Throwing Smoke With Steve Johnson

« Back

September 7, 2009 - What pitches do you throw, and what are your strengths? I throw a four seam fastball, a slow curveball, a slider and a changeup. My strengths are throwing more strikes, for some reason people have a tough time hitting my fastball. I don't know if it's my delivery…it's not that fast. (My velocity) has picked up in the last year or two, it usually sits from 88-91, but this year it's been 89-92, touching 93. How does your velocity increase? Did you change your workout routine? I think it's just throwing. The last couple of years I've been 70 innings, 80 innings, last year 120. I think the more you throw, the more you get your arm slot in the same spot, and it just happens. You build arm strength by doing that. I think that's what's happened over the last two years, I've thrown a lot more. How many innings do you hope to throw this year? This year? I'm at about 122 right now, I have about four starts left…I'm hoping to get around 140, or around there. I had like 125 last year, so anything more than that is good. What major leaguer would you compare yourself to? I want to compare myself to someone like Greg Maddux, because I used to not throw as hard as I do now. For me to really be considered like him, I have to stop walking the guys that I do. I'll go through a streak where I just can't throw a strike. I don't know what it is yet, I'm just trying to figure that out. I'm hoping to be like someone like Maddux, because I'm not going to blow up the radar gun. I just want to go out there and get outs. Get the guys to hit the ball in play and hopefully it's right at people. You feel like you have streaks where you can't throw strikes, have you had streaks like that your entire career, or is it a recent development? In professional baseball it has. I don't remember it too much in high school, maybe it's because a lot of guys swung at everything. When I got into professional baseball, you just go through these streaks where everything's fine, and then for a hitter or two, it's just not there. And that's even when you're feeling good. Sometimes, you're feeling like crap, and your arm doesn't feel great, and you have to work through it. You're going have those starts, and I want to make those starts a little better than they are because some days I'll go out there and I don't know where it's going. It's not good. But you battle through it and this year I've gotten lucky with a couple situations. I've gotten out of certain bases-loaded situations where it's not too bad. It's going to happen, I'm just trying to cut down the amount of times it does. Tell us about your family. Well, my dad obviously played and he's been a big factor in where I've ended up. It's been great to have him there. And my mom Terra, she's always been there. She works a lot, but I'm hoping they're going to be there to see me a lot more now. She was always there when my dad was playing, so I guess I've got to thank her for some of the stuff that she had to teach me when my dad wasn't there. My brother Daniel, he's a little different from me. He's younger, about three years younger than me, well two and a half. He's not a big sports guy. He likes it now, when he was younger he didn't like baseball too much. I think it was going to all my games when he was a kid. He's more into the acting, and the singing, and he's really good at it. We went different ways there, but we're both pretty good at what we do. He's going to go pretty far in what he does. Your dad was a major league pitcher. You've said that you don't remember watching him pitch, what do you remember from his playing days? There are two things I remember. I remember them taking out home plate at Memorial Stadium. I don't know how, I think that was '91, so I was three or four but I remember it took forever. And I remember when my dad played for Detroit, I had a sign that said 'Go Cecil' and 'Go Mickey' for Mickey Tettleton and Cecil Fielder. I remember those two things, other than that, I don't remember anything. What was your father's pitching style, and how does it compare to yours? Well, my dad was a sinker-slider guy. He just threw the ball over the plate, and threw that sinker, and got guys to ground out early and he went long into games. That's what I'm hoping to do. I haven't been able to develop a sinker, my ball does that on its own sometimes. He was a ground ball pitcher, I'm more of a fly ball guy. I'm still trying to figure out why that is. I've been working on a sinker. I've been trying to get that pitch, but it's just not really working out for me. That was his style, and I'm hoping to do that because I want to be able to throw a pitch over the plate and have them ground out early in the count so I can go longer in games and save my pitch count. Right now we're a little different styles, but I'm trying to add his sinker to my pitches. How do you work on a pitch that isn't necessarily game-ready? Do you work on that in the bullpen with Pitching Coach Larry McCall? It's tough, because some of the things you throw in the pen you don't throw with the same velocity. You're not in game form, so you're going to throw it different in the game sometimes than you do in the bullpen. So it's hard to kind of get the feel of a pitch. You've just got to throw it a lot, kind of get used to the way it comes out of your hand. And in the game, when you have time to work on it, maybe you're ahead in the count or you just want to try it out with two outs and no one on, then that's the time to do it. You just kind of slowly work it in, and hopefully it just becomes another pitch that ends up working for you. Sometimes, it doesn't work. You've just got to try it and pick your spots and hopefully it works out. Is that something you have to go over with your catcher before a game? Yeah, you know you just tell them 'hey, I'm trying to work on something, when we get a good time, let's try it out.' Sometimes, it's in a spot where you really don't want to throw it, but he puts it down and you're like 'well, I guess let's see what happens.' Sometimes it might hurt you, but in the long run maybe it will help. It's no big deal to maybe give up a run for years of using that pitch. How much do you and your dad talk about pitching? A lot of time. After every game, we talk about the outing. He doesn’t really get to see it, so I've got to explain it a little bit. We talk about different things, different situations. Maybe not the teaching me any more, but just kind of talking about situations. What I threw, how he reacted. He always asks me questions about certain things. Just kind of bouncing things off of each other, letting him know what's going on. It's not really teaching any more, it's kind of being able to talk about it and both of us kind of know what's going on. It's pretty good to be able to have that person to talk to. Outside of your father, who else has had a significant impact on your career? That's a tough one. I guess just pitching coaches. I've always relied on my dad to have that last say. When I was in the Dodgers organization, you're with a pitching coach every year. And you're always working with them. They are going to work on things with you, and some of the things aren't going to be good for you, and you've just got to try to find that spot. The pitching coaches that I had there were pretty good, and we worked on a lot of things. I found things that worked, and I hope that coming over here pitching coaches are going to be the same way. Just finding things that work for you. You're always going to have to change, being a pitcher, find something that you're more consistent with. It's hard to say that someone else has had a bigger impact on me as a pitcher, but my dad has always been there and has always been the last say. I always bounce things off him from what they say. I have to say that the pitching coaches have helped me in the long run. How was working with Hall of Famer Charlie Hough in the Dodgers organization? Charlie is great, and not only with baseball. On the field, off the field, just always having a good time. And that's, I think, most important in baseball. If you're not having a good time, why even come? Why play the game? There is so much to do off the field, especially when you're not pitching. As a pitcher you pitch every five days, you're working on stuff, but you're not playing every day. He made it fun. He taught me a lot. I was with him this year, and we worked on a lot of things. We also had a lot of fun. Everyone likes him over there, he's a great guy. Everything he's said and everything he's done is hopefully going to help me get to the big leagues. What is some of the best advice you've ever received? I've gotten a lot of advice from my dad. He could probably tell anybody that you go out there with your best stuff, and you're going to get crushed some days. And that's probably the hardest thing to understand, is that you're going to get crushed sometimes no matter how well you throw. And then you're going to go out there some days with really bad stuff and you could give up no hits. I think that's the toughest thing for someone to get over, you have to battle with whatever you have that day. The results are just going to be whatever they are and hopefully they are better more often. It's hard going out there sometimes and just getting shelled, just hit, hit, hit, home run and you feel like you're throwing the best game you've thrown. I think that's the best advice, is just that you're going to go out there and whatever happens just let it go. Whether it is good or bad, you've got to move on to the next game, because it doesn't matter how well you did the last game. How was growing up playing baseball in Maryland? I loved it. Maryland obviously has all four seasons. You get cold weather, you get really hot, you get the real nice spring and fall. I loved every second of it. You go to these other places and down south it's hot, and it was nice in the winter when you went down there for a tournament or something when it was colder up here. I always liked the weather here, and I always felt like we had good competition wherever we went, and we always competed in different tournaments anywhere we went. We had a good group of guys in Maryland. I played with a lot of good guys, and I loved playing here. What are some of your favorite things about Baltimore? I love Camden Yards, and the inner harbor, and the Ravens. I think that's the great part of Baltimore, is that whole area down there. I love going down there. The aquarium is a great one. I went there this past winter, and I still have a blast going there. I love crabs, they are my favorite food. I'm glad to be back here where I can eat it a little more. What are your favorite restaurant? I'll have to say Outback. It doesn't have crabs like I like, but it's probably my favorite restaurant. Are you recognized when you go out? Not so much, not yet. Maybe by someone I went to school with, or something, but not for playing baseball. You pitched both with and against Brandon Erbe in high school, you were both drafted in 2005, and now you're in the same rotation. Do you guys have any kind of a friendly rivalry? In high school, maybe a little bit because we played for different schools. We played against each other for a while and finally got a chance to play together during the summer one year. I've always thought of him as a good guy, and it's always fun to have someone good to compete against. When we played doubleheaders against each other in summer ball, he'd pitch the second game and I'd pitch the first game. We never got to face each other too much, and finally in high school we got to face each other and we were both doing pretty well at that point so there were a lot of scouts there. It was a fun game to start the season. We were both drafted, and I'd follow him on the internet to see how he was doing, I'd talk to him every now and then, and it finally happened where we are able to be in the same rotation. It's fun having someone you know on the team already when you come over. I know I had Josh (Bell) coming over in the trade, but I also had someone I knew from home. It's nice, and I'm glad that we're here together, and I hope that we can get up to the big leagues together too. What are some things you admire about Erbe's game? He's always been competitive. You know, he didn't throw as hard when we played together, but at the end of high school he picked it up with his velocity, and it's impressive. That's something I don't have, is how fast he throws. Some extra velocity is a great thing to have, and it's hard to locate when you throw that hard. It's pretty impressive when you see someone who throws as hard as he does, or can, and he can spot it up pretty good. That's always impressive. You can see he competes, and that's something that you can't teach. You were drafted out of high school in 2005, did you expect to be drafted? Did you have any idea where you would go? I was expecting to be drafted, but I didn't know how high. I was hearing different things, fifth to eighth round, tenth round…I knew there were only a couple of teams that were really interested; the Dodgers, Orioles and Nationals. I thought the Orioles would take me first, because I had played with a bunch of scouts, and been the hometown guy. I got sick, I had a bad staff infection and lost a lot of weight my senior year, and I think that scared a couple teams off. I don't blame the Orioles for not wanting to take a chance on me, not only was I sick and lost all that weight and some velocity, but I was going to Boston College. I figured that a lot of teams would just wait, and maybe draft me a little later and the Dodgers took me in the 13th round. I didn't know what to think of that, because it wasn't how high I wanted to be drafted, but things worked out where they gave me enough money that I thought, 'hey, I should probably give this a shot and wait for school.' It's tough not being drafted by your hometown team, when you see Brandon got to do it, you obviously want to play for the Orioles if you grew up watching them. Things worked out in the end, I was able to go over there and prove myself a little bit, and it was great playing over there. But it's nice to be home. What lead you to Boston College? Well, it was in the ACC. I was going to go somewhere where they were going to help me out with a little scholarship money. I knew we couldn't really afford to pay for four years of school. It was kind of who wanted me…and a couple schools did. I had Maryland and BC and Vanderbilt. I went to visit all three, and I liked the ACC better. At Vanderbilt I wasn't sure if I would get the time to play enough. I was still kind of thinking of being a two-way player, I wasn't sure which one I was better at at the time. I just wanted to go somewhere I liked to play. Somewhere I liked. I went up to BC and I loved it up there. And Maryland is great too, but I kind of wanted to be away from home for once. It was somewhere I was going to play, and they said they would give me the opportunity to play two ways there. The ACC is going to play Maryland and Miami and Florida State...you can't really beat that. I thought it was a good decision. Do you ever wish you would have gone to college? I did, for a little bit. Playing in the lower leagues in professional baseball isn't really the best way to start out, and then you see all your friends having fun in college. And you know they're doing schoolwork, but you go and visit during the off-season and it seemed like a fun place. And you think, 'They're two years into school and I haven't done anything." It kind of messes with you a little bit. But I think I'm a little bit further in my career now then if I would have went to college and got drafted. I don't regret it now. I didn't have to go to school and I'm still playing baseball. I think I made the right decision. How was pitching in the Dodgers organization? I liked it. Like I said, in the beginning stages of any professional team you're playing in the Gulf Coast League, and it's kind of like summer ball. You're kind of playing for the Dodgers or anyone, but it doesn't feel like it. The more you move up, you get some pretty good stadiums to play at. With Ogden, I think they said it was rated the number one view in professional baseball. The mountains were great, and I did well there. The stadiums, the coaches, the players that were there…I liked being in the organization. There were a lot of good guys that I met, good friends that I made over there. The coaches were always great. It's tough leaving an organization that you've been with for four and a half years but I feel like coming over here is going to be a lot of fun. Where was your favorite place to pitch before being traded? Well, I've been able to pitch in a couple of big league parks in my career. I pitched in Camden Yards in high school and I last year I got to pitch in Petco, and this year I got to pitch in Fenway. Those places are obviously nice, they're all big league. But I think one of the best places I've pitched is Great Lakes, our low-A system in the Dodgers. It's a great stadium, a great atmosphere. It gets a little cold being in Michigan in the beginning of the season. The stadium was top-class, the people were great up there, and it was just a really fun place to play. And I think it was a $37 million stadium, they treated us like big leaguers up there. It was a lot of fun, and being able to play in a place like that in low-A makes you want to get up to the big leagues as quickly as possible. How well did you know Bell before the trade? I've known him since we were drafted. We were on the same team in the GCL, the summer after the draft. You get to know people, especially the ones you were drafted with. You kind of stay with them throughout your career. And I was able to play with Bell every year but last year, I got to know him pretty good. He's a great guy and he has a lot of power. He has a great opportunity here. It's fun having him here with me, and hopefully he'll get a chance up there, maybe next year. I think he's going to be great for the Orioles in the next couple years. Playing for a national league affiliate, did you have to hit? I did, but you don't hit until AA. I got to hit in two games before I got traded. I got two at-bats, or three I guess. I bunted twice my first game, and then swung away first chance I could and lined out to center. Then I worked out a 1-2 walk in my next at-bat. I was pretty impressed, it was hard running the bases though. It's something you're used to in high school, but after not doing it for a couple of years you run to second and you've got to go pitch the next inning and you're just out of breath. You're just not used to it any more. That's probably something you can see at the big league level in interleague play. When a pitcher in the American League has to go and run the bases and then go out to pitch, if you look for it, they'll probably be out of breath or even struggle a little bit in that next inning. They're not used to it, it's tough to get used to it. It was fun though, I liked being back on the bases again. But I think I like pitching and not having to deal with the hitting. Would Brad turn to you if he was desperate for a pinch-hitter if he needed one? He might want to give me a month to get back in the swing of things before he put me in a game…but I thought I hit pretty well in high school. With a long break it's a little different but I feel like I could hold my own. What was your other position in high school? I was more of an infielder, I kind of bounced around everywhere. Wherever they needed me. I could play shortstop and third, and that's mostly where I played. We had a small team in high school. I wound up playing third my senior year, and I kind of bounced around before that. I liked playing infield, I liked playing every position. I thought I played decent. I liked playing the field. I like playing every day. Sometimes, being a pitcher, only playing every five days, it's hard to get through. When you're playing every day, it's a little easier to get through a week and you get to enjoy the game a little more. You get to go out there, and not every pitch is depending on you. I think that's one thing that's hard about being a pitcher. Every pitch, you don't get to relax one bit. Every pitch relies on you and what you do. It's a little harder, but you still get to enjoy the game as a pitcher, too. How much do you work on your defense as a pitcher? Well, you only get to work on it sometimes as much as the team does something. Luckily I've been a pretty good fielder throughout my career. I like making some good plays. If you're a good fielder, that's just something else to add to your game. It keeps people from maybe being able to bunt on you, and maybe trying to steal on you. I take pride in my defense and you just try to work on it whenever you can. You try to not make errors, that's the most important thing. I like being able to work on that and have that as another addition to my game. How was pitching in the Hawaii Winter Baseball league? It's great in Hawaii, being able to play there and to spend two months there. It's hard at the end of the season, as any winter league is. You play six months of the season and you get told you're going to play two more. I think the hardest part was the length. Being two months into your off-season and the time difference is six hours away from home for me. It's tough keeping in contact. But you're in Hawaii…we went to Maui, we went to the big island, saw volcanoes and different things. It was a great experience. It was a really long flight. I don't know if I'll ever go there again, unless it's for a nice, long, no-baseball vacation. It's just one of those places…I recommend that everyone go there at least once. It's a great place to visit, but you might only want to go there once because it's a long trip. You had a great year in 2008, leading the organization in wins and starting the Midwest League All-Star game. What were your personal highlights from last year? Well, starting the season out, after pitching well in the Hawaii Winter League, I wanted to start the season in high-A. That was my goal going into spring training. But the Dodgers felt like they wanted me to go to low-A. I wasn't really happy about, and I think I pitched like it. To be over there, and to go to that level and to prove myself again. I did real well. I think I went 9-2, with a two-something ERA. I was trying to pitch my way out of there, like you should every year. I really wanted to prove myself, and prove that I didn't deserve to be there. I was pretty proud of the way I did that. Being able to pitch in the All-Star game, and it was in our home stadium so I was pitching in front of our hometown crowd is something that I will remember. It was a great time. Soon after that I got moved up. Going to the Cal league right after that was tough to get used to. I struggled a little bit, but overall last year I was impressed with how I battled back after being sent down there. And the way I handled myself going to the Cal league. I dealt with a little bit of shoulder fatigue, and it's tough. It's a tough league to pitch in, but I liked last year and the way I did things. What was the timeline from finding out you were included in the trade to winding up in Bowie? We went to stretch like a normal day. We were getting ready in the clubhouse, and Bell had gotten the call from a guy we used to play with who's now a scout with the Dodgers, and he said it looked like Bell might get traded to the Orioles. So we were like, 'alright, let's find out, let's see what the rumors are looking like,' because I don't think anyone had really looked at it. I went on my phone and went to How was the travel arranged? Well, we talked to a couple of the Orioles people, and we were away. We were in Carolina at the time, so we had to get a flight back to Chattanooga and they set that up for us. Then we had to get all our stuff packed and then the next day we met Bowie on the road in Connecticut. It was a long two days. We had two short flights, and we got on a bunch of small propeller planes. It was kind of scary. It was because we weren't going on long trips, it was like a half hour flight to Charlotte and then an hour flight to Chattanooga. It was tough. It was a long two days, we were both in the airport for a long time, and then to get to Connecticut and have to maybe play the next day…it was tough. We're both just glad to not have to deal with any more plane rides. How tough was it to leave? It's really tough. You've been with an organization for four and a half years, and you know all the coaches, you know players, you know everyone higher up and they kind of know you. And you get a little comfortable with the way you go about doing things because you've been with the organization, you know how it works. And then you come here and you don't really know anybody. I think that's kind of hard to deal with. When you know your pitching coordinator, you can go up there easier, and talk to him. And he knows you, and you know him. You know the way you've been working together, and then you come here and they don't really know you that well. And you don't know them that well and you have to build that relationship a little bit, and I thought the relationship I had with all the Dodgers coaches and staff was pretty good. We worked on a lot of things, and they helped me out a lot, so it was tough leaving them. It's tough leaving that relationship. But I have a lot of their phone numbers, so I'm going to keep in contact with them but hopefully I can build some new relationships here. Who on our roster would you least like to pitch against? Well, Erbe no-hit someone through eight innings, he's probably pretty tough to hit against. I've faced him before, and he comes in there pretty good. But then you've got Luis Lebron, I had him on the gun and he throws hard pretty consistently. He has a really good slider, and I think he's going to be really good. A lot of these guys are going to be really good, but I think I'd want to stay away from any of these guys that really throw hard. Who would you least like to pitch to? I'd have to say Bell. I've talked to him a lot about the way that he hits. He's been my roommate on the road and I've known him the last couple of years. I don't think the way I pitch and the way he hits go well together. I think he'd probably be the toughest one. How much can you learn about pitching from a hitter? You can learn a lot. Every hitter is different, but you kind of bounce things off them. I've been lucky to be able to room with a hitter pretty much every year. You see different styles, and you ask them certain things about what they look for in certain counts. I know every hitter is different, but some things are the same with the way they go about doing things. Some things surprise you. Some of the things Bell does surprises me. It's just nice to be able to have that, you see someone be able to do something some times that kind of seem similar to what someone else told you and you say, 'ok, well maybe they think the same way.' It can help you get some guys out. I love talking to hitters about different situations and counts, and what they look for. I think every pitcher should do that. Bell is a pretty good hitter, it's nice to be able to bounce some things off him. You had the opportunity to pitch at Fenway Park during the Futures at Fenway game, how was that experience? It was great. Of all the places I've pitched at, including Camden Yards and Petco, neither of them had the amount of fans that Fenway did. The first time pitching in front of that many fans was amazing. It was a great feeling. Even when that ball went over the fence on the homerun…I didn't like the sound, but it was a pretty cool feeling to have that many people yelling at the same time. It's a little bit easier to pitch with that many people screaming too, because it's all one sound. It's a lot better than having 100 fans and one guy yelling at you, trying to heckle you. That's hard to get past some times. Playing at Fenway…you can't really say much about it. There's a lot of history there. A lot of people have pitched there, hit there, great games there. It's a great park to pitch in. The experience might not be the most pitcher-friendly park, but I enjoyed every second of it. It's something I'll remember, and hopefully I'll get to pitch there again sometime soon. The Orioles have four rookies in the starting rotation and other talented arms in AAA. Does it concern you to be traded to an organization with so many good arms? It's kind of a good thing when you hear that they are bringing up a lot of young guys. That means they are going with the idea that they want to try to bring up the young guys. They don't want to bring in the veteran guys. I'm sure that they would want to, but to see them bring up the young guys and give them a chance…that's something that you want to see as a young guy in an organization. That leaves a lot of open spots. With the Dodgers, it was great being in the organization, but it was hard to move up. They're in first place, and they obviously want more experienced arms in triple-A to bring up. With the Orioles not doing so well, they might go more with, 'well, let's see what this guy can do. We're not doing so well, but we'll see what he can do for next year.' That's good, that means that more young guys will get the opportunity to get up there and maybe do well. Hopefully I can be one of those guys. Maybe not a year, but two years? You never know with injuries and trades, you never know what could happen. Just to know that they are going with a lot of young guys…I like it. Someday, when you make your major league debut at Camden Yards, where will you go to celebrate? I'll probably just have everyone that I have at the game come to my house and have a big party or something. I don't know. I'm not a big "going out" guy, I don't really have any special place that I like to go hang out…I think that if that's the case I'll just have everyone come to my house, and we'll have a good time celebrating. Hopefully I'll pitch a good game, and I'll be a little happier to celebrate. When you hit your first big major league payday, what is the first thing you'll buy? That's a tough one…I've never really thought about. I want to say I'd buy a car, but that's the only thing I've done with my bonus is buy a car, everything else is in the bank. I'd probably want to buy a nice apartment, maybe get out of the house or something. Right now I'm still living at home, and I'm not sure how long I'm going live at home. I can't really afford to get out of the house right now, maybe the first big paycheck I'd get out of the house. Finally let my parents get the house to just them and my brother. Maybe I'd buy my brother something…a car or something. Help them out a little bit. What do you do away from the ballpark? Hang with friends. And I'm glad I'm going to get a lot of time to do that now. It's tough being away, and being away for six months sometimes. And then coming back and visiting friends and everything. I have a couple good friends around here and when I do get a chance to hang with them, that's what we do. Just hang out and watch some tv. Probably watch some baseball, or football. I love going to football games in the off-season. I like to hang out at home, hang out with friends is really all. What is your off-season routine like? Well, two years ago it was a little different because I was two months into the off-season with winter ball. I usually take a little bit of time off, and then try to get into the swing of things. Try and get back in shape and doing different shoulder exercises and working out and doing little things like that. I want to try to get into some yoga sometime soon. I am not flexible at all, and I need to be, at least a little bit more. I think the older I get, I'm going to start to get a little bit easier injured if I don't get a little bit more flexible. I'm hoping to start that up sometime soon, but we'll see. Where did the inspiration come from, do any of your teammates do yoga? Seeing a couple people do it, and talk about it. I am not flexible at all, so I've got to do something. And I've heard that it can help you get flexible. I'm hoping at some point that that works. I need to get into a position where I have a lot of time to do it. Two off-seasons ago I was going to do, and then winter ball happened and I got home and I just wanted to relax. Hopefully this season I can get it started, maybe become just a little bit more flexible. What is one thing the average fan wouldn't know about you? That's a tough one…I mean…I'm a very boring person. I don't do too much. I'm pretty vocal when I say I like crabs, so they would know that about me. Maybe that I love football. I love watching it, I love the Ravens. That's something that isn't really that secretive, but I really love football. I love playing it. When I was younger, I had to choose baseball or football. If I had chose both, I might have got injured, and hurt me in playing baseball. I miss playing football, maybe that's something people don't know. I mean, I love watching it, so maybe that makes up for it. What's on your ipod right now? Everything. I like rap, country, everything. Rock, it doesn't matter, I'll listen to it. Pop. It doesn't bother me one bit, I'll listen to Taylor Swift no problem. And I'll listen to some hardcore rap. My dad doesn't like that too much, he doesn't like that music at all. I have everything on my Ipod. Any song that sounds good, I'll listen to it. Is there anything that your teammates would make fun of you for? I haven't been with this team long enough to figure it out…I have some bad stories, a lot of guys got on me in the Dodgers organization, you'll say something and it just doesn't work. It had gotten to point that it didn't bother me, I just wanted to tell stories. They got on me a lot in the Dodgers organization, I'm sure these guys will start to pick up on it every now and then. Can you dance? No, not one bit. That's a problem. But I think a lot of guys are in the same boat. Can you cook? I use the microwave. It's a big part of my cooking. I can cook breakfast. I've got the eggs down, and I'm working on the omelet part, getting a little better. Grilled cheese, I've got that down. Other than that, I think that I can hold my own. If I have the directions, and what to use, I'm pretty sure I can do it. I wouldn't call myself a great cook yet. Have you thought about what you'll do after your playing career? I try not to think about that too much, because I have no idea. Any advice for young pitchers? Throw strikes. That's the most important thing in baseball. You see it at the higher level, and at our level and down at any level that a pitcher pitches in. We were watching the Little League World Series the other day and a kid walked in the tying run. Walks aren't good. You have a really good shot of a guy grounding out or getting out on his own if you just throw a strike. That's the most important part. As a pitcher you like striking people out, but if you try to strike everyone out you're going to walk a lot of guys. If you just throw strikes, the batters are going to get themselves out. Some days they're not, but hopefully those days won't happen too much. If you just throw strikes, the majority of times you'll be fine.

Search Archives

Search for: Browse archives