Confidence the key for Twins’ rookie Swarzak

By Thom Henninger

The Minnesota Twins made Anthony Swarzak their second-round pick in 2004, a year in which the organization selected six pitchers in the first three rounds. Three of them — Swarzak, Jay Rainville and Kyle Waldrop — anchored a prospect-laden rotation at Class-A Beloit in 2005, but Swarzak is the only one of the three to dodge injuries and reach the Triple-A level.

On May 23, the 23-year-old Swarzak joined southpaw Glen Perkins as the only hurlers among those six early picks to pitch for Minnesota. And what a debut it was, starting in place of Perkins, who is out with an elbow ailment.

The 6-foot-4 right-hander worked seven scoreless innings of a 6-2 win over Milwaukee. He shut down the Brewers before a boisterous Metrodome crowd of more than 40,000, with loyalties split between the two teams. Although it was the largest crowd Swarzak had seen from a mound, nerves never got in the way.

Swarzak scattered five hits and a pair of walks while striking out three Brewers. He put his poise on display in the opening inning after allowing a full-count walk to Casey McGehee and a bloop single to Ryan Braun with one out. With a large contingent of Milwaukee fans breaking out a “Let’s go Brewers” chant, Swarzak caught Prince Fielder looking at a called third strike that started inside and tailed back over the plate. Twins fans erupted, and the rookie then retired Mike Cameron on a groundball.

What worked for the Fort Lauderdale native in the minors worked for him in his big league debut. Swarzak successfully located a moving low-90s fastball that he was able to work up and down, in and out, and he artfully changed speeds with it at times. In the course of Swarzak’s seven innings, no Brewer advanced beyond second base.

The rookie faced another 2008 playoff team in his second outing on May 28. He turned in another quality start, though two Jason Varitek homers led to a 3-1 defeat. On Wednesday, Swarzak endured the major league initiation that was sure to come one day. He was roughed up for nine hits and six runs over four innings in a 10-1 loss to Cleveland. Still, he has made a solid case to stick in a rotation that needs a boost. Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey have been solid contributors while the injured Perkins and the Twins’ top two starters, Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano, have been erratic.

A year ago, it was less certain whether Swarzak would take the final steps to the majors. After pitching his way to Double-A New Britain by midseason in 2007, Swarzak took a step backward when he returned to the Double-A affiliate last spring. He started well, but his season took a downward turn and the right-hander couldn’t seem to reverse the trend.

Twins farm director Jim Rantz said Swarzak lost his confidence in his second stint with New Britain. Suddenly he wasn’t trusting his stuff and began falling behind hitters regularly. He had the pitches, Rantz noted, but his ability to locate them consistently had evaporated.

Swarzak has done a complete turnaround in a year’s time. He was 3-8 with a 5.67 ERA in 20 starts for New Britain when an injury pushed him to Triple-A Rochester late in the 2008 season. His reversal of fortune began immediately, as Swarzak went 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven Triple-A starts.

“He rose to the challenge and the change of scenery helped his situation,” Rantz said last week. “Now he’s very aggressive in the strike zone. He’s challenging hitters with all of his pitches and he’s using both sides of the plate.”

Before he was promoted two weeks ago, Swarzak had built on his late-2008 success at Rochester. He posted a 2.25 ERA in seven starts for the Red Wings — and allowed just one home run — but he was 3-4 due to a lack of run support.

The day after his Boston start, I talked with Swarzak by phone. As he was four years ago, when he was interviewed as part of a feature on that Beloit rotation, Swarzak was engaging and willing to talk about his craft.

TH: I talked to you in Beloit a few years ago, and at that time, you had a sharp downward-breaking curve that Class-A hitters couldn’t seem to do anything with at all. You often threw if for a first-pitch strike. Has it been a constant for you all this time?
AS: Yes, I still throw it first pitch. I still try to throw it for a strikeout here and there. It’s still definitely one of my go-to pitches.

TH: At that time too, you were working on a changeup that you were becoming much more happy with. How has that pitch developed?
AS: That definitely has been the pitch that I keep in my back pocket, and I break it out when I need it. It’s gotten me through games where I couldn’t find my curveball. And it’s only gotten better over the years.

TH: You struggled for the first half of last season. Tell me about that.
AS: I got in a little bit of trouble last year in Double-A and couldn’t turn it around. I started out real good, then started not doing so hot and couldn’t figure out what it was. I just kept trying harder and harder and harder. And it seemed like the harder I tried, the worse it got. I put together a couple good starts at the end of the year, and they moved me up to Triple-A. And I pitched pretty well up there, and now here I am.

TH: The day I saw you pitch in Beloit, you located your fastball very well, and you kept it low. An ongoing challenge for all pitchers is the location of the fastball. How would assess your fastball command in the time since I’ve seen you?
AS: When my numbers aren’t so good, it’s definitely the fastball command. Lately, especially late last year and so far this year — knock on wood — my fastball command has gotten better and better.

TH: You’ve changed speeds on the fastball in your major league starts. Is that something you’ve always done?
AS: No, but now I’m facing major league hitters. I’ve got to make sure I’m changing speeds and making the ball move a little bit. If they see every fastball at 94 (mph), it doesn’t seem that fast any more the second or third time through the lineup. So you try to get them out with a good, located fastball at 88, 91, 92.

TH: Is changing speeds on the fastball a matter of tweaking your grip or the pressure on the ball?
AS: Yeah, it’s just the grip on the ball.

TH: Is there someone who worked with you on that?
AS: Yeah, my pitching coach in Double A last year, Steve Mintz, got me throwing two-seamers. It slowed the ball down a little bit and made it move.

TH: Your first two big league starts were against two playoff teams from last season. I think I’d be the happiest man on the planet if I’d done what you did. How about you?
AS: I feel great about my first start — seven scoreless against the Milwaukee Brewers. That was pretty special. It could have gone either way. Some great plays got made behind me. Some good double-play balls were turned. That’s what you have to do at this level. You have to trust your guys behind you to get outs for you. And my start against the Red Sox yesterday, there are a lot of good things I can take from that start. They’re a great hitting team, and I think I kept my team in it.

TH: How much nervousness was involved?
AS: I was pretty nervous. I think I was more nervous yesterday than I was in my first start.

TH: You really walked into a unique situation in your debut, with the two teams sharing state borders. It was kind of like a Cubs-Cardinals game. That must have been interesting.
AS: It was a great atmosphere. It got really loud in there for a little bit. I had to step back and take a deep breath and just focus on making a pitch.

TH: How would you assess those two starts from a pitching standpoint? Which pitches were working for you and which maybe wasn’t quite as good as you wanted it to be?
AS: First start, I didn’t throw too many curveballs. I couldn’t really find it. I think maybe I was a little too amped up and tried to throw the best curveballs of my life, and it doesn’t work out that way in this game. So I threw mostly fastballs and changeups. Against the Red Sox yesterday, I struggled a little bit with the fastball command, and it forced me to go to some offspeed pitches. And I got through it.

TH: So the curveball was something you felt much better about the second time around?
AS: Yes, for sure.

TH: I understand your rookie welcome was three shaving-cream pies to the face. When did the veterans show their love, during postgame interviews?
AS: Yeah, it was after the game. I was getting interviewed on the field, and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I see a bunch of shadows running up. And I said “oh, here we go.” Some people say it was the worst they’ve ever seen. It was real bad. My eyes were burning.

TH: Do you know who the culprits were?
AS: I sure do.

TH: Do you care to share names?
AS: No, I can’t share that information. I’m keeping that all to myself.

TH: Does a rookie even think about revenge?
AS: No, not at all. That’s why I’m not even gonna say a name.

TH: Does the game seem faster?
AS: Not so much. A little faster. Guys are a little faster, throw a little harder, a little more fine-tuned. I guess that goes with every level. Every time you get moved up, it seems that way for a little bit, and then things kind of slow down a little bit after you get used to the league. So hopefully, that happens for me.

TH: Any sense of what your future is with the team? I know there’s talk of the bullpen for you or maybe for someone else. What would be your take on a possible move to the pen?
AS: I don’t really care either way. I just want to help the team win. It doesn’t matter to me.

TH: Do you set goals for a season? What kind of things do you usually think about before a season?
AS: Number one is health — just trying to stay healthy throughout the year. Don’t miss a start. Also walks. I try to keep my walks down. The only numbers that I care about are walks. Keep those down and everything else should be OK.

Tagged as: Anthony Swarzak, Minnesota Twins