Justin Masterson hit a few snags in his first Cactus League start, but is confident the secrets he discovered last year will serve him well in 2011.
View full size"I just tried to remember what made me good," Indians starting pitcher Justin Masterson said after Wednesday's start against Oakland. "Some of those things I didn't do well [Wednesday], but I came into camp doing them well."PHOENIX -- When the season is over, Justin Masterson turns the baseball side of his head off. He cools out and goes bowling.
"I love to bowl," said Masterson. "I'm not overly amazing, but I love to do it."
It sounds as if Masterson bowls a lot like he pitches.
"My ball has a little tail at the end, but I'm all power," said the 6-6, 250-pound Indians pitcher, who said his average is between 165 and 170. "I try to throw it as hard as I can. I like to see the pins explode."
Masterson is the only starter in the rotation who can be called a strikeout pitcher. He throws the ball hard and it moves with a mind of his own. There are days, such as Wednesday, when its thinking is far too independent for its own good.
In his first appearance of the Cactus League season, Masterson faced 11 Oakland A's and allowed two runs on two hits and three walks. He hit a batter, induced a double play and had a strikeout in the Indians' 4-3 loss. It was just the kind of performance that gives credence to those who say Masterson belongs in the bullpen instead of the rotation.
Masterson does not share that belief. Son of a minister, he looks at the world and sees good. He does the same with his pitching performances. Sure Wednesday's start was rocky, but Masterson cited a little too much adrenaline as the root cause.
"I was a little excited," he said. "I had to back it off a little. My four-seamer [fastball] was a little high. But my sinker was slicing and dicing and moving and grooving just like it was supposed to."
Hard to turn your back on a sinker that not only slices and dices, but moves and grooves.
When the Indians acquired Masterson from Boston for Victor Martinez in 2009, it was with the intent of making him a starter. He never received a good chance to do that with the Red Sox because of the talent stacked in front of him. That was not the case in Cleveland.
Last year, Masterson made a career-high 29 starts out of 34 appearances. He pitched 180 innings, another career high, and would have easily topped 200 if the Indians hadn't moved him to the bullpen in September to protect his arm.
Things did not start well in 2010. In Masterson's first seven starts, he was 0-5. When he dropped to 0-5 in a loss to Chicago on May 24, it extended his personal losing streak to 11 games. He did not win a game until June 4, ending a club-record stretch of 17 straight starts without a win.
Gradually, Masterson improved. Over his final 13 appearances, including eight starts, he went 3-3 with a 2.86 ERA. How did that happen? Masterson threatened to go into detail.
"We could get down and dirty and crazy with it," he said. "But no one cares about that. It's a minor mechanical thing: have a soft landing and allow my body to get over my front leg."
The problem with adjustments like that is they have to make it through the off-season. It lasts four months and lots of things can be forgotten or discarded.
Masterson said that at the end of one of his seasons, he had a great change-up. When he tried to throw it the next year, it wasn't there. He was holding the ball the same way, but the feel was gone.
He did not want to make the same mistake twice with the checkpoints he'd worked on his delivery in the second half of last season. "I'm a feel guy," he said. "I locked the feeling in my head."
Just to make sure it didn't escape, he wrote it down in a journal.
"I just tried to remember what made me good," said Masterson. "Some of those things I didn't do well [Wednesday], but I came into camp doing them well."
OK, so here's what we know. Masterson has the journal. He has the feel locked in his head and a sinker with more soul than Aretha Franklin. All that has to lead to something better than his 6-13 record from last year, right?
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2011/03/justin_masterson_confident_hel.html
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