went 0-5, 7.68 in his first six starts, issuing the usual 35 walks in 36.1 innings. He then went on the Disabled List for two months. How did Bobby Valentine handle his young pitcher when he returned from his injury?
By having him pitch nine consecutive Complete Games. And we have Pitch Counts! They were: 134, 139, 129, 139, 128, 126, 104, 125, and 125. In his next start, he came out after eight innings and 151 pitches. Hey it was Texas. In August.
Why did Bobby Valentine do such a thing?
Well, Witt was pitching just great. He went 6-3, 2.08 in those nine starts and - most remarkably - walked just 35 batters in 78 IP. He scuffled a little after that, but finished his year with three strong starts. And in his 16 games after returned from the DL, he'd gone (8-5, 2.93) with "just" 66 BB in 138 IP. The Ks were down a little as well (7.6 per 9 innings - still one of the best in the league even if down from its previous giddy heights.) The trade-off was clearly worth it.
Had he arrived as a star? Not quite - he maintained the same K and BB ratios in 1989, but was suddenly giving up almost a hit per inning. That didn't work - he went 12-13, 5.14, and led the league in walks for the third time. But in 1990 he finally put it all together, going 17-10, 3.36 with 221 Ks (second in the league) in 222 IP. He had arrived, at last.
He broke down the following year. He made 9 starts, went on the DL for two months, and when he returned he was somebody else. The stuff that had made him special was gone. He was just another guy now. He was still good enough to pitch for another ten years, making 240 starts for seven different teams. His last appearance in the majors came in the sixth game of the 2001 World Series, when he gave the D'Backs a scoreless inning of relief in their 15-2 rout of the Yankees. He was 37 years old by this time, and Bobby Jr had marked his first birthday a few months earlier.
Correa was the first to break down, but Guzman didn't escape - after three seasons in the Texas rotation, he missed all of 1989 and 1990. Unlike Correa, he was able to fight his way back to have another three decent seasons before the doctors called off his career. He now works the Spanish language broadcasts for the Rangers. Correa founded a baseball academy and secondary school in Puerto Rico. And Bobby Witt is a player agent, and I'll bet you can guess the name of at least one of his clients.
Jonathan Bowlan is up from Omaha to fill in for Alec Marsh in tonight's series opener. Bowlan made his MLB debut late last September, and the one run he allowed in his two short appearances came on the 511th - and last - home run of Miguel Cabrera's magnificent career.
Matchups
Mon 29 April - Bowlan (---) vs Rodriguez (0-1, 3.86)
Tue 30 April - Ragans (1-2, 3.90) vs Berrios (4-1, 1.23)
Wed 1 May - Lugo (4-1, 1.66) vs Bassitt (2-4, 5.64)
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